Coronation Street Friday 16th June double episode review



"Have some self respect!"

"Says the woman who did it on top of a bus shelter?"

 

 

Hiya! It’s just Jordan with my fiery thoughts on this week’s Friday episodes. Oh yes, on Friday we were treated to two episodes which were an utter hotchpotch of ridiculous catastrophe, comedy and downright weird ending.  I’ve been putting off writing this review til now because I just didn’t have the energy to humorously whinge about our favourite Street. But I’m here now, ready to recap, review and rant.

 

Daniel bumps into Sinead and begs her for a chance to talk. He feels guilty and laments to his five-minute ex-girlfriend that none of his family are speaking to him, apart from his dad of course.  He later pesters her yet again in the pub, at which point her other ex, Chesney (who is pretty much reunited with Sinead by the end of the episode) steps in and tells Daniel to clear off.  Rejected by just about everyone, Daniel slopes off to wait tables at the Bistro where the most bitter Barlow of them all, the Wicked Witch of Weatherfield just happens to be holding an employee lunch at the Bistro with her (only) Employee of the Month, Mary. Tracy wastes no time in throwing daggers at Daniel when he tries taking her order. Just prior to this is when the episode took the next right onto Abomination Street.  Two dealers turned up at the Bistro, wondering if Robert would like any drugs. Now, this is apparently a dark secret of Robert’s past, but come off it! If I am wrong, do correct me, but to the best of my knowledge, this dark secret has never even been hinted at. Not every character should have a dark secret just because you want to shoehorn a storyline aspect into an already overcrammed plot. Anyway, just after a verbal bashing from Tracy, the tragic would-be Oxford student snaps at his sister, labelling her an evil bitch and storms out of work.

 

 

 

Obviously wanting to hide his face, he goes all the way down the Street to the Rovers and knocks back a pint and a half. Liz refuses to serve the lightweight anymore and he leaves before bumping into the aforementioned drug dealers, waggling his way into some cocaine and GHB . He tells the dealers that it is for Robert and he goes through it like a packet of sherbet.  The scene in his flat was especially awkward. We were subjected to a load of weird shots with Daniel headbanging along to some rock music, with shots jumping about all over the place. The bizarre rave blares its way onto the Street, alerting the attention of Adam. Around this time, the dealers turn up at the Bistro demanding payment from a clueless Robert.  This leaves Adam and Robert to find Daniel passed out and hurl him graciously into the back of the Bistro van. After the typical hospital scene with that beep beep soundtrack throughout, Daniel wakes up from his cocaine binge all better. They used that age old excuse of “You got off lightly this time” and Daniel discharges himself. I am more likely to understand Pythagoras’s Theorem than what the point of this daft melodrama was.

 

 

Todd and Billy are all set to meet Summer, their prospective adoptive daughter.  Her dying dad Drew is bringing her later that day to meet the men who will hopefully become her guardians. But when Todd gets a call from an agency offering him some work, the plans for the big meeting are thrown into disarray and Billy is left to attend alone. As we know, Todd is not particularly keen on the idea of taking on the child of Billy’s dying ex. Who can blame him? Anyway, this leaves Billy to go alone to meet Drew and Summer, who appears to be a charming little girl. She has the grace of the Queen and the intelligence of Matilda (which, coincidentally is the name of the brilliant young actress who plays her). However, I couldn’t help but think she seems remarkably cheery for someone whose dad is suffering from a terminal illness. Billy is so enchanted by Summer, he gives Drew his word that he and Todd will take Summer when he passes away., without consulting Todd. What a stupid move! Todd is understandably furious.



"What's that you're making?"

"It's called karakuri"

"Oh Japanese? As in origami?"

"Yeah, only it has moving parts"

 Elsewhere, Gemma and Rita became the saving graces of these Godforsaken episodes when they became Jenny’s wingmen. Rita accompanies Former Bridezilla Jenny to the pub for a few drinks following on from her dramatic split from Johnny the other night, in which she fabulously cut her wedding dress to shreds on the cobbles. That was a new one, which should definitely go down in Corrie history. Rita has a few too many drinks at the pub and is persuaded by Sean to sample her first kebab. While the pair are chatting to Gemma over the counter, Jenny gets a phone call from Jonny. Despite Rita’s drunken protestations, she accepts his invitation to talk.  This invitation of course, has stemmed from Jonny’s fall the other night; he knows now that his MS is spiralling out of control, especially after a visit from Alya earlier in the day.

 

"Donner? I've never heard of an animal called donner"

"I think it's foreign for lamb"

 

The “posse” turn up at the flat -  Gemma somehow managing to abandon her kebab serving duties – and, along with Rita give a Beyoncé-style empowerment commentary over Jonny’s grovelling. It would seem that girls do run the world, as Jenny takes the advice of her posse and rejects him once and – apparently – for all. As well as all this, Alya and Kate are evicted from their flat by Liz since they’re selling the pub but conveniently manage to find a new one on the Street within hours. Oh, and Bethany was paid a visit by Neil, who is slowly but surely giving her information on Nathan’s plans to take her abroad. One thing I would like to put forth about the whole Bethany saga is – for all the good that it is doing with the overall message, surely the ridiculous twist of the police being involved in the sex ring is to the detriment of it all? Is it really teaching people not to trust the police? Just some food for thought.

 

 A bit of a rant, I know. I’m sure smoke made its way from the keyboard as I was angrily typing some of that. But Corrie seems to be up and down a lot at the moment, and a lot more erratically than is to be expected. Monday’s episodes were a million miles away from Friday’s.  I just don’t buy that Daniel would do something as wild as con someone out of Class A drugs and then make a miraculous recovery. It’s a shame because Rob Mallard is a fantastic actor and the character of Daniel had so much potential as a mini-Ken, but he seems to have been scrubbed red raw with a bar of strong soap.

But to end this review on a positive note: the saving graces of this episode were Barbara Knox as Rita and Dolly-Rose Campbell as Gemma, a pair who never fail to light up any episode they appear in. One thing about Corrie is that you can always rely on it for some brilliant comedy which sparkles on screen. So it's not all bad;  I guess I'm just a whingey bitch!

 

As always

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Jordan

 Twitter: @JordanLloyd39

 

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