Hits
Parental Pain
Charlie returned this week and Steph’s issues with motherhood returned with him. She’s suffered so much with her mental health that you could see her so desperately wanting to be a part of Charlie’s life even though she knew she shouldn’t. Watching them bond over bikes and making badges for each other was pretty lovely and above everything we just want Steph to find happiness again. We all held our breath when we thought Charlie might call her mum again and now that Steph’s made it her mission that she wants to be a part of his life again, we want nothing else more. Steph’s character development and battle with her mental health is a really strong positive for Neighbours at the moment and their heartfelt goodbye was pretty gutwrenching. It’s a real asset to have Carla Bonner back on the show.
Doug’s Dementia
Willis family history was being explored onscreen and it really helped tie the modern day Willises back to the original family’s stint in the early 90s. And of course, Doug’s continued returns have been much welcome. However every visit is always tinged with a certain sadness as, every time Doug returns, his illness seems to be worsening. This recent stint being the most tragic yet as it’s clear that Doug is beginning to lose his battle with dementia and finds himself more forgetful and confused than ever. It’s incredibly sad to see Doug’s confusion manifested in various different ways and even sadder to see him, in his lucid state, mourn his condition. His chat with Lou, reinforcing a decades long friendship, was very hard to watch and Terence Donovan played a blinder. As the weeks go by, it becomes more and more obvious to us where the story is headed and we think we’ll need a lot of tissues before this year is out.Real Potential
We don’t mean to keep banging on about Xanthe Canning in every blog post but we really like her. This fortnight she saw her dad in prison, nicked Brad’s iPad, got in major trouble at school, got offered a job with Paul, threw a big party and caused Sheila to have heart problems. One of the reasons we really like her is that she comes across as a bit of a ditz with her princess routine, but underneath all that high maintence stuff she has a real solid heart, like the rest of the Cannings. She already has a pretty sweet relationship with Kyle, bonding over bed designing and him trying to get her to be sensible at school and as we already mentioned in our Scene of the Week, she sparks off really well with fiery Sheila. We’ve got a feeling their relationship is going to have many ups and downs as Sheila struggles to parent her, but it should be fun in the meantime. Xanthe also seems to bring out the best in Piper – even if they have rushed to BFF status already. We didn’t like her stealing from Sheila when she has welcomed her so lovingly but she’s a far cry from the squeaky clean teens we once had in the show and we’re loving her for it. Comedy, drama – it looks like she can do both.
Misses
Quill Developments
This Quill story is all a bit weird isn’t it? It almost reminds us of the infamous Simpson’s monorail plot with a devious and dodgy company trying to take over the community. Thankfully Julie Quill is a bit of a character with her hybrid accent and it’s been quite fun to see Terese in the thick of the action with her being a little put out about Julie and Paul’s history. It makes a change to see another character acting more underhand than Paul in order to get what they want. What with the Lassiters plot and Paul opening a motel, there’s been a lot of business talk and to-ing and fro-ing and frankly it’s all been a bit rushed and baffling, we can’t keep up. Who’s going into business with who? Who’s keeping secrets? Where’s all the money coming from?Why would they even want to build a mega sized hotel when Lassiters is always so empty (and they only seem to have one hotel room!).
Even More Paige Rage
Now, any long term readers will know that despite being very keen on Paige when she first arrived, our opinion on her character has dropped dramatically as the months and years have passed. Bratty, immature, manipulative, selfish bitchy and generally, very unpleasant and unrepentant about her behaviour and treatment of those she decides to have a go at. However, last week Paige truly hit a new low and has probably marked herself as one of the nastiest regulars the show has ever seen. Buoyed by her new uni pals (who cares), Paige fancied herself an environmental right activist (of course she did) and keen to make her voice heard (when doesn’t she) proceeded to berate, attack and humiliate her neighbour, and generally one of Neighbours’ kindest characters, Sonya. The scene where Paige led a demonstration at Sonya’s event in The Waterhole was actually quite hard to watch and our hearts bled for poor Sonya. Paige was smug, rude and in our opinion, utterly vile. Sadly once again, everyone tiptoes around Paige and never calls her out on the nasty so and so she is. Please, Ellen Crabb, arrest her and let her rot.