The wonderful Flaming Nora has already given an equally wonderful assessment of this week's dire episodes of our favourite show. Of course, we've been here before. Corrie has often blundered into this territory, as far back as the gruesome 'Cult of Nirab' nonsense back in the 1990s. There often seems to be a need to string out wafer-thin storylines to the detriment of everything else. The difference this time is that the plots are filled with a whole host of unlikeable characters.
Eileen has spent many years as the Street's official bore-in-residence. Saddled with a feckless son, a dreary campster and the squint-eyed fireman, she moves through life like an over-stuffed sofa. She's relatively friendless and given the amount of time she puts in at Underworld, a useless employee. Her suitors are either mad (well, you'd have to be) or sad. Eileen has out-lived her usefulness on Coronation Street. If they can't come up with a decent character development for her after twelve years, then maybe it's time to call it a day.
The rubbishing of Sunita is particularly sad. Instead of a fun character and the proverbial shoulder to cry on, we are now presented with a comedy cleavage and those ridiculous, coquette-ish looks. One can only grimace at the thought of the hideous humping sessions taking place between Sunita and professional northerner Karl. She is now almost as ridiculous as her comedy husband, Desperate Dev.
We should be of good cheer though. There are the shenanigans of Rita's wedding to look forward to plus some bizarre dressing-up for the Jubilee street party. Hopefully by then, Sunita will have dug out her old mumsy frocks, Eileen will have taken her dreary self off to Cyprus (forever) and Tina will be pulling pints alongside Betty in the Celestial Rovers. We can but hope.
12 comments:
Yikes- tell us your true feelings!!!LOL.. You are right in many respects. They should retire Eileen soon- she's interesting to a degree , but easily banished from the streets. Many times I've read that at any time Corrie has 40+ regular characters. Maybe that's too many at this point. The elder statesmen are dying off slowly but surely, and its harder to get that invested in all these youngsters.I like Tina McIntyre- she's perenially pretty in a sea of very average-looking young Corrie actresses. I felt bad for her with that whole awful Kirsty character, who cannot leave soon enough. Hateful bitch!In Canada, the Frank Foster trial has ended badly ,so I'm waiting for him to be offed and the ensuing mystery.Staying tuned!
Agree with you, Clinkers and wonder where the show goes from here. What Corrie doesn't get is that the longer it's on, the more sophisticated the audience becomes through watching other soaps, TV serials etc. Viewers expect more and tptb simply aren't keeping up with us. Kirsty: the build-up has gone on for far too long. The implosion should have happened weeks ago and someone Tyrone really trusted, say Connie on a flying visit, could have warned him. Sunita: we've wandered into Carry On Brewing territory. The actress looks shame-faced as well she might. We haven't seen Carpet in a while but Peter's character has been ruined just like Karl's - not because they've strayed but because they've turned into sleazebags. We're seeing repetitive storylines eg Kevin and Sally, Kylie as the new Becky. Good ideas are wasted like the Alzheimer's story. The factory is a complete anomaly in this day and age and shows lack of imagination in finding another context for those characters. The fact that the Bohemian Rhapsody scene was so popular was that it was funny and took us by surprise. It wouldn't have been half as good if it had been heralded for weeks as a 'hilarious consequence'. We need more of these little gems rather than the cliff-hanger story lines that end up a damp squib.
Ok..scenes we'd like to see.
Some imagination.
Tina, Tommy, Terry and a few selected members get together to stage a 'sting' operation to get rid of Rick once and for all. I think it might be interesting...all cloak and dagger stuff.
I agree with this post too. Sad days on Corrie
Wonderful post Clinkers summed up nicely. The actor portraying Karl reminds me of Klaatu in The Day The Earth Stood Still, wooden with one expression for everything. How Sunita would be attracted to him defies logic - but then maybe she likes getting her bum grabbed a lot. Hope squinty-eyed Fireman Paul is on his way out....VERY SOON!
I would love for one of the bloggers on here to do a poll or something to find Coronation Street's worst ever Character it would be interesting to see who crops up, I personally don't think that in nearly 52 years of the show there hasn't been a character as bad as Stella Price, even Cilla Battersby Brown had more entertaining qualitys.
Just an idea for one of bloggers to put together, hope you don't mind me suggesting it!! sure it would stir up alot of comments rom everyone!
Very well said! Here in Canada the fireman and his wife have just moved into Eileen's. As much as I have liked Eileen in the past I am really disappointed in her character of late. In my humble opinion there is absolutely no chemistry between her and the the gentleman who plays the fireman whatsoever. So she's moved Lesley into her home Jason has moved out don't Marcus and Sean still live there (why they don't get their own place is beyond me)
Spot on Clinkers. Once upon a time, I liked all the characters you mentioned. Not now. Shobna Gulati's attempts at seduction are embarrassing and make it look as if she's been taking acting lessons from Dev. I can't stand shouty Tina and I don't like finding myself in the position of rooting for someone to die, even if it is a fictional character.
I agree with Humpty too. I wonder about the future of the programme. ITV has demanded 6 programmes this week and by 'eck, it has shown in the quality of them. Maybe this blog should run a poll on how many episodes the fans would like per week.
Weeks like this happen rarely, so I'm not too bothered by them, after all, ITV is giving Wednesdays back to Coronation Street later this year.
As for the characters mentioned I agree.
Eileen worked very well as the loveable cabbie on the switch, she's horrible now, I seriously don't like the character anymore.
Tina, the girl who stood by her father who raided the medical center and attempted to fake his death, is having a go at Tommy for standing by his dad.
Sunita? Horrible woman, Dev may not be the perfect guy, but he's a devoted dad, sure he can be annoying, but that's no excuse to go and jump in bed with her bosses' husband.
The problems could be solved by the writers giving more and BETTER stories to the older characters. Let's see more of Rita and Dennis..this match is perfect..why aren't people cognisant of it??
Bravo Clinkers, Frosty couldnt have put it better himself. He almost laughed out loud at Tina's absolutely pathetic brain "bleed", does she even have a bleedin brain? Surrounded by overacting and officious "doctors". Corrie is rapidly becoming a bad joke.
I agree Clinkers.
I watch Corrie here in NZ (so old episodes) concurrently with the current UK ones. Here in NZ at the moment Gary has just gone off to Afghanistan, Carla has split up with Trev and is beginning to have a drink problem, Nick has bought the bar. So these episodes are 18 months old but the difference in quality is marked as I watched the old ones for this week straight after the new ones.
The UK episodes and characters right now feel old, tired and repetitive. I can't wait for Terry Duckworth to leave. And I used to love Tina's character. It's a shame what she's become.
I am looking forward to Carla's brother turning up, and Rita's wedding.
Now then - I am a Tina fan and an Eileen fan, so let's not confuse their acting ability with painfully overplayed stories. The fireman can't act and has to go, but then David Platt can't act nor can Dev and they're both still here. There are at least three sub-plots that in old Corrie would have been resolved in a week. Now they're proving as drawn-out as (if I can mention them) The Archers! The fireman and his wife, the ex-copper and her personality disorder and the shop owner's wife and the disgraced husband of the landlady. Come on Corrie decision-makers, sort them out and move along please. I know Kirk's been Dancing on Ice but we need him, as we need more Steve McDonald (and I can't wait for Craig Charles to return from his sabbatical), more Sylvia, more comedy. Thank you!
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