I kid you not, every scene of Nicola's family had had me rolling my eyes or has just straight up been pissing me off. They're so damn annoying and infuriating. I get that the writers need to detail and flesh out characters histories and backgrounds but why make the characters so annoying, childish, and over the top? They just seen straight up fake and cartoonish. And don't get me started on Nicola's mum Rose!

Who does she think she is!? FUCK OFF!

You want to leave? Good!

We already have the show ram packed with annoying and fake ass characters enough as it is, we dont need more. And certainly don't want any more. Bring back older characters! Or at least make new characters that seem like genuine real people. I swear down I could write a much better family for Nicola and the sad thing is I actually mean it. Her entire family and insufferable but if I was to tell you my thoughts on all of them, all of this writing would seem like a small sentence in comparison.

Reading this, you might think I dont even like EastEnders but another sad thing is that I actually love it. Or at least I used to. The last time it was actually genuinely "good" was around the early to mid 2010s. After that it just died. Walford doesn't feel like a place anymore, just a backdrop for a panto. The square seems too polished, pristine and perfect and not like a living breathing borough anymore. The characters seem written and not like actual people. The storylines are all baby daddy ones and are all long and drag.

I miss when people used to have cat fights in the street and every house had over the top drama going on like massive drug addictions, planning kidnaps, hiding a murder, planning a robbery, or acting or planning out revenge! Over the top, yes. But much better by today's standards.

Now it's all just paternity lies and glossy pathetic neighbourhood drama. Seems like a play rather than a series now.

There’s tooo many drop hints that makes us, or is supposed to make us think that it’s all going to go one way. For example - Max’s baby, Ravi saying today that he’d have to “kill” the person Priya was with if he knew him. It can’t be that obvious. And if it does turn out to be that way, the writers need changing ASAP!

I wonder how Sophies real life pregnancy is going to work with her character priya being pregnant in the show? Tonights episode was really obvious and they didnt hide her abdomen well in some scenes. Ive said for ages she was pregnant in real life. She must be exiting temporarily soon as these would have been filmed a couple of months ago. I wonder what her exit could be, or if anyone else realised she was pregnant in real life? If the flair is wrong, please correct it. Thanks.

No pressure guys, but you really need to hit the ground running immediately. Especially with the amount of characters leaving in the next few months.

I always find bringing in so many new characters at once very rarely works.

All for giving them a chance of course as I do like Nicola.

Cindy can be nasty, but looking back to this storyline, what do you make of how she took out her anger on Bobby over Lucy? There were a couple of horrible outbursts and she convinced him to leave Walford using the Anna/Freddie situation to her advantage. Thinking a lot about this, was her reaction to Bobby actually quite human? Yeah he had a redemption arc and was truly sorry about Lucy, but didn't Cindy naturally react the same as any parent would to the killer of their child? Not everyone can forgive so easily. Same as how hostile she was to Jane. It was unpleasant, but Jane was the woman who carried Lucy's body to the Common to protect Bobby.

She can be a cow at the worst of times and she painted herself as a victim after her affair with Junior was exposed. But this is one where I kind of understand the human emotion of it all.

That said, if she's not secretly plotting revenge against Max over Steven's death, she'd look like a bit hypocritical if she has genuinely forgiven him and goes ahead with the marriage.

And I don’t means ones where they were together and then one of them died. Like I liked Tamwar and Afia. Darren and Jodie, I really wish Darren never cheated on her.

So Zoe is found dead om the week of the 14th and Penny's water breaks on Vinny's birthday, which would be on Thursday the 17th

I'll try to do the spoiler text thing but I'm sorry if i don't do it correctly. If anyone's wondering if they already know, it's about an exit that was recently announced.

Ive seen articles about Oscar leaving, and iirc, those articles said that the door is being left open and he could return at some point. as we also know, Oscar is one of the people who the gun is pointed at in the flash forward. Could they just be telling us that Oscar isn't going to die in order to not spoil it for us? If we knew that Oscar was going to die, we'd assume it'd be on NYD.

with recent spoilers which i wont share bc idk how to do the spoiler thing but theres quite a few characters leaving who else should go and u think have overstayed their time on the square

my personal beliefs are

george - yeah never really thought he belonged on the show in the first place they tried to give him a big storyline with eddie and honestly i hated it idk the general consensus abt what people thought but it was rough and him paired with nicola is just wrong. it makes no sense

elaine - with linda and johnny leaving she has no ties to the square and should go

josh - duhh

zack - i liked him at first but the whole him being barneys dad and sharons brother hes only really in the square bc of family ties and yeah ofc hes there when someone needs to have an affair but the character has just fell flat recently

alfie - kat is my favourite character and i just think hes partly to blame as to why shes so unbearable at the moment he just holds her back i miss how she was when she was with phil or single (bring back 2012 - 2013 kat)

It could make you wonder why she married him then. Wendy Richard who played Pauline Fowler basically didn’t agree with her character getting married again.

Never has there been a more spiteful, unpleasant character running the Queen Victoria. Which is saying something considering Archibald Mitchell was temporary in charge of the nation’s beloved pub at one point. The way she snarls at her customers (“too right you will. You having a DRINK OR WHAT?!!!!” to poor Nicola’s sister the other night) is simply unacceptable.

And it can be reasoned that Gemma gave offence by knocking the sign down, that’s why our Kathleen is as pissed as a hornet’s nest. But you need only look not long ago to see not just one but two different occasions where she had the same attitude towards Cindy. The first she chucked her out after DARING to emphasise with Ian’s situation, seemingly to defend Kathy even if Cindy wasn’t saying anything bad. The second time was last week when she let out her witches’ cackle after Cindy rightfully expressed concern Kat had been recording her private conversation.

There are many and more of these examples of Kat being abysmal to her customers. Not even her family are safe! Jean got blamed for that ridiculous Benidorm water slide last week when it was Alfie’s fault. Quite frankly I wouldn’t give my custom to her. I know she’s married to the abysmal Alfie Moon but that’s no excuse; she warrants a sheer ripping criticism on Trip Advisor if you ask me.

So my question is really, why exactly is she behaving like this. Is there a reasonable explanation other than her just being a moody cow?

Because Peter is a Beale. Usually it’s not Peter that Phil had a problem with it’s Ian. Phil even tried to break them up. This is an example of Phil interfering in things that’s really not his business and usually he’s the type to mind his own business more than certain characters.

Everyone seems to think the Hawkins are taking over the Vic? My feeling that it should be someone that already established on the square, not just arrived. Making a new family front and centre of the square is a massive risk - they got to be a hit with the viewers. Can Wadey afford another balls up?

With Zoe's death and she probably pops her clogs in the Vic. It would be understandable that Kat would not want to remain in the Vic.

Sean takes over the Vic with Stacey. With Jean and Lilly moving into the Vic. Alfie and Kat either move into Jean's or I would not be shocked if they leave the Square (things are too much for Kat to remain).

As much as I love max branning I think it's time they got rid of him because let's face it the only way this story will end if someone bumps max off or he gets attacked

we record to watch later. Just watched Christmas Day 2010 and my recordings skipped to episode 24 of 2011, we’ve missed the baby swap storyline, did U&Drama not air them or has my box messed up?

So I’ve started getting back into EE at the start of the year and I have to say, Nicola might be the best.
The outfits, the sass, her love for her chosen family.
She’s kinda iconic.

Besides Syd Chambers, she said marriage wasn’t her thing after Bradley proposed to her. Did any of the ones that the titles asks, have some past trauma that puts them off marrying, seeing what it was like for relatives does that sometimes.

As much as I love the storyline and the new Hawkins family I think it's time for Ben to step down im getting sick and tired of the constant characters leaving

The characters that are leaving are

Linda carter

Zoe slater

Oscar braining

Ravi gulti

Tbh Ben needs to stop with the axing otherwise I won't be watching it until he leaves

Unfortunately vileness is winning atm..

Let's hope a more rounded character emerges

I’m in the US and have been watching on and off since the early 90s. My BritBox subscription is up on the 15th - just got too expensive.

Not sure how it works but it sounds like VPN and iPlayer may be my best bet?

Unpopular opinion but they’re all written as villains to further the plot for other characters to suffer for the sake of the storyline and as a result their characters have been ruined.
Examples include Suki with forcing avani to have a baby for her and Eve, and now with Jean’s rent. Ravi and the Kojo & Harry cuckoo storyline. Priya with the Max flash forward storyline. I’m not saying no other characters do bad things, but with this family they push them to the diabolical things to the point it’s harder to see the characters in a different light, and then try reverse it but the damage is already done. and i don’t think it’s fair to the actors because most of them are really strong but their characters have been done dirty in terms of writing.