Sunday, 10 September 2017

Soap Sunday: Who won and who lost

So this week was a week in soapland which some would rather forget. And I'm not just talking about the characters. 

Now I want to start this post with a disclaimer that I will not be talking about one of the 'Big Four' soaps since I don't watch it. But I wanted to talk about the other three because it was such a mad week, and not all of it was good. 

And it goes without saying SPOILER ALERT! I'm basically going to deconstruct what happened throughout the week in Eastenders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale! And I will define characters by their names and not their actor names so feel free to Google if in any doubt.

So let's start with my winner of this week: Emmerdale! I know my demographic are not huge fans of this Yorkshire soap, and that in generally appeals to the older generation. But the past couple of years, it's really stepped up its game and I've become a big fan!

Some of the highlights are the huge stunt last October with the motorway pile-up, Ashleys dementia storyline, and one my personal favourites is the Robert and Aaron relationship (I am crossing my fingers they will reunite).

This week was set up to be a fairly standard week in soap land. No big stunts, twists or dramas, and Emmerdale didn't tease anything like that in advance. Their big stunt week is coming again in October.

But far from it! So many bombshells this week, particularly in Thursdays episodes. Not only did Leyla find out about Pete and Priya's affair, which led to some epic speeches by Leyla, but the Nell twist came out of nowhere.

I just assumed her whole pregnancy thing would implode and she would leave. But I had no idea that her entire past was made-up, and the fact that Jai spotted it with that photo in the department store blew me away. Since it's already been confirmed that Nell is leaving soon, I can't wait to see how it ends!

Emmerdale didn't tease any of this from the outset, so rather than building it up to fall short, like another soap did this week, it seemed better than expected. 

Second up is Corrie. It wasn't a particularly groundbreaking week plot-wise, because the show is building up to the start of a sixth episode a week, with the climax of Eva's revenge. I am immensely excited about that, so this week didn't overreach, or provide any shocking twists, so I'll keep my thoughts brief.

And last up is Eastenders. They teased this week as '24 hours that will shatter the square' and dragging it out over the course of a week just made the whole thing feel like overkill. It's become very over the top as of late (that Abi scene that set Twitter off had me in stitches too!). And after red herring after red herring, the anticipated death was the one that everyone called beforehand because the exit was already announced! 

I found the whole thing a bit over the top, like the bus debacle at the beginning of the year.

So we shall we see where the soaps go in the next few weeks, but I mainly wanted to gush about Emmerdale in this situation.

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