I Want My Time Back After Finishing 2018… And I Hate Chess Now
So… the title says it all really. I finished 2018 and genuinely, I want my time back because THIS was a mess of a year. I’ll list out things I liked first, but that list is going to be short because there was SO much to dislike!
Positives:
The aftermath of last year’s Christmas made the year start out quite strong. Abi’s death was an amazing episode, and the acting from Jo, Jake, Jacqueline etc. throughout that storyline was genuinely amazing.
Mel returned this year after being absent for 16 years and she actually was given stuff to do throughout the year and not fade into the background. Tamzin really blows away every scene she’s in.
Shakil’s knife crime storyline was done so well. Bonnie Langford especially stole the show with her acting and the funeral episode is one of my favourite episodes in the show’s history.
Ruby’s return was great, as she showed clear growth since we last saw her, and her storyline regarding consent was done well, especially the special episode hearing all the different perspectives about consent.
Unpopular opinion, but I actually like Hayley. Admittedly the first half of the year she was a little annoying but by the summer I grew to really like her and at times felt really sorry for her. I know Katie is highly controversial based off what we know about her but credit where it’s due she is a fantastic actress.
And just overall, the acting was great this year, even when the storylines have been a mess.
Negatives:
I said the year started out strong with the aftermath of Abi’s death, but the Aidan storyline had to share screen time with it and genuinely, he is so boring. Like with James Wilmott-Brown with the Weyland storyline, Aidan is hyped up to be this big scary guy… but he himself doesn’t do anything and it’s always someone else doing his dirty work. And the way he only disappears because Phil scares him off… why didn’t Phil do that from the start?
Masood coming back was a nice surprise, but its like the writers had no idea what to do with him, so gave him his feud with Ian that went on way longer than it needed to be, only for that storyline to drop off with no resolution and Masood to be absent a lot throughout the rest of the year. Legit it goes on for half the year; least with the Ian and Elaine feud it didn’t last that long. Kathy also had a ‘relationship’ with Masood but they get literally no screen time. Masood also brought along Mariam and Arshad who are just sort of there, but I did like their friendship with Hayley. Their fostering was kinda interesting, but I’m reaching with them at this point.
Ted and Joyce, aka Pam and Les from Temu. Killing Joyce off had lots of storyline potential, but instead they make Ted so unlikeable, even when they threw in the angina storyline, that I can’t bring myself to like or feel sorry for him. I guess his friendship with Patrick and the Taylors gave him something to do, but he goes missing once the chess storyline is done with.
And speaking of the Taylors and chess, that chess storyline with Bernie DRAGS ON FOR HALF A YEAR (I wish I was joking but no I’m not), and I swear to god I’ve never been so bored with a storyline ever. It starts the end of February and doesn’t end until mid August! Trying to finish the storyline made me want to tear my eyes out because oh my god that was painstaking to sit through.
Keanu and Sharon affair begins this year. I had no idea it started this far back but it starts the end of August. It’s just generic affair and doesn’t pick up until next year. Still have no idea how Sharon got away with it this year.
I liked Mel returning though unfortunately she had to bring Hunter with her and despite tabloids at the time hyping him up for being Steve Owen’s kid, he really is so underwhelming. They had something going with Hunter finding that his dad killed Saskia and realising who he really is, but he has the same problem as Mark Jr. currently where they make him morally grey so it makes me wonder what the point was?? Anything interesting they could have done with him is thrown the window.
The Slaters returned this year, and whilst they provide entertainment, they had to drag down Stacey’s character development from the last 2 years, and to this day she never recovered from it. The way this happened genuinely frustrates me (people know I have STRONG feelings on Stacey’s character 2018 onwards). Also whilst the Christmas episode was decent, it genuinely got ruined in the last 5 minutes when Alfie uses Kat’s history with Harry against her. He would never do that; it’s disgusting and super out of character. Also Hayley suddenly having feelings felt a bit random?
Tiffany has this drugs storyline and honestly, it was so boring, and I felt absolutely nothing about it. I can’t remember anything about it outside of Tiffany and Bernie flip flopping between being friends or not.
The worst offender this year is the Carter’s storyline with Stuart. Genuinely they made everyone in this storyline so unlikeable. Mick had so many chances to cut Stuart out of his life but he kept bringing him in despite everyone literally telling him he’s trouble, so I had no sympathy when he got sent to prison. Shirley could have easily disposed of him with Phil’s help but just… doesn’t even though it proved with Aidan (some objectively more ‘threatening’) that it worked. Linda despite eventually recording a confession out of Stuart really had to screw everyone over to do so. Zara was just an asshole to everyone that I didn’t feel anything when she realised who Stuart really was. Whitney and Callum really didn’t do anything of substance. Stuart himself is just not that convincing to me as a villain, like cool he’s a psycho then by the end of the year they try to redeem him and given what we know about him it’s like the writers gave up. Tina is the only one who I felt was likeable in this storyline. I just hate everything about this storyline, and the fact that it goes on for the ENTIRE YEAR doesn’t make this any better.
Overall:
Better than 2021, but yeah I felt like my time could have been used for something else. I also have developed a hatred for chess so thanks 2018. All jokes aside though, when 2018 tries to be good I think it’s pretty darn good, but when it doesn’t try… yeah it’s racially awful! I heard 2019 is strictly better so let’s pray it all goes well for me!
Appreciate this is long, but what do we all think of 2018?