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It’s been another odd week in Coronation Street. It’s not just the social distancing that I’m trying to get my head around and heaven knows, I’m cutting them slack for that. I truly admire ITV for carrying on when other soaps have stopped filming during the pandemic. But I just wish, hand on heart, that things could be different.
Corrie has a quality team of writers – it’s the reason I love the show. They have some wonderful actors too, yet it all seems to be going to waste. We had a lengthy and tedious storyline about Steve and a sausage. On paper, this must have looked great. On screen, not so much. If only… if only instead of that nonsense we could have had a five minute phone call from Jenny to Rita, who’s locked down and isolating. Or Mary on a zoom call to mother. Even a few seconds of Dev stroking his new and rather luxurious beard (not a euphemism) would have been preferable to what we had to endure this week with the constant back and forth of Geoff, Sally, Tim, Geoff, Sally, Tim, Alya, Ryan, Geoff, Sally, Tim, well it’s almost too dire to bear.
So what DID I enjoy this week? Well, here goes…
I’m a big Gemma fan and anything involving her gets my vote. She sets up a vlog to talk to new mums about looking after her quads (Quad Vlog, you’re welcome). Chesney walks downstairs in his undies and appears on screen, he’s embarrassed but it prompts a large response to Gemma’s vlog. One response comes in from a woman who isn’t coping with her new child and Gemma reaches out. But it turns out to be nasty Vanessa who humiliated Gemma at the baby yoga class some months ago. Gemma forgives Vanessa and arranges to meet to talk, however Chesney tells Bernie who isn’t best pleased. Bernie storms off to give Vanessa a dressing-down, and Vanessa walks away shame-faced.
Also this week I loved seeing Sally coping with the covid crisis in her own way, by wearing a pair of bright yellow rubber gloves everywhere she went. It’s the little things like this that make the show for me. Sally and Tim are at odds over Geoff who’s really nasty to Sally when he thinks she’s in the house on her own. But when his granddaughter Faye overhears what he’s saying, he quickly backtracks and says he didn’t mean what he says. This was my highlight scene of the week, written by my favourite female writer Carmel Morgan. You can always expect something gritty and dark when Carmel’s name appears on the writing credits and this one didn’t disappoint.
Less enjoyable, sadly, were yet more shenanigans between Adam and Sarah and Gary and Maria, most of which I’ve lost track of, some of it involving Rick Neelan’s watch and nearly all of it involving Sarah in tears, torn between Adam and Gary. Gary prepares for his wedding to Maria but neither of them are sure they want to go through with it. Gary heads to see Sarah and pledges his love, while David overhears it all.
And in yet another ITV cross-promotion we saw another wasted storyline with the goddess who is Mary, wrapping herself up in a blanket that was covered by images of ITV presenter Ben Shepherd’s face.
In a nutshell, not the best of weeks for the world’s longest-running drama serial.
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 Cameron McAllister (Monday); Sam Holdsworth (Wednesday); Carmel Morgan (Friday). Find out all about the Coronation Street writing team at Coronation Street Blog: Exclusive: All Current Corrie writers online
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Glenda Young
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7 comments:
I feel the same way about this week. Although I’m not a fan of Gemma and Chesney but their scenes were more in one ear and out of the other. Carmel Morgan is definitely one of the best writers Coronation Street has and should get as much praise as Jonathan Harvey and Damon Rochefort.
I agree completely.
Like you say, it's admirable Corrie managed to stay on air and didn't shy away from addressing the pandemic, but the rules and regulations in Weatherfield are all over place and not reflective of where we currently are in the UK, so I wish they hadn't bothered addressing it all.
I also lost interest in the Gary saga a long time ago. The action's been poorly paced and the plot's too convoluted to keep track of. And I simply can't be doing with the tedious love square of Gary/Sarah/Adam/Maria which all the drama seems to be revolving around. I hate how major players like Imran and Carla have been booted out of the action. Carla lost her mind and her factory while Imran lost his sister! If anyone should be instrumental in Gary's downfall, it should be these two! They're the one's who lost everything!
The writing has been questionable of late. The less said about Steve and his sauasage the better. Same goes for Mary and her celebrity crush.
While I'm glad you enjoy Gemma, I personally can't stand her. She's shoe-horned into everything which only makes my hatred of her all the stronger. Wish the writers would give her a break and give other characters some air time for a change!
The Geoff storyline seems to be going round in circles with very little progression which is a shame because I started out fully invested in this story and now I just want it to be over.
So yeah, not a great week in Weatherfield. I really hope the action picks up soon and we can focus on something other than jiggle it Geoff, Gary Windyarse and loud mouth Gemma.
I beg to differ about the pandemic rules being all over the place and not reflective of what's going on. I live in Grater Manchester, where Corrie is supposed to be based, and we're still in partial lockdown. My 81 year old mum went out for the first time in 20 weeks last weekend, and was impressed how much the real world was "just like Corrie".
Also, how are TPTB supposed to keep track and up to date when Greater Manchester was only given 3 1/2 hrs notice of lockdown and Corrie film 6 weeks in advance?
We do just seem to be going round in circles re Geoff, Tim, Sally and Alya, and Gary, Adam and Sarah. So instead of these stories being interesting they just become tedious.
If Corrie has a quality team of writers how come we get such rubbish and repetitiveness sometimes.
I am not sure how it works with different writers writing different episodes, it would be more logical if each writer wrote all the scenes for a particular storyline and then we wouldn't get what seems like the same scene with slightly different words over and over again.
If anybody knows how the writing team work I would genuinely be interested to know.
There was always the chance that lockdown would have ceased completely but Corrie was showing previously filmed scenes where Weatherfield was still isolating. As it's turned out, it doesn't seem to be that out of sync. Some things can't be helped, such as the fact everyone should be wearing masks in Dev's shop but they'd probably be impossible to hear. In our local shops, the workers wear full facial shields so maybe Dev will wear one.
Gemma's alright if only she didn't have that shriek in her voice. Even when she's talking quietly, it sounds like a shriek. Sarah etc: who cares anymore? I would have liked Sally to have seen Faye coming down the stairs and goaded Geoff into revealing more about Elaine but that would have shortened the storyline. Yasmeen's ordeal has been more or less forgotten and we're now into Geoff's story. It does feel like they've run out of pastry and they're stretching it as far as they can to cover the tin. I hope Elaine reappears soon.
I agree, it is getting tedious but they were forced to quickly re-write, as they couldn't have Yasmeen's court trial.
I think the producer allocates certain writers for certain episodes -I'm not sure if they are freelancers or are under contract, like the cast. (I'd like to know).
There are senior writers who are suspect are given the most dramatic eps, and not so senior ones! I think a writer such as Jan McVerry writes 1 ep every 6 weeks or so.
From what I've read about soap writing, the writers don't have much creative input - the producer gives them the scenes to write beforehand. Corrie is a drama that entertains the nation, it's not about being artistic or literary, but about getting your dialogue down, and meeting your deadline so that the actors can learn the script.
I agree with comments with regards to both Gary's and Geoff' storylines as not only are they tedious but they're also a farce as the writers are more concerned with finding ways to have Gary [Sarah getting rid of the watch and lying for him]and Geoff]getting rid of Tim's mum]get away with their crimes instead of then getting their comeuppance and their victims and their families getting justice.
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