Not Zack projecting his own creepy behaviour on to Nancy.

And Ned is giving Nish and I’m not here for it.

Yea saying you're a mum to Nancy is weird af knowing she's never wanted kids and has explicitly said she's just a surrogate

I hate how it's always "you'll change your mind" when a woman says she has no desire to have kids of her own

Ned's treatment of Ryder is definitely just the tip of the iceberg with the Hawkins' , being homophobic and forcing your son into football in 2026 is just absurd

Sorry, are we supposed to believe that in a whole week Zack and Nancy didn't see each other once when living under the same roof? 😂

Glad she defended herself with Zack and mentioned that she'd been through counselling to deal with the surrogacy. I just hope that Lee leaves with the baby still.

It must be in the genes in the Branning family that someone can't stay faithful.

Ned’s probably the gunman at new year given the commitment to hammering in that he’s a dodgy villain

Also obsessed with mark making sure there’s champagne for a hotel bunk up with an alcoholic, continuity goals 💜💜💜

Yep definitely despise Ned already. I agree with T Boy, major Nish vibes.

Imagine bribing someone to have your son beaten up because you cannot deal with his sexuality, gross.

I’m at the point of just wanting to fast forward through every time Ned is on screen. At least with Nish there was backstory and a bit of nuance, as typical with Wadey after about 2 episodes of him being vaguely normal they’re hammering him into basically every storyline, with all the subtlety of a dump truck to show he’s a villain.

I like Ryder. Though he does appear to have gone from acting like a child with his aunt (like when they gatecrashed the wedding before Kym etc got there) to acting and dressing like an adult in the blink of an eye.

I did like Ned when they arrived, but now he appears to just be nose-diving down a villain rabbit hole.

The Lauren/Mark thing can come to an end as soon as possible please.

I think Lauren and Mark have great chemistry (Jacqueline Jossa's facial expressions in his presence are particularly brilliant) but the impact of this storyline feels diluted, as affairs have been so overdone recently, especially that damp squib of a Max/Priya one.

I remember saying Ned had leading man potential when he arrived, as the actor was charismatic, but I'm not warming to this villainy speed-running either.

That was an awful episode, whoever gave that plot line the green light deserves sacking, that's such a damaging thing to portray. I understand hate crimes are still a thing but this really didn't sit right with me at all, they're gonna need to do an incredible job with Ryder's character and his coming out story to makeup for this.

That was grim. Ned doesn’t feel real at all, for some reason I just don’t buy him being some massive homophobe. I don’t really buy this family at all, I don’t think Nicola needed them.

We’re about 10 weeks away from the flashforward being the present and there’s both a lot of stuff that still needs to even start being built up and none of it being very interesting.

I feel like Zoe and Priya were both supposed to still be around and the unforeseen circumstances for both have lead to them casting this awful family as filler, drafting Stacey back in, etc.

Still, Sean will be back soon and I am interested in that.

Ned is probably the gunman, it's just gonna be a load of shite anyway

This is all incredibly Hollyoaks right down to the villains with 0 nuance in Ned and Craig. Especially Ned, coming in and then almost instantly doubling and tripling down on him being dodgy and now he’s getting his son beat up for being gay. It’s a very Hollyoaks thing I feel to shoehorn in these villains for a short term gain that clearly have a shelf life and ham it up, give them no backstory or nuance and shove them into random storylines at the expense of any character who gets sucked into it. You can tell Wadey oversaw Hollyoaks for a couple of years because it’s going the same way as that and he ran that into the ground too.

Even down to casting two of the same HO family, Matthew James-Bailey as Craig and Emma Lau (Serena) as Jess.

57 minutes ago, Liаm said:

This is all incredibly Hollyoaks right down to the villains with 0 nuance in Ned and Craig. Especially Ned, coming in and then almost instantly doubling and tripling down on him being dodgy and now he’s getting his son beat up for being gay. It’s a very Hollyoaks thing I feel to shoehorn in these villains for a short term gain that clearly have a shelf life and ham it up, give them no backstory or nuance and shove them into random storylines at the expense of any character who gets sucked into it. You can tell Wadey oversaw Hollyoaks for a couple of years because it’s going the same way as that and he ran that into the ground too.

Even down to casting two of the same HO family, Matthew James-Bailey as Craig and Emma Lau (Serena) as Jess.

Was he to blame for it getting axed from C4 and cut to 3 episodes a week, with a reduced cast??

6 hours ago, Summer FRUITS!!!!! said:

Was he to blame for it getting axed from C4 and cut to 3 episodes a week, with a reduced cast??

Yeah, he wasn’t the executive producer like he is here but he was overseeing all the dramas on C4 and had a hand in it. And in typical Wadey fashion, it worked in the short term but had no long term planning or continuity applied to it 💀

Today’s episode was better because Ned was pretty minimal but I wish he just wouldn’t be there. The Kat focus was much needed, her reading everyone to filth and I always appreciate it when they give Mo more serious material.

This is proving they had no business breaking up Kat and Phil in the first place

Ned was lowkey enjoying being pinned up against the wall by Mark a little too much, they aren’t going to do the “homophobic closet case” thing are they lmfao

Best episode in a while due to Jessie being brilliant.

2 hours ago, Liаm said:

This is proving they had no business breaking up Kat and Phil in the first place

Ned was lowkey enjoying being pinned up against the wall by Mark a little too much, they aren’t going to do the “homophobic closet case” thing are they lmfao

I must admit, that’s the vibe I’ve gotten.

It’s also the only thing that could possibly be a plausible motive for Ned but I expect it will come to nothing.

I've found this week pretty dire with little to enjoy sadly. Mark might just be my least favourite character right now, feel like there's been no attention paid to his actual characterisation and he's just there to fit the plots they have in mind. Ned's not working and arranging a homophobic attack on his son was uncomfortable viewing, even for a fictional TV show. The Amy/Craig thing is supposed to be uncomfortable but I'm also just not buying it - again, it's all plot-focused without any real attention to character, and that's the complete opposite way to approach something like EastEnders if you ask me.

At least Jessie Wallace knocked it out of the park today, that's some saving grace for this week of episodes so far.