cobbles
Banned
Corrie seems to flit between genuinely gripping high octane drama in the Geoff story-line and absolute farce in some of the supposed comedy story-lines (Steve's sausages anyone...)
Too many characters seem to have a free pass to remain on the show indefinitely despite being horrendous. The show seems unwilling to move beyond the 2000s in it's structure and seems unwilling to try and get back to it's root.
Burn the Factory Down and Replace It With a Warehouse.....
The underwear factory is a ridiculous concept in this day and age. This stuff has been made in China for decades, the idea of having a workplace is great but the bottom line is this doesn't reflect the real world. People who live on Corrie like streets in this day and age would likely work in industrial sized factories making food or the like or in Amazon warehouses etc. It seems common sense to take the large open space that is the old factory and convert it into something more modern.
Another option with Corrie generally being more middle class than working class in this day and age is to give that factory a complete real build and turn it into a set of media/small business offices although with that sector in disarray in the real world probably not the greatest option.
Comedy Storylines
Get rid of the comedy storylines. Force the writers to watch the classic episodes. Comedy and humour have always been in Corrie but it generally steps short of being a sitcom - the modern show seems determined to stray over the edge into farce on too many occasions. Of course we don't want Corrie to be drab and dour or a constant barrage of demonstration but natural human interaction allows the lightness to come through when treat with respect - forced comedy in soaps becomes funny only when it's done horrendously badly.
Shut the Bistro and refurbish the Rovers
Do we really need the Bistro and the Rovers on a back street in Weatherfield. The Bistro needs burning down with the Rovers restored as the community hub that it should be, it should serve food - a pub like the Rovers would not survive in this day and age without serving food, it would probably even have a restaurant seating area and a general bar area. Let's get to seeing families go in for their Sunday lunch in the local pub (or even cooking it at home would be something) and a more realistic portrayal of these communities. We know full well many of these characters wouldn't set foot in the likes of the Bistro.
Get the characters off the bloody street.
This is the modern world. Location filming is a trivial operation. So get the characters off the bloody street. Allow them to work away from the street - show them driving off to Manchester in the mornings, show them having city centre careers and professional jobs, show them taking low paid jobs on long commutes. Heck show some of them self-employed and struggling to make ends meet as events workers. Take the kids off to festivals in the summers or to gaming conventions/tech events, give them interests like football - but show them at the football matches, have someone enter 5k races as a hobby or go trainspotting. Whatever. Just give the character's lives that
Bring the Hate Back
Looking back on the old episodes there's something blatant obvious that's missing from the modern show. Genuine hatred between characters, blunt honest and 'I don't like you but I have to get along with you cos I live next to you.' In the modern show it seems too much trying to foster a sense of community where everybody gets along with each other - in a real world where it's easier than ever to hate your neighbours and avoid them - it seems the show is confusing forcing them to interact to forcing them to like eachother. A lot of the great drama in Corrie comes from hatred - Mike and Ken, Elsie and Ena, Ivy and Gail and many others.
Bring Back the Character Development
Allow the characters to change over a period of time, to develop complex emotional backstories. The show seems at the minute to want to treat us as idiots, with characters lacking flexibility and lacking the ability to allow events around them to change them. Just because someone arrives on the street a tart doesn't mean they can't have a committed marriage. The show really needs to give long term briefs to characters from the off. Look at Roy for example - started off a borderline psycho now fits into the street because the edges were softened. This is what happens as people get older, yet Corrie seems determined not to allow characters to mature - take Gemma and David as examples - and in Shona's case they've turned her back into a child.
And now for the bit that's likely to really cause some debate.
Mass sackings
Make the actors fearful of getting the boot if they don't perform. Too many seem to think their on a lifer. Nobody should feel that way, whilst there will always be long term characters in soaps it should be a case of the actors earning that by having long term storylines that matter over a period of years and winning the public trust, not because your happy to stay there on regular cash ins and the producers can't be bothered to can your character. There's an insane amount of dead wood in the show that could be turfed out right now.......
Too many characters seem to have a free pass to remain on the show indefinitely despite being horrendous. The show seems unwilling to move beyond the 2000s in it's structure and seems unwilling to try and get back to it's root.
Burn the Factory Down and Replace It With a Warehouse.....
The underwear factory is a ridiculous concept in this day and age. This stuff has been made in China for decades, the idea of having a workplace is great but the bottom line is this doesn't reflect the real world. People who live on Corrie like streets in this day and age would likely work in industrial sized factories making food or the like or in Amazon warehouses etc. It seems common sense to take the large open space that is the old factory and convert it into something more modern.
Another option with Corrie generally being more middle class than working class in this day and age is to give that factory a complete real build and turn it into a set of media/small business offices although with that sector in disarray in the real world probably not the greatest option.
Comedy Storylines
Get rid of the comedy storylines. Force the writers to watch the classic episodes. Comedy and humour have always been in Corrie but it generally steps short of being a sitcom - the modern show seems determined to stray over the edge into farce on too many occasions. Of course we don't want Corrie to be drab and dour or a constant barrage of demonstration but natural human interaction allows the lightness to come through when treat with respect - forced comedy in soaps becomes funny only when it's done horrendously badly.
Shut the Bistro and refurbish the Rovers
Do we really need the Bistro and the Rovers on a back street in Weatherfield. The Bistro needs burning down with the Rovers restored as the community hub that it should be, it should serve food - a pub like the Rovers would not survive in this day and age without serving food, it would probably even have a restaurant seating area and a general bar area. Let's get to seeing families go in for their Sunday lunch in the local pub (or even cooking it at home would be something) and a more realistic portrayal of these communities. We know full well many of these characters wouldn't set foot in the likes of the Bistro.
Get the characters off the bloody street.
This is the modern world. Location filming is a trivial operation. So get the characters off the bloody street. Allow them to work away from the street - show them driving off to Manchester in the mornings, show them having city centre careers and professional jobs, show them taking low paid jobs on long commutes. Heck show some of them self-employed and struggling to make ends meet as events workers. Take the kids off to festivals in the summers or to gaming conventions/tech events, give them interests like football - but show them at the football matches, have someone enter 5k races as a hobby or go trainspotting. Whatever. Just give the character's lives that
Bring the Hate Back
Looking back on the old episodes there's something blatant obvious that's missing from the modern show. Genuine hatred between characters, blunt honest and 'I don't like you but I have to get along with you cos I live next to you.' In the modern show it seems too much trying to foster a sense of community where everybody gets along with each other - in a real world where it's easier than ever to hate your neighbours and avoid them - it seems the show is confusing forcing them to interact to forcing them to like eachother. A lot of the great drama in Corrie comes from hatred - Mike and Ken, Elsie and Ena, Ivy and Gail and many others.
Bring Back the Character Development
Allow the characters to change over a period of time, to develop complex emotional backstories. The show seems at the minute to want to treat us as idiots, with characters lacking flexibility and lacking the ability to allow events around them to change them. Just because someone arrives on the street a tart doesn't mean they can't have a committed marriage. The show really needs to give long term briefs to characters from the off. Look at Roy for example - started off a borderline psycho now fits into the street because the edges were softened. This is what happens as people get older, yet Corrie seems determined not to allow characters to mature - take Gemma and David as examples - and in Shona's case they've turned her back into a child.
And now for the bit that's likely to really cause some debate.
Mass sackings
Make the actors fearful of getting the boot if they don't perform. Too many seem to think their on a lifer. Nobody should feel that way, whilst there will always be long term characters in soaps it should be a case of the actors earning that by having long term storylines that matter over a period of years and winning the public trust, not because your happy to stay there on regular cash ins and the producers can't be bothered to can your character. There's an insane amount of dead wood in the show that could be turfed out right now.......
- Tyrone
- Emma
- Kirk
- Sean
- Billy
- Izzy
- Gemma
- Craig
- Amy
- Faye
- Toyah
- Bernie
- Fiz
- Dev
- Shona
- Cathy
- Gary
- Kevin
- Brian
- Steve
- Eileen
- Tracy