Why was I obsessed with Waterloo Road?
It’s a Wednesday night EastEnders isn’t on and it’s an odd time in the week where you’re settled into the school routine but also can’t wait for the weekend. What is the best remedy for this mid-week boredom? Waterloo Road.
Everyone can relate to school-based dramas from Biker Grove to Grange Hill, Waterloo Road tapped into a broad audience who could relate to the over exaggerated drama, gossip, and rumours that takes place in the playground. Creators of the show Ann McManus and Maureen Chadwick exaggerated the dramatic and controversial aspects of the school experience making it entertaining.
The gritty real-life school drama ran for 10 series, 200 episodes, and exactly 9 years. The beauty of the show was the unrealistic and ridiculous storylines such as, a pupils dad driving into the school with a digger and destroying the building, Chlo setting up a mobile hairdressers in the back of the school playground, Denzil Kelly bringing a gun to school or the fact that the average pupil death rate was one per term. The show also touched on hard-hitting topics such as teenage pregnancy, gang culture, school bullying and how to get away with OFSTED.
Waterloo Road jumped the shark so many times it’s hard to keep count with the rapid turnover of its staff and students making it hard for the audience to build relationships with the characters. Whether the show was good from a moral standpoint was questionable because of its problematic storylines and loud representation of textbook stereotypes ranging from race, gender and class.
Two of the most memorable jump the shark moments for any Waterloo Road fan would’ve been the death of Sambuca Kelly and the schools move to Scotland.
The death of Sambuca Kelly was a pivotal moment in Waterloo Road history, after being diagnosed with brain cancer the audience were taken on a rapid journey which ended in a moving final scene. The Kelly family were reckless but were the glue that held the show together and were loved by the audience so with one Kelly down the show felt empty and lost direction; literally.
The last two seasons did not translate well with their now grown up audience who had seen enough of the same storylines and teachers continuously crossing the boundary between pupil and teacher, it had simply gone too far and ran its course.
By the end of series 7 the whole school relocates to Scotland and on the journey, there end up in a fatal collision resulting in the death of Denzil Kelly. The death of two Kelly’s in one series was enough to make the audience lose interest despite what seemed like the writers attempt to keep the show alive, no pun intended.
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