Oooh, I'm that excited about tonight! And something you rarely see on our screens - a Corrie trailer! It's been showing all week, and it's got me definitely in the mood for seeing these two episodes. Sadly, I'm out tonight and tomorrow, so it'll be Wednesday before I get chance to see them!
I do like Joe, but I'm sick of this whole storyline - I wish they could've ended it when Joe broke into the medical centre, but I suppose loan sharks don't just disappear into the night. It would be nice for Gail to finally have some happiness, though. I adore Tina and I know she'll be brilliant in the upcoming weeks coming to terms with her dad's death.
Does anyone else in the UK find it ironic that they've been showing a series called "The Lakes" in between Monday's Corrie eps since the beginning of the year? "Come to the Lakes - where fictional characters die for the insurance".
I'll be avoiding the blog until Wednesday so I'm not totally spoiled story wise, but this is the first big storyline of the year folks - enjoy it!
We stayed in the same Lake District Cottage that Gail & Joe and if was wonderful! We rented it through www.lakelovers.co.uk The cottage is called Wyke Bay
ReplyDeleteEllen
It's a good storyline even if i dislike Joe. I do like Gail and am glad when she's got a front burning story. This story is set to fall out through much of the year too!
ReplyDeleteExcellent link, Ellen. I may blog that later in the week. People are always asking about locations, thanks!
ReplyDeleteIt is a good storyline. I feel like part of the reason we can't stand Joe, especially now in the recession, is he is our biggest fear - getting too far into debt that he has to fake his own death! No one wants to be Joe, so no one wants to watch Joe. At least, that's what I think!
ReplyDeleteIs Joe "going to Portugal", like granny Blanche?? (sorry - no disrespect intended to the seriously late lamented)
ReplyDeleteLet's hope none of us ever get into the position that Joe finds himself in. If we're employed - let's hope we can keep our jobs until we retire with a nice, fat pension and during our time as pensioners- the pension fund continues to earn a healthy return and we don't have to go back to work in our old age. And if we're self-employed, let's hope our customers don't desert us, our creditors and bankers keep supporting us, and our employees, if we have any, never steal from us. And that we continue to have good health so that we can keep working.
ReplyDeleteAnd God help us if for any reason we run into some kind crisis or bad luck and we end up short of money like Joe, we have the courage and the ambition to crawl back up and never give up. That we never have to go with cap in hand to our relatives or friends for help --because that would be weakness, wouldn't it? A sign of some character flaw when everyone else is perfect and living such untainted, undisturbed lives.
What a stupid story line, why doesn't he sell the boat and the jeep? He owes 5 grand!
ReplyDeleteWhy doesn't Joe just go to the police! That's what makes this storyline so hard to handle. yes, he's got a boat that the loan shark should have taken straight away.
ReplyDeleteIf there was no loan shark in the mix, there's always bankruptcy which was Joe's other alternative.
It is a good storyline, and I enjoyed tonight's episodes. But it does feel very unrealistic, like others have said why doesn't he go to police? Or the citizens advice bureau? News channels sometimes do features on the dangers of loan sharks, it looks like there's support for people in these situations. Surely Joe would have realised that?
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm a bit confused, why would he leave Gail and Tina to Rick's mercy? Because he said the life insurance would take seven years to pay out, Rick wouldn't wait that long...
I think the writers deliberately obsured the amount Joe owed and the way the loan sharks calculated the interest on interest,etc. It's probably more than 5 grand, but some outrageous amount.
ReplyDeleteAnd declaring formal bankruptcy won't protect you from a criminal creditor who's got no formal papers, etc. They are criminals charging criminal rates of interest -- organized crime, right? They don't care if someone's bankrupt or not. They're hoping you rob a bank for them to get "their" money.
As for going to the police, it's hard to go to the police when you've got no evidence except a couple of threats -- these days, you could take a quick picture with a cell phone I suppose and record the threat -- that would work. But you have to be prepared when the loan shark shows up unexpectedly. The bad thing is they know all about you and where you live and you know nothing about them and where they live. So you're trapped like a mouse by a bunch of cats circling around...
And if these loan sharks ever see you go to a police station, I'd imagine they'll pay you a visit and give you fair "warning"...
They've been a bit vague about how much Joe owes/d - five grand has been mentioned, and I THINK Rick agreed to accept a certain sum in settlement (was it two, that Joe borrowed from Ted?) then obviously welshed and started turning the screws again for more as these evil sharks do. I think a debt plot line was a great idea, especially in the current "climate", but this one had too many holes in it - as others have mentioned, the boat and car not seized, no word of trying to get help from CAB/police etc. Great final scenes on the boat though, and the follow on storyline with Gail should be great as well.
ReplyDeleteNo, no, no...these loan sharks have no incentive to seize stuff like boats, cars, etc. anymore than banks want to seize them upon foreclosure. CASH, cold hard, cash is what loan sharks, the illegal variety and the legal variety (banks) prefer. As they say in the finance biz -- the more "liquid" the asset, the better. Loan sharks are not in the business of trying to sell seized hard assets like houses, boats, cars. They're in the money lending business -- taking from one source, lending out to another and profiting from the spread via interest charged. Only in the most desperate of circumstances will they seize things like boats, cars, etc. -- i.e. they've broken your legs so you can't work. Then they take your hard assets. But then they have to pay someone to sell the asset or sell the asset quickly and in doing so, they will rarely get the full value. Cash is king... get it?
ReplyDeleteI don't know much about the Citizen's Assistance Bureau, but even with this service, there's a lot of fear of loan sharks that must prevent people from going to them. Just like there's fear on the part of people who are asked to testify as witnesses in a high profile criminal trial. Do we all have that much confidence in the police system to protect us in the case of criminals who, even when found guilty and sent to prison, that their friends on the outside won't find a way to get us? I'm thinking most won't testify in that instance... Same with Joe - he'll take a risk with his hair-brained insurance scam over going to Her Majesty's police service and relying on a bunch of public servants to protect an average no name like him. Sorry, it's a cynical but I think realistic point of view of the current state of affairs. I come from a third world country where I've seen corruption from the police department to the government department handling taxation, land titles -- you name it... a little cash in a brown envelope on top of your "application" just makes things go a little smoother and faster. And I'm surprised that you blog posters have so much confidence in the public system when the current news about the very top officials have been about them cheating on their expense claims: double reimbursements, outrageous claims for things like home renovations... tsk, tsk....
Disappointed in the Joe exit yesterday, after all the big build up, it was unintentionally hilarious with Gail screaming and falling down. Notice they had a posh silver 4 x 4 which must have been worth about £20k, thought Joe was broke? The nosy neighbours of course "just happened" to be passing. Anonymous, please stop writing reams of stuff, its taking too long to read.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I realize you have more insight into this issue than most of us from the sounds of it. Your views are certainly very interesting to read. But we all know that television fiction is not going to reflect real life exactly and most of us love to pick apart the storylines and characters as fictional characters. If this were someone we knew in our lives, of course we wouldn't be calling them losers or pathetic but this is a soap, our soap, and griping or giving it raves is part of the fun of reading and participating in blogs like this.
ReplyDeleteWillie, i was wondering where that SUV came from too. I knew that Rick took Joe's work van earlier on so why hasn't he taken the boat or the SUV? Plot hole big enough to drive both of them through!
I couldn't understand why Joe (who presumably can swim) had such a hard time swimming the 5 yards to either the boat or dinghy. Yes we saw him take a swig from a bottle, but he clearly hadn't had that much to drink as had been with Gail until not long before. Then, having finally reached the boat he appeared to simply give up and sink beneath the water. Odd.
ReplyDeleteAnd for someone so short of money, that lakeside cottage(!) must have cost a pretty penny...
John - I'm guessing that Joe sank as he reached the boat because hypothermia had set in and he didn't have the strength to pull himself out of the water. Swimming in icy cold water wearing full clothing is extremely hard, even for the strongest of swimmers. I for one cheered to see him sink!
ReplyDeleteAs for the SUV, I thought it had some kind of sticker on the driver's side door, so I assumed it was a hire car for towing the boat and not Joe's personal vehicle.
Hypothermia? But he wasn't in the water more than 5 or 10 minutes. Mind you it would be pretty frigging cold in February. Don't forget his also had an injured wrist that probably stopped him from holding on too well.
ReplyDeleteI suppose the car could have been hired. He needed money for that, and for the cottage. All for his nefarious plan. so Gail could have the money to pay off his debts in what? 7 years?
I think you're missing the point that in the struggle with Gail, before setting off, he fell and sprained his wrist (hence the constant yelps of pain when trying to man-handle the dinghy). He realised he didn't have the strength to continue to hang on to the boat, let alone pull himself onboard. I do think it would have been neater, however, to simply knock him out cold with that boom and drown immediately. Lovely hunting shot of the boat under the full moon that they ended with though.
ReplyDeleteYeah that was a good shot. I liked the pull-out from the mobile, and that ring tone. I might be making this up, but wasn't there a time when if a character died in an episode there'd be no theme tune at the end?
ReplyDeletegadgee that isn't always the case but often when it's a long time character, they will hold off the end tune.
ReplyDeleteGood ridance. Can't stand Joe!
ReplyDeleteit was quite hilarious in the end, i think the producers just wanted to see joe suffer as much as possible. i couldn't believe it when he wasn't unconscious after falling overboard, the shot of him swimming from under the water made me think "heck, joe is the most unlucky man on the planet, maybe they'll go all out and a shark or lake monster will suddenly appear and drag him under" but no, they kept him going even longer and made him as pathetic as they could right to the end, going under with a whimper
ReplyDeletehi ,michelle connor has been wearing a grey jumper dress on coronation street , she had it on when she was still working at the rovers , then again tonight ( 26.11.10 )in the new club . it's grey , with a long cowl neck and short arms , please could you tell me where i could get one myself , Many Thanks , jftennessee .
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