What is the biggest mistake EE made in 2016?

Probably the whole of Comedy Gavs storyline for me, it was an absolute farce. Grants return is a close second.

Shakil

Gavin has to be the top one but that goes way back to his casting and back story....rubbish from start to finish. I don't know how DTC got it so wrong when he couldn't have got the casting of Stan Carter more right.
Making Peggy's exit a tribute to Barbara Windsor. Nauseating sentimentality. Let's face it she was quite a battleaxe not some sweet old lady.
Axeing the lovely Belinda.

The Gavin storyline is the first thing that came to mind for me too. There were just SO many ridiculous things about it and far too much changing the past to fit the weak, weak story.

Yes I agree with Belinda, she would have been an asset go EastEnders and i don't understand why SOC let her go.

Too many to mention.

1. Deciding it was a good idea to turn a sensitively handled hate crime storyline (Paul's death) into an excuse for Ross Kemp to walk round, slightly out of breath, wielding a baseball bat and threatening a ridiculous looking boyband.
2. Axing Les and Pam
3. Donna's baby storyline and Kyle's treatment; basically just having characters to tick boxes with no interest or investment in developing their personalities.
4. Bringing Johnny back, who let's not forget was a fan favourite during 2014, only to sideline him to making bland comments and acting as queerbait without ever giving him any sort of lasting romantic interest.
5. Relegating Shirley to a background character
6. Kathy and Buster's gross, joyless affair
7. Recasting Louise as a grown woman and pretending she had no relationship with her mum
8. Lauren and Steven's chemistry-free relationship
9. The relentless misery porn inflicted on Jay which has turned a relatively interesting character into a walking chasm of doom
10. Gavin. Oh dear God, Gavin.

Can't argue with any of those elly.

Same here

Dtc not leaving sooner

Gavin was a real disappointment. I remember DTC saying something like "he'll make Archie Mitchell look like a care bear" and actually, it was laughable. The reveal of him being Sharon's father was a damp squib and, for something that was an unanswered question for thirty bloody years, it should have been massive.

Getting rid of Pam & Les and Peggy dying, yes I know it was BW's choice but there's no way back now.

The whole year.

Don't beat around the bush.

Granting BW choice to kill of Peggy for good bad idea as BW since decided she wanted to return again. Not giving Grant more screen time and better storyline. Not recasting Sam Mitchell, evil joke Gavin, Peggy return only lasted a week should have been at least six weeks for a impact even Barbara herself wanted more scenes. Retonning families history. Bringing in that miserable looking creature called Shakil never seen a teenager that miserable in all my life.

The only thing he did correct and it shocked me after was the 30th anniversary week that was brilliant shame he didn't keep up that style of EE. and bringing in a sexy actress to play My Courtney Mitchell

Grunt's return and the introduction of Mark Jnr to coincide was utter garbage

Gavin, without a shadow of a doubt. Although his existence did lead to Phil's fairly decent alcoholism/kidney transplant storyline. Every cloud, eh?

Oh boy this is a trainwreck

1. Jay's underage girlfriend storyline, his character is practically screwed hard by this and what's more that cow of a mother GETS AWAY WITH IT.

2. Shakil, the only reason this twerp seems to get attention from the two girls is because there are no other young men around. This of course results in the most absolute cringeworthy teen sex storyline yet. He isn't likable at all, and that was before his burning desire to get his leg over like he needs a cure for a terminal disease that somehow lays inside a girl. How the actor can do this with a straight face is beyond me.

3. The Mark Fowler Jr Storyline, this was gearing up to be one of the BEST storylines until Grant sods off again and we are left with all this potential just flushed away. A proper Mitchell lad in everything but name (Sadly) and he just leaves after the biggest reactory news is dumped on him. Utter waste.

4. Kyle Slater, this was just tokenism at it's finest, the character was introduced after a manner of insanely awkward scenes (To which 10 minutes of stalking stares somehow manages to get you an award), thrown into the slater household where the only outcome is holding a job, watching Steven Beale cause a bit of trouble, get a few people talking about trannies for a few minutes and an awkward shot of a hormone filled needle. Nothing was done to properly flesh out the character beyond this and it shows.

5. Not getting Sean Slater back. Rob's been quite busy in hollywood with Pacific Rim and Warcraft, but it would have worked out much better for the "Secret Son" storyline if he did return as infact Kat's missing song, the potential was there and all the signs pointed to it, but it seems this is not going to be the case (Of course I could be wrong). The main thing seems to be that Sean is not going to be around for Roxy's sendoff as she is due to be killed, and what good would Sean's presence be then? Which leads to the biggest mistake of 2016..

6. The deaths of Roxy and Ronnie Mitchell. To me at least, these two are strong characters on the show, Roxy is a wild card and a catalyst for quite a bit of chaos on the square, such as the coke being smuggled back with all that did to Jay. Ronnie was the successor to Peggy in the making, becoming the Mitchell Matriarch that Sam never would be. Now just to make his mark, the producer wants them dead...with Phil on death's door the Mitchells are just about gone really.

giving this new producer the keys to the show

Basically everything apart from Phil's storyline, and that's even dragged. I miss the good old days when Johnny Allen, Sean Slater, Dennis Rickman etc... were running about causing mayhem

Having SOC take over.

thought it was genuine mistakes - so would have written about them only having two phone numbers between them on the square

I agree with all of this and would add:

11. Letting the awful Jack take the moral highground with Roxy and end up with his 3 kids by different Mitchell women when he seemed to care little for them previously.
12. Axing Ronnie and Roxy
13. Giving Carmel and Shaquil too much screentime
14. Letting Masood and Belinda go when we still have Carmel and Shaquil !!!

It's spelt Shakil btw

1. DTC and Alex Lamb not leaving sooner.

2. Peggy's rushed death story just so it could coincide with Treadwell-Collins depature. Ego and all that.

3. Gavin and The Mansion. Turning EastEnders into a bad sitcom. Who on earth thought that was a good idea?!

4. Burying Claudette alive only to have her out and about like nothing happened. Beyond parody. Laughable.

5. Recasting Johnny to one of the most awful and uncharismatic actors in the history of the show.

6. Bringing back Lauren, who adds nothing to the show whatsoever. Sorry Jaq.

7. Having Kush as Arthur's dad instead of Martin.

8. Shakil.

9. Trying to make Mick have some 'beef' with Grant for no real reason.

10. Not giving much material to Annette Badland, Linda Henry and Richard Blackwood. Its been a dissapointing year for them.

And making it all about a farewell to Barbara Windsor rather than anything to do with Peggy. There was no aftermath at all. A couple of days later, you'd got Ben joining in the Bobby cover up, Ronnie strutting around with Jack, and Jay and Billy helping Roxy to sh*t out some drugs. There was no sense from any of them that they'd lost someone who was supposedly a huge part of the family.


The biggest mistake of 2016 is the Kat secret son storyline. How we were supposed to believe that Kat had given birth then forgot about it. I've seen complaints in recent threads that the show isn't realistic now, but that took the biscuit; Sunset Beach territory.