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Monday, 8 April 2013

Coronation Street weekly update - Dev, death and anniversary schmaltz

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Sunita died this week and the nation buried their faces in their cushions on their sofas, grieving for the moment when comedy Dev had to tell his kids that their mum had gone to the great corner shop in the sky.  Fortunately, we were saved.  As the Devster switched his face to emote, the camera panned away and out of the living room.  It’s odd, because I kind of do feel sad for say, Sophie, who’s feeling the loss of her pal Sunita in the shop but I just can’t muster any emotion for Dev because the acting is clumsy and inept. Even the twins out-acted their dad.

So, Sunita’s dead and gone after we see Karl leaving her hospital room and then the nurses rushing in, wondering why her breathing tube has come undone. Did Karl pull it out? The post-mortem reveals death by smoke inhalation and the investigation is closed, leaving Karl to butter up St Ella.  She's no longer the landlady of the Rovers Return because the Rovers Return no longer exists. And yet... yet...  she is still in every bleedin' storyline and every bleedin' scene. I'd much rather she wasn't in my favourite soap.

But butter her up he does. So much in fact that Jason gets that look on his face like he’s doing hard sums. And this time, when he puts two and two together he gets St Ella’s number just right and dumps her before she can dump him.  Karl challenges Jason to a fight up the ginnel but Jason has the good sense to walk. “You’re not worth it,” he spits out at Karl and St Ella, “…neither of you are.”  I don’t know about you, but I gave a little cheer.

Tina’s baby scan reveals she’s carrying a boy for Gary and Izzy but when she gets back to the flat from th’ospickle, it’s been broken into. At Izzy’s insistence, Gary spends the night on Tina’s sofa, watching over their investment in Tina’s tum. But that’s not all Gary's watching and if Izzy knew that Gary was developing feelings for the woman carrying his child, she wouldn’t have let him anywhere near Tina’s flat, break-in or not.  I don’t know about you, but I gave a little tut.

Now then, answer me this. Why does Rita, a woman who used to be a singer in a jazz club, a woman who’s been around the clubs and the pubs, lived the highlife, mingled with lowlife, get so uppity about Dennis eating a space cake? She’d have been on nodding terms with jazz cigarettes back in the day, you’d think. But she comes down heavy on Dennis when she finds him giggling after eating one of Sylvia’s home made hash-brownies.  In what was frankly an embarrassing scene, she marches Dennis along with Roy who marches his mum, to see Doctor Carter for drug awareness advice.  I don’t know about you, but I cringed.

Daft storyline of the week has been Eileen sticking her nose in where it should not be stuck. She turns up at Paul’s fire station to plead her case about Paul not being ready to return to work after Toni’s death. Paul’s raring to get back to work and get stuck in but Eileen thinks not, and tells his boss so. But when she’s sitting in the office talking to Paul’s gaffer, in walks Paul and Eileen’s busted.  Cue lots of arguing and making-up cuddling on Eileen’s sofa. I don’t know about you, but I rolled my eyes.

And finally, in the best story this week, it’s Ken and Deirdre’s wedding anniversary. They’ve been married twice, you know, but despite prompting from Deirdre and reminding from Tracy, Ken still forgets to buy his missus a card. He does bake an Ocean pie and invites the family for tea. And with the happy couple sitting down to celebrate their marital bliss with those other well-matched couples Peter-n-Carla-n-Tracy-n-Rob around the Barlow tea table, what could possibly go wrong? Actually, not much. It was almost a good night for them all apart from Rob trying to wind up Peter for not drinking. Even Deirdre bopped around the living room to Uptown Girl on the stereo. I don’t know about you, but I bopped too.

And that's just about that for this week. Remember, you can sign up to get these Corrie weekly updates by email at http://www.corrie.net/updates/weekly/subscribe.htm

This week's writers were Jan McVerry, John Kerr, Simon Crowther. Chris Fewtrell. Find out all about the Coronation Street writing team at http://coronationstreetupdates.blogspot.com/2008/11/exclusive-all-current-corrie-writers.html

Glenda Young
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Blogging away merrily at http://flamingnora.blogspot.com

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17 comments:

ChiaGwen said...

The Rita pounding on her chest like a gorilla about the weedy brownies was indeed cringe-worthy. Probably done so Doc Carter could have another episode payment since it's months between his appearances. I cheered also when Jason dumped the beige one and added that zinger that neither of them were worth it....great post Flaming Nora!

Anonymous said...

Did Ken ever find a card? That was cute.

Rachel said...

loved the fact that St Ella still had a back room (the ginnel) to take people to.

John McE said...

I don't know how much longer I can stand watching Dev's acting, or lack thereof. He hasn't been used this heavily in years, and he quite simply isn't up to the job. Hopefully he'll take the kids away somewhere to get over MySunitta's passing... and forget to come back.

Anonymous said...

The next time my boyfriend has a tiff at work I'm going to march into the GM's office and tell him that my poor sweetie is acting strange at home so could he please have a few more weeks off? Righteo..he'll say...you go home with yer missus and talk things out. I'm a busy man you know but your needs come first..even though your boyfriend's been cleared to come back, I must insist that we all listen to your girlfriend and send you home because she knows best.
As if. I'd be acting strange too if I was shacking up with Eileen.

Mary White Horse said...

Carla's behaviour was frankly disgusting yesterday. They are a middle aged couple attending his octegenarian father's wedding anniversary. She broke up his family unit and then she behaves like a teenage nympho at a disco unable to take her hands off Peter. Totally inapproprate she behaved like a slut.

ChiaGwen said...

Mary White Horse: I too thought Carla was behaving quite oddly, as if she had been drinking beforehand and then Peter leaving like a moody teenager. I didn't think Rob was pushing the drink on him that badly and he can always say no. The whole episode to me was daft with Tracy guffawing like a maniac and Diedre whooping it up at nothing particularly funny.

J. Lewis said...

Great post.

I loved the episodes and (replying to the above posts) as for Carla and Peter, well they have always been like that. They snog in public and Carla's always draped all over Peter, they have that sort of relationship. The actors work well together so why not? There are couples in real life, of all ages, who are like that and it would be very boring if all the couples on Corrie were portrayed the same, so I commend Corrie.
Peter was moody but I'm guessing that was because he obviously has a problem with Rob.

J. Lewis said...

Also... it was Rob and Tracy who were all over each other at Ken and Deirdre's.
Carla and Peter were just cuddled up together on the sofa and I see nothing wrong with that.

Rob knows full well that Peter is an alcoholic yet he thought it was okay to make that 'punch' and offer it to Peter. Insensitive idiot.

Janice. said...

Did anyone notice Tracy had her make up mirror resting on one of the dinner plates. On top all of her charms we can add lacking of hygiene too.

Chatty Kathy said...

I feel a disturbance in the force. And I LIKE it!

This was new producer Stuart Blackburn's premier episode, and I'm already seeing some changes for the good.

Firstly, Karl popping off big time at Boria. He did all but hit her. Maybe now she'll stop drooling and fawning over this psycho loser whom she wanted so desperately to get back with her daughter. Mother of the year there! I was thrilled when he showed her that maybe he wasn't Prince Charming after all. Maybe it will shut her up for a while? Loved it!

Another good thing: this is the first episode *ever* where I didn't want to gob smack Tracy Barlow (as played by Kate Ford). Dare I even say that Tracy almost acted like a (gasp!) normal human being?

I didn't see anything but mild flirting between Deirdre and Rob. It was built up in spoilers that this was going to be some big deal, but if it was, I missed it. It just looked like people have some fun at a party to me. And Rob was persistently pushing the drink on Carla, not Peter. Still inappropriate given her drinking problem, but it didn't seem to be maliciously aimed at Peter. Insensitive, yes. But hardly monstrous. Peter skulking off as usually is just typical Peter. It's always about HIM, right? ( Like when Nick gave Simon a computer for Christmas. Me, I would have been thrilled that someone gave my child such a nice gift that made him happy. But no, Peter is mad because it outshone HIS gift. I like Peter but sometimes he needs a good shake.)

I digress. I watched the ep twice to see if I missed something about Rob being horrible, but as I was babysitting the 3 grandkids at the time, perhaps I missed something.

The whole episode moved quickly, and in spite of much of the heavy drama (Dev and the kids, the dark cloud that is Karl) it just seemed "brighter" somehow.

I'm impressed with Mr. Blackburn's maiden effort. Can't wait to see what he does next.

J. Lewis said...

Chatty Kathy, I agree with you to a point about Peter, it is always about him. I reckon Carla had a point when she mentioned jealousy. Peter is acting like he's jealous of Rob. He can be very childish.
However, I also think he's right about Rob even though Peter's hardly in a position to judge. I can see why they are not going to get along with each other and it's Carla I feel sorry for already.

I can't bring myself to feel sorry for Tracy but in the episode after the Rovers fire - when they were talking about Tracy needing somewhere to stay - Rob said that they were only 'on and off', he said that they weren't serious and he basically didn't want Tracy to stay with him - his excuse - she's full of a cold.

Tracy thinks he's serious about her.

Chatty Kathy said...

I forgot to add a disappointment about last night's eps. Unfortunately, it's a biggie. St Ella The Beige was as omnipresent as ever, dispensing her wisdumb far and wide. Although in some scenes she went wild with her wardrobe and wore off-white! It nearly did my head in. I was hoping the new producer would reel her in a bit, so I hope he does in future. I almost forgot about Beige Lady, however, in my giddiness over Karl's temper tantrum, aimed at the dreaded Boria.

Anonymous said...

The one and only thing that will resurrect Corrie in my eyes is when Tracy Barlow gets her due. She's a cold blooded murderer who has gotten away with bashing her boyfriend to death.
I would love to see her find true love with whatshisname and then have the rug pulled out from under her and she's sent back to the big house for the next 20 years.
Has Amy gone to the land of missing Corrie kids?

Chatty Kathy said...

I'd like to see Tracy go, too. However, she can't be tried twice for the same crime, correct? That's the US law, and I assume it applies to England, too?

She would need to commit another crime and be convicted of it. The murder she already did is done and dusted. Unless of course she's on some sort of parole, and she breaks it. Not sure about Brit law.

Janice. said...

Chatty Kathy: How about the crime of dreadful acting and boring viewers? I think that is sufficient to send her down.

Chatty Kathy said...

Janice, yes, she's guilty as charged. Can we make a citizens arrest?

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