Coronation Street

[Slade]

Well it looks like Hope will make a full recovery which is good I guess.  TBH I've felt completely indifferent to this storyline.

Should I be surprised after overhearing about Carla's affair with Robert Tracy decided to leave Carla to the fate of the robbers when they were attempting to raid Nic's and didn't even call the police to help her?  No.  But you could argue she's done far worse so that's actually an improvement if you think about it like that.  I don't know if Carla was brave or stupid going after Jamie and his cohort and hanging onto the car when they drove off.  But I guess it was all down to guilt over her infidelity so she had to get the engagement ring Nick gave her.  Well at least they've been caught now and I would imagine that Jamie is going to jail for some time.  I don't dislike Carla but purely in terms of entertainment I actually hope Tracy exposes what she did.  At her wedding with Nick of course.

Whilst I don't condone Mary sleeping with somebody else's husband I'm glad she's actually been given some sort of storyline.  I think her boyfriend really just see's her as booty call.  Can't believe how matter-of-fact his wife was about it afterwards.  His only punishment sleeping on the sofa for maybe a night or two.  Dev might have told him to back off but I don't think Mary would want to finish with him because she has no other options at the moment.

As predicted Ken and Nessa are finished and it looks like Ken and Audrey will get together.  Boo.

Good old Pat Phelan.  It's funny I mentioned him in my last post but had no idea he was returning.  Have to say I'm absolutely delighted.  I've already enjoyed the way he's manipulating Kevin and caused problems with his relationship with Anna making himself out to be the good guy.  And I find it quite amusing the amount of blatant contempt Anna has for him.  If he plays his cards right he could get Gary to snap again.  So it will be interesting to see him stick around for a little while at least although not too long.

I'm also very pleased that Jenny's back although for different reasons.  I actually quite liked her and although I didn't agree with her taking Jack and putting Kevin through the trauma I did have a lot of sympathy for her losing her own son.  Rita has really impressed me with the empathy and compassion she's showed.  And I'm really glad she's decided to let Jenny move in with her.  And I absolutely loved Rita sticking up for her when Sally was bad mouthing her.  Even Tim didn't agree with it and when Kevin turned up in the shop and announced he was OK with her living on the street, I quite liked Rita's satisfied expression after that.  I think both Phelan/Jen are wonderful as that is a chance to ruin the Kevin/Anna relationship.  And although far-fetched I would like to actually like to see Kevin get back with Jen.  I think there will always be the issue of Jacks safety but putting that aside Sophie is going to be a big problem as she's never liked Jen anyway and will object to anything other than Kevin seeing her as an arch-nemesis.  There's hope though.  I know things moved fairly quickly between them before but there is a possibility that a small part of Kevin could be in love with her.

[Red Ranger 1]

Once again it seemed like Tracy was only stopped from killing again by the fact that a couple of thugs beat her to the punch, otherwise she'd probably have gone for Carla herself. The whole thing seemed a bit pointless, with Jamie and his mate arrested off screen, and yet again Tracy does the wrong thing with no comeback.

Jenny's return has brought out on an unsavoury side in a lot of characters.Kevin's being pretty reasonable considering, he doesn't like, trust or want anything to do with her but he's not going to run her out of town either.Sophie is being annoyingly judgemental and Sally was just horrible, so seeing Jenny take her down a peg or several was great.

Apart from going "Oh, it's her from the last Sarah Jane Adventures story again", I'm not sure about this story with the Polish slave, whether it's highlighting things that actually go on or pure fantasy.

[Slade]

Whilst I liked the idea of Tracy telling Nick about Carla and Robert sleeping together, I don't like the idea of Tracy blackmailing Carla like this.  I was kind of hoping that Tracy would just keep quiet and do it right before they were about to get married.  I actually don't think Carla should give in to Tracy's demands and should just tell Nick herself and deal with what happens afterwards.  Michelle really should be talking her into fessing up.  How do we know Tracy won't blackmail Carla again in the future?  Sometimes with blackmail you don't have any choice but in this scenario she does.

Even though Leanne was wrong I didn't blame her for reporting Simon to the police given his track record.  I actually think he still clearly has anger management issues and needs help.  Perhaps a break away from Leanne with his dad will do him some good. 

Actually haven't minded the stuff at the factory this week with Sinead modelling.  Personally I don't feel Chesney is as happy for her as what he should be.  Almost like he doesn't want to share her with anybody else.

Sally has been a pain in the backside regarding her election campaign and I wasn't particularly happy that she joined forces with Norris although it will be interesting to see the outcome now that Norris himself has decided to run.  They could both get actually even more annoying depending on whether either of them win.

I knew the minute Anna was jumping for joy when she thought Phelan had left he would be sticking around.  As a person I find him quite vile but I absolutely loathe Anna so once again the Phelan/Anna stuff has been a delight.  I loved the way he was rubbing her nose in it - "Give us a job, give us a job".  And the scene where she went ape and smashed his car up and assaulted him was fun too.  The best part is the way he has convinced almost everyone (particularly Jason and Eileen) that he's the victim and Anna is the crazy irrational one to the point where both Kevin and Sophie now doubt her.  He's playing an absolute blinder and I'm loving it.  I actually hope he changes his mind and decides to go to the police to press charges.  It'll be worth it to see Anna suffer some more.  That would be the icing on the cake given that Kevin has now finished with her.

[Red Ranger 1]

I've heard people on other forums saying Tracy is ruining the show.I wouldn't go that far and I think it's significant that Tracy stands out on Coronation Street: In most soaps, someone like her is the norm.But she is a very un-Corrie character, someone who is unremittingly nasty and unpleasant without the requisite "punishment".Her current threats and blackmail of Carla are quite painful viewing, even if Carla has brought most of it on herself, and I cheered that Ken sided with Leanne.

I think I can see where the Chesney/Sinead storyline is going.The producers seem to have given up pretending Sinead is "plain" and instead started writing her as an attractive girl who only thought she was plain (although ironically having her suddenly cake herself in make-up makes her seem less attractive to me).Chesney's been through this once with Katy, when she suddenly transformed from girl next door to sex siren and got bored of him, and he's scared of it happening again.Weirdly, there seemed to be hints about him and Alya... which, despite being a Chesney/Sinead fan, I wouldn't be entirely opposed to, since she hasn't done anything since breaking up with Gary.

The Phelan thing is dragging.So now Kevin knows he's a slimeball but the Grimshaws don't, with Eileen demonstrating the character judgement that saw her dub Tyrone an abusive partner.I've no idea where they're going with this, whether it's just going to be Phelan alternately leeching off people and winding them up, and I'd rather it got wrapped up soon.

[Slade]

I would say Corrie's definitely my favourite soap at the moment.  I quite like David (I like his dry, cynical sense of humour) but I was utterly disgusted when he attacked Gary.  Even if he goes to jail I wouldn't have a problem with that as he could have killed him despite putting aside the believability of the assault in the first place given the size difference and the fact that Gary was knocking seven bells out of him during the first round of boxing.  One of the problems with the David/Josh rape storyline is very similar to the Ross Barton acid attack story in Emmerdale.  They could have chosen a character that is easier to sympathise with.  David has proven to be psycho on more than one occasion, causing the car crash which resulted in Nic's brain injury because Nic slept with his wife.  And whilst he loves his kids a lot of the time he doesn't come across as a particularly likeable person.  Even the way he acts towards his own mum.  It may have been better if they had chosen Chesney or someone who you could argue is essentially a good person.  In saying that I am still interested in this storyline to see how it progress.  In particular I would like to see Shona's reaction if she finds out.  I think the actor who plays Josh is doing a great job.  He comes across as totally slimy and I will imagine he's probably done this before and if he hasn't will probably do it again.  David was right about one thing though - Sarah was an idiot to take Gary back after cheating on her and getting another woman pregnant.  I was fully on Bethany's side when she tried to make life difficult for them as I wouldn't be happy if that was my mother.

In principle I like the idea of Rana and Kate.  I remember when Kate was dating Imogen, Rana would constantly give them dirty looks and Kate put that down to homophobia where I imagine a lot of people would have realised that she fancied her.  I recall when Rana was drunk and kissed her and even though Kate pushed her away you could tell by her reaction afterwards that she liked her.  However the first problem I have is Zeedan.  He's got a really raw deal in this and for a small period of time was made out to be the bad guy and unreasonable because he was heart broken his wife was cheating on him.  Another issue I have is that as a person I don't particularly like Kate.  She just doesn't seem that nice.  I also don't like the way she treated Sophie.  And just last week even though Sophie was clearly still affected at being dumped by Kate, Kate was trying to talk to her as if nothing happened.  Even Aiden had more sympathy for Sophie than Kate did.  When Zeedan kissed Leanne I thought that was absolutely cringeworthy and could barely bring myself to watch the TV.  However what I found hilarious was when Carla and Kate saw Zeedan trying to apologise to Leanne about it out on the street and in the Rover's afterwards and even though they couldn't hear what was going on it was clear to Carla that Zeedan had tried to hit on her.  I just found Carla and Kate's conversation about it hilarious.  Zeedan and Rana are kidding themselves if they think this arrangement of staying together for a year (just to save face) so Zeedan can inherit a large some of money is going to work.  Although we can see Zeedan is trying to get back with her.

I would say this is probably the first time in quite a while where I don't actively dislike Michelle.  I used to strongly dislike her when she was with Steve, so much so they when he knocked Leanne up I was firmly on his side.  And I was enjoying seeing her suffer when Will was stalking her.  Just a shame Leanne ended up being the injured party trying to help her.  Although since she's gotten with Robert she hasn't been as bad.  I do have to say though I really like the fact that Oli slept with Carla and only wants to spend time with Michelle when Carla's going to be there.  I also really liked the fact that Carla is absolutely bricking it because of how Michelle's going react when she finds out.  I do think Oli genuinely fancies Carla but I can't help thinking he's doing it to get back at his mum as well.

Eva can't really be that surprised Aiden didn't believe her or want to get back with her when she told him about the baby.  OK so he was wrong to cheat on her but that doesn't justify her stealing his family's business, his flat and putting all the factory employees out of work.  It was quite frustrating because there were no repercussions for either her or Adam despite them committing a fairly serious crime.  I don't think it matters that Eva sold the flat she stole from him and gave him half the money after selling it.  The damage had already been done.  I do remember when they were going to get married and Toyah locked Maria in one of the hotel rooms because she was going to expose everything.  I was absolutely cheering when Maria escaped and stopped the wedding.  She did Aiden a massive favour.  But after going through all that Aiden would have been pretty stupid to get back with Eva.  I think this whole idea of Eva basically being surrogate for Toyah is completely ridiculous.  I'm assuming it's still going ahead now or has Eva left for good and Toyah's going to have to think of an excuse to tell Peter why they're not going to have a baby.  Although now that Simon knows it will be interesting to see what her next move is.  I do think Simon's gearing towards being the devil child.  I can't believe Peter's attitude after finding out he was responsible for mugging Audrey.  He and Leanne have also let him get away with stealing money from Toyah.  Maybe they should call the police because at this rate he's only going to get worse.  Although I did enjoy him blackmailing his own aunt.

I used to think he was completely vile and utterly repugnant but now, not only is he one of my favourite characters in the show but is shaping up to becoming one of my all time favourite soap characters - Pat Phelan!  AKA evil incarnate.  In terms of greatness right up with Paul Robinson.  I love the lying, scheming, manipulating etc.  I'm so glad he framed Anna Windass for attempted murder and got her locked up as I hate her (It's a shame he can't do the same thing to Liz McDonald).  Even though he was in the wrong I was on his side against Garry, Seb and Nicola.  I would agree with anybody who refers to him as a cold-blooded murderer.  There are a couple of things I would say - firstly he didn't actually kill Michael.  Michael had a heart attack and he let him die.  I actually didn't think that was illegal until I read about a case where someone drowned and another person who was present made no attempt to save them resulting in their prosecution.  Secondly I didn't really understand the point of the Andy storyline.  I thought initially it was a way at some sort of redemption but then I wondered if some sort of plot device to go past the point of no return i.e. as per my first point with Michael you could always argue that Phelan didn't actually do anything but in the case with Andy he did decide to kill him.  I was actually surprised with how well he coped with it as after Michael died it did seem to bother him slightly but in the case of Vinnie, Andy and Luke, no remorse.  I'm glad he survived Eileen pushing him into the sea (I don't actually dislike Eileen and actually feel quite sorry for her).  Hopefully he will come back to Weatherfield and cause mayhem.

[CaptainHulk]

Simon is overdue a whipping. There I said it. He's become such a little fart.

Then again the whole Rovers setup isn't ideal for The Barlow/Battersby clan is it? Peter's an Alco, ffs! (Then again the show's Southern rival let Angie and Phil run the Vic respectively )

The Habeebs bar Rana and her brother are horrible people.

Blanche must be rolling in her grave going "Ooh, look at the state of them!"