State of the Street - March

Faye's pregnancy gets more and more obvious as the weeks go on yet nobody notices. Perhaps it's slightly believable that her mother hasn't noticed considering all the stuff that's gone on that has been distracting her lately. Prior to that, Faye was worried about gaining weight and that's all it looked like. What I wonder is where is Faye getting the ever larger sized baggy school jumpers because Anna would have to buy them or pay for them at least and nothing has been noted. What about Faye's skirts and jeans? None of them will fit and we haven't heard any mention of her buying or asking for larger sizes or buying stuff off the market cheap. That's the only bit of this storyline that's a bit "what?". Otherwise, I'm quite enjoying it.

More than I thought I would, too. I was dismayed at the idea of them going down this road again after doing it with Sarah Lou in 2000. She was also 12 getting pregnant, 13 when she found out and gave birth. I knew they'd do a different slant on it and they did, having Faye find out and keeping it all a secret, with the help of Craig, who, incidentally, has been a joy to watch. What a great character and Colson Smith is awesome! He's really come into his own. We'll be seeing Faye give birth over Easter so as I post this, it will be just a few days. Then the real fun begins.

I really hope they'll bring Sarah and Gail into this, Sarah to talk to Faye and Gail to support Anna since they've both been in the same position. Faye's going to be shell shocked and Sarah knows how that feels. She could be a good support but I have a feeling it will be completely ignored or barely touched upon. Too bad.

We've had Katy leave with her newly discovered mother. That was a bit of a waste of a potentially good storyline, having Linda come back after all these years but I don't think it was handled very believably. Owen behaved abominably keeping Linda away from the children. She never fought back with legal help. I suppose Owen must have been as much of a bully then as now and had her in an emotional position of not being confident and brave enough to really sink her teeth into it. I don't believe that after 18 years that a woman that now seems to be a confident business owner wouldn't have returned long before now once the girls were at least teenagers and could speak for themselves or would have hired a solicitor and forced Owen to give access.

I also don't believe that after 18 years and the awful way he treated her that she still loves him and wants to make a go of it. Nope. Not buying it. I could possibly see Owen still harbouring feelings. He was very, very hurt and probably never got over it even if he now loves Anna. There are a lot of unresolved feelings there for him but Linda wanting him back and "always" loving him only feels a bit like a kicked puppy continuing to follow its master. I don't think they cast her all that well either. I wanted Linda to have more passion and fire to her, to really show anger when she stood up to Owen. She was too quiet. Too nice. Yes, there was an element of strength but it still felt tentative. It was all a bit contrived and unfortunately that happens a lot when they have to write an exit storyline. It's not as if they didn't have enough time to figure it out. Georgia May Foote's exit was announced last summer!

I'm bored with Callum going after custody of Max and his tangles with David. We all remember David as a near-psycho kid on the edge. Where's that kid now? Why hasn't David recovered his inner madman? He seems cowed and scared by Callum rather than fierce most of the time. This mediation stuff is really working on my last nerve. Why were the mothers allowed at the second session when they had to sit outside at the first one? Contrived so that when Gail wasn't there, David would get angry and Gail couldn't say why she missed the meeting. I can't wait for Kylie to come back and kick Callum's backside to the other side of Manchester with her truth about who he is. I hear Paula Lane has just gone back to filming after her maternity leave so I suppose we'll see her by June. Oh God. Two more months of this.

Bethany Platt has decided to flee Milan and come back to dreary, rainy Weatherfield. I'm not sure how much of what she's saying is true and how much is bullshit. I speculate that Sarah has been working long hours and probably a bit neglectful. Considering Bethany's personality, I'm sure Sarah has taken her eye off the ball and Bethany has been a bit out of control. I expect Sarah has never been one to enforce the rules and Bethany probably has been brought up with a lot of leeway. Sarah was only just 20 with a 7 year old when she left for Italy and Gail did as much of the parenting or more before that. We'll see how it unfolds. Sarah has returned to fetch Bethany and it looks as if she'll be staying on for awhile, that is, if the walls of the Tardis Number 8 don't explode with all the people in it.

Tracy's leading Tony around by the unmentionables. It started off as a way to make herself feel better over the whole Rob thing and now she's having fun twisting Tony in the wind so to speak. Tony does love Liz and is scared he'll lose her and lose a good thing, well situated in the pub. He's got a stake in Barlows Buys but since it's a shaky one with dodgey stolen goods most of the time, who knows how long that will last. I'm surprised, after Tracy made a deal with the cops to drop any stolen goods charges for her turning in Rob that they police haven't been keeping a closer eye on her business. I bet they would in real life. It'll be only a matter of time before the affair is revealed. Liz will tear chunks out of her and Ken will sign "Oh, Tracy!" since we won't have Deirdre to do it.

Steve is making slow progress in his recovery but things aren't that good yet. Another ghost in the machine has reared its ugly head. He's been ignoring letters from the Revenue and he owes over 10 thousand pounds. However did they resolve the debt he ran up on Streetcars' accounts? I remember him promising to pay it back. I think maybe Liz did that, didn't she? Now Tony is going to pay his bill with the money he made selling off that auction house he bought for Jason and Eva. That was nice! It's just a loan but it gets Steve off the hook as far as taxes go. Michelle is actually being really good with Steve for a change. It's also interesting to see Lloyd struggling with it and finding out if they can patch up the cracks in their friendship. It looks like it's starting to happen but it's not a speedy thing and that's more realistic.

The return of Jenny Bradley has been very interesting so far. She hasn't really made peace with a reluctant Rita and man, I continually want to smack Norris for all his interfering comments. It's none of his damn business so shut up! And because Rita is upset, Sally is shooting evils at Jenny, too, though there may also be a frisson of jealousy there as well. She always seemed to be of the opinion that even if she didn't want Kevin, she didn't want him to find anyone else, either, because I think she liked the idea of Kevin pining for her.

There's something going on with Jenny too and I want to know what it is. She's been good with Jack yet has been hesitant to be responsible for him and when she is, she's very over protective. That freak out over the fear that he might have swallowed something he could choke on really makes me think she might have lost a child to an accident for which she blames herself. Time will tell.

Still liking Billy though not really sure why he would have taken a shine to Sean. I could have easily seen him with Marcus, though, couldn't you? I hope they tone down Sean because if he doesn't learn from his past, his neuroses and jealousy and low self esteem is going to shoot this relationship in the foot just last all the others.

We haven't seen nearly enough of Carla. They've hidden Sinead away and we've hardly seen much of her struggle to walk though it's there. And don't get me started on the fact that she couldn't stand on her own while having the potential support of the parallel bars and two nurses and two days later had enough confidence to try to stand up at home, *alone* out of the wheelchair and reach for the teabags! Stupid woman. Stupid scene.

Oh, and the Gavin/Andy storyline, still keeping me interested though I know a lot of people think it's dragging on too long. I am enjoying the twists and turns, the irony of the real Gavin coming back to cause trouble and then dying of the genetic heart thing, the slow creep of more and more people finding out about Andy. Now Gail knows and she's in a very tough spot knowing the shock of it all could very well give Michael that fatal heart attack. I reckon Michael will be the last to know but will, of course, find out, and then it will really hit the fan!

Even though Andy has done a bad thing and has become really stuck in the middle of his own lies, I do like him. I like he and Steph together as well.

Liked the chicken storyline. Wish Zeedan would find a reason to smile. Or have a storyline. Or something. Unsure of the Roy and Sharif sharing an allottment thing though I think it's actually supposed to be the catalyst to bringing Roy back to a bit more normalcy and bring him out of his deep grief. Alya and Gary. Where are they? Don't care. Luke and Maria. Don't care. I do like both characters but they don't seem to gel as a couple. Eileen and the internet dating world. Meh but it might be ok. Jason thinking Eva was with Tony and losing her. Well, that came out of nowhere and just a set up to her leaving for maternity leave for the actor. Another awkward get-out story.

I like most of the storylines on the screen to date, though. I think I tend to be a bit more forgiving of the show even after watching for 26 years. I accept that it has to change with the times. For the better? Not always, but it's not for the worse either, not for me. It's very subjective, isn't it? They could do with a bit smaller cast, do with using the older cast more, try to spread the front burning storylines around a bit rather than seemingly focussing on one family or character like the flavour of the year. One year it was non-stop Michelle, then Becky. Recently it was non-stop Windass and they're still fairly front burner but are fighing for supremacy with the whole Platt clan (and all assorted last names associated thereof. They're still Platts to me!)

I'm looking forward to Faye giving birth and the aftermath of that. Looking forward to Kylie's return. Can't wait to see the explosion when Liz finds out about Tracy and Tony. Interested to see where this Jenny thing is going.

That's the State of the Street for March!