I was asked to write a 300 word review of EastEnders after I commented that TV critics have a faily easy job. As I love rising to a challage and always put my money where my mouth is.....here is my review of Friday 14th Augusts episode.
I have to admit i have never willingly sat through an entire episode of eastenders, I have suffered the odd Christmas special while visiting the inlaws, (well they are faaaaamily) but have always been relieved when the end credits roll, I am not a soap fan. I also thought the BBC had dumbed down by exposing their target audience to the grubby goings on of a bunch of common Londoners, I pay my licence fee to watch costume dramas, newsnight, and to listen to the world service and the Archers. However, I am aware that not everyone shares my high standards and I have been told that eastenders is a gritty, cutting edge realistic take on life.
I can't say I found last nights episode gritty or realistic. Ricky and Bianca, a mildly amusing cook-a-nee couple, who seem to have a romantic history but are now pretending they didn't much care for each other, ended up having a good old game of darts in the Queen Vic after their "dates" got bored and dissappeared,(can't say I blame them).
Charlie, a seemingly nice but overweight chap, was having a crisis at the dinner table over his plans for a new life in Spain with his lady friend Brenda. I couldn't work out the relationship between Charlie and Mo, a large woman dressed in a black feather boa who kept running upstairs to talk to "fat Elvis", are Charlie and Mo ex lovers?..and who or what is fat Elvis? Mo seemed very distressed that Charlie was leaving her. It all ended well thankfully, Charlie and Brenda drove off into the sunset having recieved mo's blessing, i hope she meant it.
I'm guessing eastenders gritty character is the cardboard gangster who paid off his daughters childhood boyfriend, a very unconvincing performance, he wouldn't scare my cat, no one in the eastend is scared off by a bony fingered poke.
Will I watch eastenders again? yes, as i'm interested to see how the BBC portray life on the council estates that are over run with feral yoofs, i'm interested to see how Dot Cotton copes in her Launderette with the ever growing number of foreign languages spoken in London, she will need a team of interpretors to get through the day, rather like the schools and hospitals in the eastend. I think this will make far more interesting viewing and will be a flagship show for new labours diverse Britain.