Coronation Street

[Zetti]

Yeh the filming for those eps were out of order I think they were done back in September because sneak pics were released. I think in general its about 6 to 8 weeks

[Red Ranger 1]

Slight let down at the end of the week, mainly because of the Kevin/Sally stuff which seemed to go on forever and would probably have been better off being left until the following week.The moment at the end of the first episode where she revealed she knew was okay but in the second episode the constant cutting back to them felt intrusive.The showdown between Leanne and Carla was a lot more effective:short, sharp and with a satisfying punch at the end.

Unless they're fudging it or I've missed someone, there've only been three deaths this week:Ashley, Molly and Charlotte.Which, given the "Four funerals and a wedding" promos, does suggest someone else is going to get it.Rita manages to get the two best lines of the episode, with her "Help yourself to a toffee" on being rescued and "What is it with me and trams?"(A reference that probably had 95% of the audience going "Huh?", which just makes it even more brilliant.)Betty looking after Claire, and the little reference to Cyril, was great, nice to see the older characters getting a bit to do.

Did eventually catch both parts of the 50 Years 50 Moments documentary and it was great.Inevitably suffered a bit from recentism(No way is Blanche being rude at an alcoholics anonymous meeting the greatest ever storyline, it's not even a storyline), but when you've got Elsie and Ena's handbags at dawn moment in the Top 25 in 1965, you know the show's history is being respected.It was interesting to see the lines that I still remembered perfectly after 20 years...and the ones that got edited out.

[alexx]

Just caught up with the last two episodes of the week. I actually enjoyed all of the Sally/Kevin scenes, they felt very raw and I especially enjoyed seeing the same two characters in a picture taken of them from whats looks like the 80's! Just knowing that the two characters have been together on screen for that long and the characters are still being explored in depth is fantastic and makes me want to follow them both even more.

I think the stand out of the first episode on Friday was Claire finally breaking down about Ashley and not being able to go to France. That was brilliantly played! As was that nice scene between Betty and Claire. Its all so genuinely played and the scripts are very human in that scene.

The whole week has been great and acting by near enough all cast members has been faultless. The only thing that seems jarring to me at times is the very fast cut always and sometimes it seems as if during post production they have sped up the talking by cutting out natural pauses which can at times leave me wondering what has been said, espeically if it involved those with heavy accents. Great week of drama though, probably some of the best character driven TV I've seen this year!

Edited December 13, 2010 by alexx

[Red Ranger 1]

Bit of a mixed week, I have to say.I was disappointed we didn't get to see Ashley's funeral but with Molly's in the next episode and Charlotte's coming up next week I suppose they were worried we'd all end up funeraled out.Claire had another nice scene with Betty but it was a shame they turned her into the angry widow looking for someone to blame in the middle of the week.(I'd have preferred it if they'd just left it to Norris being his usual nasty self.)Her chat with Rita and following conversation with Nick made up for it though.I actually find myself feeling sorry for Nick, which given he's been my arch-nemesis for over fifteen years and two recasts back is quite a rarity;maybe the accident was his fault in a sense but there was no malice involved and it was really a mistake anyone could have made if they were distracted.

Hard to believe that Leanne's now a Barlow.Guess Ken must have mellowed with age, a few decades back he was hitting the roof at the thought of being related by marriage to the Ogdens and now he's got the Battersbys to contend with!(Or would do if there were any of them still around...)

Sophie looking after baby Jack was really cute.Not sure where Sian's meant to have been for most of the week, Rosie made a comment about her going "home" but her dad's basically disowned her, is she meant to have been in Southport again?Rosie was quite good for most of the week too, being unusually perceptive for her lately.Having everything come out at the funeral, and Kevin being dragged up to deliver the eulogy, felt a bit contrived.But the moment where Tyrone's staring at him and finally says "It's you, isn't it?" was brilliantly pitched, even if the scenes that followed were a bit of a letdown.I don't really understand why Kevin's being treated like an evil monster for having an affair, it's not like Sally hasn't had those in the past.In fact, I seem to remember Rosie covered up the last one and Kevin still doesn't know about it, which makes the moral high ground they're both denouncing him from seem extremely shaky.

[rockstarrr08]

I'm loving Sophie and Sian atm!

Also the tram crash was by far the one of the best episodes I have ever seen on TV

[alexx]

I feel sorry for Kevin to a degree in this, as you pointed out, Sally has had an affair too (I've been catching up on the family online). To be honest their whole family seems like a sham, which was not my initial perception of them. I read how disastrous it all turned out from the late 90's, where originally they were one of the shows 'super couple' and had remained very faithful and in love for a solid decade or so. I really hope the writers will bring it all up and in a conversation between the two of them, I'd like to see Sally's reaction to being told Kevin knew she was sleeping with her boss behind his back and yet turned a blind eye to it for the sake of the children becuase its unfair the way they are treating him now. Having said that, I do feel sorry for Sally and the girls too, especially since she had cancer when it was all going on - basically their marriage is a mess and I hope they acknowledge that on screen and dont ignore it.

Interesting dynamics going on with Claire and Nick, I also feel sorry for him and I enjoyed watching the scenes between Nick and his mum.

Norris is one of those irritating nosy people, a bit like Colleen though so far I haven't seen any redeeming qualities in the character, he just seems quite brash and deluded to those around him. I'm glad Rita puts him in his place.

Rita is an interesting character, I'd like to see more of her. Same goes for Connie - I liked how Connie and Molly's aunt were having digs at each other about what type of food to make for Tyrone, just makes the characters more entertaining.

Te funeral episode when Tyrone realised it was Kevin was great to watch, especially when Kevin was obviously devastated (which did seem genuine) and Tyrone ended up hitting him into the grave, that was quite dark and morbid and made good tv. I think my favorite scene was between Tyrone and Bill.

Edited December 20, 2010 by alexx

[Slade]

I’m so glad she’s back. I love Tracey. She’s so devious, conniving, scheming, selfish, self-centred and evil. As soon as she returned she’s already made an impact and I really enjoyed the stuff with Gail, the way she practically disregarded Peter given what happened to him recently and the way she tried to assert herself with Becky. Although I don’t watch Coronation Street as much as I used to I’m really looking forward to seeing more of her. I have to say though I was a little surprised with Deirdre and Ken. I know they want their daughter back but it was almost like they’d forgotten about the stuff that had happened in the past or that they simply didn’t care.

[Red Ranger 1]

My opinion keeps shifting back and forth on the Kevin situation.I was surprised Tyrone took Jack back so readily when Sally first brought him over, it seemed a bit of a pat solution(and it didn't help that it felt like Sally did it mainly because she didn't want Kevin to have him).The no-one-gives-Tyrone-a-minute's-peace sequence was played well and I'm glad someone's finally remembered that Kirk and Maria are supposed to be close to him.I wasn't expecting Tyrone to give Jack to Kevin the way he did but I understand why he did it.I'm glad Sophie is standing up for him a bit, it did feel when she asked him to leave like she only did it because she thought she needed to back up Sally and Rosie.I don't really think it's fair the way Sally seems to expect the whole family to side with her and have nothing to do with Kevin.Glad Sian's emerged from the black hole she disappeared into for much of last week as well.Surprised that, Julie aside, the street seems almost unremitting in their hostility towards Kevin, especially Hayley who's usually very forgiving.

Steve's initial reaction to Becky and horror at what she'd done seemed pitched perfectly.So I'm somewhat annoyed that they suddenly seemed to flick a switch and have him all right with it. Especially since she only seems to have shown token remorse, it's pretty much a case of "I did a really terrible thing but hey, I had to."Mind you, we've now got someone even worse than her around...

Not entirely happy about Tracy being back.Despite all the "We've left the door open" comments, the way she left it felt like she there was no way back and she should have been gone for good.I'm hoping she's just back to do a storyline and then get gone because if she's back permanently then that's against the spirit of the show in my opinion.I'll accept the contrived explanation about a dodgy forensics expert but it's hard to imagine her being cleared of all charges, the evidence was still pretty compelling.I'm surprised Ken and Deirdre were so pleased to have her back.Still, she did get beaten up by Gail so that's something.

Really not sure about Leanne.She seemed pretty unhappy about Peter coming back home at the beginning of the week but that might be because she's now surrounded by Barlows.Who now include the sister-in-law from hell.Not sure if Leanne's ever had much to do with Tracy, given her annoyance at her presence.Then again, everyone hates Tracy.

[Slade]

I really enjoyed the Christmas day episode but certain parts seemed to epitomise a British Soap, i.e. doom and gloom with so many depressing storylines:

-Peter stuck in a wheelchair oblivious to the fact that his wife is in love with her old flame

-Steve in serious financial difficulty having now lost his daughter on Christmas day

-Claire without her husband alone having to bring up their only child and feeling so lonely

-Kevin and Sally’s marriage in disarray, Sally resenting Kevin because of his illegitimate love child and the strain the baby’s presence is causing on their kids

-Tyrone losing his wife, best friend and child

Anyway...Tracy. I thought that episode was fairly Tracy centric which was great. I have to admit I found some of her antics most amusing (except for throwing wine on her daughter’s dress which was cruel) and she seemed to be one of the few people who you could say had a good Christmas. One of the things I love is whenever she puts on the evil, self-satisfied smirk. When she said Leane was self-centred I immediately thought "Pot, kettle, black". Everybody knows exactly what she’s like yet Becky still played right into her hands. Oh and she was back to the usual manipulation/blackmailing. I could understand where Becky was coming from but TBH I found her quite annoying. I thought Steve was playing it smart and simply tried to make the best of a bad situation yet Becky just kept going on and on and wouldn’t shut up and made the situation twice as worse. I’m not sure it would have made any difference to be honest because the minute Amy told Tracy about them buying Max Tracy had the ammunition. I do feel a bit sorry for Steve though because he’s now in an absolutely impossible situation.

I was so glad Deidre told Gail to shut up. I don’t dislike Gail and think her actions are understandable but thought she was another person that just kept going on about what happened to her and given how unfortunate other people were it wasn’t the right time to air her frustration towards Tracy again. She’d already had a fight with her the day before (and she didn’t get beaten up by Gail IMO, Gail pulled her hair) and it did seem as though she was trying to make it all about her (As an asside I can't get over David and his goatie).

The whole situation with Sally and Kevin is extremely unfortunate. There’s no doubt Kevin is to blame and there’s nothing anyone can do to change that but I honestly don’t know what I would do if I were in Sally’s situation. I couldn’t blame her for throwing him out before I can’t blame her for resenting the baby now. One thing I will say though is that Sophie is coming across extremely well and mature and seems like a very compassionate and emphatic person (Kind of like the opposite to Tracy).

In spite of everything John’s done I do find the guy quite funny in an almost pathetic sort of way and found it amusing the way he dived into Charlotte’s parent’s car to avoid being spotted by Chesney. I was half expecting them to show him have two loads of Christmas dinner (One with Charlotte’s parents and the other with Fizz). He’s a classic example of what can go wrong when you make bad decisions and don’t learn from them.

I have missed a lot of episodes of Corrie lately so it can be hard commenting on some of the storylines but I’m off work till the new year and so will try to catch up on the stuff that’s happened over the last month.

[Red Ranger 1]

I actually found the Christmas Day episode rather uplifting.Maybe there were a few bog standard storylines in there but, Tracy aside, there was a real sense of community in the Rovers scenes.It's hard to imagine any other UK soap ending the episode with Rita singing in the Rovers.It's even harder to imagine them having Ciaran kiss Betty under the mistletoe.Plus Sophie refusing to back down with Sally and Graeme standing up to Deirdre.(Anyone notice how Ken apparently dashed back home during the closing montage?He's in the Rovers when Rita starts singing, then a couple of minutes later he's with Deirdre and Tracy next door.)So far I'm even finding Claire's storyline uplifting because she does seem to be managing to keep going despite everything that's happened. Couldn't quite believe John would be that quick to have dinner with Charlotte's parents so Chesney and Katy wouldn't see him, he seemed to have plenty of opportunity to make his excuses and scurry away.

Tracy really is just vile.It's nice that Ken seems to have moved on from "Yay, Tracy's back!" to "Oh, hang on, Tracy's like that, isn't she?":At the end of the day he's a basically decent and basically intelligent person and I was surprised that he seemed so blind to her faults initially.I can't believe Tracy and David slept together, I wasn't expecting that at all.Simply genius and it's a shame they skipped over most of the aftermath.I suppose she did make him certain promises before she, um, went away, so it's only fair.Her cliffhanger ending is one of those occasions when I'm left wondering why whoever's responsible didn't do a better job of it.Other than that, I hope they don't do something stupid like making it Claire who did it.Surprised there hasn't been any real reaction from Maria and Jason to her being back since they were the closest to Charlie.

Annoyed Leanne went back there with Nick;even though she pulled away I've got a worrying feeling she's going to go back there at some point.Now he's apparently in the clear over the explosion(not sure how-I thought the point was he was meant to have reported the gas problem, not that he caused it?), he's back to being a creep.Tracy's about his level.He's not exactly in Charlie Stubbs' league but there is a feeling that if they got together the rest of humanity would be safe.

You could see who was going to win the raffle prizes a mile off, with Audrey getting Claudia's prize and Chris getting Lloyd's.Sophie and Sian going all the way:Brilliant on several different levels.

Not sure about this storyline with Gary.They seem to be going for social commentary with the scarcely original observation that people who go off to war sometimes come back psychologically scarred, but dealing with an ongoing conflict leaves them in a political mire so they have to keep referring to him as a "hero" like they've all been reading The Sun.It feels like they're featuring an issue without really offering an opinion on it.