Hits
OMDee
Well, well, well. It has been the biggest talking point in years, probably ever. The holy grail of Neighbours plot. The biggest unsolved mystery. The stuff fan dreams are made of and it’s finally happened – Dee has returned. Or has she? After 13 years, we fell off our seats as ‘Dee’ appeared Toadie’s doorstep and spun him a long, convoluted and still, not unbelievable story about her miraculous survival and like Toadie, we bought every word. And while many theorised that things weren’t as they seemed, we were honestly shocked to the core when it was revealed that Dee wasn’t Dee at all – but rather, being a manipulative con-woman named Andrea. Words honestly can’t do justice to this story and its impact and to do so would be to undersell it. We experienced Toadie’s joy with him, shared the scepticism of Sonya and Susan as the clues added up and felt the stomach punch when we finally realised the truth. The story is rife with incredible continuity and tender heartfelt moments that served only to become harrowing punches in the stomach when Andrea revealed her cruel plot. It brought us the return of the wonderful Sindi as Andrea’s partner in crime and took a hammer of the Rebecchi marriage and by extension, Steph and Mark. What we’ve loved most of all is the intricate plotting at play here – the type of plot that’s rarely seen in soap. Everything, every twist dovetails into the next and it’s effect on the characters and how it’s gradually drawn more in has been a masterstroke. Last but not least, Madeleine West effortlessly proves her worth as an actress convincing us not only as the troubled, fragile Dee but the ruthless Andrea. What a delight it is to see her back onscreen and we have to admit, deep deep down we’re still hoping that Andrea can serve us one more massive twist and reveal that she really is Dee after all…
Messy Ties
Speaking of characters that have been drawn into ‘The Web of Dee’, we’ve been delighted to see the return of fan favourite recurring cop, Ellen Crabb and by extension, her ex Victoria and daughter Josie. When Victoria first popped up again the other month as part of the IVF story, we failed to realised it was actually rather brilliant foreshadowing of the bigger role she was soon to play in Steph’s life. As Steph feared she was losing Mark to the other woman in his life, and mother of his child, Sonya, Victoria was there to support Steph and ultimately make a move on her. We can’t lie, we live for Victoria’s tragic desperation for Steph as the show toes the line between two women with a connection and at the same time, two women who are escaping from messy relationships together. The fact that Mark works along with Ellen has made things even better – and of course, more complicated. It was great to see Josie return after such a long time and we’re hoping to see so much more of this brilliant little unit and dare we say, they’d make excellent additions to the core cast.
Classic Neighbours
What can we say about the Cannings that we haven’t said before? They continue to be a highlight in every episode of Neighbours they appear in, bringing classic comedy, warmth and quirkiness to our screens. Their rivalry with the Kennedys was a fun watch with the Romeo and Juliet style romance of Ben and Xanthe at the heart of it. Ben and Xanthe have been such a funny and cute couple, the kind of made-to-be teen romance Neighbours has been lacking for a few years – but really, we just love every aspect of Xanthe from her feminism to her Japanese phrasing. Just like his mother, Gary fits into the community so well and we love his scenes with Paul and Terese and the recent sausage plot has had us howling at the innuendos. The Cannings just keep on giving and we don’t think we’ll ever get sick of them.
Pregnant Paige
When Paige was revealed to be pregnant just before Christmas we were dreading it. Hormones and extreme mood swings – we just couldn’t imagine that was going to make Paige, who had become rather insufferable at times, anything but hateful. But surprisingly becoming pregnant has made Paige far more watchable. We’ve started to see glimpses of the Paige we liked and remembered from her introduction – the independence and the empowerment. Even though we’re not looking forward to the inevitable Jack merry-go-round, it’s been good to see Paige making decisions and being confident rather than just chasing a guy. Through this storyline we’ve also seen Paige form an unusual friendship with David which has been warm and interesting and given someone else for Paige to confide in and also support and done wonders for both characters. Here’s hoping that Paige becoming a mother will lead to new directions for the character and continue to take her down a less selfish path.
Misses
Bratty Behaviour
We’ve really enjoyed the Tyler and Piper chemistry for ages – from their friendship to their romance – so much so we’ve been able to look past the slightly iffy age gap. However, we’ve not seen them in their best light since they got together and we haven’t enjoyed their scenes so much lately. The main problem is that we actually agree with Brad and Terese’s reservations and Typer aren’t exactly proving themselves to be mature by acting out this way. We know they’re in love and want to be together but Piper just comes across as a brat when she tries to fight for their respect instead of trying to approach the problem rationally. Moving out of home and having to cope alone is not going to end well and it’s a fairly well-trodden plot that we’re a bit tired of. We’re sure somehow the Willis family will come around to the idea, maybe with Tyler doing something to prove he’s worthy of their daughter’s heart, but for now they’re less star-crossed and more unlikeable.
Whilst the build-up has divided viewers with some questionable behaviour from some of the characters, obsessed with dresses/Tyler respectively, the big much-hyped formal finally arrived. Now as any long-term viewer will know, even characters mentioning formals fills us all with a deep dread, so damaged are we from Kate Ramsay’s formal era from hell. This, however, was much more bearable and the event itself actually resulted in quite a great turn of events. Whilst all the cloying references to Instagram, likes, vlogs and general youth culture has been prevalent (and we’re not fans), the episode set all this aside for what Neighbours does best – old fashioned, character led storytelling. Xanthe and Ben finally got it together after months of build-up and provided some very sweet moments. Xanthe’s destroyed dress prevented things from being too saccharine, thankfully! The real fun came from the arrival of Elly Conway and the effect she had on Piper and Tyler’s already-faltering relationship. Piper drenching her love rival (and accidentally Xanthe too) in sangria before realising it was her new teacher was a brilliant episode end and capped off a very goo episode indeed.
Last week also saw the return of famed, iconic character and Neighbours icon, Elly Conway. Oh wait, who? Yes, Elly made her unremarkable first appearance back in 2001 and lasted less than a year before he packed off to live with her mum again as the show reinvented itself and soon populated the teen cast with much stronger characters such as Sky. We all thought we’d never hear from Elly again until the casting announcement earlier this year and it’s safe to say she’ll be working much better in her current incarnation than she ever did back then. Jodi Anasta brings all her previous soapy experience to the table and really hit the ground running in the role. It’s so nice to see the show hiring experienced actors in comparison to some questionable signings lately. Elly is fun, flirty, mischievous, and just a little bit bitchy. She immediately gave the show a fun and much-needed kick of life and we’re really excited to see what trouble she can cause.
This month saw the surprise return of the slightly unhinged Belinda, Steph’s ex, with the incredible hair. We loved her in her first stint, even when she donned a surgeon’s mask and got a bit too involved in Toadie’s operation, so we were thrilled to see her return to screens. This being Neighbours, her return was all down to Paul Robinson’s meddling with a cunning plan to split up Steph and Mark. Luckily for Paul this has already worked out pretty well, what with Steph and Belinda’s chemistry and Mark’s paranoia over their history. Belinda’s presence seems to have already driven a wedge between them and this only increased when the fabulous-haired-one planted a smacker on Steph! Even though we know Belinda is a bit of a loose cannon, her scenes with Steph are consistently watchable and despite her dark side we wouldn’t be opposed to the two of them making a real go of it and ditching dull Mark!
We’ve already mentioned that the big formal night set piece was a great climax to the teen plots but the lead up to it seemed never-ending! Anyone would think Xanthe was planning her wedding not just the end of the year dance for school. It was disappointing to have Xanthe’s fun and complex character reduced to a sole focus on a designer dress and pouting over whether Ben would ask her out. It seemed crazy too that Ben, who is usually so morally upstanding would take the money Gary offered him to ask Xanthe out (let’s be honest, he’s smitten with her anyway). Piper’s character regression and giant fall in maturity was the worst offender of the lot. Since Josh and Doug’s death, we’ve seen Piper really grow up and the romance with Tyler seemed not only inevitable but actually pretty believable. And then things rapidly went downhill. Pipes began lying and stropping and screaming at her parents Kevin The Teenager style. Yes, Piper life is unfair. We know she’s a teenager whose always thought of herself as an adult, but what happened to the smart and mature young woman who has now regressed into a baby at the thought of not getting her own way? Just as we had begun liking ‘Typer’, alll that we enjoyed about the pairing seemed to be reversed. Can we have the teens we’re fond of back? Heads screwed on?
Where to even start with Paige? She’s the one character in Neighbours that gets steadily more unlikeable as the weeks go on. Since she fell in love with John/Jack in his coma, we’ve been questioning whether she hit her head SO hard during the hotel explosion and her personality damage was caused by that, OR she really is just THE WORST. The latter probably. Paige’s main problem is that at every turn she’s enabled, told what a great girl she is, yet behaving in a completely selfish and loathsome way. Now that she knows Jack is a priest, you’d think it was about time she gave up on her defrocking fantasies and either got a hobby or sorted herself out with a trip to the Erinsborough equivalent of Ann Summers. But she hasn’t. She’s continued to whine and sulk and try and make Jack feel guilty for sticking to his vocation, even going as far as stripping in the pool to try and lure him away. We’ve even seen her move away from nipple-flashing and try other tactics – jealousy (didn’t work), being a charitable, Godly citizen maybe in an attempt to force a threeway between her Jack and God (also didn’t work). The sad thing about this whole mess is that now her entire personality is a selfish obsession with herself. Not only can she not cope without a man’s affection and attention, but she never thinks of anyone but herself. Hold onto your hats readers – Paige might have just crossed the “worse than Amber Turner” line.
THANK GOD (literally) we discovered the true identity of John Doe this week in a scene which we won’t be forgetting in a hurry. He’s only a bloody priest! It’s not something we would have seen coming had it not been for the clever suggestions of it that we saw on Twitter but him turning up to tell Paige in full frock and dog collar was priceless. Even more so was the drama that he’d seriously been a suspect for the explosion and had shared a snog with Paige right before his oh-so convinent flashback memories! Watching Paige hang around John (it’s ridiculously hard to think of him as Jack!) like a bad smell certainly hasn’t been our favourite plot but we like Jack. Although we’re dreading Paige’s jealousy of Jack’s relationship with God and she’ll probably whine at him to choose between her and the church, the reveal scene alone is worth our top spot.
Even though we’re never happy to see grief for Toadie and Sonya, we can’t deny we do love watching them handle the struggles in their marriage. We’ve often said how much we love the realism between the couple and the natural chemistry between Eve and Ryan, developed from years of working together always shines through – and of course, makes the moments of tension and anger between them that much harder to watch. Recent weeks have seen Walter continue to be a source of trouble between them and the reveal that he wanted bone marrow to save the life of Zoe, Sonya’s half sister, was a great twist. It’s really added another dimension to Walter and casts light on his motives for contacting Sonya. The ambiguity has been interesting to watch and despite some other recent poor signings (*cough*Madison*cough*) Zoe was a joy to watch onscreen and quickly developed chemistry with her onscreen sister. With Walter and Zoe both off so soon, we hope we haven’t seen the last of them.
Gary Canning got freed from prison this fortnight after we had a brief spell of seeing him be top dog in Erinsborough’s version of Oz. He didn’t stick around long to help Paul, in fact he landed him in it, but we were pretty glad to see Gary’s return. There’s something interesting about the dodgy guy that we like and we’re interested to see how he fits in with the rest of the family, especially his daughter Xanthe. Only time will tell what kind of influence he’ll be on her and if he’ll manage to stay out of any bad behaviour while he’s on Ramsay Street. We only wish Kyle was still around so that they could repair their very damaged relationship.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve waved goodbye to a few residents, some temporarily and some for good – but neither especially welcomed. We were sad to see the lovely Nate go, breaking our hearts as well as Aaron’s. For weeks prior to his exit, it was clear that Nate was unsettled with the current direction of his life but that didn’t make it any easier to watch him go. Though he returned for such a short time, we were glad to see him back to give his character a proper exit and have him leave under less of a cloud. Speaking of leaving under clouds, Ned also bid Ramsay Street farewell after failing to seduce Lauren and making things difficult with his family. We’re gutted to see Ned leave and by the looks of it, so is everyone else. Ben Hall has been a brilliant find and with news that he’s already on his way back, we hope the show begs, borrows or steals the money to make him a permanent cast member. The Led romance can’t die before its even begun!
In a fortnight when we lost a newbie favourite, Ned, we had the unwelcome return of Madison Robinson. Sure, she’s the daughter of famous Ramsay Street legends Scott and Charlene (aka Jason and Kylie) but she’s also as wooden and unexciting as they come. She’s a blonde, budding reporter – she’s almost Elle Robinson but with none of the edge or charm. Her dialogue is stilted and her purpose, apart from being there to cheer up Paul, seems to be a walking mannequin. We ask, what really is the point of her? We’re really hoping this isn’t a longterm return because frankly the show can do better and Paul deserves more than Madison as a cling on!
Another tough week for Kyle and another week where our love for him cemented. Not only did he have to deal with Sheila coming out of hospital and looking after her (which he did a great job with) but he also had to say a final goodbye to dad Gary. These scenes were fantastic and genuinely emotional and Kyle struggled with his conflicting emotions. He might have realised he was better off without Gary, but after everything he left his dad with a small glimmer of hope. We saw some lighter sides to Kyle too as he helped Sheila with her gnomes and panicked as Naomi cleared the fridge of all the bad food. We love how well rounded Kyle is a character and think Sheila is pretty lucky to have him as her doting grandson.
This week we were delighted to see former enemies, Terese and Paige, make a great leap forward in their relationship as they pulled together to help create a business plan for Brad. Now it’s fair to say that Terese and Paige have had fairly rocky ride since the truth about Paige was revealed, and it seemed like any progress was quickly undone by Terese’s insecurities in her relationship. However with the Willises reunited, it seems like the two fierce and independent women have finally made peace. We loved to see them, not only civil but genuinely friendly with each other and we really hope to see much more of it in the future.
We were delighted to see Lucy make one of her frequent returns at the end of this week to continue her baby plot with Chris. It’s always great to see an original character back onscreen and Melissa’s chemistry with Stefan Dennis really lights up the screen. It really takes us back to the show’s golden days and the Robinson heyday. As fun as it was to see Lucy celebrate Paul’s birthday, the biggest reason we were excited to see her was down to her baby proposal to Chris. Since then, Chris’s life has changed drastically and it was interesting to see how the presence of Nate looks set to cause ripples in what seems like a done deal. Despite the potential conflict, we really hope Lucy and Chris go ahead with it – giving Chris a link to one of the show’s biggest families and a reason for Lucy to stick around for good.
It wasn’t a great week for Brad as he found himself frustrated by Terese and Paige’s grand plans for his business but, is it just us or was Brad out of line in his reaction to them? We know he viewed making surfboards as a hobby but his family were only trying to help him to make a career out of something he loves – and give up teaching, a career he doesn’t. For us, Brad’s reaction was a little too heightened and showed a lack of respect for his wife and child. We hope he pulls himself together and quickly realises that with his family’s help, he could achieve the career satisfaction he seeks and maybe channels the laid-back personality pf Brad of old.
Our thoughts on Danber and Jamber are well documented – even last week we talked about how much we hate Josh and Daniel fighting over Amber – the unfortunate thing is that it continued this week and got worse. Frankly we think both the Willis twins deserve better than pining over Daniel or Amber and it doesn’t make anyone look good. Daniel looks stupidly oblivious to an insane degree and came across as childish and bitter against Josh; Imogen, whilst sweet, needs to stand to Daniel before he uses her strong feelings; Amber needs to get a hobby and Josh needs to get well away from this car crash and be the Josh we loved from 2014.
Another week of powerful drama from The Canning saw poor Sheila laid up in hospital having suffered a heart attack – triggered by her discovery of Gary’s lies – and all of Gary’s secrets tumbling out. The Cannings have the perfect mix of comedy and serious emotional drama and we really believe in them as a tight knit family. Naomi’s upset and then her reveal of her brother’s true colours was the perfect moment to expose Gary’s lies. We sat back and watched as Kyle saw who his dad really was with years’ worth of disappointment and upset coming back to him after making such progress with him. Chris Milligan did a fantastic job with the emotional scenes proving how wasted he was in the Kate/Georgia triangle and our hearts broke for shattered Kyle.
It was a great week for Chris and Nate who are fast becoming one of our favourite couples. Despite rushed and rocking beginnings, followed by a couple of big emotional plots when the couple should have been having fun and getting to know each other, ‘Chrate’ have become a sweet and natural pairing. This week saw his closure with Josh and the return of Chris’s ongoing problems following the coward punch and it was sad but also a much appreciated dose of realism in comparison to Neighbours’ numerous miracle recoveries. Chris at Lassiters’s should provide some new opportunities for him given the declining relevance of the garage since the departure of Lucas in 2013. With Lucy’s return just ahead, it looks set to be an interesting new start for Chris.
With a lot of heavy drama with the Cannings, it was nice to see some lighter material with the Turner siblings this week. Scenes between Paige, Amber and Bailey as a trio are quite rare and usually are far from civil, so we enjoyed Paige developing her relationships with her sublings and becoming the fun big sister. As the Turner siblings had fun with the news that they owned the house, and had even more fun at the thought of a big cash pay-out, the only downside to the story was the predictable reaction of Matt who cast a downer on proceedings. His hurt pride did little to endear him to us and we’d just wish he’d loosen up. That said, it was only a minor fault and we liked seeing what seemed a long forgotten plot point brought back into play.
Oh Brennan – we have such a hard time with you. We love smiley, friendly, OCD Mark. We love the Mark who babysits Nell and is best mates with the Rebecchis and who flirted with Paige. But investigating, do-gooding, sticking-his-nose-in-other-people’s-business Mark – we don’t like you so much. We know for him it’s “Once a cop, always a cop” but we’re so tired of his constant snooping and getting old contacts involved all in the name of ‘helping’ others. It’s far too serious and grumpy for our liking and even when he’s doing it to help out Sonya and stop her from getting hurt by Erin we just wish he’d be a lot less uptight and ex-cop about the whole thing.
It can’t be just us – this Daniel and Josh fighting it out to win the heart of fair maiden Princess Amber is less love triangle, Disney fairytale and more cavemen fighting over the prize. It’s fair to say we’re no fans of Amber (why are these two guys fighting over someone who wears as much fringing as she does and who whines for Erinsborough?!) but she’s said plainly (although hard to believe) she doesn’t want to date anyone right now. So what we have instead is revisiting the tiresome and awful Jamber plotline and adding in Daniel’s vibey intense connection type-love for her. Please spare us. We love Josh – he had a complete turn around. But we’re starting to see glimpses of old Josh, the Jamber Josh, and the thought of returning to that terrifies us. Please make it stop.
We don’t often get to see much of Christmas in Erinsborough but this year we had everything from Christmas barbies, trees, a special Paul Robinson Christmas card! We adored Naomi’s Christmas event – everything from Karl’s over enthusiasm at a group sing along, Sheila dressed as Santa, Susan as a snowman and Bossy as a reindeer. It made us happy to see such a fun community spirit and as we’re stuck in the middle of a long and dreary January it was a perfect pick me up. It was also a really lovely touch to see Paige really embedded and secure in both her families and her scenes with Lauren and then the Willises were heart warming.
Another great week for the Cannings sees them high on our Hits list. We’re really impressed at how well they work as a family unit especially now that Gary has joined and Naomi has returned and Georgia seems to fit in well now she’s officially one of them. Although the week ended on a horrible and sad moment for poor Sheila when she discovered Gary’s dodgy involvement with Paul, there were plenty of highs too as Naomi tried to set up her events business and rope in as many residents as possible. All of them work so well together with great moments of drama and razor sharp comedy and we can’t help but feel they will be going from strength to strength soon. We can’t wait to see what will happen with the family but we’ll be sending the wonderful Sheila our good luck wishes.
is week was a great week for Paul after his slightly odd over-investment in Terese’s relationship with Ezra. We loved seeing the two sides of Paul’s character out in full force: the grounded, reformed real man, and the dodgy businessman who will do his best to protect his business and seek revenge for Ezra’s behaviour with Terese. It was nice to see Paul spending his Christmas morning gifting those characters who have helped his development this year – his gratitude to Karl through his depression, and his wonderful relationship with Terese, who remains a committed friend despite all of Paul’s faults. Yet at the same time, it’s always interesting to see Paul battle adversity and unknowingly paying Gary Canning to assault Ezra in order to send him on his way felt very much in character and continues the great path Paul has taken under Jason Herbison’s watch where the character has finally found a real place in the show with depth and warmth, and with “deliciously evil” Paul long behind us.
Another week, another potential court case for the Willises! While it’s great to see the family back together, showing a united front after the recent marriage problems between Brad and Terese, it feels a little too soon for the characters to be involved in more police drama. It’s not been too long ago that Josh was hauled into the police station for assaulting Chris and now we have Brad suspected of battering Ezra – and Josh trying to take the blame. We hope once the dust has settled that the Willises manage to avoid the gaze of the Erinsborough police force (so, errm, Matt and occasional have-a-go-cop Brennan) and have a little break from crime dramas! Now that Brad and Terese are back on track, it would be great to see some happier times for the family.
Now, you all know that we’re not the biggest fans of Amber Turner, or her relationship with Daniel. As much as we want them to break up and spare us more of their drama, we were horrified when Josh admitted that he still loved Amber this week. Setting aside the question of how dreary Amber manages to be so attractive, we’re now fearing that Josh could be sucked back into his dark Jamber days. A year ago, Josh was unlikable, often criticised as arrogant, aggressive and selfish. Away from Amber, the character has had a complete transformation into a mature, sensible, caring and pleasant young man. Whilst Amber has remained the same, Josh has come along in leaps and bounds without her. And although we would love Daniel to be a free man in order to date Imogen, we’re hoping that Josh won’t be sacrificed at the altar of Amber and begin to regress as a character. Colour us worried…
It’s been a terrible week for poor Sonya as she struggled with her addictions in light of the ongoing poison pen letters but an absolutely fantastic week for the actress behind her, Eve Morey. One of the show’s finest, Eve never fails to play Sonya perfectly. Her nuanced and realistic portrayal of her character is powerful and moving – and we have to credit Neighbours for the brilliant depiction of an addict struggling to stay clean. This plot has afforded us a great opportunity to see this darker side of Sonya and the stark realities of her daily struggle. Eve is a true talent and we can’t praise her enough for turning Sonya into one of the all-time greats in our opinion. She has us hooked and we can’t wait to see where it goes next but we can imagine, whatever twists the plot takes, Eve will continue to give her all in the role.
It was a big week for the Canning family as they dealt with the shock return of Kyle’s wayward father, Gary. For characters that are normally involved in the more comic side of Erinsborough life, it was refreshing to see Colette Mann and in particular Chris Milligan receive some meaty material and they totally delivery. We’ve loved the various rows and arguments but above all we love that they’ve managed to come through it as a family. It’s also great to see the unusually stable Georgia and Kyle relationship continue to go strong. Yes, Kyle may have been a bit too quick to buy Gary’s obvious lie as an excuse for his absence but we’re intrigued to see what he’s hiding and hope Naomi is back soon to stire things up!
This continuing saga of Elvis, the porcelain pig, had us smiling all week. It goes without saying that actors Alan and Jackie clearly relish every minute of the fun and humour and that’s so clear in their performances. They can make us smile with a single facial expression and because they’ve been their so long, the characters’ quirks feel real and all the funnier – Karl’s tightness with money and Susan’s exasperation at his latest notions. Not only that but it was nice to see Chris and Nate get involved with the comedy and gave us a chance to see a lighter side to their relationship. More please!
This is a superb plot – don’t get us wrong, we adore it – but we have a real problem with Brad’s behaviour right now. He is well aware of Terese’s feelings and that she has struggled to accept his kiss with Lauren and their closeness lately but still he seems to spend every waking moment around Lauren and is forever asking her for marriage advice. Er hello! What a stupid decision. We understand him wanting to spend time with his daughter Paige but he’s not even trying to be mindful of Terese’s feelings. If there’s one shining light it’s that Brad made his feelings about how much he loves Terese clear to father Doug whereas recently you’d have believed he was sabotaging his marriage by choice! We love the Willis family so we hope some time apart works to mend their relationship.
The one poor plot in a great week of Neighbours drama unfortunately falls to another Amber and Daniel plot – this time with Daniel’s ex Rain. It’s incredibly difficult to find any enjoyment in characters who talk about ‘zen’ and have dreamy ideals when in real life we’d stay well away from these flaky people! This sustainable New Eden community development isn’t an interesting plot to watch and Rain is nowhere near charismatic enough for us to believe that she can win Amber over. The guided meditation sequence was creepy rather than enchanting but if Rain steps up her creepy hynoptic powers we might like her a little more.
Erinsborough 