I loved the Carter's when they initially came in but have gone off them a bit recently, they weren't the family I expected them to be

I think the trouble is that everything is too much with them. For starters there is too many characters anyway. New families work best when there is only a few of them to start with, and more come later when they begin to develop. Successful families always start smallish (Beales, Watts, Mitchells, Masoods), and second of all they have too many SL's going on at once.

Shirley drowning Mick
Shirley being Mick's mother
Mick and Linda not being married
Johnny's sexuality
Nancy's epilepsy
Lee/Whitney
Sinister Stan?
Sinister Babe?
Tosh/Tina domestic violence
Dean's love for Linda
Introduction of Sylvie, and more to come later on


All these SL's for one family that haven't even been here a year is, well I think, too much. I think it's great that each character seems to have their own story, but new families do well when there is generally one powerful SL they arrive with that carries them through.

For example with the Beales, each character was their own character, they all had their own story and their own situations in life. But their SL that initially carried them through was Pauline's pregnancy

Same with the Watts and Den/Angie's relationship problems

The Mitchell's and 'Sharongate'

The Masoods and Syed being gay (I know they arrived a fair while before this story but this SL is what put them on the map)


With the Carter's, as there is too many of them anyway, to have tons of SL's all trying to outdo each other gets a bit much. I feel as if there isn't one specific SL that the viewers are thriving off from them.

I hate to say it, but I'm a bit disappointed with DTC.

I love them!

Yes there are a lot of them and they have a lot of story lines going on but they haven't been here a year yet and once they have things might settle down a bit.

Well said Matt! It is only a matter of time before the Carters are so overrun with dramatic plotlines that there will be no possible way for TPTB to add a conclusion to all of them . I feel they are writing themselves in a corner with all these story arcs for just one family.

BIB Those don't count as s/ls IMO.

I enjoy the Carters - I like that they are a happy family and that a lot of their scenes involves them being silly and normal.

Sure, they have a lot going on but I don't think it's a bad thing. The shoe-horning Shirley into everything is annoying, but overall, it's ok for me.

Maybe if it stays like this for the next year but at the moment I'd rather see them on screen than most of the rest of the characters.

There's too many of them. That being said, since so many storylines have been heaped on them in such a short space of time I don't think they'll last very long. A family running the Queen Vic can't retreat into the background when viewers start complaining of overexposure and since Shirley and the Carters are DTC's babies I think they'll start leaving when he does.

This!

I totally agree!

If the Carters weren't in the show we might get more Slaters, Moons or Mitchells, think about it!

i used to like them, but im getting bored by them now, that swimming pool scene was so cringey, theres too many of them i feel 2 or 3 shouldnt be there

I love em
Bring on more Carters and get rid of Billy and family, Fat Boy and Dexter, Donna, Max (who is a dirty old man), Tamwar (who acts on the same level every time)

Most of those that you mentioned are plot points, not story lines. Johnny's sexuality is an aspect to his character, we've already had his coming out story and Linda has now accepted his sexuality, that's done. Nancy's epilepsy is also just an aspect to her character to make her more real, you can't make it a story line because you can live for months/years without an attack I believe, it'd be a pointless story with no climax. It's just to make her a realistic character. Linda and Mick not being married is another plot point, which I don't think was necessary but I figure it's going to be part of the Dean being in love with Linda story.

I don't even think that characters are being side lined because of this, but DTC is making them central to Walford to ensure their survival by putting them in The Vic and getting them involved with other characters (Lee and Whitney, Cora and Stan, Mick and Ian, Linda and Sharon, Nancy and Tamwar, Johnny and Sharon) which often feels like they're being shoehorned. But we have a big story for The Beales which is the biggest in the show and more of a priority than Shirley being Mick's mum or Dean being in love with Linda will ever be, The Masoods have a big story coming up, Sharon's revenge on Phil, Patrick's stroke, Stacey and Jean's returns with The Slater fire, Evil Ronnie, Raine's return which sort of ties in The Carters and The Beales.

They're too rowdy aswell and I'm tired of all those kitchen scenes with them all shouting and carrying on.

My main problem is that they all stick together too much. DTC should split them and let them get involved with different characters in the square.

I think they do. Stan is involved with Cora and Patrick, Linda with Sharon, Mick with Ian ect.

Yeah but look at Nancy. She could be a fantastic character but you barely ever see her out of the Vic.

Yeah true, I enjoyed January and February when she was shown to have a good friendship with Tamwar.

I like the Carters but there to much of them now and really its not fair given them loads of storylines when other families like the Mitchells need more storylines

I love The Carters completely. They're the best family EE has had in the past decade.

There is enough of Carters in it If it ends up been a show with just carters in it I will quit watching it as I already have Dallas for that

Great post, Matt.

I like the Carters but I am getting a bit fed up of them now. They somehow are involved in most storylines by hook or by crook. Did Mick really NEED to be involved with Ian and Rainie? That felt like a bit of shoehorning going on.

Agreed 100%

They seem to me like a real family and I find myself actually caring about their storylines - that can't be said for some others

I agree with Cal, most of those were plot points to develop the characters. Nancy's epilepsy, Johnny's sexuaity, Linda's struggle with his sexuality, Mick's fear of swimming, these are just character development plots. Not large story arcs.

If anything there is one major story arc and a couple of smaller plots.

You have the Shirley is Mick's mother which ties into his fear of swimming, Sylvie at Aunt Babe's, Stan, their childhood etc it all ties into the same larger story.

Then you have Tina/Tosh, Dean etc as side plots and separate stories. Just as Shirley's side plots with Phil are part of her character. Then Lee's individual character stuff, tying the family to the community via the Lucy connection/Mick and Ian's friendship/Linda and Sharon which then causes tension through Shirley/Phil. It's all connected.

I don't think they're overexposed at all. I think the balance is just right.

If that didn't happen then none of the units would interact with one another.

It's an ensemble show. Without Mick's involvement which is now leading to Cora discovering Rainie, we're left with Ian constantly being harassed for money. Mick was the catalyst for this story to move forward and into the next stage.

Most of the time when a new family arrives on a soap, there is a lot of criticism towards them. Sometimes rightly so.

However that never happened with the Carters, they may have been some criticism, but there wasn't much.

I love Mick, Johnny, Nancy, Linda and Stan. I can also take Tina tbh. However I don't see the point of Lee and Dean. I think they are two Carter's too many. Tosh, I can see why she is there but I'm one of the people who thought Tina worked better with Sonia.

I hope soon we see Johnny and Nancy getting more storylines. Nancy really hasn't had anything to do since her epilepsy came out and its a shame because she is played by a great actress.

I also agree that in recent weeks I've started to get a little fed up of them. I'm not sure why this is but its interesting so many also feel the same. Maybe they are just too happy, happy sunshine right now! lol

I have to disagree, I know some people don't like that the family is too dominant but it is essential that relationships are formed for these characters so that they can have story lines in the future. They need to be integrated with the rest of the square. Look at Masood, he has never really had a strong friendship, his story lines focused on his family but now most of them have left he has just been hovering in the background. They randomly paired him up with Carol just because they are of similar age, nothing more.

It's easy to make comparisons with the Brannings and the Carter's, but with the Brannings every man was a scheming lothario and every female was a gobby fishwife. The Carter's is made up of very different characters, we have the curmudgeonly patriarch, the well travelled but lonely auntie, the childish lesbian, the screwed up borderline alcoholic, the principled father, the over protective mother etc.

Each member brings something different to the ensemble, they are building on the dynamics of the clan and they are becoming a tight unit but not a closed unit.

Characters like Danny, Jake and Carl we're stand alone, hovered in the background, we're not given anything to do and subsequently we're axed.

The Carter's have been given lots to do, this will enable tptb to see what works and what doesn't. The swimming pool episodes didn't work. I hope that they learn from their mistakes and we are not given something like this again.

I think Mick being involved with Rainie is so that you can see the first cracks beginning to show in the Carter family, which is a route I think they're going to take them down with whatever is Dean is going to do to break the family up (something I'm sure will happen at some point.)

I didn't see it so much as shoehorning as killing two birds with one stone. This appears to be the first major event in what will probably be a long-running storyline.