LANGFORD'S PICKS AND PANS
Good Times, Bad Times
I don’t have a lot to say here other that I actually enjoyed this past week’s drama, mostly because of the acting. I really think Sinan Eroglu has done an excellent job showing Bilal’s conflict over his sexuality, he’s probably given the best and strongest performance during this storyline. That final scene between Lucas and Bilal where they said goodbye was nicely done and I like that we’re seeing Lucas be mature enough to accept a situation for what it is, even if he may not like it.
I must admit I didn’t much care for Lucas’ attempt to ambush Bilal with his gay Muslim pal, as I think someone should never be pressured to come out, but I did like that the reality of Bilal’s situation wasn’t sugar coated in that coming out would be a cure all for Bilal’s problems. Of course, it looks like Bilal and Nuran won’t be getting married after all, but not because Bilal wasn’t willing to go along with it. But even with his broken marriage, I still don’t see a happy ending for Lucas and Bilal, at least for now. I just think Bilal has too many issues for them to work things out.
Thanks to GTSTfanMark for the clips!
Coronation Street
Judging by the mail I get the comments I read, I’m supposed to hate this storyline. After all, it’s about an openly gay man with a sweet boyfriend who develops romantic feelings for his best friend, a woman. Isn’t that offensive? Shouldn’t I think it’s homophobic? Isn’t it unrealistic that anything like this could ever happen?
Oddly enough, I don’t think it’s any of those things. I actually like the storyline and I want to see how it goes, even if it’s obvious it’s going to end in tears. The show has said that they’re not changing Marcus’ sexuality or saying he’s straight or bi-sexual. They’ve made a point of saying that Marcus is and will remain gay. And it’s because of that I want to see how they navigate through this storyline.
One reason I’m enjoying this storyline is because Marcus and Maria are such likeable characters. Their relationship is believable to me and it’s something that built over time, for months in fact. It didn’t happen overnight. I also think that they have terrific chemistry, more than either of them have with their other partners.
To me, their confusion and shock over what is developing between them seems very real. I don’t think sexuality and who you find yourself drawn to is as fixed as some people paint it to be. Emotions are complex, messy things and sometimes they go places that you least expect. I don’t think things like this happen everyday, but I definitely believe it could.
Do I think Marcus and Maria are headed for a happy and healthy relationship? No. I think they are doomed and it’s going to end in a lot of heartbreak for both of them. I just hope their friendship can survive it. There is one thing I do think will be the end result of this storyline. I’ve been saying for some time that I thought that one way or another Marcus and Maria would have a baby together. Now I’m certain of it.
Hollyoaks
Whew! Hollyoakswas a roller coaster of excitement last week as the show wrapped up its two major storylines, Brendan’s war with Walker and the ongoing triangle between Mercedes, Riley and Mitzeee and they did it with some neat and compelling storytelling. I loved how the show tied these two disparate stories together as they both moved to an exciting climax and it made for some very intense scenes.
As I said last week, I think Walker’s revenge against Brendan has been an intriguing storyline and Walker made for a great villain right down to the end. But I don’t think for a minute that Walker is dead and I’m sure he’ll be back to terrorize Brendan and his loved ones in the future. I also loved seeing Mercedes finally get her comeuppance after months of scheming and plotting to get Riley. The scenes between Riley and Mercedes and later Mercedes and her family where Myra finally turned Mercedes in to the police made for terrific, powerful drama.
It’s too bad though that we lost Riley. He was a likeable character and he’ll be missed. And yet, his surprising death and the ramifications from that made an already watchable week even more so. If anything, as usual, everything happened too fast and the stories wrapped up too quickly. It would have been nice to drag things out to add to the tension and play out these climatic scenes over a number of episodes instead of one or two. But then, that’s Hollyoaks for you.
But, despite the fact that there was a lot of good in last week’s episodes, overall I found Hollyoaks too difficult watch. In fact, the show managed to offend and infuriate me in a number of ways. And of course, it was all about Brendan. As readers know, I’ve always liked Brendan, even though he’s basically a villain. Some good writing and terrific acting by Emmett Scanlan has made this probably one of the most compelling gay characters I’ve ever seen in any television show. I liked that the show made him dark, at times evil and they never made excuses or attempted to sugarcoat who Brendan was. Until now. And I find it unacceptable that the show is not only whitewashing the character, but the way that they are doing it.
One of the things that came from Brendan’s time on the show was his romance with Ste. Now the relationship was originally depicted as one of abuse and obsession, with Brendan beating up Ste because he couldn’t handle his own sexuality. Somewhere along the way though, despite the abusive aspects, Brendan and Ste became a very popular couple and there’s no denying that the two of them have amazing chemistry. But anyone who reads this column knows I have been totally against any relationship between these two as I felt that it would be endorsing physical abuse. And I still feel that way. The show seemed to feel that way too, but that unfortunately has changed.
Executive producer Emma Smithwick, who recently left the show was a big fan of the duo and began to spout the nonsense that if Brendan ‘changed’ then he and Ste could be together. I found that notion to be garbage, not to mention dangerous to viewers, telling them if you just wait just long enough, your abuser will become a better person and you can be happy. Television’s first goal is to entertain, I think, but if you’re going to tell topical and social storylines, you should be responsible about it. And Hollyoaks is not only being irresponsible they are doing some bad storytelling along the way.
The show is clearly twisting and contorting Brendan to turn him to a romantic hero to make it acceptable for he and Ste to get back together. But they are not only forgetting the past as we know it, but changing the events of current story to suit their agenda driven purposes. Worse, in order to make Brendan the good guy, they are ruining other characters like Doug and completely destroying and stripping away any maturation and growth Ste has shown since his split with Brendan.
Ste is once again obsessed with Brendan to where nothing else and no one matters, not even himself. And I hate the dismissive and thoughtless manner in which Ste treats Doug, who he is supposed to marry. It’s a shame that weak and pathetic character is back. But the only way Ste could ever really be with Brendan would be if he was in his shadow. No one could be a truly strong and independent person and stay with a man like Brendan.
And I find it completely outrageous and stupefying that Doug is getting the blame for Riley’s death, Declan nearly getting killed and many of the events that came from Walker’s reign of terror. Wasn’t it Brendan who brought Walker into everyone’s lives? Didn’t Brendan know how dangerous Walker was, yet he declined to tell Ste and Cheryl that, even as he was supposedly ‘protecting’ them? And even when given the chance, more than once, Brendan declined to tell the truth about Walker, which put everyone in even more danger. Yet somehow it’s all Doug’s fault? I get that the misguided fans of Ste and Brendan’s relationship might see that, as they feel Doug is the outlier in this triangle, but the show should be fair in its depiction of the characters.
Then there’s Brendan’s ‘confession’ about how he’s been ‘protecting’ Ste for months, telling Ste how he ‘helped’ Ste to get his business and ‘saved’ him from being homeless by buying his building before it was to be torn down. Except that’s not how it happened. Brendan manipulated his way into financing Ste’s business, including talking Riley out of helping Ste and Doug so he could do it.
Then when Ste, who had a spine then, found out about Brendan’s involvement, he duped Brendan into signing the business over to him, which infuriated Brendan. And out of revenge, Brendan bought Ste’s building and proceeded to stalk and terrorize Doug and Ste. That is what happened on screen. Now the show is twisting and turning it to make Brendan the good guy so they can justify Ste returning to his abuser. But while fans are falling all over themselves with what a wonderful guy Brendan is, I see it as the manipulative and forced writing that it is.
And with all this, it seems we are to forget that it wasn’t that long ago that Brendan dismembered a body and murdered his grandmother, the latest in his long list of crimes. Again, those events happened on screen. But apparently like all of Brendan’s other bad deeds, they’ll be dropped, forgotten or cleaned up to make them palatable.
Don’t get me wrong. I do think characters should change and grow. They have to if they are to remain interesting and not static, especially on a soap with its ongoing stories. But we should see those changes and growth play out and not have it happen off screen or through revisionist stories.
House Husbands
Anyone who reads this column on a regular basis knows that I get kind of tired with how many shows write gay characters. You’re either coming out, getting beaten up, meeting your soul mate when you haven’t even graduated college or are desperate to have children. Sometimes all at the same time even.
It’s as if there aren’t about a thousand other stories to tell about gay characters. So I wasn’t really anxious to watch House Husbands, which is a series about four men raising their kids while their partners bring home the bacon. As you can tell from this clip, one of the men in question, Kane, is raising a little girl, Stella, with his boyfriend, Tom. But, it’s my duty to watch these things so watch I did. And it’s not half bad.
First of all, I have to credit the show for not making a big deal about the fact that Tom and Kane are gay men raising this child. Unlike US shows which make that the centerpiece of the entire show, here it’s not even an issue. Nobody mentions it or finds it shocking nor is it fodder for drama. Nor does the show make any profound statements about the situation. It simply just is. They just live their lives and have the same problems as everybody else. And I like this show for doing that.
I found it interesting that while we knew that Kane and Tom were raising Stella together, the show never explicitly mentioned they were gay and how they came to care for the little girl until the second episode.
This clip, the show’s fifth episode, was the first show in which we spent a lot of time with Tom as a character. In previous episodes, he was a background character, with Kane driving most of the action. To be fair, though, the show focuses on the four ‘house husbands’ and the spouses and girlfriends are supporting players. However, I wish we had of gotten more time with the dynamic of Tom, Kane and Stella before this episode.
The show had depicted Kane as primary care giver, but it seemed to be because Kane was unemployed while Tom had a career that kept him busy at all hours. It would have been intriguing to see Tom reluctant in taking on a more active role in Stella’s care because he didn’t feel he was ready for the rigors of parenthood, rather than having his stance come out in a few scenes. The story would have been more compelling with a little on-screen history behind it. Don’t get me wrong, the scenes were wonderfully done and I loved how this crisis brought them closer together as a family. But it would have been nice to have some build up to this revelation for Tom.
I have to honest though. This isn’t a series I would make a point to watch, gay characters notwithstanding. It just isn’t my type of show due to the subject matter. However, I do find it entertaining and for the most part I think the various characters are appealing, Kane by far being the most interesting to me. He’s loveable and real and relatable and I think the actor who plays him is perfect in the role. Speaking of which, I do wish people posting about the show would stop with the ‘wishing that Justin was the gay guy because he’s the hottest’. Gay people come in all packages and Kane is a perfectly attractive man. And well, in the world I live, there are more guys who look like Kane than like Justin. And that’s just fine.
Neighbours
Well, we knew that Aidan and Chris would get back together. It was only a matter of time. I just wish the show had of handled it better. They’ve never really shown us much of Chris and Aiden’s romance. They met, went on a date and became a couple off screen. To the show’s credit, they’ve never hidden that Chris and Aiden were sleeping together, though there isn’t much physical interaction between them. But that’s not a surprise given the show’s ‘G-rating’. There isn’t that much on screen action between the straight couples. But actually that’s not the problem.
The problem is I would have liked to have seen Chris and Aidan working on their relationship rather than just getting back together and having things resume like they haven’t been split for months. Chris asked Aiden out a few weeks ago as a way of re-winning his heart. I would have liked to have seen that date and a few others to build to their eventual reunion. I’m just afraid that they’ll just go back to how things were before, playing supporting roles in their friends lives with their relationship taking place in the background. It was the biggest problem I had with them before (besides the lack of chemistry). And it looks like that’s going to continue.
Secret Lives
I watched this with little interest in what’s going on, mostly because I don’t care much for the story these days. It’s going into all the most predictable and least interesting directions. I’m tired of Elias being Lari’s secret, with Elias standing around and looking pained while Lari makes out with his girlfriend. Lari isn’t a very likeable character to me, cheating on his girlfriend on one hand and treating his secret boyfriend like dirt on the other. It just makes me want Lari to get exposed for the lying cheating closet case that he is and wind up getting dumped by both of his love interests. And I suspect that’s not what the show wanted me to take away from this storyline.
SCOOPS AND SPOILERS
Syed and Danny get closer….
EastEnders — Danny charms Syed into giving him some money for an investment scheme. Later Syed finds himself getting in deeper with Danny after he’s forced to borrow some cash from him. Why? Because Zainab asks Syed for some of the money she’d loaned him to fix the problems at the restaurant.
Meanwhile, as the wedding draws near, Christian is shocked to see that Syed hadn’t mailed out the invitations yet. He enlists Zainab’s help in sending them out, but he and his future mother-in-law bicker over the guest list. Christian wonders if she and Zainab will ever accept him and treat him like a real member of the family.
Later, Syed and Danny are having a drink together and things get intense between them, a moment ending in a kiss. Feeling guilty, Syed gets up and runs out, but Danny follows him and wants to talk about what happened. But they are unable to deny their attraction and wind up kissing again. Unfortunately for Syed, his father Masood witnesses the steamy incident.
Good Times, Bad Times — Lucas assumes that Bilal has married Nuran, so he’s shocked when Bilal drops by and says the wedding didn’t happen. Bilal is upset, thinking Nuran was the only thing he had left to hold onto and now she’s gone. Still though, Bilal realizes he can’t deny how he feels about Lucas anymore and says he wants to see more of him. The two kiss and wind up in bed together. Later, Lucas and Bilal make plans for the future, but Lucas is upset to learn that Bilal’s idea of a relationship is very different from his own as Bilal wants to keep things a secret between them. But it may be too late for that, as Janine blabs to Nuran’s mother about Lucas and Bilal’s love affair.
Marcus, Maria and Jason continue their strange triangle…
Coronation Street — When Marcus doesn’t come home for the night, Maria assumes he spent the night at Aiden’s, until she runs into Aiden, who tells her he and Marcus had a huge fight and Marcus stormed off. Later, Marcus and Maria talk and Marcus admits that their kiss has really confused him. Before they can talk further, Jason, who is moving in, arrives with some of his things. And then Aiden drops by and lays into Marcus for picking a fight with him the night before.
Maria steps in and tells Aiden about her cancer scare, which explains Marcus’ odd behavior. Taken aback, Aiden apologizes to Marcus and they get back together. By the end of the day, Jason is all moved in and is looking forward to his new life with Maria, unaware of the tension between his girlfriend and her BFF.
AND ALSO THIS WEEK…
Hollyoaks —Things get messy when George and the gang throw a costume party…
Neighbours — Chris tries to help Sophie with her rehabilitation…
Forbidden Love — Olli and Bella find more evidence that they are related…
People of the Valley — Iolo gets a new roommate…
River City — Will is shocked by his father’s response to his wedding plans…
NEWSBEAT
Stuart Blackburn is leaving Emmerdale for Coronation Street…
Just a tidbit of news this week. There are changes ahead at both Coronation Street and Emmerdaleas out gay executive producer of Corrie, Phil Collinson, is leaving the show and will exit in the next few months. Replacing him is Stuart Blackburn, who is currently handling the show-running tasks at Emmerdale, which will leave Emmerdale looking for a new person to take over for Blackburn.
Of course, what this means for Corrie’s gay characters is yet to be seen and while Emmerdale hasn’t had any gay men on the canvas since the ultra popular Danny Miller, who played Aaron left earlier this year, it makes you wonder if a change in showrunners might mean new gay folks for the village, especially since gay men have been a staple on the show for years. One can only hope. No doubt both shows are headed for story and casting upheavals and we’ll have all the news here as it comes.
And that’s a wrap for this edition of Langford on Soaps. See you next time!
