Soap Discussion - April 2012

And here's my final blog of the month. It's been an odd month.

Coronation Street: Definitely a better month. Okay, I still don't care about Sunita/Karl or the latter's gambling problems but with the death of Betty, near miss reunion between Sally and Kevin, the return of Terry Duckworth for the billionth and David and Kylie's antics causing Audrey a heart attack, it's been a really good month for the show. Still, though it seems like Kylie is taking over Becky's mantle of messing up and not accepting responsibility for her actions. Meanwhile the hinting of an abusive relationship between Tyrone and the controlling Kirsty is becoming increasingly interesting to watch.

EastEnders: I'm gonna get accused of being a heartless bastard for what I'm about to say but here goes nothing - why the hell am I supposed to feel bad for Bianca? She's poor - big freaking deal! Nearly everyone in Watford is poor and given that she's repeatedly allowed her pride to prohibit her from getting proper help, this storyline which resulted her being thrown in jail after stealing a moneybag was badly written and researched. We had this crap last year with Heather and it didn't work then. I'm all for the show giving us a storyline in relation to poverty but this wasn't it. On the plus side, Derek's been less annoying, Shirley is still investigating Heather's death and the Alfie/Roxy plot isn't that annoying.

Emmerdale: Aaron's departure might have a lame letdown and Chas and Cameron's affair might be a deathly dull one but props to the show on at least two storylines. First of all, there's Zak's increasingly worrying behaviour and downward spiral and then there's Ashley's abuse of his own father. The latter being an especially shocking and effective storyline, resulting in the guilt stricken abusive vicar confessing his crime in the Woolpack (this is a soap after all). It's easy to see why everyone has turned on Ashley because of this storyline but it has made for fantastic, if uncomfortable viewing.

Hollyoaks: It's been a bit of a mixed bag. The whole dynamic between Brendan and Joel has gotten increasingly tiresome to watch as had Maddie and her never ending insecurities/pathetic attempts of retaining a queen bee status. Even Tilly's relationship with Jen is lacking a fun factor but on the other hand, I've actually enjoyed most of the Phoebe storyline with Jacqui and Rhys and I'm keeping an open mind in relation to Doug's attraction towards Ste as well. We've had better months though.