Enjoying Classic Corrie a bit more the last few weeks apart from the rubbish with the garden gnomes. There has been some great comedy with the Duckworths and the storyline with Steve McDonald has been quite strong as well. I noticed at the end of yesterdays 2nd episode we had a long shot of Rosamond Street where the café is. Looked totally different to how I imagined, I assume Steve was going in the directions towards Coronation Street and there appeared to be a row of shops and a Spar grocery store further up the road. Also the old Kabin was next to the Café until 1990, there appears to be a road at the side of the café now where the old Kabin should have been. Not great continuity but as they used a real it was much better, the current set by Roys Rolls seems quite artificial at times although a bit better now they have extended the set to include other shops and the gardens etc.
Christ, Geoff is getting more like my dad with every episode. The things he said last night like "you're neither beautiful or useful" and "you should be honoured I'm letting you stay with me" were straight out of his playbook of the things he used to say to my mum. It's scary how accurate they've got it.
I assume they're working with experts on the subject, as usual with such storylines (like Aidan's suicide; although somehow I don't think many experts were listened to when Sean was homeless for five minutes). The majority response on Reddit is that everyone is now desperate for the story to be over, not because it's boring or bad, but because it's just so horrifying to watch. "F*** Geoff" has become the de facto sub motto, but even that's paling in light of what's being shown.
I presume it would have been over by now if we'd been seeing it at normal pace, but the halving of episodes is dragging it out even longer.
Clearly it's horrible to watch even as a casual viewer, but even worse when it's something that's happened to you or someone you know and you can see how close to reality it is. For my mum it's almost as if she's having to live it again, 25 years after the marriage ended.
It has been brilliant but so disappointed that yet again they've gone down the victim attacks accuser route rather than showing justice can be done and you will be believed and get support if you seek help.
Just hate how the solution to every problem in soap is murder and find it not just irresponsible but also somewhat boring as we've seen it all before.
I think one of the reasons it's been so horrifying is because Geoff was bought in as a light hearted comic relief character, then we've seen him turn into this, so it's been almost a full 180 on his character.
More parallels with my parents though, as my dad was apparently that sort of silly jokey character when they first met and got married, then started showing that side a few years in. So again, scarily realistic that the most fun loving, most harmless seeming person can actually have this awful dark side.
INCREDIBLY uncomfortable to watch though. Again, my mum was held up against the wall with a knife by my dad once, but thankfully nobody got hurt (in fact, that was the point she started standing up to him, and the marraige fell apart not long after because he couldn't take it- a shame his second wife had to have 20 years of it instead until he passed away).
One thing I definitely can vouch for, having had the experience with my own parents, is how scarily accurate it is to reality. Pretty scary how spot on his mannerisms, his facial expressions, his language, his tone of voice is. My dad wasn't quite as bad as Geoff on many things (he never killed any pets or locked her in a box or the house for a start... though he did kick our pet cat out once he got fed up with it, and didn't treat the cats, or even other pets, my stepmum had much better), but the things he was, they've really nailed it spot on how these people behave.
It was quite a different style for Corrie focussing on Geoff and Yasmeen in practically every scene with events moving on immediately in consecutive scenes.
I wasn't sure if it was aired as intended or whether it was cut together into a single episode as the storyline was meant to play out over a double episode?
It was certainly effective this way but unusual for Corrie.
I do wish though Corrie would learn from others when it comes to spoilers. Even beyond tonights much trialled conclusion the interview on This Morning pretty much confirmed exactly where the storyline is heading in the weeks ahead, though interestingly Shelley said that as the scenes were only half filmed they may have to rewrite that if they can't go back and film as they were.
In a courtroom, requiring multiple actors in a small space.
Of course too in soapland even though it might be the case in real life even without Coronavirus a court trial will always involve the key characters giving evidence face to face when in the real world a video link may be an option.