Gail will do anything to see her
family back in one piece, except cook Christmas dinner it seems, and is
delighted to be invited to the Bistro by Leanne, despite Audrey even offering
to buy the turkey. To assume makes an ass of you and me she tells her mother.
The only ass, however, is Kylie who refuses to go to her child’s nativity or wish
him well all because Gail and Audrey want David there. Afraid of pushing her
too far, David thinks he should stay away but Audrey convinces him to go for Max. Not
content with taking a gamble on her family life, a drunken Kylie meanwhile attacks the fruit machine in the Rovers before being escorted out and told by Tina that
“some people don’t deserve to have children.” Kylie's decision to attend the nativity after all is not borne out of any sense of duty, but rather this affront to her parenting skills.
Carla takes great pleasure in
knowing something Tracy Barlow doesn’t and can’t understand why Peter hasn’t
told her about Rob and Tina. He uses Barlow's Buys as an excuse. Despite
telling Peter to find another babysitter in the last episode, Tina takes up
Carla’s invite to the nativity, saying in a vague fashion that Simon may have
mentioned something about it that morning. Considering Max went dressed as a
sheep, I’d say she wasn’t short on clues. She’s clearly satisfied to be told that
Peter was none too happy to hear about her and Rob. Tracy meanwhile tries to squeeze
an apology out of him, but it's not clear for what exactly; she lives next door
to the pub, and didn’t bother to go looking for him in the place she actually
left him.
As the nativity gets underway, Peter
says Carla can’t be there because she’s picking Deirdre up from the airport. We
were left surprised at the news that Deirdre was home from Canada in the last
episode, but now she’s only arriving back? Sitting together at the nativity, Peter
expresses his disdain to Tina who tells him that what she does and with whom is none
of his business.
As the strains of Little Donkey emanate from the manger, major
drunky teeters in, disrupting everyone. Despite warnings from family and
teacher alike, Kylie’s inebriated interjections finally see her asked to leave.
Not content to have caused enough disruption, she calls the teacher a cow and
drags Max from the stage. Despite David’s dastardly deeds, he’s a better parent
to Max than Kylie is proving to be, lending him a degree of sympathy
and making her look appalling. It’s a real shame to see a great character such
as Kylie return to her negative one dimensional beginnings after being so successfully
developed into a thoroughly rounded, endearing person who had completely earned
her redemption. Such regression makes it feel as if all of this was wasted or
somehow false.
The day of Roy’s driving test
arrives, and he appears to have done well, but we've yet to find out
if he has passed. Meanwhile Fiz invites a delighted Hayley to visit Father
Christmas with Hope and Ruby.
Owen and family are mystified to receive
an invitation from construction crook Pat Phelan to join him for
drinks.
“Afternoon pop pickers” chirps
Dennis as he enters The Kabin, resplendent in mature music mogul chic, ready for The Power's big gig. He puts
Norris in mind of a song; Rockabilly Rebel? Jumpin' Jack Flash? No. The Oldest
Swinger in Town apparently. Ouch. His age isn’t so much of an issue over at the Bistro however, where much to Rita’s annoyance Stella describes him and Gloria as teenagers on
their first date, and Mary puts her two feet in it by observing they’re more
suited age wise. Rita appears both jealous and hurt as she looks on, and insists on staying around
even after Norris leaves on foot of the noise, dragging Mary with him. Considering the Facebook page “Glo” has
set up for the group is apparently proving popular with the “silver surfers”, perhaps
Norris could leap into the 21st century and enjoy their music at a more
palatable volume from the comfort of his own home.
By Emma Hynes
Twitter: @ELHynes
All original work on the Coronation Street Blog is covered by a Creative Commons License
I'm glad to see the ghost of Gail hovering around..maybe she'll be back to her old self soon.
ReplyDeleteA tad annoyed that Mary didn't tell Norris to drop dead. He's always bossing her around.
Gloria looked good and was really giving Dennis the boost to his ego that his wife should have been giving him instead of being an old nag all these fast few months. Maybe Glo and Dennis are running off together - good for them if it happens.
Simons was so cute telling Max not to worry, this always happens-referring to one of the adults making a right fool of themselves. Good episode - David is slowly coming into his own.
I love continuity. Simon helping a littler kid with dealing with a parent problem he's a pro at, that was good. Deirdre, OTOH, is she coming or going? If she's here, why did she miss the play? Drive a truck through that one.
ReplyDeleteI love seeing Dennis get to do something, even with Gloria, who is also, finally, a character that's fun to watch. Wish this had happened years ago instead of being a last hurrah. :(
Oh how they love to play with our emotions.
ReplyDeleteGloria was truly awful and now she's rather sweet.
Dennis was hardly used and now he's got a real story, just as he's about to leave.
Rita has turned into an old bag.
Kylie softened and was good for David and now she's reverted to an argumentative drunk.
Oh I could go on. It's all too much.
And what's with Carla picking up Deirdre from the airport, I thought she was out with Amy on Wednesday, have the writers been at the sherry.
Roy's driving test was both funny and interesting, because it was Roy. It was an excellent example of the character led drama that Coronation Street used to do so well.
ReplyDeleteIn the same episode, we suddenly had Kylie behaving like a reject from the Jeremy Kyle show and in a way that would prompt a referral to Social Services in the real world. The writers have clearly forgotten that Max was nearly permanently removed. This is Coronation Street at its worst. Unrealistic, contrived drama that is meant to be sensational but is just irritating and tedious to watch.