Emmerdale - General Discussion

[overtherainbow]

Short glimpse of Arthur here!

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Ethan and Marcus' relationship deteriorates:

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Things go from bad to worse for Ethan and Marcus:

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A little Arthur/Marshall scene appeared today also:

[carld2]

Was there any buildup to Marcus cheating?

The whole story has been flat, from the parts I've seen. Maybe I missed some better moments. I think Marcus could have been a strong character if he'd had the chance, but I can't blame the actor for moving on.

[overtherainbow]

I'm kinda sick of this Arthur and Marshall storyline now. Just the same scenes over and over again, of Arthur trying, of Marshall brushing him off due to his internalized homophobia (and also his dad's homophobia, of course). Like... this storyline has been depressing ever since Arthur was bullied and nothing has changed. It's just going around in circles now. This is a soap, so I don't expect people to be happy for long. But Arthur and Marshall haven't gotten to be happy once! I hope something will happen soon. I feel like Arthur needs to tell him to fuck off, Marshall doesn¨t deserve him, not even to be his friend. Arthur cannot save everyone, he needs to realize this. Marshall doesn't deserve his help. He needs to pull back and let Marshall make the first move, if not then he doesn't deserve him. There are other fish in the sea anyway.

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[antistatic]

Arthur hosts his LGBT+ presentation at the village hall:

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Marshall has news for Arthur:

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We've not had an update about Arthur or Marshall since the scene on 28th Feb (above).

Last week, Richi returned to the village from London where he had been staying with Priya, and over the past few episodes he has been getting the feeling that he is not alone in his house. Here's why...

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Laurel's on the warpath!



A later scene has Laurel and Marshall arriving back at the village, with Laurel explaining to Jai what has happened and confirming with him that Marshall can stay with them.

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There were quite a few scenes with Arthur and Marshall in today's episode. Unfortunately it doesn't look like MegaSoapFan is going to upload them since they seems to have finished posting videos from today's Emmerdale and have now moved on to doing clips from (the later screened) Coronation Street. Admittedly, the scenes with Marshall today were mainly to show how he was acclimatising to his new situation.

He made breakfast for Laurel and Jai and was eager to wash the dishes but Laurel told him not to worry about things like that and just concentrate on getting used to feeling at home with them.

Laurel then rang Hotton Academy to get Marshall re-admitted but was informed that could only be done by his parent or guardian. However, the school rang back shortly afterwards and said they had contacted Colin and he had agreed to let Marshall return there.

Later when the younger kids were yelling and running around, Marshall admitted to Arthur that it was so different from what he was used to and that his dad's house was quiet all the time. Arthur innocently suggested they go upstairs to get away from the clamour but then panicked when he thought Marshall might take it the wrong way. The two of them had a short conversation about just staying mates - for now!

   

In the evening Jai talked to Laurel and voiced his concerns about the effect Marshall’s presence in their home might have on their kids, especially if he was to stay long term. Laurel was adamant she wanted to do what was best for him and said she refused to give up on him while he needed them the most. Neither Laurel or Jai realised that a crestfallen Marshall was at the top of the stairs and had overheard their conversation - at least the part of it that made it sound like he was going to be nothing but a burden to them...

[overtherainbow]

So the writers are cockblocking them again. Marshall now wants to stay friends, when HE was the one who almost kissed Arthur a month ago! lol. This storyline makes no sense. I'm sick of it now. I want a gay love story, not this mess.

[antistatic]

Today we had Colin turn up to ask Laurel and Jai if he could talk to Marshall because he now realises he's been handling things badly and wants to make things right with his son. They said they would ask Marshall, who agrees, and Colin is waiting for him when Laurel brings him home from school...

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Yesterday's preview clip (in the spoilers thread) was the first scene with Marshall in today's episode. MegaSoapFan hasn't included it again, so I'll repost it here to keep the storyline intact:

[jjose712]

I'm not that invested in gay couple storylines (in fact i'm perfectly with gay characters with barely love lives if the show is not focused in love lives, The Rookie is a perfect example) but this is going in circles.

Generally the gay couple storylines that work better are the ones that have the characters developed previously, Jack and Rayane are perfect examples of people anticipating an storyline. Both had their coming out storylines and a slow building towards a friendship first and something more last.

The problem here is not Arthur and Marshall dating, in fact Marshall probably is not in a place to date anyone, the problem is the storyline just doesn't advance. It would be good if Arthur will date someone else while Marshall figures out what he really wants

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There were a few scenes featuring Marshall today but MegaSoapFan has only made a clip from one of them:



The outcome in a later scene was that Marshall cancelled his date with Cathy and confirmed to Arthur that he had only agreed to go on a date with her in the first place because of the things his dad had said to him. He now realised his dad was just playing mind games with him.

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For anyone interested here's Max Fletcher's online CV. Seeing as he's only 14 in real life, I doubt we will see Marshall snogging Arthur just yet!

  

[mrfixit477]

Emmerdale's Marshall Hamston makes self-acceptance breakthrough
He reluctantly experimented with Cathy Hope.

www.digitalspy.com/soaps/emmerdale/a43340605/emmerdale-marshall-self-acceptance-breakthrough/

[overtherainbow]

Mar 16, 2023 17:17:03 GMT -5 antistatic said:

For anyone interested here's Max Fletcher's online CV. Seeing as he's only 14 in real life, I doubt we will see Marshall snogging Arthur just yet!

  

But he can kiss a girl though, right? Because he will. So it's ok for him to kiss a girl but not a guy? This is what happens when they hire a guy who is too young for an adult storyline. This is why I praise Hollyoaks. They did a recast for Lucas, Ste's son. Anyways, I'm not impressed with this storyline so far. I know it's hard for him because of his homophobic dad. Colin basically pushed him to hook up with Cathy. However, he should have told him to fuck off. He had nothing to lose, he was already staying at Arthur's. I know Colin manipulated him by telling him he loved him, and that he could come back if he changed, but come on.

I feel like this has been more about Marshall's journey and less about Marshall and Arthur. Heck, even Arthur's journey hasn't been done well. Is he even gay? We don't know. I wish this storyline would move forward, but it isn't. It's more like 1 baby step forward and 12 huge steps back.

[justinate]

Considering this story first kicked off when Arthur hangmaned "I AM GAY" to Nicola, I'd say that's a bit hard to dispute.

I do agree that Arthur should find someone else - even if it's just a dayplayer - because him waiting around for someone still as sexually confused and uncertain as Marshall is just tedious. It might be different if Marshall was a character we were invested in before he was floated as a potential love interest for Arthur, or better yet, a legacy character from the show's history, but the truth is Marshall didn't exist outside of Arthur's homophobic bullying storyline ... and now everyone else's airtime - Arthur's, Laurel's, Jai's and now even Cathy's - seems to be in service of Marshall's problems.

I can't imagine the actor's age is a barrier to him kissing another actor - they've certainly never held back from heterosexual kissing between juvenile actors so the double standards will be glaringly obvious. Some of Arthur and Marshall's peers are already sexually active. I can't recall now if the Jacob actor was even 18 when he was rolling around shirtless in bed with his teacher/would-be stepmother who'd groomed him.

[antistatic]

Mar 17, 2023 10:45:52 GMT -5 overtherainbow said:

But he can kiss a girl though, right? Because he will. So it's ok for him to kiss a girl but not a guy? This is what happens when they hire a guy who is too young for an adult storyline. This is why I praise Hollyoaks. They did a recast for Lucas, Ste's son. Anyways, I'm not impressed with this storyline so far. I know it's hard for him because of his homophobic dad. Colin basically pushed him to hook up with Cathy. However, he should have told him to fuck off. He had nothing to lose, he was already staying at Arthur's. I know Colin manipulated him by telling him he loved him, and that he could come back if he changed, but come on.

I feel like this has been more about Marshall's journey and less about Marshall and Arthur. Heck, even Arthur's journey hasn't been done well. Is he even gay? We don't know. I wish this storyline would move forward, but it isn't. It's more like 1 baby step forward and 12 huge steps back.

Sorry! I didn't mean to suggest there was some rule that would stop him kissing.

From a legal standpoint he can kiss a boy or girl and his age doesn't matter at all, as long as certain guidelines are followed at the time the original contract is signed. Since the actor is still legally a minor, his parent or guardian would have to be present when all the different aspects of the role are being discussed. The actor (as well as the parent/guardian) has to agree with everything the part entails before signing the contract, and there can be no surprises later on. So, for example, if the producer says the character does not kiss anyone, they can't turn around at a later date and say "Oh, we've just added in an extra scene where Marshall and Arthur kiss behind the pub." They are simply not allowed to do that if all parties were not already aware that kissing would be part of the role at some stage. It's not really a case of the actor being too young for the storyline, it's more about whether the actor is OK with everything that is being asked of them and if they aren't, then it's on the producer for not doing their job properly and getting the right person at the outset.

Also, the problem Emmerdale has had for a long time is that it has traditionally been aimed at an older demographic (although various producers have tried different ways to appeal to younger age groups) but it's still a long way off the younger audience that Hollyoaks aims to appeal to. I think in the end it all depends on the producer at any given time and how they are wanting the show to come across. In this case, I don't think the current producer is out to give us a story about two boys falling in love, I suspect it's more to do with exposing bigotry and the leverage of people in power -why else have Colin be in charge of the local Council? 

Having said all that, I totally agree that the writing has been very hit and miss. I'm not too bothered about the slowburn of the plot - they are slipping it in between two high profile stories (Paddy's attempted suicide and Leyla's kidnapping) so they're not giving it the time it deserves. Personally I find it far too disjointed and I don't like the way the audience is often left to fill in all the dots between one scene and the next. For instance, we went from Marshall breaking off all contact with Arthur to suddenly finding out that Arthur was secretly helping him hide out in Richi's house. We just had to accept that in the meantime they had repaired their friendship with Marshall being back to acknowledging that he was gay; then formed a plan including writing a fake letter to rescue Marshall from ending up at boarding school and somehow get him back to the village where he had been living on crisps for a week! The writers probably thought they were pulling off a great twist revealing who was in Richi's house but I just thought it was very poor writing that needed far more exposition than it got.

I do think the story has picked up a little bit this week, but I can understand the frustration at the tedious storytelling. 

[antistatic]

Marshall did appear in today's episode but he was only part of the youngsters ensemble. Cathy had convinced him to join her, Heath and April in going to the pop concert together as part of a group rather than as a date, though she still made comments about snogging him which made him feel uncomfortable.

The main gist of the story was about Cathy's reckless behaviour which a hospital doctor later said showed she had symptoms of depression. They referred her to the adolescent mental health service.

[carld2]

Mar 17, 2023 11:56:46 GMT -5 justinate said:

Considering this story first kicked off when Arthur hangmaned "I AM GAY" to Nicola, I'd say that's a bit hard to dispute.

I do agree that Arthur should find someone else - even if it's just a dayplayer - because him waiting around for someone still as sexually confused and uncertain as Marshall is just tedious. It might be different if Marshall was a character we were invested in before he was floated as a potential love interest for Arthur, or better yet, a legacy character from the show's history, but the truth is Marshall didn't exist outside of Arthur's homophobic bullying storyline ... and now everyone else's airtime - Arthur's, Laurel's, Jai's and now even Cathy's - seems to be in service of Marshall's problems.

I can't imagine the actor's age is a barrier to him kissing another actor - they've certainly never held back from heterosexual kissing between juvenile actors so the double standards will be glaringly obvious. Some of Arthur and Marshall's peers are already sexually active. I can't recall now if the Jacob actor was even 18 when he was rolling around shirtless in bed with his teacher/would-be stepmother who'd groomed him.

He was 17, I think.

I don't really have a problem with them not immediately putting Arthur in a romance (yes, other characters around his age have had more, but some, like the actors who play Noah, Amelia and Samson, are all in their late teens or early twenties, and even then they had nowhere near the level of sexual material the show was giving young actors in the early '00s, or as you mentioned, with Jacob). I also don't have a problem with other characters worrying about Marshall - they have to fill up 6 episodes a week, and most of those characters have had plenty of other story (especially Cathy of late). The problem for me is Arthur just had a coming out story and is now in this storyline, rather than his own story being able to breathe. It feels like Marshall is just a short term character and this is something that runs too closely with Arthur's own story, rather than letting Arthur develop more in his own right, then maybe later this year, having the Marshall story. It comes off a bit to me as trying to capitalize on a trend.