The Unpopular Point of View

I've been reading the blogs and comments on current Corrie storylines. It's always interesting to see the varying points of view on the characters and the storylines. A lot of it is negative. For some reason, people seem more inclined to write to complain than to praise unless expressly asked "What do you love about Corrie lately?"

Most of my own views on characters, actors and storylines seem to be more tolerant of "down" periods or less than skilled performances, with exceptions, of course. Lately, I've noticed that a couple of the storylines I enjoy with a few quibbles are ones that a lot of other fans really hate and can't wait to see end. There's one in particular that I'm surprised I'm enjoying, considering that I really don't like two of the characters involved and don't particularly rate the actors' performances, either. That could be a case of them being better than I realize, but as I've never seen them in anything else, I have nothing else to compare to.

That storyline is the one involving Carla and Rob. The brother-sister dynamic really interests me. Each of them is throwing the bad old days at each other, and old resentments are getting aired along with that complex "I love you, you're my sibling, but I don't like you very much" dynamic. Throw in the characters' partners, Peter and Tracy into the mix. That's what's really throwing me off my game. I like to hate characters when the actor behind them is clearly doing a bang up job.

I've always liked Peter and Carla has most definitely grown on me. I hate Tracy. I don't like the character, nor are we supposed to, but I also don't like the actor's performance. I know that Kate Ford is apparently a very nice person so is it possible she's a better actor than I think? Maybe, because Tracy is such a one sided character, Kate just goes over the top on purpose. I don't like Rob either nor does the actor do anything for me. But you know what? I'm enjoying the Rob-Tracy partnership and I'm liking her involvement in this storyline, sniping from the back seats, winding Carla up and bullying Rob into some semblance of ambition. I like that Rob knows exactly what Tracy's about, how shallow and selfish she is and he sees that she's just like him in many respects. It's why they work well together and it will probably be what tears them apart in the end.

I've also enjoyed the surrogacy storyline from the start. I don't find Tina as grating as many seem to so she's not been bothering me. I could tell from the start that she'd end up wanting to keep the baby, that was a given. I wasn't sure how it was going to work with her having the baby in the same street as his biological parents. I've found it interesting watching the interaction between Gary, Izzy and Tina and then, once Tina decided to keep the baby, it all kicked off. The only part I didn't like was all the sniping and shouting every time they all  ran into each other, no matter where they happened to be. And I really didn't like Anna charging in to the pub and attacking Tina physically. I really didn't think that was called for.

Some may argue that Anna was provoked, with her heartbroken son to defend. I've also read comments that due to Tina having a habit of throwing drinks in people's faces, she was due a come-back. That may be true in some respects but I still think that shocking violent outburst, seemingly out of the blue, was a bit much. The time for that would have been in the hospital lounge when Tina first broke the news and not from Anna. Izzy could be said to have more justification for it than Anna.

I don't think Tina was right to keep the baby and it's been interesting to watch her growing doubts, day by day, as she sees even those closest to her think she's doing the wrong thing though they're supporting her. She found she had difficulty breastfeeding the very first time and that knocked her confidence back even though it's something that commonly happens. The final straw, and one I didn't expect, was the Solomon-like decision  where Izzy backed down and decided to let Tina keep the baby rather than subject the little one to a lifetime of conflict. Tina then did the right thing and gave the baby to Izzy and Gary, his biological parents. The true mother backs off for the sake of the child. She loves him enough to give him up. Tina recognized that and did the right thing in the end.

Will she regret it? Yes, but she will know she did the right thing.

These two storylines have been the ones that have garnered more of the negative feedback that  I've seen so I wanted to put forth my side of it.  There are always going to be characters I don't like and actors that I don't like but rarely would I say that ruins the show for me even if I wish that particular character or disliked storyline would go/end yesterday. And trust me, there is at least one storyline on the go now that I feel that way about and at least one more character that I feel just doesn't work and it's partly because of the way they're written and partly because I really don't like the actor. I gave it a fair chance but it's just not getting any better.

But that's a whole other blog post, maybe. For another day.