Eastenders (PBS) - General Discussion

[Milz]

Johnny Allen!  Did the writers forget about him?

 

so far he's been a huge disappointment, imo. I hoped he would be the Square's Big Bad, but he's not even lukewarm.  :(

[terrymct]

so far he's been a huge disappointment, imo. I hoped he would be the Square's Big Bad, but he's not even lukewarm.  :(

 

Agreed.  I was hoping for an old school neighborhood boss who keeps things calm around the Square and runs his businesses (legal and not) with a strong hand.  It would have been a good contrast to Andy.

 

I'm very ready for the whole Den murder thing to be over.  I'm tired of both Chrissy and Sharon, not to mention Dennis.  It HAS to finally be coming to a head.  After Chrissy told the cops about Sam being the last one to see Den, I really thought they might be able to link Den's disappearance to Andy's death.  Maybe Den pushed him then ran off, that sort of line of thinking.

 

It's also time to give the Miller family a break from being a primary plot line.  We had A Very Special Episode where Leo OD'ed.  Let them sink into the background for a while.  The only thing really good about that story line is that it gave Pauline something to do rather than just sink into being a complete harpy.  

 

Honestly, I'm enjoying Ian's family especially now that the pouty kid drama has been racheted down.  Dot learning to drive is a nice plotline as well, sweet and funny at the same time.

[One Tough Cookie]

I've already said I'm sick of the Millers' storyline.  The poor kid is dead now.

 

 

WHICH KID??????????????????????????

thanx

[Ohwell]

Demme's boyfriend, Leo, died of a drug overdose, Romeo and Juliet style, when he thought she was dead.

[M. Darcy]

I've decided that Rosie is a worse parent than Keith.  All she has done since Demi ran away was go from place to place in the Square crying, she keeps skipping work even though she is the only one earning money (besides Mickey) and I finally noticed that she is always wearing that damn same outfit. 

[Ohwell]

I agree she is a worse parent than Keith, because anyone in their right mind would have left him long ago.  She's put her own desire for him above the needs of her children, and all she does is go around crying and looking for sympathy from anyone who'll listen.  And yeah, she should be smelling pretty ripe by now in that outfit, even riper than Keith.

[Milz]

I agree she is a worse parent than Keith, because anyone in their right mind would have left him long ago.  She's put her own desire for him above the needs of her children, and all she does is go around crying and looking for sympathy from anyone who'll listen.  And yeah, she should be smelling pretty ripe by now in that outfit, even riper than Keith.

 

HA! :-)

 

See if Johnny Allen was a traditional mobster, who looked after the people in the neighborhood, Johnny would have sent his people out to find Demi. Then,, in true thug fashion he would extract payment from Rosie and Keith for helping them.... like making Keith do deliveries for him or making Rosie steal papers from the Vic/spy on Chrissie or making Mickey sell "special" items for him, etc.

[sugarbaker design]

like making Keith do deliveries for him

 

I can't picture that useless piece of shit doing anything.

[Milz]

He's made 2 babies...so he's got at least 1 functioning part.

[terrymct]

I've decided that Rosie is a worse parent than Keith.  All she has done since Demi ran away was go from place to place in the Square crying, she keeps skipping work even though she is the only one earning money (besides Mickey) and I finally noticed that she is always wearing that damn same outfit. 

 

 

That's sort of like debating which kind of flu is better to get.  They both suck at parenting.  They love the kids, they're trying their best, but they don't have the ability to do better.  

[M. Darcy]

Now Johnny Allen is not just boring but creepy. Ruby is a teenage girl and should be hanging out with other teenage girls. The way he gets all weird when Ruby doesn't want to be around him all the time is bordering on disturbing to watch.

Oh Dennis and Sharon - listen to Sam. She is warning you about Chrissie.

Edited September 14, 2014 by M. Darcy

[Ohwell]

I can kind of understand why Johnny Allen clings to Ruby since losing his wife and daughter in the fire; she's all the family he's got left.  However, he needs to back off and let her be around her friends.  The problem is that he knows Stacy is shady (I can't stand her) and I don't think he would have as much of a problem if Ruby were hanging out with a nicer girl.  I'm just surprised that his girlfriend hasn't left him.   

[M. Darcy]

Stacy is my hero because she turned in Keith for pretending to be hurt.  Heh, she's accomplished more than Johnny Allen ever did. 

[Ohwell]

Yes, that's the one good thing she did.

[terrymct]

I can kind of understand why Johnny Allen clings to Ruby since losing his wife and daughter in the fire; she's all the family he's got left.  However, he needs to back off and let her be around her friends.  The problem is that he knows Stacy is shady (I can't stand her) and I don't think he would have as much of a problem if Ruby were hanging out with a nicer girl.  I'm just surprised that his girlfriend hasn't left him.   

 

I think he also wants his daughter placed firmly in the middle class, too.   Getting her into a university is his next step.  Hanging out with an East End girl, especially one from his own sort of world, may cause her to change her plans and end up as a shop girl or working in the laundrette as a career.

 

I'm really, really ready for the Chrissy-Sam-Sharon-Dennis-Den's body plot line to be over.  Sharon whines.  Dennis pouts, yells, and smolders.  Chrissy and Sam pick at each other.  Weeks and weeks and weeks of this.  Enough.  It keeps seeming like it's all coming to a head, then it drags on some more.  I'm not interested in Sharon and Dennis getting married.  It still seems a bit skeevy, even though they aren't blood kin.  I'm tired of Sharon and Dennis bickering and wondering how or if to do the wedding.  Finish it, please!

[M. Darcy]

Yeah, I just keep thinking he was going to let her die in the fire - he meant to save the other sister - so I just don't care if he cares about Ruby.

[Ohwell]

Ouch, I forgot he meant to save the other sister, and Ruby knows it.  So now he's also feeling tremendous guilt?  It's messed up.

[M. Darcy]

Actually, I don't think he feels guilt.  I think as you said - she's all he has left.  I don't think he considers whatshername the longtime mistress as family.  Of course, the greatest sin is that he's so boring.

[Ohwell]

Of course, the greatest sin is that he's so boring.

Yes, he is, and it's surprising.  I thought the reason they introduced his character was to replace Andy, or even Phil, as the Walford badass.  So far, he hasn't delivered.

[politichick]

I think Johnny is trying to go legit because being a criminal is what got his wife and daughter Scarlett killed. He's not trying to be another Phil or Andy but will handle shit if they force him to, as Andy did. Can't remember what he told Ruby about the night of that fire when she accused him of wanting to save Scarlett but don't recall it seeming unbelievable. But Ruby had emotional scars and was on some sort of meds after the trauma of it and being sent off to boarding school, which is part of the reason he hovers. Also agree with the poster who says he has a plan for her to go to university and doesn't want Stacy derailing that. I don't blame him. And if it were another girl, one who had some ambitions, he would relax more.

 

I like Sharon and Dennis, but am also ready for Chrissie to get what's coming. The ones I'm sick of are those damn Millers. All of them, except Darren and Demi, look like they need a good hosing down.

 

Dot was funny when she bought Naomi the robe. But seriously, she should have known better to run around the house in the skimpy nightie thingie.

[M. Darcy]

Ack! WETA only showed one episode today because of a stupid Roosevelt marathon so we didn't get to see the wedding episode when Sam digs up Den. I've been waiting forever to finally see it and then they don't even show it. Grr.

Edited September 22, 2014 by David T. Cole

[terrymct]

[snip] - DTC

 

Double Ack!  Big spoiler there.   Hopefully, we'll get the missed episode this week.   

Edited September 22, 2014 by David T. Cole

[David T. Cole]

Thanks for the report but maybe in the future don't quote the giant spoiler. :)

[Ohwell]

I've known about that huge spoiler for months because I innocently went on Wikipedia looking for info on one of the characters.  Man, was I upset!  Still am. I'll never do that again. :)

[politichick]

The second episode you're all anxiously awaiting aired on WETA/UK Sunday morning. I saw it and it was good! Watching it again this Saturday with the following episode will be great, but you guys can probably catch it on the UK channel this week (if they show EE epis during the week).

[M. Darcy]

Sorry I figured it was on only DC that didn't show it on Saturday - and people in other cities saw it. 

Edited September 22, 2014 by M. Darcy

[sugarbaker design]

FYI viewers in the NY/NJ/CT area watch EE on channel 21 WLIW, we are a few weeks behind the DC station.  Last episode Chrissie stirred the pot for Dennis and Sharon, Ian and family learned Aikido, and Keith sat on his recliner.

[terrymct]

 

The second episode you're all anxiously awaiting aired on WETA/UK Sunday morning. I saw it and it was good! Watching it again this Saturday with the following episode will be great, but you guys can probably catch it on the UK channel this week (if they show EE epis during the week).

 

 

 

I just set it up to tape!  Thank you!

[Milz]

Keith sat on his recliner.

 

lmao!

 

That is getting old.

[terrymct]

Finally!  A major advancement in the Den storyline.  Sam finally broke, I did think it was slightly trite to have the discovery made during the wedding.  A bit too on the nose.  If Sam actually goes to jail rather than Chrissy, it will confirm my suspicion that the writers hate Sam.

[sugarbaker design]

It was confirmed for me when Andy called her a dumb blonde from the grave!

[One Tough Cookie]

Please, someone--tell me {please} that the Millers AND Kat disappear from my screen sometime soon.

[terrymct]

Please, someone--tell me {please} that the Millers AND Kat disappear from my screen sometime soon.

 

The Millers are well past their sell by dates.  We've had main storyline after main storyline about them, from them being trashy new neighbors to teen pregnancy to the illiteracy to teen Romeo and Juliette to teen drug overdoses to teen moping.  Enough.  Let them go a few months as background characters.    That said, they WERE a relief from Sonya's complaining, so there's that.   

 

Now that the Den's dead storyline finally is coming to a head (I think we'll have a few more months of this, though), I wonder what the new big storyline will be.  

 

Alfie finally makes a public choice?   I think he should drop the both of them and start over new with someone else.  Little Mo before her assault was so flinchy, odd, and a bit slow.  Now she has the emotional after effects of the rape on top of all that.  I guess we're supposed to imagine that Alfie wants to protect her and loves her looking up to him.  Kat is a lot of fun, but loads of chaos, sort of like riding a roller coaster without a safety bar.   Alfie could walk away from them both and end up with someone who is more emotionally balanced.  I know, there aren't many characters like that in the Square.  It's time for that storyline to hit a turning point.  The sneaking and moping has gone on long enough.

 

Ian and Jane finally adopting after they realize Ian's vasectomy can't be undone (or he finally flat refuses to do it)?   That story seems lined up to go big next perhaps.

[Milz]

It was confirmed for me when Andy called her a dumb blonde from the grave!

 

Come on, you have to admit that  was probably the best -in-your-faces in tv history!

 

But with Sam always being involved in some sort of prostitution or near prostitution whenever she's away from the Square, I think the writers have always hated her.

[TimWil]

Tonight's WLIW episodes revealed Pat's backstory of having been a madam for Johnny. This show has gone back and forth as to whether Pat was a prostitute, herself. When Pat was introduced on EE in 1986 she told Mary she hadn't been one per se but had traded sex for nice meals, cash and luxury items. Some years later (19 years, actually) this madam story cropped up. I'm pretty sure about five years ago it was mentioned that she actually had been a prostitute.

[Milz]

Tonight's WLIW episodes revealed Pat's backstory of having been a madam for Johnny. This show has gone back and forth as to whether Pat was a prostitute, herself. When Pat was introduced on EE in 1986 she told Mary she hadn't been one per se but had traded sex for nice meals, cash and luxury items. Some years later (19 years, actually) this madam story cropped up. I'm pretty sure about five years ago it was mentioned that she actually had been a prostitute.

 

 

I think when Janine first turned to prostitution, Pat more or less confessed to her that she (Pat) was a prostitute.

 

In terms of the time line, the Pat and Mo special from 2004, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw4xkpqzGA0, reiterates that Pat was a tart.

[One Tough Cookie]

what a yawn.  This used to be must see TV for me, now I can hardly remember to watch it and really don't care about most of the players- the Millers?  Yuck.  Sam and Dennis?  who cares.  Demi and her boyfriend? go away.  Dot and her adventures in driving?  that's all ya got?  Kat trying to get Alfie back? Go away, ya skank, leave him for Mo. I just don't care any more.

 

For me the show started to go really bad with the introduction of Johnny Alen and his whiny girlfrend Tina.

Edited October 23, 2014 by One More Time

[Ohwell]

Yes, this show is getting boring.  I watch it on Saturday mornings because I can't find anything else interesting in that time slot on the 12,981 other cable channels that I have in my TV package.    

[TimWil]

At least Tina does get written out in the fall of 2005.

[One Tough Cookie]

At least Tina does get written out in the fall of 2005.

 

 

So there is a God, after all?

[Milz]

Can anyone answer this question?

 

What the heck is so special about Alfie that Kat and Mo want him?

[Ohwell]

What the heck is so special about Alfie that Kat and Mo want him?

Must be those shirts he wears because I can't think of anything else. 

 

Seriously though, I don't know how big of a city/town that Walford is supposed to be, but I can't imagine there aren't any other eligible fellows around that are more appealing than Alfie.

[terrymct]

Must be those shirts he wears because I can't think of anything else. 

 

Seriously though, I don't know how big of a city/town that Walford is supposed to be, but I can't imagine there aren't any other eligible fellows around that are more appealing than Alfie.

 

 

All three of them are friggin disasters.   I've hated this story line back from when Mo and Billy started having problems, when Mo wasn't convinced he loved the baby enough.   

 

Alfie isn't a heart throb.  He should be the good guy on the square, doing the best he can in a tough situation.  Not the guy secretly dating two sisters at once.

 

Edited to add this:

 

So I was thinking more about why Alfie is so irresistable to Cat and Mo.   I think for Cat, he's the decent enough guy that she can get.  For Mo, he's the guy who likes her who won't abuse her.

Edited November 4, 2014 by terrymct

[Milz]

It makes me wonder if Alfie was supposed to be Nigel Bates for the new Millenium because Nigel was a decent, colorful shirt wearing bloke who almost everyone on the Square liked, but after they got Alfie and Kat together, they had to change him into Mr. Irresistible?

[TimWil]

Nigel fit the slot of "the lovable loser." Lofty (Tom Watt) was the first one on the show. Shaun Williamson (Barry) said in many interviews that Barry took over that slot after Paul Bradley (Nigel) left the show. After Barry was killed off Minty (Cliff Parisi) filled that slot.

I think Alfie is different from those. He was brought on to be this new, shiny, cheeky chappie leading man. He's often been at the center of many major storylines and the others rarely were.

Edited November 7, 2014 by TimWil

[Milz]

Nigel fit the slot of "the lovable loser." Lofty (Tom Watt) was the first one on the show. Shaun Williamson (Barry) said in many interviews that Barry took over that slot after Paul Bradley (Nigel) left the show. After Barry was killed off Minty (Cliff Parisi) filled that slot.

I think Alfie is different from those. He was brought on to be this new, shiny, cheeky chappie leading man. He's often been at the center of many major storylines and the others rarely were.

 

I don't expect anyone on EE to be GQ model handsome (which is a reason why I love EE----they look like normal people for the most part). But Alfie's personality needs some work, imo.

[One Tough Cookie]

OMG--I so want the Millers to leave my screen I isn't funny.  They are the worst family EVER.  The only one I can stand is Mickey.  And Rosey is just the worst--living with the deadbeat Keith.  And heres' a novel concept for them--the word for the day is...BATH followed by...SOAP and then..SHAMPOO.  Honestly, in addition to being the worst characters, they are the grungiest, filthiest people on TV with absolutely no redeeming value. My only hope  is they are so shamed by Dummi doing a runner they leave town.  Or they die from flea infestation

[terrymct]

Well, I never thought I'd say it but I'm glad Peggy Mitchell is back! Den's funeral improved greatly when she got out of the cab. Im hoping that this all speeds up the conclusion of this story line. It's past time for Chrissy to get her due.

[Ohwell]

I hate Peggy Mitchell, can't stand to look at her or listen to her voice.  However, I'll be glad when this whole Dead Den storyline is over.  Maybe Sharon will finally get off my TV screen as well.  I can understand grieving over her father, but I've always felt that she had more than fatherly love for him.   I just find her to be creepy and unhinged.

[terrymct]

I hate Peggy Mitchell, can't stand to look at her or listen to her voice.  However, I'll be glad when this whole Dead Den storyline is over.  Maybe Sharon will finally get off my TV screen as well.  I can understand grieving over her father, but I've always felt that she had more than fatherly love for him.   I just find her to be creepy and unhinged.

 

 

You know, I've always found them creepy together, too, back from the very beginning.  The princess vibe was odd.   Yes, Chrissy, Dennis, and Sharon all can move along and take Sonya with them.     I'd rather see Ian, the fellas in the Arches, and Dot and her circle.