EastEnders
I am so miffed with EastEnders at the moment... Since January I've been waiting for this romance to play out between Ben and Paul, only for it all to be stymied by this cringeworthy fake baby plotline with Abi - and now the moment that finishes it's been it's been confirmed that the actor who plays Paul is leaving in June! So apart from the two of them sparking off a load of storylines next week by snogging in the pub there seems to be no indication that they will actually have anything to do for most of May, apart from likely set up some stupid romance between Ben and Johnny to come after Paul's left. Which is stupid because the characters have nothing of interest to offer each other apart from both of them being gay. It'll be useful for the soap because they're from two of the major families, but I don't think the Mitchells and the Carters are that interesting as foils for one another anyway.
Obviously it should have been obvious that nothing was going to go anywhere, because Ben Mitchell is pretty much universally loathed, but somehow in the last six months+ the actor who's playing him these days (Harry Reid) has got quite good and Paul has made him super interesting to watch. Look, I have videos!
Last October is when things really started kicking off. Ben and Paul have been sleeping together in basically any place that would have them, but then Phil (Ben's hard man dad) catches them, only to promptly get kidnapped. Ben thinks his dad's gone because of him and Paul, and so decides the solution is to act like a dick. Then it's Jay's birthday, and they realise they actually have stuff in common to talk about. (For further backstory, it's worth knowing that Jay is basically Ben's adopted brother and he went out for years with Ben's now-girlfriend Abi. Abi and Ben are basically using each other out of sheer desperation - only without either telling the other - but they have also been very close friends since childhood.)
Alas, they never go to Hoxton, because Ben's mum (yes, Kathy Beale...) comes back from the dead! And he flips a bit. (Second video for reference; he's not actually joking about how shit it's been.)
A few things happen after this (not least Phil falling off the wagon for the first time in a few years) and Ben and Paul grow closer until the point that Paul says he loves Ben and it all gets a bit real, but Ben makes his decision and in true soap fashion sends Abi off on holiday to buy himself time to prepare to break things off with her.
But that all goes wrong, and Abi comes back from skiing in a neck brace before cooking up a scheme with the actually most hateful character in the show, Aunt Babe, to pretend she's pregnant. Being a family man, Ben first of all flips out but then comes round to thinking this will be great and maybe it won't be too hard to live a lie. Various scenes along the way make it clear that's not really the case (really, it gets to the point that Abi and Ben have absolutely nothing to say to one another); Abi fakes a miscarriage after Babe sets it up for drunk!Phil to knock her over... But finally the truth is revealed thanks to various machinations of Ben's half-sister Louise, who returns to the scene for various reasons. And we get to the week before last, with the idiot attempting to get back in Paul's good graces and the pair of them proving they are a classic comedy duo that do not deserve to be broken up in favour of Johnny stupid Carter and/or looked over in favour of other boring storylines.
PS. This is not to say that Johnny and Ben don't make good friends; they were great back before Johnny went to Italy. But they'd make a boring couple.
Obviously it should have been obvious that nothing was going to go anywhere, because Ben Mitchell is pretty much universally loathed, but somehow in the last six months+ the actor who's playing him these days (Harry Reid) has got quite good and Paul has made him super interesting to watch. Look, I have videos!
Last October is when things really started kicking off. Ben and Paul have been sleeping together in basically any place that would have them, but then Phil (Ben's hard man dad) catches them, only to promptly get kidnapped. Ben thinks his dad's gone because of him and Paul, and so decides the solution is to act like a dick. Then it's Jay's birthday, and they realise they actually have stuff in common to talk about. (For further backstory, it's worth knowing that Jay is basically Ben's adopted brother and he went out for years with Ben's now-girlfriend Abi. Abi and Ben are basically using each other out of sheer desperation - only without either telling the other - but they have also been very close friends since childhood.)
Click to viewAlas, they never go to Hoxton, because Ben's mum (yes, Kathy Beale...) comes back from the dead! And he flips a bit. (Second video for reference; he's not actually joking about how shit it's been.)
A few things happen after this (not least Phil falling off the wagon for the first time in a few years) and Ben and Paul grow closer until the point that Paul says he loves Ben and it all gets a bit real, but Ben makes his decision and in true soap fashion sends Abi off on holiday to buy himself time to prepare to break things off with her.
But that all goes wrong, and Abi comes back from skiing in a neck brace before cooking up a scheme with the actually most hateful character in the show, Aunt Babe, to pretend she's pregnant. Being a family man, Ben first of all flips out but then comes round to thinking this will be great and maybe it won't be too hard to live a lie. Various scenes along the way make it clear that's not really the case (really, it gets to the point that Abi and Ben have absolutely nothing to say to one another); Abi fakes a miscarriage after Babe sets it up for drunk!Phil to knock her over... But finally the truth is revealed thanks to various machinations of Ben's half-sister Louise, who returns to the scene for various reasons. And we get to the week before last, with the idiot attempting to get back in Paul's good graces and the pair of them proving they are a classic comedy duo that do not deserve to be broken up in favour of Johnny stupid Carter and/or looked over in favour of other boring storylines.
PS. This is not to say that Johnny and Ben don't make good friends; they were great back before Johnny went to Italy. But they'd make a boring couple.