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Thread: Insane EastEnders plot

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    Formerly known as DavidJames David Bailey's Avatar
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    Insane EastEnders plot

    I was forced to watch EastEnders over Christmas. And they had a "cot death / baby swap" storyline which seemed, to me, literally insane.

    Apparently there have been 3,400 complaints about this storyline, which is summarised as:

    In an episode on New Year's Eve, Ronnie Branning, played by Samantha Womack, swapped her deceased baby for the new born son of Jessie Wallace's character, Kat Moon.
    But the thing about this plot which boggled my mind was the staggering trail of implausibility to set this whole thing up in the first place.

    I mean, consider:

    • Two women in the square both giving birth at the same time
    • One mother (Kat) is taken ill and rushed to hospital - the father (Alfie) leaving the 1-day-old baby conveniently unattended for long periods of time. Apparently 1-day-old babies don't need to be looked after or anything.
    • The other mother (Ronnie) being left by herself, and her child dies (cot death).
    • Ronnie then goes nuts and calmly swaps her dead baby for the live one. As you do. Without being caught as the live baby is conveniently unattended.
    • Neither Kat nor Alfie recognise that, you know, the dead baby is not theirs, because of course all babies look exactly the same.


    (Etc. I'm sure there are more coincidences, but I've run out of puff)

    How incredibly unlikely is all this? I mean, this makes the "Abduction by aliens" storylines in Dynasty look like plausible, real-life occurrences.

    I've no problem with a soap having cot death as a storyline. But the baby-swap thing just makes the whole "plot" deranged.

    Is EE always like this now? I've not watched it for years...

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    Re: Insane EastEnders plot

    Quote Originally Posted by David Bailey View Post
    is EE always like this now? I've not watched it for years...
    I confess to being a bit of a soap addict. I watch Eastenders, Corrie and Emmerdale. Eastenders is, and has been for some time, my least favourite of the three because it is always like this now.

    I too have been following the baby swap story and find it totally ridiculous.

    The writers expect us to believe that no one has noticed the swap? I would know instantly if someone has swapped any of my children, right from the first glance. Plus, the nurse who came to see Ronnies baby noticed a massive weight difference from the previous weigh-in and some medical problem that was noted at birth then had completely disappeared.

    Mind you, it is only a soap and if you look at Eastenders as a whole it is all pretty implausible, I mean, there must have been 20 murders at least since it started!

    Also, is it just me or is Ronnie in Eastenders the most irritating gormless numpty in existence? I simply don't care about her or her baby, she's such a boring, unlikeable, whingy character, that I wish she would just commit suicide and be done with it.

    Edit - Just read that Samantha Womack is leaving Enders because of this story line. Yay!
    Last edited by Double Trouble; 6th-January-2011 at 02:28 PM.

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    Re: Insane EastEnders plot

    Quote Originally Posted by Double Trouble View Post
    I confess to being a bit of a soap addict. I watch Eastenders, Corrie and Emmerdale. Eastenders is, and has been for some time, my least favourite of the three because it is always like this now.

    I too have been following the baby swap story and find it totally ridiculous.

    The writers expect us to believe that no one has noticed the swap? I would know instantly if someone has swapped any of my children, right from the first glance. Plus, the nurse who came to see Ronnies baby noticed a massive weight difference from the previous weigh-in and some medical problem that was noted at birth then had completely disappeared.
    A club foot, apparently. Which, also, no-one noticed that the dead baby has suddenly acquired.

    It reminds me of the "Head" episode of Blackadder 2 when Blackadder has to disguise himself with a bag over his head and ties his arm behind his back because the person he's impersonating has lost one...

    Which of course, leads to this memorable exchange:

    Blackadder: Percy, this is a very difficult situation.
    Percy: Yes, my lord.
    Blackadder: Someone's for the chop. You or me, in fact.
    Percy:: Ah, yes...
    Blackadder: Let's face facts, Perce: it's you.
    Percy: Except, ex-cept... I may have a plan!
    Blackadder: Oh, yes...
    Percy:Yes, eh... How about if we get Lord Farrow's head and body and we take it to the Queen. Except, ex-cept... just before we get in, we start shouting and screaming, and then we come in saying "We were just on our way when he said something traitorous, and so we cut his head off in the corridor just to teach him a lesson!"
    Blackadder: Pathetic! Absolutely pathetic! Contemptible! Worth a try!
    Scary that this exchange is still far more believable than the EE plotline...

    Quote Originally Posted by Double Trouble View Post
    Also, is it just me or is Ronnie in Eastenders the most irritating gormless numpty in existence?
    Oh I dunno, she's easy on the eye...

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    Re: Insane EastEnders plot

    Quote Originally Posted by David Bailey View Post
    How incredibly unlikely is all this?
    Much better if someone had fallen off a roof, taking down a new year banner

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    Re: Insane EastEnders plot

    Apparently there have been 98 murders in Eastenders. According to Wiki.

    I don't know why I responded to this as I hate soaps and think that they are all "irritating gormless numpties"

    Happy New Year DT

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    Re: Insane EastEnders plot

    Quote Originally Posted by Prian View Post
    Apparently there have been 98 murders in Eastenders. According to Wiki.
    Cite? I had a quick look on Wiki and didn't see any figure.

    For what it's worth, The Sun has it as 16 murders (in Feb of this year).

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    Re: Insane EastEnders plot

    The sun

    SINCE it first burst on to our screens 25 years ago, EastEnders has seen 142 births, marriages and deaths - and a bumper crop of murders. Sixteen of the 70 people to die met a violent end.
    That is a 22.8 PER CENT murder rate, far above Britain's real figure of 0.032 per cent.
    .

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    Re: Insane EastEnders plot

    I am more than happy to accept that this link is nonsense. But....

    http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_c..._been_murdered

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    Re: Insane EastEnders plot

    Apparently mumsnet has now got into the act.

    Blimey.

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    Re: Insane EastEnders plot

    Quote Originally Posted by Double Trouble View Post
    I would know instantly if someone has swapped any of my children, right from the first glance.
    I haven't seen Eastenders but I agree, it does sound rediculous! Although, unlike you, when I had my daughter, I had such a shock when I first saw her, as she looked NOTHING like i'd ever imagined a baby of mine would look

    She had thick black hair and looked like she had a deep tan (yaundice) like an Indian baby and I happened to be in a ward with 3 Indian women and babies, who's relatives kept thinking 'my' baby was one of their's

    The nurse kept wanting to take her away, for me to get some sleep but I wouldn't let them, as it was around the time when that baby got taken from a hospital woard and I was convinced I'd never recogognise her again

    I kept having to have another look, as if I hadn't seen her born with my own eyes, I'd have sworn she wasn't mine!
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    Re: Insane EastEnders plot

    Looks like the complaints are mounting - nearly 6,000 now:

    Since the storyline was announced, 5,826 viewers have complained to the BBC about the New Year's storyline, which saw Ronnie take Kat's baby.

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    Re: Insane EastEnders plot

    Quote Originally Posted by philsmove View Post
    Much better if someone had fallen off a roof, taking down a new year banner
    Lol!
    Love dance, will travel

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    Re: Insane EastEnders plot

    And of course this stuff is all paid for by a compulsory tax on TV owners. So you are being forced to pay for this rubbish. Roll on the dismantling of the BBC and revoking the licence fee.

    The beast has grown too big and is out of control......... the EE plot is a symptom of this.

    (Plus I think the writers would do well to read up on Coleridge's writing about 'fantasy/fancy' versus imagination: eg. see http://www.sharperiron.org/article/i...ination-part-7). The EE plot is 'fancy' and much the weaker for it.
    Last edited by JiveLad; 6th-January-2011 at 09:00 PM.

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    Re: Insane EastEnders plot

    Quote Originally Posted by David Bailey View Post

    Oh I dunno, she's easy on the eye...
    Game On

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    Re: Insane EastEnders plot

    I haven't watched Eastenders for a long time, but I'm vaguely aware of some of the storylines.

    It's not obvious to me exactly why people are complaining. Is it because the story is ridiculous, or is it because stealing a baby is such an offensive thing to do? If it's the former then what else can be expected from a soap? If it's the latter then why not? It's not as if baby snatching never happens in real life, although the extraordinary set of coincidences listed by David Bailey is really rather silly. The script writers ought to have come up with a baby snatch storyline that was a bit more believable.

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    Re: Insane EastEnders plot

    Quote Originally Posted by Bubble View Post
    It's not obvious to me exactly why people are complaining........... The script writers ought to have come up with a baby snatch storyline that was a bit more believable.

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    Re: Insane EastEnders plot

    Quote Originally Posted by Bubble View Post
    It's not obvious to me exactly why people are complaining. ...The script writers ought to have come up with a baby snatch storyline that was a bit more believable.
    I don't think the complaints are to do with having a believable baby snatch story, I think it's more the cot death story that's the problem.

    EE say they've researched cot deaths and the actors playing the parents have spoken to people who have lost a baby to cot death so they can play the part realistically, but how many real people wake up to find their 1 day old baby dead and then instantly think "Never mind, I'll just swap my dead one for the live one across the square"? None, probably and I imagine its offensive and hurtful to real people who have been through a cot death to watch an unrealistic reaction to a dead baby just to make the story line more interesting.

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    Re: Insane EastEnders plot

    Quote Originally Posted by JiveLad View Post
    And of course this stuff is all paid for by a compulsory tax on TV owners. So you are being forced to pay for this rubbish. Roll on the dismantling of the BBC and revoking the licence fee.

    The beast has grown too big and is out of control......... the EE plot is a symptom of this.
    Oh, wow, words fail me on how endlessly mundane it is to keep hearing comments like this.

    The BBC provides a valuable public service in more ways than is immediately apparent to a lot of people and is more than worth its fee in my eyes. But, hey, if you want to privatise them and make all their services available only to those who pay for them, I would laugh my socks off watching you try.

    This storyline proved the the BBC just occasionally has the balls to take a really bold chance with very edgey content. I applaud the effort even if the content doesn't interest me. So perhaps the BBC misjudged what some of the public reaction would be. Big deal. For 10.5 million viewers on the night, they've generated only 6,000 complaints. Oh noes!!

    Sachsgate saw a complaints stampede of 45,000 for a paltry original audience of 400,000. Not that I expect even 1% of those were people who'd even heard the original broadcast.

    Once again it's the tabloid media who've blown the reaction to this way out of proportion, naturally because it sells their papers. Then the sensationalism causes it to permeate everyday conversation as if it was on the scale of a national disaster! Does anybody truly care what some fictional program on TV is up to? Of course you do - it's in the papers. You have to care now!

    No, if anything should be dismantled, it's commerically-biased money-sucking tabloids. But I'm not foolish enough to suggest that it should actually happen.

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    Re: Insane EastEnders plot

    Quote Originally Posted by Bubble View Post
    It's not obvious to me exactly why people are complaining.
    Well, most of them are probably complaining because their mates are complaining.

    Quote Originally Posted by Bubble View Post
    Is it because the story is ridiculous, or is it because stealing a baby is such an offensive thing to do?
    As I understand it, the main outrage is because the cot-death (in itself a dramatic moment of course) was changed into a tawdry "mother goes loopy" storyline, which is seen as offensive.

    I'm complaining because the whole storyline is insanely contrived. And because I had to watch the stuff over Christmas.

    Quote Originally Posted by Bubble View Post
    If it's the former then what else can be expected from a soap? If it's the latter then why not? It's not as if baby snatching never happens in real life, although the extraordinary set of coincidences listed by David Bailey is really rather silly. The script writers ought to have come up with a baby snatch storyline that was a bit more believable.
    Well yes. It's the whole setup which is ridiculous.

    Other soaps have done baby-snatching; but they've been at least "soap-realistic" (i.e. mistakes at hospital, that sort of thing). It's the whole juxtaposition which is OTT.

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    Re: Insane EastEnders plot

    Quote Originally Posted by Double Trouble View Post
    EE say they've researched cot deaths and the actors playing the parents have spoken to people who have lost a baby to cot death so they can play the part realistically,
    Yes - from here:

    Joyce Epstein, director of the Foundation for Sudden Infant Deaths (FSID), told BBC Five Live that the charity advised on the issue of cot death but not on the "drama line".

    She confirmed the charity had put the soap in touch with a woman who had gone through a similar bereavement and who had subsequently spoken to the actors in advance of filming.

    Ms Epstein said parts of the script were changed following the Foundation's advice.
    But what they didn't say - and what the FSID have now clarified - is that they were not informed about the ridiculous baby-swap storyline.

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