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CS: Kate Oates is forcing too many storylines |
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#1 |
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CS: Kate Oates is forcing too many storylines
I was anything but a fan of Stuart Blackburn but I'm dismayed by the way that Kate Oates is accelerating and compressing storylines to the point where they are coming off as way too forced. Everyone on the cobbles can now be expected to be beaten, jailed, smashed, crippled, ruined, or in some other way put through a once-in-a-lifetime trauma every few months. The misadventures are coming too fast and thick, and the overall pace has changed to the point where each episode now has to change the life of someone or other on the Street. If this is kept up, the characters will soon morph into unrecognizable caricatures of themselves.
Yes, I can certainly understand that KO is angling for ratings but all this stunting is now going to create such convoluted backstories that the writers will be writing themselves into corners that won't be able to be overcome without reboot buttons. A good example is the David-Clayton storyline. It was barely a week after he blew up half the street that David is calmly hairdressing. "Clayton Who?" This forcing of cliffhanger episode endings five (and soon six) times per week is creating situations where the more or less normal suspension of disbelief is now turning into a "WTF were you thinking?" reaction. One more pet peeve. Can someone on the Corrie writing staff please do a bit of research on head trauma? Smacking someone on the head is not just a convenient script crutch to have someone lose consciousness, but an injury which usually has life-long severe consequences. For example,
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Even Lily was knocked out cold during her dad's car flip, and it seems she wasn't even taken to the hospital. I doubt most young children would survive losing consciousness due to head trauma, but on the cobbles, it's just business as usual. Not impressed. |
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#2 |
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Most of these aren't uniquely down to KO and have been Corrie staples for a long time now
The forced cliffhangers have been happening for years now, fuelled mainly by the Monday and Friday doubles which seem to be constructed heavily around a contrived 'shock cliffhanger' week in, week out. I do agree that the pace of episodes has been a bit ridiculous of late. The Wednesday episode that I watched was insane in terms of what happened. Zeedan and Rana going from having a major falling out to happily married within a few hours and Tim being given a surprise 'gift' of an allotment from Sally and soon after plotting and executing a hare-brained scheme were just two examples. That's without even mentioning Ken's absolutely biblical recovery from his major stroke. Two weeks ago he was laid up in bed grunting like a mad man, now he's happily strutting around the street looking like nothing had happened. |
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#3 |
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Weeks of David plotting to kill Clayton, was suicidal and caused an accident all forgotten within a day of it happening. Why are the police not investigating this instead of the ridiculous 'Maria killed Caz' sl.
Ken and Anna's recovery has moved at a fast pace. Went from the Doctors saying how life changing it was to Ken drinking in the Rovers and Anna walking without her crutches. Maria/Aiden, one minute he wants to forget the one night stand ever happened, the next he is burrowing up Maria's arse. Months of the Phelan sl, only for the people who forked out 15k to not really gaf that they've been scammed. Didn't Sally 'ok' the plans, why is no one more pissed off at this? |
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#4 |
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Quote:
Most of these aren't uniquely down to KO and have been Corrie staples for a long time now
The forced cliffhangers have been happening for years now, fuelled mainly by the Monday and Friday doubles which seem to be constructed heavily around a contrived 'shock cliffhanger' week in, week out. I do agree that the pace of episodes has been a bit ridiculous of late. The Wednesday episode that I watched was insane in terms of what happened. Zeedan and Rana going from having a major falling out to happily married within a few hours and Tim being given a surprise 'gift' of an allotment from Sally and soon after plotting and executing a hare-brained scheme were just two examples. That's without even mentioning Ken's absolutely biblical recovery from his major stroke. Two weeks ago he was laid up in bed grunting like a mad man, now he's happily strutting around the street looking like nothing had happened. The allotment for Tim is a good idea, but again it was executed at a million miles an hour which makes it feel ridiculous. |
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#5 |
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Join Date: Sep 2013
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I'm actually a fan of Kate Oates and I enjoy CS a lot more since she took over but I have to agree with your points here. I found the Rana and Zee thing to be slightly ridiculous because I think it was actually a decent point that could have been better explored. We all knew that Zeedan was being a knob, and that he shouldn't be punishing Rana for his Grandads mistakes but the way it went from 100, to Zero and then upto 500 within one episode was almost farcical! I like Rana, I'd have preferred her to make him stew a bit!
The allotment for Tim is a good idea, but again it was executed at a million miles an hour which makes it feel ridiculous. To your example: Z and Rana can now be expected to become pregnant, have an abortion, convert to Buddhism, then Z will have an affair with Faye, Rana is going to run away with Norris, and then find out that Harry is Sharif's secret love child, all before Christmas. Under KO, for example, Hayley would have found out she was sick on Wednesday and drank her orange squash on Friday. We would have been denied one of the most gruelling and emotionally draining months-long sequences of events which made her death one of the most memorable in soap history. This is now Corrie for the ADHD set. |
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#6 |
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Agree with all of the above. And WTF were they thinking with the Rana and Zeedan wedding storyline?! He asked her to marry him at lunchtime-ish, and by 2pm they were married, with her in all her glittering Asian gear; made up beautifully, with all the jewellry and sparkles, and all that jazz.
She looked spectacular of course as Asian women always do at their wedding, but it would have taken half a day to achieve this look, and WEEKS to get all the stuff together. Stupid, unbelievable storyline. My family and I laughed out loud at it! |
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#7 |
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That's central to this new KO way of interpreting life on the cobbles. The setup, pitch, and payoff now happen sometimes within the same episode when previously a similar storyline was allowed to develop multiple layers of character and plot development over months and that represents the most jarring change.
To your example: Z and Rana can now be expected to become pregnant, have an abortion, convert to Buddhism, then Z will have an affair with Faye, Rana is going to run away with Norris, and then find out that Harry is Sharif's secret love child, all before Christmas. Under KO, for example, Hayley would have found out she was sick on Wednesday and drank her orange squash on Friday. We would have been denied one of the most gruelling and emotionally draining months-long sequences of events which made her death one of the most memorable in soap history. This is now Corrie for the ADHD set. |
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#8 |
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I'm enjoying Corrie a lot more since Kate Oates took over (not that I had a problem with Blackburn) Ken's recovery has been quick but I don't think people want to see Ken debilitated for months or years on end. One of my uncles had a stroke a couple years a go and he is only in his 50s and he still has trouble walking and talking. So I think Corrie speeding things up makes sense they don't want to drag it out for years.
Now the Maria/Caz story isn't good but when you compare it to the crap on Emmerdale its like Shakespeare and if you all think Kate Oates and Blackburn were bad, you will be begging for them both to come back if they continue the trend and move MacLeod over to Corrie in 3 years. |
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#9 |
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Quote:
I'm enjoying Corrie a lot more since Kate Oates took over (not that I had a problem with Blackburn) Ken's recovery has been quick but I don't think people want to see Ken debilitated for months or years on end. One of my uncles had a stroke a couple years a go and he is only in his 50s and he still has trouble walking and talking. So I think Corrie speeding things up makes sense they don't want to drag it out for years.
Now the Maria/Caz story isn't good but when you compare it to the crap on Emmerdale its like Shakespeare and if you all think Kate Oates and Blackburn were bad, you will be begging for them both to come back if they continue the trend and move MacLeod over to Corrie in 3 years. |
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#10 |
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I have to agree Mark, Emmerdale under MacLeod got off to a promising start with ramping up Ashleys dementia, Holly dying and then the bypass crash, and I do ADORE Emma, but she is literally the only thing holding my interest at the moment. I cannot bear this garbage with Jimmy and Nico / Bernice. Kerry and he ridiculous behaviour, vamping up Chrissie and bringing in her love sick psycho sister. It's all very panto.
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#11 |
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Yeah, MacLeod has little burst of promise here and there but the daily stuff is the problem, last night's episode was unbearable and have you heard that Kerry is going to
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![]() I genuinely, honestly find Corrie 100 times more watchable under Oates than I did under Blackburn and I don't dislike Blackburn, I just found his tenure to be horrendously dull and his characterisation to be terrible. Sarah Platt under Blackburn was an abomination. I had been begging for her return for years but when we got her back I was disgusted with what they had turned her into. Look at the amazing and emotional performances we've had from Tina O'Brien lately. Compare that to the vacuous and unlikeable little cow she was when she first returned from Milan, she was so one dimensional!! |
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#12 |
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Oh. Wow. Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse?! Getting back to the subject of the thread, I have to say that I found Kate Oates work on Emmerdale to be great on the whole, and whilst she had her problems she's by no means the worst producer in the world.
I genuinely, honestly find Corrie 100 times more watchable under Oates than I did under Blackburn and I don't dislike Blackburn, I just found his tenure to be horrendously dull and his characterisation to be terrible. Sarah Platt under Blackburn was an abomination. I had been begging for her return for years but when we got her back I was disgusted with what they had turned her into. Look at the amazing and emotional performances we've had from Tina O'Brien lately. Compare that to the vacuous and unlikeable little cow she was when she first returned from Milan, she was so one dimensional!! I liked Blackburn at Corrie but I only started watching a few months before he took over so my viewpoint is different from most. I do think he did more good that people give him credit for, he gave us Tim and Sally, Phelan, gave Amy a personality and brought back Todd, Sarah, Bethany and Liz. |
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#13 |
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Apart from a couple of daft moments, I've found the show to far, far more enjoyable recently. The fact that some stories move along at a slightly quicker pace works better, as it often gets the predictable soap tropes out of the way so we can view the 'meaty' stuff.
I wouldn't be surprised if a few of the more abrupt story developments are due to Kate Oates phasing out pre-planned stories that she didn't like, plus I should imagine there have been a fair few last minute story and script re-writes due to Sharif Nazir's sudden exit. |
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#14 |
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Controversial opinion. I liked quite a bit of Corrie under Stuart Blackburn. Got me watching quite avidly for the first time in years. There was a lot wrong with it but there is with all of them. What I will say for Stuart Blackburn is that I found I liked (or found interesting) most of the characters
Not really a fan of Kate Oates. She was hit & miss at Emmerdale for me - and towards the end mostly miss. I gave up on Emmerdale in August 2015 after the stupid helicopter crash. When Val died I realised that there were quite a few characters I no longer liked. Caught a few episodes of Emmerdale recently and thought it vastly improved - but of course she has now been gone nearly a year. Meanwhile she has been at Coronation Street a number of months, and for me, my interest is starting to wane. A growing number of stories I am not interested in and sone of them are quite OTT and far-fetched. However I am sticking with it for now. Just missing out where possible Michelle episodes and a few other stories. |
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#15 |
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Love reading the posts on this thread - thanks guys.
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#16 |
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Other than David's accelerated rehab from crazed vengeful wronged husband to Mr normal in weeks (have the NHS heard of this miracle cure for society yet?) the biggest damp squib so far has been the Phelan scam.
I was expecting Eileen getting a good public shaming/dressing down from Jason for being a gullible cow, Michael and Anna finally getting some triumph, furious reactions as everyone realised their losses (unless £15k is now deemed to be small change for a neighourhood of working class terraces). This could have been explosive!! What we got was Michael dying in vain, Vinny in his stupid shirt and his dumb gossipy neighbour giving the "shock revelation" and finally Phelan delivering a speech in the Rovers that had all the impact of saying the council won't be collecting the rubbish this week (don't get me started on Eastenders lol). |
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#17 |
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I'm struggling to keep up with Corrie these days, everything's either being done at a rush or is being sidelined. It's doing what EE was doing this time last year and is quite tiring to watch.
There's no after-effect to anything; it seems to be a case of churn the story out, finish it, move on, repeat. There's very little wrong with Ken now, Anna is moving about freely without any home visits, Sarah, Rita and Yasmeen were the only ones to lose out in the flats scam and only Yasmeen seems bothered about it. Eileen threw Phelan out for about 12 hours, we don't really know Jason's reaction, Cathy and Roy are rushing into a wedding - why? Zeedan and Rana have already rushed into organising a wedding, calling it off and actually going through with it - again, why so much haste? The police are are a complete joke - they've taken no interest/action in David's car crash, the investigation into Caz's non-murder ran at break-neck speed and completely missed out the 'missing person' stage, Michael's death also caused them so little concern that the funeral was done and dusted within two or three days, they don't even appear to be investigating the flat's scam at all, just taken Phelan's word that Vinnie was behind it and as he's gone they don't need to worry. Gail's barely taken stock of Michael's passing and was straight in the pub knocking back the vodkas. Ditto David, who seems to have got over all of Kylie's death, his suicide plans and crashing a car with no problems whatsoever. And that's before we get to what seems to be coming up over Christmas / New Year.... rush, rush, rush...... There's no fleshing out of any of these stories. I know EE has gone (perhaps a touch too far) the other way but really, the speed at which Corrie seems to be hurtling through things is just ridiculous. |
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#18 |
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Oooh I loved this post until I got the part about Hayley! Did you really find it one of the most memorable in soap history? I adored Hayley and whilst I was sad she was going, I was secretly excited at the prospect of a really emotional and gripping storyline leading to her exit. Sadly I found Hayleys suicide and the almost farcical scenes around it to be really disappointing. It really wasn't something I could invest in or believe she would do. I was never a fan of Blackburn or his 'vision' but that to me was one of his worst decisions!!
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Other than David's accelerated rehab from crazed vengeful wronged husband to Mr normal in weeks (have the NHS heard of this miracle cure for society yet?) the biggest damp squib so far has been the Phelan scam.
I was expecting Eileen getting a good public shaming/dressing down from Jason for being a gullible cow, Michael and Anna finally getting some triumph, furious reactions as everyone realised their losses (unless £15k is now deemed to be small change for a neighourhood of working class terraces). This could have been explosive!! What we got was Michael dying in vain, Vinny in his stupid shirt and his dumb gossipy neighbour giving the "shock revelation" and finally Phelan delivering a speech in the Rovers that had all the impact of saying the council won't be collecting the rubbish this week (don't get me started on Eastenders lol). Quote:
I'm struggling to keep up with Corrie these days, everything's either being done at a rush or is being sidelined. It's doing what EE was doing this time last year and is quite tiring to watch.
There's no after-effect to anything; it seems to be a case of churn the story out, finish it, move on, repeat. There's very little wrong with Ken now, Anna is moving about freely without any home visits, Sarah, Rita and Yasmeen were the only ones to lose out in the flats scam and only Yasmeen seems bothered about it. Eileen threw Phelan out for about 12 hours, we don't really know Jason's reaction, Cathy and Roy are rushing into a wedding - why? Zeedan and Rana have already rushed into organising a wedding, calling it off and actually going through with it - again, why so much haste? The police are are a complete joke - they've taken no interest/action in David's car crash, the investigation into Caz's non-murder ran at break-neck speed and completely missed out the 'missing person' stage, Michael's death also caused them so little concern that the funeral was done and dusted within two or three days, they don't even appear to be investigating the flat's scam at all, just taken Phelan's word that Vinnie was behind it and as he's gone they don't need to worry. Gail's barely taken stock of Michael's passing and was straight in the pub knocking back the vodkas. Ditto David, who seems to have got over all of Kylie's death, his suicide plans and crashing a car with no problems whatsoever. And that's before we get to what seems to be coming up over Christmas / New Year.... rush, rush, rush...... There's no fleshing out of any of these stories. I know EE has gone (perhaps a touch too far) the other way but really, the speed at which Corrie seems to be hurtling through things is just ridiculous.
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#19 |
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I'm thinking of going back to watch Eastenders instead.
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#20 |
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Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 173
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Quote:
I'm struggling to keep up with Corrie these days, everything's either being done at a rush or is being sidelined. It's doing what EE was doing this time last year and is quite tiring to watch.
There's no after-effect to anything; it seems to be a case of churn the story out, finish it, move on, repeat. There's very little wrong with Ken now, Anna is moving about freely without any home visits, Sarah, Rita and Yasmeen were the only ones to lose out in the flats scam and only Yasmeen seems bothered about it. Eileen threw Phelan out for about 12 hours, we don't really know Jason's reaction, Cathy and Roy are rushing into a wedding - why? Zeedan and Rana have already rushed into organising a wedding, calling it off and actually going through with it - again, why so much haste? The police are are a complete joke - they've taken no interest/action in David's car crash, the investigation into Caz's non-murder ran at break-neck speed and completely missed out the 'missing person' stage, Michael's death also caused them so little concern that the funeral was done and dusted within two or three days, they don't even appear to be investigating the flat's scam at all, just taken Phelan's word that Vinnie was behind it and as he's gone they don't need to worry. Gail's barely taken stock of Michael's passing and was straight in the pub knocking back the vodkas. Ditto David, who seems to have got over all of Kylie's death, his suicide plans and crashing a car with no problems whatsoever. And that's before we get to what seems to be coming up over Christmas / New Year.... rush, rush, rush...... There's no fleshing out of any of these stories. I know EE has gone (perhaps a touch too far) the other way but really, the speed at which Corrie seems to be hurtling through things is just ridiculous. |
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#21 |
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I agree with everything that has been said on the forum, I am wondering I will probably be wrong and it will be pointed out to me but could it be that KO is simply getting rid of S/ thoughts.L 's that she was previously landed with, Clearing the desk sort of speak and will start again with her own thoughts,
I don't watch CS so can't comment on her in that - but I do watch ED - and all the concerns about her style of storytelling which I've read in this thread echo all the things I disliked about her tenure at ED. |
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#22 |
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I agree with everything that has been said on the forum, I am wondering I will probably be wrong and it will be pointed out to me but could it be that KO is simply getting rid of S/ thoughts.L 's that she was previously landed with, Clearing the desk sort of speak and will start again with her own thoughts,
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I doubt it - this is simply her style of soap storytelling.
I don't watch CS so can't comment on her in that - but I do watch ED - and all the concerns about her style of storytelling which I've read in this thread echo all the things I disliked about her tenure at ED. If she was clearing out storylines inherited from SB, I'd have thought that the opposite would have happened and that they'd have been padded out, not rushed through. That's what appears to have happened in EE where it looks like the new producer tore up most of what he was left with, wrote out the characters he didn't want and added in a lot of filler to cover the shortfall while rehabilitating the remaining characters. It's been necessary but it's bored a lot of people rigid. It sounds like a similar job will be needed at Corrie in a couple of years time.
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#23 |
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Join Date: Dec 2009
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I had a running joke on the Emmerdale episode thread
And its time for *adopts Harry Hill voice* hospitalised character of the weeeekkkkk! because it was literally true - she had someone being carted off to hospital almost every week - and of course, by the following week, they were back in the village with nary a mention of it. The funniest one (meant in a sarcastic way), was when she had a character have a heart attack & rushed to hospital at deaths door. He was back at home by the next episode behaving as if he'd done nothing more than stub his big toe. Correi fans have this kind of storytelling to look forward to ![]()
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#24 |
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Breakneck pacing, flashy stunts, frequent hospitalisations and rapid recoveries, with a massive dollop of CRIME on top - that is Kate Oates'' brand of 'storytelling'. She very much favours style over substance and she's not big on aftermaths, or subtlety and definitely not morality. If she continues in the style she exhibited over at Emmerdale, I can guarantee that there will be a helluva lot more action and drama on the cobbles than when Blackburn was at the helm. But whether it'll be too much action and drama remains to be seen...
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#25 |
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Soaps will NEVER go back to how they were - without deaths galore and the most ridiculous amount of disasters and murders in one street/village/square - people would call them "boring".
I'm enjoying it a lot more with KO than when SB ran things. But as a viewer since 1979 and a huge fan of the history of the Street - I'd like the bubble of the street to pop, character driven storylines rather than plot led.....by all means have your disasters - but let characters react accordingly....... and other things that I've bleated about numerous times in multiple threads - that I've been scolded for - so I suggest you do a search to find out more!! |
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