Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Soap Discussion - January 2012

And here's my penultimate blog for the month and it's a soap discussion one.

Coronation Street: After six years, Becky has finally left Weatherfield and while her exit was something of a mixed bag, at least it wasn't boring. The issues I have with her hooking up with a new bloke she barely knew, I can almost leave to one side in order to revel in her wrecking Steve and Tracey's reception by revealing when exactly the latter miscarried. The other interesting storylines this month include Carla's day in court with Frank (and not her pointless affair with Peter) and the issues raised with Owen smacking Faye for killing his fish. The writing hasn't improved that much from last year but this was a better month than most.

EastEnders: And keeping with big soap departures, I bet there wasn't a dry eye in the house when Pat Butcher finally met her maker after having many a visitor at her bedside. An excellently crafted episode, highlighted by the return of David and then Simon at the last minute of her funeral episode, Pat's death certainly sent the right amount of shockwaves throughout the month. Actually this has been a really strong month for the show, especially with Derek still trying his damndest to be the hard man of the Square, Phil getting banged up thanks to Ben, well it's been a solid month. Okay, maybe Bianca/Ricky splitting up for the billionth time and Lucy vs. Mandy have been a bit annoying but the rest has been great.

Emmerdale: I am really struggling to care about this show at the moment. It seems like nothing of real interest is happening. The fact that the writers continue to struggle for a decent storyline with Aaron is making more happy he'll be leaving soon and I wish the writers would just drop this unconvincing Marlon/Laurel/Ashley nonsense and fast. Plus Debbie and Andy's plots have been tiresome to watch so only Hazel's exit and Charity and Jai's wedding have been the highlights of an extremely dull and uninvolving month.

Hollyoaks: It's interesting what a couple of months can do for a character. George previously went from having no character at all to getting a surprisingly engaging storyline involving his character being homeless and Callum trying to help him out. I'm glad the show is tackling the issue because no other soap is right now and it's certainly easy to sympathise with George and his abrasive pal, Phoebe as well. Too bad the same cannot be said for Maddie, whose tedious interfering in her friends relationships have gotten irritating to watch and that's even more annoying than Brendan's usual bully boy antics (thumping Ste, rejecting his kid, annihilating the 6th formers in football). Still, I also enjoyed the girls antics in the cells, Cindy's money woes, Darren and Nancy's storylines, so overall a solid month of storylines.

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