Television: Eastenders is bullying me!
Excuse the pun but has Eastenders lost the plot?!
I have mislaid count of the amount of times the soap has doused itself in the 'bullying' storyline.
Forgive me if I sound like I am belittling such a serious issue because that is not my intention. Many of us have experienced bullying as an observer, a victim or even regrettably (hopefully not for the majority) as a perpetrator.
As much as I am captivated by the grabbing-you-by-the-neck-and-shaking-your-last-breath-out-of-you type of engagement that Albert Square proceedings can usually bring of an evening (let's be honest - there's no escape!), 'the bullied becomes the bully' storyline that the Ben Mitchell character is portraying is seriously starting to affect me. But then being Eastenders, it wouldn't be the first time its impending drama grabbed me in a choke-hold.
The BBC received over 60 complaints last week alone over the soap drama where Ben 'I want to be just like my dad' Mitchell is the victim of some school-yard attacks. In one episode he was seen being kicked to the ground and beat up by school bullies. Shortly after the playground intimidation begins, Ben (formerly tormented by one-time stepmother Stella) subsequently repeats history by turning on his little sister Louise in a very sinister way and inflicts her arms with burns. The fact that a child is slyly doing this to another child is quite disturbing. Of course the irony is that most of his family are in fact, bullies - the Mitchell's have a long history of "sticking up for the familee" in a kind of mob gangster mentality type way. The days when the two Mitchell "bruv's" Phil and Grant would march threateningly into an Albert Square venue two-by-two with the black leather jacket, bald and brutal thug look doesn't seem too long ago. 
My problem is that I have only literally drew breath from the exposure of the whole Christian and Syed gay love affair where we had to endure gay-bashing, bullying and inter-family hatred that surrounded the Masood household. Of course in the end it was all to the detriment of poor 'Christian' (convinced the writers are taking the piss!) - an innocent guy who's only crime was to fall in love with a Muslim hottie, only to deal with bigotry and alienation from Syed's senseless family which resulted in him braving a massive bash-up from a group of hate-fuelled Muslim heavies!
I do wish the Eastenders scriptwriters would relax and give us a break though - just a chance to compose ourselves after such gloom; by that I mean self-hatred, anger, disapproval, blame, aggression, depression, loneliness, hideousness, general misery etc. Granted it is simply thirty minutes of escapism but God love anyone who is currently going through hard times because an episode of this is like a double-whammy large can explosion of whoop-ass (I'm only two months after having a baby - my body's been through enough already!!)
On a reasonably positive note, the BBC have been quick to reassure viewers that they are working closely with the NSPCC on the controversial storyline and they only aim to reflect the reality of bullying. Aahhh.. I feel better.
Duf, duf, duf-duf-duf!