Strong women

Coronation Street has always had its strong and feisty women. Elsie Tanner, Bet Lynch/Gilroy, Karen MacDonald, Becky Granger, Eileen Grimshaw in her earlier incarnation before she became a one-women cavalcade of misery and self-wrought angst. I'll even put Tina McIntyre in there, despite her recent inexplicable lapse in morals (she was completely affronted when Gary Windass made a move on her, but suddenly jumping on Peter Barlow the week of his wedding? The Tina we've seen grow up on the street would never do that. Ever).  These women were smart and funny and strong and wore their hearts on their sleeve and made their mistakes in public then rolled up their sleeves and got on with it. You knew where you were with them.

Nowadays, strong women is something Corrie just can't do.  They are either weak simpering idiots whose only purpose in life is to have a kid (Katy Armstrong, Izzy Armstrong) or moan about not having a kid (Julie Carp), or have incongruous affairs (Tina, Kylie Platt), or else they are the new type of "strong" woman, i.e. a total bully.  Tracy Barlow is the prime example. No redeeming features at all. Liz & Michelle's denigration of Steve's attempt to better himself for his daughter is embarrassing - are we meant to find this funny? Now Rita's at it, belittling Dennis' atempts to regain his interests and a bit of independence.  Carla has pretty much emasculated Peter, so much so that he's flinging himself at a lassie half his age.

The rest of them? Gail is beholden to Nick to the extent that she's sold out her own son. Leanne hasn't had a storyline in months. Kylie has turned into a cow. Audrey has lost her backbone. Stella has disappeared. Eva is nothing more than Jason's girlfriend. Fiz is boring. Maria even more so. Deirdre has become a terrible comedy act. Hayley's touching cancer storyline has just become her bickering at Roy. Gloria has the odd decent one liner, but no real place to go (and she's leaving soon anyway, I think). Sophie is self-righteous and mostly dull.  Sally has also become a comedy caricature. Anna Windass veers between earth mother and fishwife with alarming regularity. I'm not even going to talk about Mary.  Have I forgotten anyone? Sinead and Steph and Emily barely count.

I'm beginning to think Beth Tinker is the only decent female character left, and I don't even like her.

More catching up

I haven't really been enjoying Corrie recently.  With the exception of Hayley & Roy, it's been terrible to watch.

Too much Michelle Connor for one thing. What an unlikely, ungrateful, mean, petty woman she is. Sabotaging Peter's meeting (which could have meant losing business), then walking out because, er, I don't know what for.  And then she has a wee moan, and gets a job off Stella despite the fact that Stella's in the process of selling her business. What about all her contacts? The ones she's had for years? The one whose wedding she apparently went to because they went back so far, despite the fact she's only worked at the factory for five minutes and appears to now refer to her role as that of a PA anyway (who don't, in any place I've ever worked, do the schmoozing and the networking and brokering of deals). Nah, that would involve getting a job away from the street.

I've lost track of who knows what and who's hiding what and why anyone should care about David/Nick/Kylie/Lily.  I don't care that Kylie has suddenly become best friends with Eva just to give her someone to talk to (like Katy's plot device friend and Faye's plot device friend, this friendship will be forgotten as soon as this storyline is done). I really don't care for Deirdre's continuing mutation into a thoughtless batty old dear with no self-awareness whatsoever. Beverley Callard's face is ridiculous, and I worry she's going to turn into Julie Goodyear with her return. She is probably going to have a fling with Michelle's ridiculous father, and I will have to start fast forwarding past them like I keep threatening to do every time Anna and Owen are on screen.

I did like Norris teaching Roy to foxtrot though. And Tracey's jibe about Tina's fake tan.  And the one good thing to come out of Karl's really quick and stupid comeuppance (more of which in some other post, possibly), is that Beth really came into her own.  Of course, she's vanished again now.

Oh, and how come Steve's got his and Michelle's names over the door? He wasn't allowed it the last time he had the pub, due to his criminal record. And Michelle can't have applied for a license to sell alcohol because she didn't even know she was getting a pub.

Catching up

I have been neglecting my little blog, mostly because no-one reads it, so I do my ranting on the phone to my mum instead.  Things that have annoyed me recently:

Paul's exit.  Seriously, Eileen, what is wrong with you? Also, why did he have to go and live in a caravan in the driveway of a man who presumably hates him (since none of "the lads down the station" wanted to go for a drink with him)? What happened to the house he had with Lesley? This bothered me when he had that ridiculous sleeping-on-Gail's-couch storyline, and it annoys me still).

Mandy's exit. What happened to the house she used to live in with Jenna when Lloyd ran into her again? Why go so quickly without even telling your daughter?

Sinead & Chesney. Heartbroken? Over Chesney? Sinead seems sweet and fun, but Chesney is dull, mardy, thick, and their first date ended when she wouldn't sleep with him which seemed it was all he was after. They've been together five minutes, and all he's done is whine about Katy. Get a nicer fella, Sinead.

Tez. I had hoped for a decent comedy character, given all his japes with Karl over the years. Nah, we've got a Poundland version of Tony From Men Behaving Badly who does nothing but do bad drunk-acting and leers at Eva. Cheers for that.

Time continuity. Hayley was going to the hospital at the same time as the stag party was drawing to a close and Katy and Plot Device Friend were coming back from Sasha's Amazing Hot-Tub Party.  It was still daylight. How rubbish is everyone at partying?

Still, at least Inspector Dev is back on the case, solving crime with the aid of the mysteriously-reappeared Jason.  That should be good for a giggle.

Past, present and future

No sooner do I start whining about Tommy and Tina and Izzy and Gary and the baby disappearing into thin air, and hey presto, they all reappear.

Now, if we can do the reverse with the Paul-isn't-actually-a-racist-but-we'll-say-he-is storyline, that'd be magic.  Jenna's going on like he's organising National Front rallies, and Sophie's trying to get him fired from his job.

There's some lovely touches these days. Rita and Emily reminiscing about the Hewitts' house blowing up, Fiz being upset to hear of former foster-mum Hayley's illness, Roy remembering how much hurt Tracy caused them over the whole Amy/Patience storyline - even Tina referencing her terrible sun-tan addiction, it's not all terrible out-of-character stuff, which is why this racism storyline is clanking around so badly.  That, and David's skulking skulkiness.  These people KNOW David.  They KNOW they have a secret that would destroy him and make him hate them if he discovered it. WHY has no-one considered the possibility that the stupid campaign against Nick may be related to this?

Also, a minor grumble: Michelle going nuts at Peter going to work in the factory. "What experience does he have of the rag trade?" she muttered between walking around with a clipboard and twirling her hair, presumably while waiting for a comedy overweight sweaty sexless boor to require her tits in full view to close a deal. Obviously her years of singing on cruise ships turned her into Deborah Meaden, and her job there has nothing whatsoever to do with her being the owner's sister-in-law.

Sniffle snuffle, I appear to have something in my eye

I am very much looking forward to the next few months where Hayley, Roy and Sylvia will take centre stage, pissing all over the rest of the cast from comically exaggerated heights.  I don't think I can take much more of Tracy & Rob's conniving, David's ridiculous plotting (and everyone's oblivion), and Sophie's judgemental irritatingness, so some tremendous acting should prove a distraction, even if it will ultimately end in the loss of the marvellous Julie Hesmondhalgh.

By the way, something has been bothering me about this bookie storyline (apart from Peter accepting bets he can't honour).  Why is Carla so beholden to Rob and Tracy?  Can't she just threaten to shop them to the police for pinching the silk? That'd have Rob back in prison quicker than a storyline is dispensed with.

Talking of which, has anyone seen baby Joeke, Izzy, Gary, Tina or Tommy? So much for the emotional impact of the surrogacy storyline, eh? I almost miss Izzy's weird tear-free crying face. Almost.  I've given up on a resolution to the Dev/Karl/Sunita thing, so I shouldn't really expect anything more.

Dubious business undertakings

No-one writing Coronation Street has ever been in a bookies before, have they? And, wow, they certainly have a lot of stewards enquiries and disqualifications which go against Peter.

There is no way on God's green earth that Peter wouldn't have layed Rob's giant bet off elsewhere. He's been in this game for years, he must have seen people take money off him before (Steve did it to him last week because of his stupid made-up odds).  No matter how pathetic his feud with Rob is, that's his son's inheritance he's gambling with.  I know we haven't seen Simon for months, but surely Peter still remembers he exists?

Incidentally, talking of dubious legalities, didn't Emily sell her house to Richard Hillman to give the money to Spider?

And has no-one ordered a gin or a vodka in the bistro since David replaced them with water?

Catching up

I've been away on holidays, so a Corrie marathon for me. Hooray!

Now, how could Deirdre be cold-calling Tracy's customers at EXACTLY THE SAME TIME as she's making a pig's ear of blabbing away to Hayley in her real job.

How come a bookie doesn't have a float of over £2k? What if each of the random extras had won £20 or so each, one average win at normal odds over that would have floored the business.  Also, how come he's never open in the evening when loads of horse-racing and greyhounds are on?  No wonder he's going bust.

Also, has lovely Dr Carter been sacked because he lacks the gravitas to give Hayley bad news? We've all seen him dancing about in his pants, after all, that's not befitting of someone who might have to steel us for waving bye-bye to Hayley.

I'm not talking about the Paul racism storyline because it is so ridiculous. One minute Jenna is a serious professional taking steps towards regaining her professional pride, next minute best friends are at each others' throats over the use of a phrase of dubious provenance to protect her innocent little ears from possible racism.  I have some issues with it being Lloyd being a bit uppity about the hint of malice in an expression when he continues to refer to his unseen colleague as Fat Brenda, but that's probably just because I'm a sensitive person of above-average-weight, and I'm white.

Also grrr stupid storyline nonsense: Norris getting Emily's house. Or no-one noticing David's evil skulking, or twigging that his odd behaviour towards Kylie and Nick might be because he suspects something's up. Two weeks ago they were all paranoid he'd find out, he suddenly starts acting odd and no-one thinks he might have found out?

Also, what's happened to Dev's investigations? I presume Karl needed some time off so without him looming in a what-passes-for-menacing manner, there's no point in Dev dusting off the Columbo mac.  Two weeks ago you couldn't move for irritating mannerisms and wailings of "my Suniiiittaaaa", now it's all forgotten about as we all fail to give two hoots about whether Chesney will get back with Katy or whether Sinead will continue to not notice that he's completely horrible and self-obsessed and capture his stupid gormless heart.

I did properly laugh at "Think of me as Switzerland in glasses" though. And I don't even like Deirdre very much.  Still, at least they've written Ken out.  I knew his legion of forgotten children would come in handy one day.