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Emmerdale needs a shake-up


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Old Yesterday, 13:54
SaturnV
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There's a lot of potential with some good characters but they need to stop going around in small circles. There are never any consequences to their actions so they keep repeating the same bad behaviour.
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Old Yesterday, 13:55
Mark_Washingto1
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Emmerdale is nothing like Hollyoaks?
I'm not saying the shows are alike in content but when MacLeod was running Hollyoaks you get weeks of crap with the Roscoes and then you might get a couple good episodes here and there like the special one they did with the Lovedays' past or with Cleo's abuse.
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Old Yesterday, 13:55
John Dough
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Quality writing doesn't have to mean greater expense though.Well developed storylines that evole at a more realistic pace would 'pay dividends' in terms of viewer loyalty and reduce the sense that 'anything is good enough' which further devalues the brand of the programme.
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Old Yesterday, 14:14
Oldnjaded
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Quality writing doesn't have to mean greater expense though.Well developed storylines that evole at a more realistic pace would 'pay dividends' in terms of viewer loyalty and reduce the sense that 'anything is good enough' which further devalues the brand of the programme.
You'd think so and yet Corrie and ED both had great viewing figures last night with over 36% and 33% share of the available audience, (in other words a third of viewers were theoretically seeing the ads ITV stuffed down their throats for that hour, which is the only thing ITV care about). Sad as it might be to us, maybe the 'anything is good enough' mentality isn't costing them anything, financially, for now.
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Old Yesterday, 14:15
Michelle Jones
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Emmerdale is nothing like Hollyoaks?
In terms of having a high death rate for a tiny village, it is quite similar to Hollyoaks but thankfully they're not as frequent in ED
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Old Yesterday, 14:22
John Dough
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I mute the ads or change channels, they'll have to be smarter to catch this viewer.
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Old Yesterday, 14:28
Oldnjaded
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I mute the ads or change channels, they'll have to be smarter to catch this viewer.
I move in here to the kitchen and read the ep threads while the ads are on in the other room - haven't seen one for years. However it is an incontrovertible fact that ads do work, hence the incredibly huge amounts of money companies spend on them, irrespective of whether you and I see them.
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Old Yesterday, 14:28
Cheekymonkey09
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It's still a quality soap and IMO the best and the one I've stuck with whilst completely giving up the rest.

However I can see the OP's concerns, There does seem to be an imbalance. The Ashley story, Rhona/Pearce, The Bartons/Moira (minus the Moira and Pete stuff) and some of the other things are good but some filler stuff needs to stop.

Finn and Kasim were boring, and felt there was no chemistry there. Kerry is super annoying, the forthcoming Debbie stuff doesn't fill me with joy as I don't liker her character.

There just needs to be some fine tuning in places and silly stuff needs to stop. When Kate Oats was in charge, there was comedy but it wasn't as much and only when required. Now I feel it's deliberately put in to offset the doom and gloom but it isn't of a high quality.

There are more positives than negatives though.
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Old Yesterday, 15:29
Littlegreen42
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It's hilarious the amount of threads now criticising ED, you'd think it was winning all the awards or something?!

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Old Yesterday, 15:44
Danny_Francis
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It's hilarious the amount of threads now criticising ED, you'd think it was winning all the awards or something?!

In fairness it's deserved and constructive not like those endlessly ridiculous EastEnders is bad threads. I've said it before I think the overall quality of the English soaps have been on the slide for a while. Emmerdale was the exception because it maintained consistency, now even Emmerdale isn't looking a couple of gears ahead imo although there are aspects of it still there. English soaps could take a leaf out of River City and Fair City's books in reducing the number of episodes to improve the quality. Maybe competing against each other is doing more harm than good, there's no real difference between the English soaps anymore imo better of sticking with one.
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Old Yesterday, 15:46
T.K. Mazin
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Even when Emmerdale is bad, I still feel like it's better than the other soaps. On the whole I'm happy with the show. Not too sure about the current EP, though.

But yes, I do agree to an extent in terms of how certain characters dominate the show, whilst others are given nothing to do. Let's face it, characters like the Dingle clan will always be favoured over any other family so no chance of it changing any time soon. We just have to accept that the writers like to focus on the criminal element in the village more than the normal everyday characters.
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Old Yesterday, 16:11
Glendarroch
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I don't think the problem is the characters. It's the repetitive stories. People are quick to say the Dingles get over used - in fact it's s only really Chas, Aaron and Debbie, when she's s here, who get huge amounts of screen time. All they would do is give the Barton's the same repetitive stories if they axed the Dingles - they already do that with Cain ad Ross, except it's s happening over a much shorter period of time with Ross and comes across as more lightweight.However, it's s very easy to blame' the characters you don't like - but sadly as we all like and dislike different characters, so we have to put up with our dislikes and hope the stories get better!

Of course there are only so many stories to use but ED often has several characters with really similar stories at the same time
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Old Yesterday, 16:12
Adrian_Ward1
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Not really, Ross has gone from trying to kill people to being a good dad to Moses and making up with Pete, whilst being there to comfort the mother who tried to kill him.
True bit he seems intent on sleeping with half the Village
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Old Yesterday, 16:15
sorcha_healy27
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True bit he seems intent on sleeping with half the Village
That's not a major issue though given most of the village do the same
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Old Yesterday, 16:27
Glendarroch
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It definitely does, and that is coming from someone who is actually enjoying it more than last year.

When it's on, it's on. The dementia storyline among others are well written, well researched and well acted.
Then there's a lot of lightweight, mindless drivel to fill in the gaps as though all of the effort is being put into the good storylines. It's like they're alternating between good, character driven stories and sensationalist and outlandish plots to see what works best. When it's actually more likely the case that the other stories are an attempt to liven up the show from it's "darker" episodes. But what you actually get is a jarring experience with massive dips in quality every now and again.

The Zak & Lisa thing seems to be an example of a major difference of opinion between soap producers, but also seems to have been put on the B-side of the stories to make it look less like backtracking. Or something. I know what I mean!
I like Lisa and Zak getting back together - it' s nice to see characters prepared to actually see their marriage as long term. What I don't like to see is her farfing around making him soup. She needs to be tougher with him.
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Old Yesterday, 16:35
T.K. Mazin
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That's not a major issue though given most of the village do the same
It's only a matter of time before someone catches Herpes from Kerry and causes an epidemic in the village .

Herpesgate - Emmerdale's next big storyline, I can't wait.
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Old Yesterday, 16:44
Mark_Washingto1
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It's only a matter of time before someone catches Herpes from Kerry and causes an epidemic in the village .

Herpesgate - Emmerdale's next big storyline, I can't wait.
Now that is a story I'd love to see.
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Old Yesterday, 17:02
Jayma
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I think it's still enjoyable to a degree, but it's been better. The show does need to be utilising it's cast more for storylines, the storylines and writing needs to step up a bit. It may be my favourite soap, but it isn't the one I'm enjoying most at the moment
This is how I feel about it.

It definitely does, and that is coming from someone who is actually enjoying it more than last year.

When it's on, it's on. The dementia storyline among others are well written, well researched and well acted.
Then there's a lot of lightweight, mindless drivel to fill in the gaps as though all of the effort is being put into the good storylines. It's like they're alternating between good, character driven stories and sensationalist and outlandish plots to see what works best. When it's actually more likely the case that the other stories are an attempt to liven up the show from it's "darker" episodes. But what you actually get is a jarring experience with massive dips in quality every now and again.

The Zak & Lisa thing seems to be an example of a major difference of opinion between soap producers, but also seems to have been put on the B-side of the stories to make it look less like backtracking. Or something. I know what I mean!
When they do it right Emmerdale is superb. Last night the Pierce Rhona stuff was chilling to watch. Classic excellent Emmerdale.

However the Zak /Lisa shite in contrast was abysmal
Spot on.

Something just feels 'off' with the programme at the moment. The poor attempts at humour (Paddy being continually slapped) feel desperate, when it was always more shrewd and natural under Oates. Ross keeps being inserted into scenes where he just doesn't belong (the dad dancing scene with Rebecca in the caff and his interference with Marlon and Paddy's conversation seemed jarring to me and so out of character for Ross.)

Kerry was great under Oates - a more realistic balance of inappropriate but caring. Now she's just beyond unbearable. If someone must be slapped in the show, she would be my number one candidate.
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Old Yesterday, 17:21
Kell_Free
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This is how I feel about it.





Spot on.

Something just feels 'off' with the programme at the moment. The poor attempts at humour (Paddy being continually slapped) feel desperate, when it was always more shrewd and natural under Oates. Ross keeps being inserted into scenes where he just doesn't belong (the dad dancing scene with Rebecca in the caff and his interference with Marlon and Paddy's conversation seemed jarring to me and so out of character for Ross.)

Kerry was great under Oates - a more realistic balance of inappropriate but caring. Now she's just beyond unbearable. If someone must be slapped in the show, she would be my number one candidate.
Ross had been a really weird character since Ian Macleod took over. Over the past year all he's done is shag people and be put into really cheesy/forced scenes with characters like Paddy and Marlon, like you said.
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Old Yesterday, 18:06
Teifiboi
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It's only a matter of time before someone catches Herpes from Kerry and causes an epidemic in the village .

Herpesgate - Emmerdale's next big storyline, I can't wait.
Believe it or not, there's already been an STD story - it was Douglas Potts what had it!!!???
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Old Yesterday, 19:24
Andybear
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I mute the ads or change channels, they'll have to be smarter to catch this viewer.
I record it and watch it later, fast forwarding all the ads and Aaron scenes Actually I have to do that because by the time I've got home from work, made tea etc it's about 7.30-7.45. But I would still record it and watch it later anyway for the reasons I've mentioned.
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Old Yesterday, 19:52
BootsNo7
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Sadly, I watched tonight (still going) live which is not usual for me and I think it is absolute ********* (fill in your own expletive!)

The pairing and non-pairing and angst of couples is just awfully boring in my humble opinion.
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Old Yesterday, 19:52
BootsNo7
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PS Kerry is "young and beautiful"??????
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Old Yesterday, 19:56
al_capo
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This Rebecca/Aaron/Robert bullshit is putting me off the show, not only do they have no chemistry with eachother, its also a sl going nowhere. Its just to show the "robron fandom" that Robert is a changed man and that he will reject the pretty blonde girl for the love of his life..zzzzzz
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Old Yesterday, 19:59
cyrilandshirley
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Cheap quantity will always win out over expensive quality when money and profit are the only real considerations, as we have already seen. Nothing to be done about it unfortunately. Although personally I am now actually reading books more than I'm watching tv and loving it, so it's an ill wind and all that.
Also my New Year's resolution. Don't really believe in them, but enjoying this one.

It's still a quality soap and IMO the best and the one I've stuck with whilst completely giving up the rest.

However I can see the OP's concerns, There does seem to be an imbalance. The Ashley story, Rhona/Pearce, The Bartons/Moira (minus the Moira and Pete stuff) and some of the other things are good but some filler stuff needs to stop.

Finn and Kasim were boring, and felt there was no chemistry there. Kerry is super annoying, the forthcoming Debbie stuff doesn't fill me with joy as I don't liker her character.

There just needs to be some fine tuning in places and silly stuff needs to stop. When Kate Oats was in charge, there was comedy but it wasn't as much and only when required. Now I feel it's deliberately put in to offset the doom and gloom but it isn't of a high quality.

There are more positives than negatives though.
Personally I don't give a stuff about "chemistry". Just give me a decent, well-written story. I didn't get that with Kasim.

Ross had been a really weird character since Ian Macleod took over. Over the past year all he's done is shag people and be put into really cheesy/forced scenes with characters like Paddy and Marlon, like you said.
Ross is completely wasted on this show. But it's true that nobody feels quite like themselves on the show any more. David seems out of character all the time as well, and does Kerry (obviously), and Finn's been changed as well.
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