Soap Opera Continuity

Having always been a fan of kitchen-sink drama I do occasionally dip into the nation’s favourite soaps Eastenders and Coronation Street. In recent years my enthusiasm has been tempered somewhat by a mixture of unbelievable storylines and little or no continuity. To me it shows scant disrespect for the viewing public.

To give recent examples of each of these misdemeanours might serve to highlight the waywardness of the respective writing teams.

Jack Branning and ‘tough guy’ Phil Mitchell had an altercation two years ago resulting in Phil duping his mother into signing over the car lot to Jack. This in itself was totally unbelievable as Phil had already ‘sorted out’ Jack in the past and is hardly the sort of bloke to roll over and play pussy. The premise was meant to be that Phil ‘got lucky’ the first time around but now Jack was ready for him………………… I ask you!

All was not lost I thought as Phil vowed vengeance on this dastardly lowlife former bent copper who had dishonoured him and, worst of all, his family. The retribution was going to be swift and bloody as everyone in the world knows “you do not mess with the Mitchells!”

Almost two years on and Jack and Phil have become almost bosom pals, teaming up in their fight against the even more dastardly Psycho Sean. Even when Jack’s brother Max solicited Phil’s help to make Jack ‘disappear’ Phil did not rise to this obvious opportunity to settle old scores.

Yes I know Jack Branning is a good character and the writers are loathe to kill him off but they should have thought of that before jeopardising his character’s existence.

A good example of an unbelievable storyline is the present Carla/Tony/Liam ménage à trois. Of course the viewer is privy to the information that Tony had Liam bumped off (literally), but when Maria tells all and sundry that Tony confessed to her is there no one with the nous to give her the benefit of the doubt as she is hardly a straitjacket case and the clues are there as Sir David Frost might say. Surely Carla would have a long meaningful chat with Maria in order to make sense of the death of the love of her life. What sort of friend is Fizz to simply dismiss her mate’s earnest pleas. Even normally supportive brother Kirk is seen constantly kowtowing to Saint Tony by apologising for his errant sister’s foolhardiness. And as for Norris…….well he has been a victim of Tony’s menacing threats first hand so you’d think he’d put two and two together and come up with four, especially in light of the disappearance of Jed Stone.
Perhaps Kevin might even suspect that the man who sabotaged his business is not likely to gain imminent beatification.

Again, I know Tony is a strong character and the writers are trying to prolong his soap life but please can we have just a hint of reality in our storylines.