I really share his regret that the days of 'Arthur steals £50' have gone, in favour of big, headline-grabbing stories.
The BIG stories rarely have as much emotional impact. It's why I much prefer Neighbours these days - it's more character-driven, slow build, small stories that build and build and become intricate webs of secrets and fears and determination and love where every character's action has implication for all the others and where the viewer can't predict what will happen.
That's why the initial Chryed story was so good - each of the characters (Syed, Christian, Zainab, Masood, Tamwar, Amira, Ian, Jane, Lucy, Qadim) all had a viewpoint and motivation and everything that each one of them did had implications for all the others. That's why it was gripping - because there was no right or wrong, no easy solution.

Yes, it was all about the gray areas...and very character driven....

I am with you...So over it..his obvious distress the night of the stag showed me that he was broken at the thought of losing Christian

The gutter is a good place to be
....


Always

I think Chryed kind of was one of those headline-grabbing storylines... so they're not necessarily bad. What made it great was that while it was kind of controversy-courting, they treated it with the sensitivity and respect it deserved.

I think EE's current problem is actually the opposite. It has NO headline-grabbing storylines. I don't really keep up with it anymore, and I've heard NOTHING about it. This week, I watched Emmerdale and Hollyoaks (they were fantastic btw, especially ED), which I normally don't do, because of all the hype around it. There's been nothing like that in EE for about 2 years.

Hiya Jennie.

Its truely wonderful what they're so welcoming and generous with thier time, especially when we're no editor of a magazine or a moderator of a soaps forum. We're just hardcore fans.

but I think if anything, what we've done, achieved and our passion has proved is..... is just how poweful fandom is and can be. When you get something right even if it's just a soap, you can gain something amazing in return. To achieve a backing like this, as a result of a storyline, speaks absolute volumes.

I can still imagine the reaction from the beeb when they heard of our convention last year/

I meant to say, hiii mt Loved your posts with the gifs and links... especially Christian and Syed being very loving and romantic :sleep: How I've missed them!


Ha! This made me laugh, we were so naive back then... *shakes fist at BK*

They are all lovely to us. Really kind and I have a greater respect for them as writers knowing what they have taken to time to explain their craft and thoughts to us

Yes, I do too. The over-sensationalism at the cost of the characters, it stretches credibility (far) too far, and is a negative rather than a positive. I need to care about a story.

Yes, me too - and he's absolutely right, Arthur stealing the Christmas money or even Den divorcing Angie would have zero impact in today's soaps and it's sad. The trouble is I think as well is that they've lost the middle ground - either EVERYTHING is happening and it's completely OTT, or nothing is happening at all and it feels boring because of how big the big stuff is now.

OMG!

This is the moment where I slap myself. :sleep:

(but mentally doing exactly that to Kirkwood :sleep: )

Thank you. Their ideas of romance are amazing. I found Christian's 'I thought you were dead' post-coital talk so funny I had to pause the episode. Oops. So hot. :sleep: (ps: I do actually love that scene).

I once literally wrote a post that went along the lines 'I can see them maybe doing a cheating storyline with Christian, but Syed would NEVER cheat on Christian EVER'. More than one, probably.

I was practically begging them to do it.

edit: Katrina, pretty sure we all wrote a post about how EE would never do cheating with Chryed at one point or another, ha. I just can't believe they more or less avoided it for 2.5 years and then decided to piss on their wedding and exit? Baffling.

I just think that one of the things that keeps regular viewers watching is an ability to relate to the characters. To ask 'what would I do in that situation?' or 'I've been there and I wonder how it'll work out for that character'.

It's certainly one of the things that made Chryed so compelling for me - because I knew real life people in both situations.

I've never known anyone whose baby got swapped with their neighbour's dead one. :sleep:

If so, you were begging them to do it in a way that would be even remotely believable. Epic fail :sleep:

It never happened and I'm sticking to it

Remembering when a "Johnny hug" was just a faraway impossible dream....

And to think I actually had the privilege to experience quite a few of those by now... never, EVER thought this could possibly happen for real.... Sometimes dreams do come true!!

I love how you worded this, Katrina!


Awww Susan...that's perfect!


That's the bottom line!

Don't get me started. It was a case of

"lets keep them faithful for all these years but 3 weeks before they leave Syed will shag Danny"

:sleep:

It was Kirkwoods final up yours to us So pleased that bo zo is out the show :sleep:

Okay happy thoughts - Perfect Moment.

It's sooo bad. I try to write fic, but I feel like I need to deal with the Danny stuff to write it. I can't write about the Danny stuff because I cannot understand or rationalise Syed's reasons for doing it, not telling Christian and then going through with the wedding. Catch-22. I can sort of rationalise the cheating, but not still going on with the wedding.

I sooo wish I could just forget it ever happened and believe that they never came back off their honeymoon. How's that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind technology coming on?

When you read it all like this, so amazing. I'm bowled over by how lovely people have been, it's just wonderful.

I hope these put a big smile on everyone's face, and BIG thanks to whoever made them. Can't get into my usual photo account but still have a few for this weekend....

http://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7efb83de.png Falling in love....early days, LOVE this look, Christian is in love with him already....


To this......http://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/...psa598514f.png

And a bit of this....http://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3c063f0c.png

That man must have Welsh blood, those arms were made for cwtches

Helloooooo!!!!! Feels kinda weird being back here, but in a good way. Massive thanks to Alex for organising this and to everyone for all the links I haven't had a chance to catch up on everything yet (been at work today ) but have saved lots of stuff to catch up on later. LMAO at some of the old threads/posts We did have a laugh on here, didn't we?

Wasn't it LN who did their exit, not Kirkwood??

Ah, perfect moment. It was... there's some word to describe it... faultless. :sleep: It was so unexpected, too. It was spoiled that Masood was going to catch them (though it was largely embargoed), but I could never have guessed it was going to be so loving and tender. Such a great episode. Ah, those beautiful days when they still remembered Syed was a Muslim.

Oh, the romance I think Syed calling a lawyer being his idea of a big romantic gesture just sums them up really. They're both as bad as each other

I remember writing several posts basically scoffing at the idea of one of Chryed ever cheating on the other after the hell they'd been through to get together. I must have forgotten which show I was watching :sleep: I kind of miss the days when I was that deluded though!

One thing though - regardless of how well DTC performs in this stint as executive producer (which I have faith, will be good), I'll always be thankful to him for giving me my favourite ever storyline in Chryed.

I wasn't there but I expect when you all saw him at Johnny's musical (ACL), earlier this year you showered him with lots of praise.

Hey.

No. :sleep:

Lol, it did make me laugh a bit when non-thread people thought we took it all sooo seriously. I mean, we did in a way, obviously, but we ripped the piss out of Chryed, the storylines, other characters, each other...I mean, ffs, our title is 'Waiting for Chryed to Get it on'- that is not a title that attracts people who are really uptight.

One moment you'd be reading a serious post about the impact of cultural homophobia, the next someone would be making jokes out of an unfortunately-phrased spoiler ('As Syed feels the pressure, Christian takes matters into his own hands' etc.)

A couple of people have mentioned Perfect Moment, so perhaps it is time for a little viewing, seeing as we went off-schedule and didn't do it earlier.

Anyone got a link?