Solving ‘The Six’: EastEnders , convergence culture, and ‘forensic fandom’

Abstract

This article focuses on EastEnders ’ fan responses to the storyline known as ‘The Six’, which began with a flash-forward in an episode aired in February 2023 and involves six female characters faced with a dead body in the local pub, The Queen Vic. It argues that ‘The Six’ can be read as a form of ‘event television’ which highlights the show’s attempts to innovate within the soap genre, to set up a core narrative enigma which fans could attempt to ‘work out’, and to enable fans to maintain existing attachments to the series’ characters. The article thus considers how this offered a form of ‘forensic fandom’ that brought reading modes such as looking for evidence within episodes and in paratextual materials together with the readings of characters and relationships more commonly associated with the genre of soap opera.