EastEnders

This engaging British series has been a favorite of mine since I was a girl. The families of this fictitious End London borough become familiar faces and names as the show follows generations of the characters thorough their lives. "EE" is more than a working-class soap opera---it's a genuine episodic drama, which is painfully rare here in the US. The storylines arc over months and years instead of days and weeks like American dramas are scheduled. Unlike many American "soap opera-type" series, the majority of episodes are penned by male scriptwriters. The action can be slow-building, but it is engaging. It takes a few viewings to understand who's who and what's what, but with all the websites devoted to this show, the details and characters can be sorted soon enough. Thanks to the advent of cable TV and the BBC America satellite channel, Americans can watch this cozy drama with only a slight lag behind their British counterparts. Grab your favorite ale and some fish and chips and try this show out.

The only reason this isn't less than 2, or 2 & a half stars out of 5 is because this isn't one of those poorly made mockbusters where the acting is non-existent, the same can not be said about the writing.

I've never been sure if soaps are supposed to simulate real-life. If they are meant for this purpose, that's got to be the biggest waste of time in history. Why simulate real-life? We can all admit that most of our lives are repetitive and dull, so why would anyone want to watch a simulation of that, played out by people who don't even exist?

Eastenders is unconvincing to the extreme. Nobody seems to own a computer, washing machine or car. People seem to buy shares in local businesses within a matter seconds, with someone owning "half the Arches" or "half the Vic". Sam walks around with "the books", which really are books! Most business managers have computers and accountants to do that for them. Those who run stalls on the market like to leave their livelihoods with friends, simply handing over their money pouches. They're the lucky ones - a lot of the cast don't have jobs at all so how they manage to survive in east London is beyond me.

The "gangsters" are so unrealistic it's hard to watch. The scripts are terrible, mainly down to watershed restrictions, so the writers cannot include most swear-words and are forced to use words like "moron", "idiot" and "wally" which don't really work on the same scale.

Strangely enough, soaps are the shows that are watched the most in the UK, and I don't understand this. Numerous soap magazines are on the shelves, and these tell us what's going to happen in the coming weeks, so nobody really needs to watch at all.

I don't understand the concept of soaps, why anyone feels the need to watch and why there are so many.

I'm an American who has watched "EastEnders" on and off on my local PBS station over the last 15 years. I find the show fascinating and it's not because the plots are particularly original or the acting is so amazing. It's not the "exotic" location either, I've been to London a couple of times. No, the reason I can't stop watching "EastEnders" is because it's the complete polar opposite of an American soap opera!

On an American soap opera, everyone is attractive or at least above-average looking. On EastEnders, (although they will occasionally throw in an attractive person to confuse you, I mean is Rosie's older daughter a super-model for that neighborhood or what?) everyone is pretty much average to below-average looking. There's one character who always looks like he's in desperate need of a blood transfusion and another who is quite simply the ugliest human being I've ever seen on scripted television.

On an AS, everyone is always fashionably dressed and impeccably groomed. I don't think you ever even see anyone in the same outfit twice. While watching EE, I sometimes wonder if the actors didn't do their own hair and makeup and bring clothes from home. On second thought, most of the actors would probably dress better than their characters.

On an AS, everyone has a glamorous and/or high-profile and/or high-paying and/or highly- respected career, e.g. doctor, model, cosmetics tycoon, writer, chief of police (even if they only appear to be about 20 years-old!), etc. On EE, the characters work in stalls at the street market, in pubs, cafés, garages, and laundromats. The most successful guy in the neighborhood is the guy who owns the café.

You really can't help but feel pretty good about yourself and your life after watching EE.

There are some other characters on EE that you typically wouldn't see on an AS, like a 14 year- old (who looks like a 12 year-old) girl with a baby and a man who seems to be in at least his mid-forties who can't read or write. One nice thing is that the writers don't seem to consider people over the age of 40 too old for romance. People in their 40s, 50s, 60s and older are depicted dating and even getting married. I've laughed out loud at a few hilarious moments involving horny seniors Pat, Patrick and Big Mo.

My favorite character is Dot Cotton/Brown, the church-lady type who gets some good lines. The actress who plays her is 88 years-old and it's pretty impressive that she's still working a grueling soap schedule and memorizing tons of dialogue.

Is EE a great show? No. Is it even a very good show? No. Will I keep watching? Well, yeah. We only get 2 episodes a week in the States (we're 10 years behind the UK, episode-wise), that's not enough to kill the novelty factor. I wouldn't watch "Days of Our Lives" but I'll watch "EastEnders" and feel like a successful super-model when the end-credits roll!

It's a shame to see Phil Mitchell as the one last true great. Ian Beale is past it and we are missing true greats such as Pat and Grant