Eastenders Analysis

In this episode I felt that the main theme was about RELATIONSHIPS.
The relationships between the characters is important because the audience need to feel that they are watching something realistic and the characters can relate to them in any way.

The beginning of Eastenders show Ronnie jogging around the square and sees Sam, Ronnie has given her money to run away and start a new life with her new born baby Richard. This storyline disintegrates into Minty and Sam who have had a past of being together, she wants Minty to leave with her and he wants to go but he doesn’t want to because of his new girlfriend Heather and her son George who he feels attached to now. Coincidently, it is Georges christening on the day Sam is to leave, and Minty has a decision to make whether he is to stay with Heather or leave with Sam.

It them leads onto the Slater family, Moe is very anxious and is looking for Zoes birth certificate for Kat, her granddaughter who sounded desperately in trouble. She goes to the café and finds Kat with a blonde wig on to try and hide her identity and then talk about how people are after Kat and her husband Alfie because they scammed off a mafia. It sounds very unrealistic because of the term ‘mafia’ which is usually associated in films. Moe then persuades Kat to go back with her to the house to meet the family, she says ‘ let me look after you, we’re family’ which reflects the grandma and granddaughter bond between them.

It moves onto Patrick and Dot who are reciting their speeches for Georges christening, as they are his godparents, this shows the older generation in Eastenders as they take religious events very seriously and have different morals. Dot meets these northerners who are enquiring about Kat, no one is aware of her being back, except the audience.

At the christening Heather who is very excited and happy and kisses Minty, she is not aware that Minty is planning to leave with Sam soon after he gets a phone call that she is waiting outside in a cab. In Slater house, Moe comes back with Kat through the back door in the kitchen and everyone is happily surprised, as they rejoice, in the background the radio is playing Amy Winehouse, Jean who is making a cup of tea for Kat says ‘what a coincidence I was only just saying to those men that we would hardly see you’ Kat replies ‘what men’, Jean says ‘the northern fellas sitting in our living room waiting for you’. This is the end of the episode and it is ended with a cliff-hanger to make audiences interested, so they can watch the next one to see if Kat does get caught.

The representation of characters are important because they make the narrative realistic and interesting for the audience. The realism is shown through the character relationships, for example Moe and Kats grandma/granddaughter relationship, Moe went to see her when she was in trouble and persuaded her by saying ‘we’re family’, the narrative is appealing as there are interweaving story lines happening, also the audience are aware of things that the characters aren’t which makes us feel at edge of what could happen.