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<blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 410729" data-attributes="member: 22"><p>Because the transition from Karen moving in with Guy to her disappearing from the show is so gradual, I never quite realise she's gone until she reappears at Christmas.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yeah, that scene of them all eating chips on the sofa -- Bobby, Sheila and Barry laughing while Karen and Damon try to avoid unwanted phone calls from their soon-to-be exes -- is the last time they're all together on screen as a family. And of course the conversation between Karen and Damon when he complains about being left at home while her and Barry are off living their lives in the big wide world is the last one they'll ever have. So it all feels very poignant in retrospect.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I know I really, really liked this scene when I first saw it (especially the way it was juxtaposed with the Bobby/Barry conversation in the Swan with all its dark oedipal undertones) but I'm not sure if I found it as moving as I do now. It's become kind of impossible to separate its significance at the time to its added significance in hindsight. With Damon meeting Debbie on the same night, this really is the Grants moving into their final phase as a family.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Part of what makes Karen Karen is that, for everything that's cool and great about her, she has a tendency to treat her boyfriends like dirt when she's had enough of them. Everything about her and Guy's relationship rang completely true: from the fun beginning to the serious and sexy middle to the sad and messy end.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Our very own Constance McCashin!</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I really liked the episode that ended with Ralph looking out of the window, seeing Barry leaving and then saying something wistful about a young man off on his travels. It's been one of several low-key, non-cliffhangery episode endings recently that have been quite refreshing.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I absolutely loved the scene where Father Gibbons planted the idea of Rome in Sheila's head by recounting his own experience in Lourdes. I really like that character. I once saw the actor who played him years and years later and wanted to say, "You'll always be Father Gibbons to me", but never got the chance.</p><p></p><p>There's something contrived about this story, but in the best way. At the risk of diminishing Sheila's belief in the Catholic church, Rome is kind of a Maguffin, something both she and the writers are using to move themselves forward. If it wasn't this, Sheila would be doing something else to reclaim her freedom and independence, something which Bobby would resent just as much. This conflict triggers their unresolved grievances both from before the rape and because of the rape, all of which have become entangled. So when they argue now, it's not really (or not just) about the thing they're arguing about in the present, it's about all the other things under the surface. And again, this is feels very real.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Oh that's so interesting. I'd never thought of it that way: how Brookside uses "the pub" almost in an opposite way to the other soaps. I noticed that the landlord said he'd probably recognise Bobby by sight, but not by name, which would be a treasonable offence for someone working behind the bar on <em>Enders</em>. And "the pub" is very much a male preserve in '80s Brookside. <s>I don't think we've ever seen a woman in the Swan unless she's accompanied by a man. Same with Heather and that wine bar we used to see her in at the start of the series. The only exception I can think of is the pub garden Petra and Michelle are in where they get chatted up by a man and then Petra freaks out.</s></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Aw poor Gail. No-one's got a good word to say about her, not even Saint Sheila.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="James from London, post: 410729, member: 22"] Because the transition from Karen moving in with Guy to her disappearing from the show is so gradual, I never quite realise she's gone until she reappears at Christmas. Yeah, that scene of them all eating chips on the sofa -- Bobby, Sheila and Barry laughing while Karen and Damon try to avoid unwanted phone calls from their soon-to-be exes -- is the last time they're all together on screen as a family. And of course the conversation between Karen and Damon when he complains about being left at home while her and Barry are off living their lives in the big wide world is the last one they'll ever have. So it all feels very poignant in retrospect. I know I really, really liked this scene when I first saw it (especially the way it was juxtaposed with the Bobby/Barry conversation in the Swan with all its dark oedipal undertones) but I'm not sure if I found it as moving as I do now. It's become kind of impossible to separate its significance at the time to its added significance in hindsight. With Damon meeting Debbie on the same night, this really is the Grants moving into their final phase as a family. Part of what makes Karen Karen is that, for everything that's cool and great about her, she has a tendency to treat her boyfriends like dirt when she's had enough of them. Everything about her and Guy's relationship rang completely true: from the fun beginning to the serious and sexy middle to the sad and messy end. Our very own Constance McCashin! I really liked the episode that ended with Ralph looking out of the window, seeing Barry leaving and then saying something wistful about a young man off on his travels. It's been one of several low-key, non-cliffhangery episode endings recently that have been quite refreshing. I absolutely loved the scene where Father Gibbons planted the idea of Rome in Sheila's head by recounting his own experience in Lourdes. I really like that character. I once saw the actor who played him years and years later and wanted to say, "You'll always be Father Gibbons to me", but never got the chance. There's something contrived about this story, but in the best way. At the risk of diminishing Sheila's belief in the Catholic church, Rome is kind of a Maguffin, something both she and the writers are using to move themselves forward. If it wasn't this, Sheila would be doing something else to reclaim her freedom and independence, something which Bobby would resent just as much. This conflict triggers their unresolved grievances both from before the rape and because of the rape, all of which have become entangled. So when they argue now, it's not really (or not just) about the thing they're arguing about in the present, it's about all the other things under the surface. And again, this is feels very real. Oh that's so interesting. I'd never thought of it that way: how Brookside uses "the pub" almost in an opposite way to the other soaps. I noticed that the landlord said he'd probably recognise Bobby by sight, but not by name, which would be a treasonable offence for someone working behind the bar on [I]Enders[/I]. And "the pub" is very much a male preserve in '80s Brookside. [S]I don't think we've ever seen a woman in the Swan unless she's accompanied by a man. Same with Heather and that wine bar we used to see her in at the start of the series. The only exception I can think of is the pub garden Petra and Michelle are in where they get chatted up by a man and then Petra freaks out.[/S] Aw poor Gail. No-one's got a good word to say about her, not even Saint Sheila. [/QUOTE]
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