My thoughts on the series.

I have just finished watching this show and I am sad that I wont have anymore new episodes to watch. I thought it was a brilliant show with great writing and great acting.

I divide the show into three eras. Seasons 1-4 is the more realistic tone-downed era, seasons 5-7 is the more glamorous era with more over the top storylines and season 8 is obviously an era of its own with most of the cast missing. I actually enjoyed all three of these eras and I think having the show change the few times it did kept it fresh. It took me a while to get used to the change at the beginning of season 5 but once I did I loved it just as much as before.

I thought the final season was very enjoyable but also very strange. Bringing in Alan Shore and having him as the main focus was just odd. Like I said I enjoyed it, it just seemed weird. Also I think the characters that actually did return from season 7 suffered a bit in season 8. Jimmy turned into Eugene's little bitch, Eugene became even more of a prick than he was before and Jamie became a racist and then faded into the background. I actually liked Ellenor more in this season than the previous few. She works best as a sympathetic character and with everyting that happened in season 8 I felt really sorry for her.

The final episodes were obviously the strangest. It was practically three different shows at this point, but by the end I actually enjoyed how it all worked out. I thought the finale was great. It wasn't over the top or anything it just gave the characters closure without actually tieing up all their storylines. The only thing I felt was unnessessary was Bobby. I thought it was weird to give him the final scene since he had already had his goodbye scene the previous season.

I really enjoyed most of the characters but they were kinda inconsistent:

Bobby (never liked him and only grew to hate him more as the show went on. Terrible actor).
Rebecca (just an all around boring character. Had one or two good scenes in her entire seven season run).
Eugene (again never liked him and only grew to hate him more as the show went on).
Ellenor (my favourite character in seasons 1-4, could take her or leave her in seasons 5-7 and went back to loving her in season 8).
Lindsay (quite boring in the first four seasons but became my favourite character in the seasons 5-7 era).
Jimmy (always liked him apart from in season 8).
Helen (my second favourite character, great in seasons 2-5, meh in season 6 and great again in season 7).
Lucy (great when she first arrived but became boring in her final two seasons).
Richard (enjoyable character that left at the right time and actually got the best send off of any other character on the show).
Alan Lowe (never should have been introduced).
Kenneth (another enjoyable character that left at the right time).
Jamie (great in season 7 meh in season 8).
Claire (should have been introuduced sooner, didnt have enought time to develop).
Alan Shore (great character, just would have been nice if he didnt take over as much as he did).
Tara (my favourite character in the final season, brilliant in a subtle way).



Joy Turner ~ O my god that crazy bitch tried to constipate the marraige!