REVIEW: Coronation Street, Friday 19th March 2021
REVIEW: Coronation Street, Friday 19th March 2021
Whether it be accusations of bad acting or poor writing, soap operas as a genre seem to have accumulated quite a bad reputation among the general public. Sometimes these criticisms feel a tad harsh, but on other occasions it can be hard to argue against such sweeping statements. Friday's episode is one of those times where those critiques feel somewhat more justified.
Firstly there's the romance storyline between mechanic Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall) and telesales agent Alina Pop (Ruxandra Porojnicu). For those who don't know, Tyrone is currently supposed to be in a relationship with furniture shop assistant Fiz Brown (Jennie McAlpine), making this yet another soap storyline about a man cheating on his partner. I don't understand this fascination the soaps possess with this form of betrayal. Is it really too much to ask to have at least one long-standing couple on the street, who don't cheat? Tyrone is very clearly infatuated with Alina, and I for one am not looking forward to the scenes that will follow when Fiz eventually learns of their snog.
Then there's the storyline regarding Grace's (Kate Spencer) pregnancy, which has somehow deviated into a plot regarding Michael's (Ryan Russell) parentage - another often-used cliche in soap. I'm sure I can't be the only one bored by narratives regarding who a character's real father is. By this point it has been done to death, and I'd rather Ed (Trevor Michael Georges) had remained as Michael's Dad rather than his brother Ronnie (Vinta Morgan) taking his place.
I still don't get why the Baileys would be happy not only to let Grace into their home but to raise Michael's son. Given how she previously led Michael to believe a child in her care was his son, and nearly got him arrested for child abduction in the process, she is clearly totally unfit to be a mother. Aggie (Lorna Laidlaw) is the only member of that household to have spoken any sense in that whole storyline, and even she seems fine with it now! If I was Michael, I'd have been doing what she first suggested and applying for custody of the baby, as from a character point of view it makes no sense for him to be so trusting of her.
This episode also features Natasha's (Rachel Leskovac) return after a short break, and she acts Ben Price (playing factory boss Nick Tilsley) off the screen. Natasha is back to take over looking after her and Nick's son Sam (Jude Riordan), and Ben Price's acting in these scenes is as usual very hard to watch. He's the very definition of a wooden actor, surrounded by an otherwise great cast, and I'm baffled that he is still given such a large chunk of the screentime.
Sally's (Sally Dynevor) rather over the top planning for Abi's (Sally Franklin) wedding provides a lot of great humour too. Sally, I find, is always at her best when they play her snobby attitude for laughs, although Sally Dynevor is brilliant at the more dramatic scenes too, and her control over Abi's wedding planning has provided some great moments in the past few weeks.
Overall, Friday's episode of Corrie was far from the greatest entry in the programme's long history. This instalment featured a rather cliche mix of storylines, and undoubtedly one of the show's weakest actors in Ben Price, which contributed towards Friday's offering feeling a little uneventful on the whole. It's not all bad, however, as we were also treated to one of Corrie's most defining features - its brilliant grasp of comedy - and it's a shame that Coronation Street doesn't use that comedic talent as often as it probably should.
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What are your thoughts on Friday's episode of Coronation Street? Let me know in the comments section.
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