It's the Monday after the night before and you're feeling flat, depressed, down and full of bitter regret for all the things you may have done the evening before. But enough about the football. Back on t'cobbles, after Daisy grabbed Ryan's thigh with her two metre long arm, she gets him into bed and he wakes up unable to remember what, or if anything, happened. He returns home to face Alya and pretends he was out with DJ Zortek a.k.a Nigel rather than wiggling his bottom in Daisy's dastardly boudoir. Alya finds out because of course she does and throws Ryan out, but he lands on his feet and ends up back in t'Rovers, although in Ronnie's old bed rather than Daisy's. I hope he doesn't have to wiggle for Jenny too.
I'm less bothered about Alya being cuckolded and more upset by A Guy Called Gerald being called old school, tbqhwy.
With a curtsey, Sean is back chez Grimshaw and in the factory. That is until Eileen inevitably finds out about his and George's mutual appreciation society plan. She confronts George in the Rovers and he falls backwards, breaking his wrist.
Talking of evil plans, a customer, Andy, arrives at Shuttleworth's to pay for a funeral in cash, which Todd hides in an urn. He then convinces George that Andy the bin man only gave him £2K for a £7K funeral, which means - since we can do all do basic maths - that he has £5K for Will the teenage tearaway. I do wonder how much debt a 17 (?) year old can get into; has he been over-spending on in-app purchases? However, the urn is picked up by a customer who then refuses to give the money back. Always with a Plan B, Todd, with some urging from Will, then decides to nick Billy's money for repairs to the half way house. Every week brings a new low for Todd, doesn't it.
Beth is back with a new do and some suggestions for Fiz to get revenge on Tylina, which basically involves getting over one man by getting under another. Fiz signs up for Tinder 2as1 with a brutally honest profile and grumpy photo. Hey Fiz - Dirk is available! He's standing right there! She gets an immediate match and arranges a date, but it turns out to be a reporter wanting a story about scorned women. Fiz is outraged, but takes the reporter's card anyway.
To get Steve to his £100K total for the mitochondrial research fundraising, Curtis suggests a naked calendar. What is it, 2003? I'm quite into that idea, though it would need to have Imran as Mr July.
Rachel Stevenson - on twitter
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The show gets worse and worse. I’m finding it impossible to keep track of what’s going on, who’s with who, who lives where and who owns what. What’s happened to the hate crime storyline? It’s dropped off a cliff along with Peter’s storyline. Poor Peter appeared for the first time in weeks and it was only for a 30 second scene! What a disappointing ‘end’ to what should’ve been Peter’s most memorable storyline.
ReplyDeleteInstead of the Tyrone, Alina and Fizz nonsense, I want to see how Abi’s coping, how her loved ones and the wider community are rallying around her while she grieves for her son who was brutally beaten to death! Maybe a scene of Tracy coming to check in on her (remember their friendship? The show doesn’t). Or a scene with Abi and Leanne bonding over the grief of losing a child. Or what about a chat with Peter? I recall the two of them being friends, looking out for each other with their addiction issues, so a short scene of the two of them checking in with each other would’ve been nice, especially after everything Peter’s just been through as well.
How are Corey, Nina and Asha doing? And Kelly, who’s currently behind bars, though that’s easy to forget because we never see her there and no one mentions her. We could’ve at least had some scenes of Toyah and Imran discussing Kelly and feeling torn on whether to support her.
There's been so much potential for character moments in the wake of Seb’s death but the show’s squandered it by putting this major story on the backburner for lesser stories like Sean’s double glammy woes. I don’t understand the logic, I really don’t.
The aftermath of Aidan’s suicide was brilliantly done. We saw how it affected characters across the street from giving David the courage to speak out about his rape, Johnny taking out his grief on Jenny and having an affair with Liz, Carla bottling things up until she broke down, Kate’s anger at her brother, Eva and Toyah feeling guilty about baby Susie…there was a ripple effect across the cobbles.
But Seb’s death hasn’t hit the same because we’ve not had that character focus nor has the story been allowed to play out organically, but rather has this stop/start nature where lesser storylines take priority so the impact doesn’t feel as big, in fact it feels like barely a blip. I would argue Tyrone’s kiss with Alina caused bigger shockwaves than Seb and Nina’s attack.
And it all comes down to block storytelling and the fact there are too many filler characters. I can’t stress enough how these two things are killing the show. It’s now become the norm for storylines to play out with most of the action and aftermath taking place off-screen and we as viewers are left to fill in the blanks. Oh, and putting Billy, Alina and Daisy at the forefront of the show is as bad as when Chesney and Gemma dominated 99% of screen time. Awful decision.
jeanie (anon):
ReplyDeleteDisagree totally--SO glad we're not seeing Abi grieve and happy to move to some lighter, more humorous story lines. It was horrible enough with Leanne and Oliver--the last thing we need is another lengthy plotline focusing on a mother's devastation at losing a son in an untimely way. And to have Leanne and Abi commiserate would only underline the ridiculously fatal nature of Coronation Street where two children are lost in the space of 8 months.
And I'm glad we're not seeing any more of a frail Peter recuperating either. Other than the fight between Carla and Sarah that was a bit of a tedious story as well.I think some of the story lines and actors are coming a long pretty nicely and am glad of a bit of lightness and humor--death, darkness, and gloom all year round would just be too much.
Now I'm just anticipating the return of Jason--first time he has been mentioned in a long time AND he has lost all his money to a scam. Surely taking the time to introduce all that means he is likely on his way back to the street, whether with a new actor or the same. And most likely will be coupled up with the dour Alya before the year is out, poor thing!
jeanie[anon]I'm sorry but I don't consider Ryan being sexually assaulted by Daisy after she purposely gets him drunk or Todd stealing money meant for a homeless man's funeral 'humorous' storylines.
ReplyDeleteI would have also liked to see more of the aftermath of Seb's death instead of the ridiculously contrived storyline of a reporter wanting to interview Fiz about her break up from Tyrone.
jeanie[anon]If Jason were to return,odds are he'll probably be reunited with Sarah when she dumps Adam for him.
ReplyDeleteWe dont see anyone mentioning fay and she's in prison too. No one seems to visit her either!
ReplyDeleteJeanie (anon): By lighter story lines I meant the calendar story; Eileen, Sean, and George; Emma, Curtis, and Steve; Steve and Tracy exchanging one liners like the new Jack and Vera; Nick and Sam bonding; the ever-feuding Platts presided over by a tipsy Audrey; Yasmeen getting her mojo back; Dev's shenanigans; Daisy and Jenny; Aadi falling for Summer; Carla and Sarah's cat-fighting and so on. The last thing I want to watch is Abi grieving in ever greater depth for her 20 year-old son. We just had that full on with Leanne and Oliver. Daisy and Todd are not funny; they're inexplicably vile. Odd to have two such full-fledged psychopaths on the street. Todd is not only stealing from Billy but he just lifted 5K from George as well.
ReplyDelete