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Saturday 2 November 2013

Is Weatherfield a rotten borough?

Now for those of you brandishing your history degrees, don't worry, I'm not about to drone on endlessly about voting irregularities in Victorian England, stimulating though that would be. One of the joys about being involved with this blog is reading other people's comments. When you have waded through an episode of Corrie it's interesting to browse opinions and then wonder if you have been watching something completely different. However, I've begun to notice that, on the whole, we generally seem to view through negative eyes.

For many of the Brits this of course comes as no great surprise. We like a good moan. Most of us would have quite happily fitted in with the harridans at the One o'clock Club. With one or two exceptions though, we all seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet. There are characters, character developments and plotlines that no one cares for. Arguably the concern here is that these collective niggles add up to one unsatisfactory whole.

I tried to be objective and mentally listed the characters who I love to see and who I find uplifting. Roy and Hayley of course. Kylie? Definitely. Then I had to start thinking. My second tier was filled with Carla, Peter, Fiz, Marcus, Deirdre (well, when the scriptwriters are not penning her as either nasty or a loon), Sally, Jason, Tyrone, Leanne, Beth, Tina (not sure why - probably due to Michelle Keegan's great acting), Steve, Eva, Tim (you've got to feel sorry for the bloke - Hyacinth Bucket for a girlfriend and a hard-faced daughter), Lloyd. All good, solid characters who in the main are watchable and who engender interest.

Then there were the rest. I actually groaned last Wednesday at the sight of another crowded little scene around the Tilsley/Platt sofa. Nick grimacing, Leanne stomping in with her lemon-sucking Munch face, Gail doing her usual daft old bat routine . . . poor old Kylie deserved to be beamed out of there. Plus outside, a morose David, possibly wondering when he will eventually escape his twenty year long groundhog day.

The Bistro need to be closed. It's a horribly depressing set and into the dreary hues of orange and brown we now have M'lady of the beige and Catweazle's mother attempting to serve that 'funky' crowd. Wrong on every level but what else can you do with this pair as they work their notice? It doesn't make for edifying viewing though.

The jury (well, my jury consisting of me) is still out re Liz 'Ronald' McDonald. Well, let's face it, she dresses like a clown . . . The return of Liz is a bit like having a memory of a great holiday and then returning to the resort years later, only to discover that it's not as good as you remembered. Had Liz moved one and developed, she would probably be a better prospect. Maybe she will eventually settle but at the moment, for me anyway, Liz just doesn't feel right.

The thoughts of eons of Tracy Barlow beginning every sentence with an angry "Well? Hello?", Eileen frumping her way around the cobbles with her newly-returned acidic son, Rita holding court (she even managed to sweep the pavement in a sanctimonious manner) when she feels like it, Comedy Dev, Not-so-Comedy Sophie, anybody called Windass, everybody called Armstrong, Grandad Chesney .  . . Come Rita! Come and apply your sanctimonious sweeping to this bunch.

Maybe it's just the whole endless, Tilsely/Platt storyline that has left me feeling a little jaded. That's why it is always a joy to feast on the Cropper scenes or Kylie trying to make sense of her confusing family life. Is everything rotten in the state of Weatherfield? Probably not. I'll console myself with a plate of stuffed marrow and a flick through a copy of "Leanne's Happiest Faces". It shouldn't take long.



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12 comments:

Llifon said...

I did enjoy Corrie last night. They were great episodes - great one liners and stuff. I find Nick's anger towards Gail hilarious.

Liz for me is a reminder of Bet Gilroy back in the 1990s and I think has settled back in the Rovers and is much better than Stella. Liz's meddling in other people's lives is justifiable, she knows everyone! And the Rovers scenes last night was what Corrie did years ago.

Ok, there are some characters you'd like to kick out, but overall I think Corrie is brilliant. Be thankful we're not EastEnders!

Billy Niblick said...

Have a gold star for "Catweazle's mother" :-)

Ruth owen said...

Loved your comparison of Liz to a holiday that you remember as being good and then on a revisit, not so good.

Anonymous said...

Great post! Very funny and you've made some excellent points.

The characters I would love to see more of are: Deirdre, Carla, Peter, Hayley & Roy.


I'm bored of the Platts/Tilsleys.

Anonymous said...

Was not impressed with Dreary whining about Ken - just when I thought her character was coming into it's own they writers have to bring Ken back into the mix. Can he not be killed off? He really doesn't need to make a come-back. Kevin either for that matter - did anyone miss either of these characters??? Just because they've been there for years and years doesn't mean they should still have a place on the cobbles. Somebody please fix Sally-she's gone off her head.

Rebecca said...

I'm loving Liz, but then anything's better than St Ella of the Back Room running the Rovers! Come to think of it, Liz is St Ella's polar opposite and I know that's exactly what I wanted to see in the Rover's.

I don't have a problem with the Platt/Tilsley characters, but I wish they'd be given some happy storylines for a change. Why can't Leeanne get pregnant, have it go well, and everyone be happy for a year? LOL! That being said, I am finding them hard to watch right now due to a close family member suffering a severe brain injury and the story line is coming too soon for me.

I'm hoping this girl's night with Liz and Deirdre is the start of Eileen picking herself back up and getting the back to her old self.

Defrost Indoors said...

Not sure I'd put Tim as high as the second tier -- he's a dull character whose potential hasn't been developed, and it seems like he's going to go down the inevitable road of messing Sally around until she throws him out, and then disappearing.

Frosty the Snowman said...

I like Jane Danson, she is an excellent actress but constantly being seen stomping around with a face to sour milk laying down the law is rather annoying. Then we get the ghastly Gail with 'that face' standing in the background of every Platt/Tisley scene like some kind of mad Uriah Heep. I still like Liz, Bev C may be playing her a bit over the top but at leasdt she has something about her unlike the beige turkey St Ella and dont get me started on her pointless mother. Now Tina is being shoehorned into scenes with them. I think it would be better for all concerned if once a character is leaving, they should just be released early, with their pay, instead of this maddening "trying to do something with them" dragged out until they leave.

Anonymous said...

I'm not a big fan of Liz but i'd rather see her behind the bar than St Ella

Humpty Dumpty said...

Why do they announce actors are leaving the show months before the event? You can guess outcomes of plots just by who's leaving.

I was bored to tears by the end of the Kirsty/Kylie/Tina pregnancy storylines. There's an in-built problem with full term pregnancy sls. Life in a soap is 100 times quicker than in the real world so nine months seems like an eternity.

70sStreetFan said...

Good piece. Particularly like your reference to Deirdre being penned as a "loon"- the writers seem to be all over the place with her character at the moment. Just look back to the Deirdre of the 70s and 80s- a switched on,decent,humorous lady.
Not quite sure why Marcus is so popular. Always Dull- his only function seemed to be the sensible gay character to counterbalance Sean. The fact that the writers have done so little with him and Maria as a couple speaks volumes about both of them as characters.
I'm also surprised as to why Gloria is so unpopular. Sue Johnston is a good actress and the character seems to be potential sucessor to Blanche. But after her initial appearances there seemed to be a lack of will to develop the character. A wasted oppurtunity,imo.

Anonymous said...

I think many of the targets you have picked are wrong. Criticising Rita is sacrilege.

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