First post, apologies is it’s a long one!
I stopped watching TOWIE 4 or 5 seasons ago - just after Shelby and Clelia were introduced and before Olivia Attwood started. I’m currently rewatching from the start & have got to season 8. I’ve been wishing I could discuss the early seasons somewhere, so I hope this is Ok!
I never liked Lauren G when I originally watched it and I really don’t like the way she comes across on a rewatch - she is arrogant and nasty, she was really vicious to Lucy and relished getting Mark to cheat on Lucy with her. I think Mark comes across better in a rewatch - he’s selfish and silly but not nasty. I’m not a huge fan of his family (though Nanny Pat is great) but I can completely understand why they thought the engagement was a disaster waiting to happen - they had watched L & M argue and cheat and split up so many times over the years that it was obvious they wouldn’t stay together. The push into the pool was brilliant!
Kirk: I liked Kirk, he comes across as really vulnerable but his temper is clearly v bad. I hope he’s in a good place now, he was clearly struggling at times on the show - he talks about his struggle with anxiety and panic attacks on season 7.
Arg: He was clearly playing around massively behind Lydia’s back and gaslighting her. Really awful behaviour. The whole Arg and Gemma saga doesn’t play well now - he and his mates clearly see her as a joke because of her weight. There’s lots of comments around her size which boil down to them thinking that she’ll do for a bit for fun but he’ll never get serious about her. And that she’lol always be second best to Lydia.
The contrast between Lydia when she’s with Arg and Lydia when she’s with Tom Kilbey is astounding. Tom & L come across as incredibly happy, really in love and really trust each other.They’re still together in the series I’m currently on so I can’t remember if the break up was bad.
Sam and Billi - they look soooo different! They were both slim in TOWIE but they appear to have lost a significant amount of weight since then.
Sam & Joey are together but it never really seems like she truly loves him - I think she got exasperated at how dumb he was. OTOH Joey seems to really be besotted with her - he gets v upset when they argue. Joey is coming across really well - just funny and sweet and, yes dumb, but in a humourous way. The fat phobia is one of the only ways he comes across badly. his relationship with Chloe Sims is brilliant and I love the two of them together. I’m not sure what Chloe is like now, but in the first few series she comes across really well as she’s just hanging out with people having a laugh. Both GC and Chloe seemed to realise that arguments with others meant more air time and more drama and so ramped those up in the later series, but I much prefer both of them when they’re just having a laugh.
This is far too long already, so I’ll just say: I love Mick, Cara K & Billi M, Charlie K.
Really dislike: Ricky Rayment. There just seemed to be a really nasty streak in him.
I always remember Mark, Jess, Arg and Gemma went away for a boot camp weekend and Mark was stood in a towel and he started like touching his penis and was showing the outline and Jess didn’t even look away and if anything was staring 
hope I’ve uploaded this correctly!
! I just meant that Kate Wrights life looks a bit weird from the outside, -and tit.
