#anyway made marlon's life absolutely miserable

[scrapyardboyfriends]

The Charity/Mack stuff is being handled very poorly but that is a story wide issue accross the board. I give up on them ever being capable of doing that well because they've ever told a story completely from start to finish well. Not a single one. What I truly don't understand is how/why they have turned Chas, Paddy, Sam even Marlon now with this story, into absolutely miserable characters. There is not a single redeeming quality about Chas anymore. I never loved her but she had moments. She is absolutely insufferable and even the GA, based on FB, is starting to turn on her. She's vile and I don't know why they chose to turn her into this person. Paddy long ago wore out his welcome/usefulness but now he's just unbearable. I don't get the Same stuff at all. And now they're starting down that route with Marlon. The Dingles are a lot to take on a good day but I hate most of them now. Full force hate. It don't get the choices at all.

They've just made all of them so unlikeable.

But I also think a lot of it has to do with the constant misery. There's no joy, there's no break from the constant drama. There's no attempt made to make these characters likable in between. Like how many characters can the Dingles disown and then accept back into the fold when they realize they want something from them? It just makes them miserable people and massive hypocrites all the time and there's just no reason to root for that kind of character.

I hate that they're dragging Marlon down into the mess too. Do I think they've over relied on Marlon's goofy, neurotic schtick over the years? Sure, but allowing him to have moments of lightness, moments with his family, moments of romance, give you something to care about. For the last several months all we've really seen with him is pub misery and then Rhona gets dragged into that and it's just more misery. There's no nice romantic break with her, not for a while anyway. The stuff with the bullying for April just led to more misery, especially his dumb spat with Bob. And he rarely gets moments with Billy and Ellis these days, which used to really do him a lot of good. And then because he's been so miserable and Paddy is the worst now, their friendship scenes, which used to be fun are now a chore because they feel forced and half of them are dragged down by this pub mess.

Paddy's been bad ever since the Tess thing but the relationship with Chas really just sucked all the life out of him. That and the whole thing with Bear because that just turned him more into an overgrown child. Paddy is at his best when he gets to be an adult, when he gets to be the rational one. It's why he worked so well with Aaron and Chas back when she was a disaster. He's sort of like Rishi that way, in that he needs to be allowed to be an adult and be more competent in between the antics.

Chas is just a mess. The Grace story just truly destroyed her for me. I know people want to come yell at me for having no sympathy for a woman who lost a child etc but the way they wrote her in that story just made it impossible. They just made her insufferable in her grief and having no time for anyone else's problems. And I feel like there's a way to do that without making her unbearable. But with two years of pregnancy and grief and using both to guilt trip people and preach to people just made her infuriating. She used to be a person who, while a disaster, was aware she was a disaster. Now she thinks she's just the authority on everyone and doesn't remember any of her own mistakes unless she's using them to patronize you into doing what she wants like every time she brought up Carl or Cameron when talking to Aaron. But really they've just made her miserable. Her relationship with Paddy is awful and they've had her state as much multiple times but they keep forcing it so she has no real joy there because even when they claim she's happy, it feels fake. She's been in free fall with the business. She's been disowning people left and right, forgetting entirely what it was like for her to be on the outside in the old days. Now it feels like her caring comes at a price or with a threat. And it's just hard to have any sympathy for that kind of character.

Also the "Dingleness" of Sam and Zak has just gotten old now. Any mention of the Dingle code or today's nonsense with Zak wanting a beer or Sam and Zak in the shop just steeling everything and getting Samson fired instantly. It's just played out. They've been around too long now for that to fly. And I feel like both characters just get trotted out every once in a while to display these annoying traits rather than being real characters. It's just stale at this point. And all of them sitting around Wishing Well today slagging Aaron off for being selfish when they all disowned Liv five seconds after he left was just ridiculous. The hypocrisy is just too much sometimes.

They have to figure out a way to really bring the Dingles into the modern era of the show and the show overall needs so much less misery. They need periods in between for characters to have a little joy and fun on screen. Just small moments even. Or no one is going to care because they're exhausting.

Ugh....this show is such a mess. But yeah...I do sometimes wish Meena would go on a Dingle murder spree when she returns.