Coronation Street - piling on the agony?

(This post was originally posted by Seapenguin on the Coronation Street Blog March 2011, reposted to this blog with permission.)

WARNING contains spoilers about 2 characters leaving the show.

Anything to like about Coronation Street at the moment? Not much from where I'm sitting. And don't anyone dare tell me to "just stop watching then". I've been watching Corrie for years and I'm not about to stop now, just because it's hitting a slump.

And it is. I haven't written a blog post for ages because I've simply felt uninspired by the programme.

My favourite family is the Windasses (the Barlows were my favourites, till the awful Tracy came back). But I don't like the adoption storyline (nauseating) and Gary's PTSD seems to have all but disappeared. Get something from the magic Weatherfield doctor, did he? Like David Platt did for his "epilepsy"? I'm sick to the back teeth of half-baked plotlines. Goodness only knows what Eddie's exit storyline will be. I really dread to think.

As others have pointed out recently, great characters such as Graeme and Eddie are going to be a huge loss to the Street. And prolonging the contracts of terrible characters such as Tracy and Kylie is just piling on the agony.

The trail of destruction didn't end with the tram crash and the current production team seem to be revelling in the opportunity to wantonly pull down every treasured Coronation Street symbol, shaking things up just for the sake of it. What next - are they going to tarmac over the cobbles? Ken's too old to go through the stress of another campaign again.

It would be okay up to a point if they were making a decent job of it. But they aren't. The latest example is Audrey's salon. Yes, Audrey's seventy, and realistically it might be time for her to hang up her scissors. But do David and the dreadful Kylie really have to get their mitts on it? And the love triangle with Claud, Aud, and the incipient cross-dresser is an undignified disaster just waiting to happen. As for Mrs Hargreaves popping her clogs under the dryer - yes, up to a point it was a good black comedy moment, but also a bit of a cheap laugh, and a clumsy segue into well-loved character Audrey talking about her own will.

And what about the Xin/Graeme storyline - for pity's sake. But enough's been said about that already.

On the plus side, Ken and Deirdre soldier on with the Jonathan Harvey-penned specials -but is that merely a way of keeping them out of the main programme without ditching them altogether because they're too flaming old? The War of the Websters continues to be good value. And Chris Gascoyne is always great to watch.

But that's about it, as far as I'm concerned. Anyone else got any views on how Corrie is at the moment?