EASTENDERS 18 - NO SPOILERS!!!!

[Blondeshavemorefun]

WOW, WHAT AN EXCITING EPISODE LAST NIGHT

SO

will jane die or be rescued

will sausage be ok

will linda tell mick

will we find out the mr big plot/fi etc

im assuming bernie loses her baby :(

who is in the crashed ambulance

what will happen to ted/wife/gun/shooting

mr price and bexs or sonja

I love the set dressing too. It's very well done. Emmerdale does quite well but they don't feel as natural as the EE ones. Especially like Dot's house. I can almost smell the lemon fairy liquid and sliced ham in her kitchen. Her living room is spot on too. Shame we've never seen upstairs I don't think.

I dunno. I lived (still do) in a capital city in my early twenties and it was furnished. It was pretty decent but in hindsight it wasn't ultra modern but was still nice. Later on I rented in an old house converted into flats. It was very old fashioned and badly furnished but we had house plants instead of traffic cones and kept it clean and relatively tidy.

We were all sharing but were working in our first real jobs, not studying.

I lived in shared houses in London in my 20s and they weren't too studentish. Ikea was a good friend. We had cleaning rotas! 😬

We're all different though so it will be accurate for some.

Blondes - there was a reason; think she couldn't afford the rent increase or something.

I wonder if Kush will succumb to the Curse of Strictly and get involved with one of the pro dancers?
Residents must be pretty thick if they think a mayor can halt anything by 'having a word' and 'personally intervening'.

I remember Donna's boiler being broken, she tried to fix it herself and roped Ben in too, but it couldnt be saved. The landlord put up the rent too, so she then moved in with Ben Jay and Abi , to save on costs.

Well yes we didn't have traffic cones etc but the furniture was always horrible etc. 25 is when I started living in reasonable places.

re. the manky flatshare - this has played on my sub-concious obviously! Interesting that Ian and Lauren are round there when they have such a cosy home. Maybe its because their own home reminds them of Jane (in hospital) and Steven (dead).

Also, it may be my imagination, but has the flatshare got worse? To kind of reflect the internal landscapes of its occupiers. Lauren and Ian attracted to that kind of dereliction at the moment? Very clever of EE, or just a complete conincidence?

I have also been thinking about Agnu's comment about EE's portrayal of war PTSD.

Its just one of the things that rubs me up the wrong way about EE. Using "big" topics like rape, miscarriage, cross-dressing and war PTSD as suitable soap topics and, worse, being unnecessarily graphic about them. This is where soaps over-reach themselves - they simply haven't got the scriptwriters and quality actors to deal with these topics. It just ends up long-drawn out, maudlin and exploitative and sensationalist IMO. During these times I just sit with the sound turned down and pray for Kim to make an appearance!

Someone also mentioned PSA earlier in thread - Public Service Announcement. EE's endless PSAs can also be annoying in that regard. So, the war PTSD story - as someone said - talking therapy is good. The pub kiss - infidelity is bad and can really mess a marriage up. Rape is bad. Rlly? (I complained about that scene to OFCOM and they wrote me a snotty letter saying that EE deals with gritty real-life issues so too bad if my 10 year old found it disturbing and also Rape Crisis had helped them and approved the scene so obviously I didn't know what I was talking about.)

Sorry for essay! Still, I like the sets! And the clothes! And sometimes the under-the-radar storylines are good. Like whatshername finding Billy a bit boring as a partner!

Yes 50 although I do think Linda's rape storyline was handled well. Lee's PTSD and depression on the other hand....

Some things they do okay, others they just mess up.
The desire for exciting stories each time must be exhausting - especially as they have had everything happen on the square and they put all the main characters through the wringer. Then they start doing really silly things, such as Steven and the spaniel head x ray palaver and some things become disjointed in places.
makes me wonder how much longer soaps can survive really. all of them have been going for years and years and often go round in circles rehashing old storylines.

Re Donna moving into the shared house: Wasn't it around the time that she lost her pitch on the market for daring to spread over her designated zone? So she had no money for rent.

Did anyone else move into Donna's old house or is it vacant at the moment?

Donna's old rental must be empty.
She has her pitch back now. how she manages that on her own i dont know - probably has to ask Shrimpy and the others for a lot of favours to help with the putting up and down of all the clothes and stuff.
I cant believe that each market has its own inspector ( carmel) surely they would manage a few in the area? i dont know much about markets though!

Yes 80s, the disjointed element can be disconcerting. That au pair girl - where is she now? No real story or character development to follow even though she's been in the soap for months now. Same with the teacher woman back from the States (forget her name). Her hair is blonder and some suspect guy stalking her, possibly but nothing much happened for months. Phil dropped off the face of the earth, as some have said. Its like if only the plot continuity people were as good as the set continuity people...

Maybe nobody liked the new producer much or something has just gone wrong with the writers not telling each other whats going on with each character? something is a bit out of kilter - the revenge story is annoying - all this with Fiona ringing up Josh, then 'daddy' then nothing more for weeks. Why did we see that being done for it all to come to nothing - or possibly weeks later when we've all forgotten, it will rise up again as a story! Max is never at work either. The missing children get on my nerves too - they are all too young to keep being left. The new nanny cant be looking after them all, too many for a start. Lily hasnt been seen for months.

I don't know
What Carmel does either. Even if each stall Holder paid per day and Everyone had to sign up to get the pitch for The Morning- after an hour she be done!

Kush and Martin run a large home on a stall wages. Yet Donna who could previously afford rent on 2 bed and pay roxys a wage is skint?

Hoping next week things seem more altogether.

I watched the credits for Friday's ep - they actually employ someone as a 'storyliner'. I had no idea that was even a job. But if they're ever recruiting they should look no further than this thread!

I know Carmel works for the council and has to attend meetings with her clipboard, but she must also have other duties? then they had Robbie come back and there is Mr Lister too - just how big is this market to warrant all this staff>?
There are only abut 5 or 6 pitches.
The storyliner job , hmm, no idea! I bet they get paid a fortune though.

I thought mr lister left and it was him that Tam took over from?
I remember Tam had an office in what looked like a portaloo with a desk!

Mr Lister was full time job but also had the other market before it merged and Kush Donna came. He was so busy that tam was his assistant.

I did read that Eastenders dropped the producer they had for only one year in the Summer, so now they have a temporary one . Maybe why some of the storylines are all over the place. Robbie the market manager is another story that went nowhere - played for cheap laughs (mostly cringeworthily unfunny). Though I do think there have been good stories recently, it seems to have burned and crashed a bit now and various storylines and plots seem to have been dropped or forgotten!!

Yes we could give them some tips Artful

Have a missed am episode? Kush is out of hospital and Carmel is in?

I'm so confused. And what's with all the background racket?

I'm confused too Oreo

oreo I was just coming to say the same, wasn't Kush on a trolley about to have an op on Friday? Now he's out & about buying lemon drizzle cake & wearing the worst engagement ring the world has ever seen