Corrie from my point of view this week

(This post was originally posted on the Coronation Street Blog August 2015, reposted to this blog with permission.)

Overall? Really good stuff on Coronation Street this week, I thought. The drama and violence of Jason's beating was contrasted with the happy campers and the romance was provided by Nick and Carla's burgeoning relationship.

The camping storyline was ok. It was a bit of fun but not a laugh a minute, either. Dougie was a great character, though. I really enjoyed him!! I could tell he was going to be taken down a peg or two by the end and was delighted it was at the hands of his daughter. It was clear she was getting fed up with his overbearing tactics. Fiz and Beth bickering all week did them no favours, I have to say, but Kirk and Beth on their own were great! The randomness of the monk in the woods was surreal but funny. Lastly, Craig and Caitlyn were really sweet. I loved her drawing of Craig as The Scream, complete with shower!

Jason jumped on his horse and rode into battle as the knight in shining armour. I'm sure he still feels rather fatherly towards Bethany and considers Sarah a friend even if their marriage ended in tatters very quickly. Jason wasn't afraid of Callum in the least and he paid dearly for it. The thugs were very, very good. It took a minute or so with a few extra kicks by Callum to render Jason completely unconcious and bleeding on the ground. You'd think it would take a bit longer but what do I know?

Max is the only witness and his reaction was good, too, rejecting his father. Callum was genuinely shocked, wasn't he? He'd spent the rest of the week covering his tracks and setting up alibis with Gemma and the idea that Max has, without any reason he thinks, suddenly rejected him and is scared of him, drew him up short. If, or when he finds out Max saw what happened, he's going to have to do a lot of fancy footwork to finesse this one. It might be easy to convince a kid that the gun was not real (in spite of the fact that Sarah saw him take out the bullets and give them to Gemma, so why did the police believe Max and not her?) but it will be harder to convince Max he didn't see what he saw or explain it away. 

We had one scene with Billy and Sean which was nice. I want more Billy! I really liked how they've shown that Sean is as much a part of the Grimshaw family as Eileen's two sons. I thought the scenes with Todd were bittersweet. Nobody thought to let him know what happened though I did think it was odd he didn't find out earlier. The ambulance was practically right outside the shop in broad daylight. If Todd wasn't working then Tracy would have seen the commotion to tell him. She wouldn't have stayed inside while it was all going on so she would have discovered what happened.

Then Todd overheard his mother comparing him to Jason and coming out the lesser man and brother and it looked like he knew the truth of it. Now, will he use this to pull himself together or will he use it as yet another excuse to hold a grudge against his family? Time will tell but I hope this might be Todd's turning point.

Loved, absolutely LOVED Sally and Alya bickering over the factory this week which ended with Aidan shocking them by telling them he may end up being their boss if he goes into partnership with Carla. I don't think Carla had any intention of selling to Sally only because she doesn't like her and I don't think Alya would have been able to run the factory on her own, either, so it was inevitable that someone else enter the picture. Shane Ward as Aidan was ok, not too wooden, but seemed to be nervous because he rushed his lines a lot. Didn't go over the top though, so that's good. I think he'll settle into the role nicely once he relaxes.

Carla looked for comfort in Nick's arms but doesn't really want to be involved. She figures she's going to ruin things and break his heart eventually. She probably will, too because that's what she does. Nick is willing to take the chance. Erica handled it all quite well. I think she could see it coming. She'd already been spending time with Carla this week, drinking and eating chips and I think she was assessing the competition. After Nick didn't come home and she found him plotting with Michelle by phone to help Carla, she couldn't deny it any longer. She's hurting more than she's letting on to him, though. I liked that she went to Roy as the voice of reason and I liked that Roy gave her a balanced and unbiased view. She knows running away isn't the answer.

I don't know if Nick and Carla have the same kind of chemistry that it takes to go the distance. Carla and Peter had it but then again, they crashed and burned. Maybe Carla needs someone more stable, like Nick. Maybe Nick is getting used to having Peter's castoffs. He certainly seems to be attracted to women with baggage and troubles.

Those are my thoughts on this week's program. Some really good stuff, nice little scenes. I can see the Callum/Platt storyline building more and more and I expect it will be wrapped up in ITV's upcoming  live episode (which we will likely see in Canada in October) one way or another. Now that it's moving along faster, it's a bit easier to watch but I'll be glad when it's over, too. The car crash that is Carla's life is ongoing and I'm starting to want this to find it's turning point. Soon, please. I'm not looking forward to Hope's illness. I think involving children in stories like that is just too heart wrenchingly sad even if, as is usual in soaps, it has a happy ending. I really don't think they'll have Hope die like they did Hayley.




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