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.
It was lovely to see Ben Kirk back on Neighbours this week. Felix Mallard gave great performances the last time he was on the show and it’s always nice to have characters in the show who are links to the past. The Kennedys’ place was feeling a bit empty with Nate gone so even better to have grandson Ben back in the family home. This time Ben’s trying to knuckle down with his studies, as well as playing his guitar, but we hope he still makes time for fun with his friends. When he was in town before we watched his great friendship with Tyler develop and with Piper too. But Ben might have more on his hands than he bargained for if Xanthe Canning has any say, seeing as she is completely smitten with the boy. We loved their scenes together as Xanthe took on Paige’s advice to be a ‘bad girl’ and ended up getting drunk with Ben. Vom all over Susan’s shoes – yikes!
he Brodie plot stepped up a gear this week and we quite enjoyed the darkness of it (if you ignore the number of times they said the word “dumped”). Chas/Brodie/Chas/Brodie had his pride hurt this week when Brad pushed him too hard on training and after sulking wanted to move away (he’s only been around for five minutes). Enchanted by his pouting Piper was seduced into a night away at the motel. But things so moved onto a darker path when Brodie began deleting texts from her phone and sending messages on her behalf. The controlling alarm bells began ringing. Driving a wedge between Piper and her family and running away to Perth sounded all very Romeo and Juliet to her at first, but having discovered he’d taken her phone and had locked her in the car, Piper got a wake up call. Luckily for Pipes Tyler came to her rescue and she left him crying by the roadside. But with Brodie bitter, twisted and controlling and looming omniously over Tyler in the Lassiters boiler room, we’re not sure this is really the end…
Now look, the accents may be all over the place and don’t even get us started on trying to work out the Quill extended family tree… Honestly we have no idea, we’re pretty much smiling and going along with it at this point but we’ve loved the increasing presence of the Quills on Neighbours recently. The show’s decision to open up Erinsborough and create an expanding wider community makes the show feel bigger and full of life for the first time in years. We’ve loved the likes of Courtney, Tim, Andreas, Hilary, Doug… We could easily go on… And the Quills are no different. So long has Lassiter’s been under control of the Robinsons that you often forget that for a period in the early 00s, the small (but no means bad) Lambert family were providing plots for our regulars. And so too are the Quills. We love the nasty Julie throwing her weight around and going up against Paul. And we’ve really enjoyed Erinsborough expensive shoe connoisseur Tom exploiting naive Aaron. We highly suspect some combo of the family is responsible for upcoming events but we hope the show is in no rush to get rid of them entirely when they provide so much villainous fun – and having such active guests stirring trouble mean our regulars aren’t driven to out of character villainy in order to further plots.
It was a week of really bad decisions and look no further than two of our favourites, Steph and Terese! Steph, obsessed with trying to get Charlie back and being able to provide for him by running a successful basis could have seriously undermined her chances this week by trusting her friend. Cutting costs she may have been but Steph surely knew that there was no way the goods were got by entirely legitimate means and when Paul is the one moralising, you know you have problems! This proves that she really needs Paul’s business acumen and why the pair make a surprisingly good team. And poor Terese, stuck between a rock and a hard place, is torn between loyalty to Paul and fear of upsetting new boss, the power-suited, icy Julie Quill. But by putting her faith in Julie and her (incredibly mobile) scale model Lassiter’s future plans, Terese runs the risk of upsetting friends, family and getting sucked into the Quill’s dodgy deeds. Furthermore, she might also regret assuming Paul is responsible for all Lassiter’s current maintenance issues! Hopefully Steph and Terese, both intelligent, strong women, soon see the light and do what’s best for them and keep things above board.
It wasn’t a good week for Kyle and Amy as the ghost of Georgia (not literal, but with upcoming events, who knows!) coming between them. We’ve already said that Amy’s mistake to go behind Kyle’s back to read the letter after he threw it away and affirmed his commitment to her, was a crucial mistake. It showed Amy’s lack of trust in Kyle, but worse, showed how her curiosity got the better of her despite the fact that, at that point, she had no real reason to doubt Kyle. In the aftermath, instead of letting the subject drop, Amy’s guilt and insecurity drove a wedge at the heart of her relationship in a way that the mere existence of the letter couldn’t. By finally telling the truth, the damage was unfortunately already done. How could Kyle continue to trust Amy? And how could Amy be angry that Kyle’s curiosity was now piqued by Georgia’s letter?! No one is coming out of the story smelling of roses and it’s sad to see the happy relationship implode at a disastrous rate, even though we’re loving the reality of the drama.
Steph and Mark hooked up again this week and what can we say, we’re fans. We liked Mark and Paige at the start and we have a love/hate relationship with Mark because let’s face it – he can be quite a boring stickler. But him and Steph seem to have real chemistry, something they were unable to deny last week when their pact to just keep things simple as friends lasted all of five minutes. We weren’t totally sure on Mark as the family man going on picnics with Charlie (even though his babysitting for Nell is really cute) but it’s when Mark and Steph got their flirt on that we really enjoyed their scenes. Even Steph was up for a bit of saucy “handcuff me” role play (which is surprising considering her past, but we’ll let it go) but their bonding scenes were nicely played and we’re interested to see where things go from here – that’s if Paige doesn’t cause more trouble (see below!).
that Neighbours has lacked one of its most iconic character ‘types’ in recent years – the warm, funny, somewhat ‘dizzy’ blonde. The show has a long tradition of these strong, comedic young females and their presence often livens up many scenes, particularly the teen relationship dramas which do sometimes veer into the less than interesting territory. The last two teen gangs (both awful in our opinions) were made up of the fantastic but not necessarily funny Imogen, the dreadful Amber and the less said about the likes of Summer and Tash, the better. So Xanthe has been a real breath of fresh air and as she settles into the show, she’s become a real stand-out. We loved her absolute ineptitude at Harold’s, her inexplicable ability to hold onto the job and the complete disregard for the customers and indeed, food hygiene. We hope the character continues on this high note and doesn’t succumb to, or bogged down in, forced drama.
Very randomly there was a cameo from Andreas this week who appeared to give Imogen something to look at and for Paige to suggest she move on with. Ah Andreas, remember him? He used to work at The Waterhole and Harold’s and had a strange comedy subplot with Sheila where it was revealed he couldn’t speak English and was utterly hopeless at the job. Breaking things, wrong orders and so on. But Sheila liked him. It’s the sort of bonkers plot only Neighbours can do but we loved it at the time. Well he reappeared at the end of last week, complete now with ropey English and an endearing smile. We always love when guest characters and extras make regular appearances, especially someone as sweet and silly as him. Even if Imogen wasn’t ready we could do with seeing Andreas every now and then if there are more deliveries in the street.
Our long-term readers will we that we’re big fans of Imogen Willis. We even stuck with her through that odd period in where she became obsessed with Mark Brennan and generally made herself a bit of a nuisance but the character soon got back on track and Ariel remains a great screen presence. That said, we can’t be the only ones bored of Imogen and Daniel? The show has done that most annoying of soapy traits but refusing to allow characters to be happy and make any and every hurdle a break-up situation. It’s got to the point where we’re rooting for the characters to be apart because the constant to-ing and fro-ing just isn’t entertaining. What’s worse is that Imogen’s typical neurotic aspects (which we love) have went into overdrive with the character snapping at everyone and generally being all over the place. Why Tyler gives her the time of day between her hot and cold all the time, we have no idea. We can only hope future rumoured events bring back the Imogen we know and love and put her trivial love problems into perspective.
Is there anyone more infuriating in soap right now that Paige Smith? What happened to the fun and independent girl we loved when she first joined? We enjoyed Paige and Mark but since it went sour (and Paige wasn’t entirely blameless here thanks to her sulky immaturity) she’s not behaved to her best. We get it, break ups are hard – even harder when the man you were meant to marry hooks up with a neighbour in record time under your nose. But we’d have more sympathy if she hadn’t been making doe eyes at Tyler last year, talking about having feelings for him and being a petty brat most of the time. She’s showing her worst colours lately in her reaction to Steph and Mark. Using Tyler was another cruel move and the cat fight with Steph made her look even nastier. She’s been a nasty piece of work lately, from her treatment of Sonya and now with this show – claiming Steph only wanted Mark so it would look better for her custody appeal. The irritating thing is, with parents like Brad and Lauren enabling her behaviour she’s not going to grow up anytime soon.
We do love a Neighbours villain when they’re done well (sit down, Dimato, no one’s talking about you) and even better, we love them when they’re genuinely a bit more grounded and manipulative as opposed to OTT gangster drama, so it’s no surprise we’ve enjoyed the arrival of Nina ‘Nene’ Williams. In a short space of time she’s already got her eye on Karl and has weaselled her way into a job, manipulating all around her. It’s so typical Karl would fall for Nene’s ‘charms’ but we love the growth in his relationship with Susan. There’s no threat of infidelity here, thank God, and it’s great to see Karl and Susan bluntly discuss Nene and her fixation on Karl. Susan really sparks onscreen when faced with characters like Nene and we loved that she caught onto her in record time. The highlight (or lowlight) has been the dreadful way Nene has been exploiting Doug in order to protect herself and get closer to Karl in the process. With Doug as sick as he is, seeing Nene lie to him as she did was really shocking and we hope Doug gets a chance to reveal her for what she truly is! That said, we’re in no rush to lose her…
It’s been a busy few weeks for Steph as she’s struggled to deal with the stress of her custody battle for Charlie. As sad as it was to see Charlie turn on her and for Philippa to seem on the verge of ruining Steph’s chances, we loved the drama of Steph breaking down during the hearing. The mix of the heat and lack of meds took their toll on Steph and it was shocking to see how quickly she unravelled. The show has done a brilliant job making Philippa more than a 2D villain but someone who seems to genuinely care about Charlie, even if he intentions to removed Steph from his life is anything but noble. It was brilliant to see the two ladies come to an amicable agreement with the help from wise sage, Lucas. Thus finally brining closure between him and Steph and cling a chapter on Steph’s darkest moment – kidnapping baby Patrick. Other highlights in recent weeks have involved the show’s unlikeliest friendship between Steph and Paul. Even if Paul’s advice was misguided, we loved seeing him try to help Steph. Finally, the burgeoning romance(?) between Steph and Mark has taken us by surprise. Whilst we would prefer Belinda to return, we did enjoy Steph and Mark raking over the past (particularly the Marc and Flick mentions!) and it’s nice to see Mark interested in someone more on his wavelength.
As the weeks progress on what his been a very welcome lengthy guest stint for Doug (and hopefully a sign that the show will continue to invest in longer guest runs!) it’s been tragic to see his condition gradually deteriorate. Terence Donovan, well aware that he’s in the latter days of Doug’s time on the show, is doing some very fine work and bringing out the heart in a man who is beginning to lose every sense of himself. His unwillingness to go into a home, to the point of genuine anger and hurt at the suggestion, is heartwrenchingly realistic. So too is Josh’s constant defence and care for his grandfather, and Brad’s gradual realisation that the family unit is struggling to care for him adequately. As Doug’s daily challenges become greater and moments of forgetfulness increase, it’s nice to see a character like Lou, a longstanding friend, around these past few weeks providing a much needed sounding board for Doug’s frustrations and sadness. Whether Doug is your favourite or not, you can’t deny that he has a wealth of show history behind him and a large part of the early 90s era of the show. It’ll be very sad to close a book on that and it’s made all the more powerful seeing an iconic character, played by the same actor, doing so all these years later.
Oh Aaron. A sniff of a leather shoe and a designer shopping bag and he’s apparently anyone’s. It didn’t take long for Tom Quill’s obvious flattery and flirting to get Aaron’s attention and that spells disaster for the future of Lassiter’s. Okay, so we can’t blame Aaron for feeling a little bit sore that Nate’s back in the country without so much as a phonecall to his so-called boyfriend, but did that mean he had to drop everything for Tom so fast? Tom comes across as a little bit of a slime ball and we know Aaron’s naive, but is he that stupid that he can’t tell he’s being played. Aaron’s struggled to find a place in the show with Nate gone and has flitted from one character group to the next without really finding where he fit. He works well as Sonya’s EA (how did he get that job from exotic dancing?!) but he’s generally pretty clueless. Now that Tom’s got him on side and smuggling information right under Sonya’s nose there’s only one way this can end, and that’s VERY badly for dopey Aaron. Let’s hope if and when Nate gets his butt back into Erinsborough he manages to ground Aaron again.
One unsolved Neighbours mystery was answered these past few weeks with the arrival of Brodie aka Piper’s mystery texter Chas. We had kinda hoped for a slightly more exciting reveal that just some random vest-wearing swimmer, but it’s a testosterone dominated Willis plot so what can you expect. We could buy the idea of Piper having a secret lover that she had to hide away in Canada because of Shakespearian family strife and Pipes being Pipes, of course he was older for her to gaze starry-eyed at, but the backstory? Pur-lease. We’re meant to believe that Brodie caused such a disruption to Brad and Josh’s swimming/trainer careers and yet they’ve never talked about him? Not a moan from Brad as he carves another hideous sculpture? Not a mention in a man-paining wail from Josh post-shoulder injury? As if, we know those Willis men, they carry their grudges and their chips on their shoulder to the grave. Brodie’s arrival just meant every scene was weighed down with exposition and we had to revisit those awful memories of swimming championships and Brad as this training superstar. Yeah right. And if Brad being Brodie’s trainer is the highlight of his career then we seriously suggest he needs to get out more.
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.
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.
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.
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!).
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.
We had our tissues handy this week when everyone’s favourite canine, Bossy, suffered a bout of strange behaviour and what seems like a life threatening illness. We have all barely recovered from the time Georgia’s stupidity led to Bossy falling sick but this is even worse! It was alarming to see the ordinarily friendly Bossy lash out, not only at Kyle and Amy, but also sadly, Jimmy – an action that could have dire consequences for our beloved kelpie. It’s speaks to the talents of Chris Milligan and Bossy’s excellent training that the scenes were realistic and indeed, involved some better acting than a few past cast members we could mention! Alas, knowing Bossy is clearly ill broke our hearts and Paul sending her to the kennels made us feel even worse! We hope Bossy is soon vindicated and what’s more, nursed back to health immediately. Number 26 just isn’t the same without her!
The scales fell from Amy’s eyes this week as she (once again) found out what her father is really like. It’s common knowledge that Paul Robinson is a dodgy guy but Amy had just come round to loving and trusting him (and going into business – really now?!) when Sonya dropped the bombshell that he’d tried pushing Steph into a breakdown. After that Amy was fuming and we got to see some great performances from Zoe Cramond again. One of our favourite things about Amy is her friendship with Steph and it was great to see the two of them in scenes together again, listening and being supportive.
There’s something very original and admirable of Neighbours to tackle post-natal depression from a father’s point of view. Since Matilda’s birth, Josh desperately struggled to bond with her and then went through the hell that every new parent seems to suffer – no sleep, low moods and lack of faith. Josh has got it bad, and now it’s made even worse now that Amber has left town with the baby and it takes a flight to reach her. While we hated the whole Jamber and baby plot, it’s an unusual route to take for the plot. It’s not the loudest or the most dramatic plot but Harley Bonner brings a lot of heart to the story even when we’ve spent 80% of the year hating what’s become of Josh’s character. It’s a difficult story to tell with mother and baby absent but Neighbours are giving it a good crack.
First things first – Tyler is great and we also really like Mavournee Hazel who plays Piper…we just Piper pretty irritating. Honestly an on-screen version of a opinionated teenage vlogger is a hard sell to make entertaining to watch and now this new story with Tyler isn’t really helping. The teenage crush on an older guy story has been done plenty of times and we have no problem with it, and we can easily see why Piper would fancy Tyler – but there’s just something missing. Whether it’s because it’s been a bit rushed or the lack of chemistry we’re not sure. There’s also the slight issue that on Piper’s front it’s just a bit cringey and it’s bound to end in her heartbreak when Tyler inevitably goes sniffing back round Paige again.
The longest running story continued this week without a conclusion in sight. Yes, everyone, we’re talking about the reign of terror from everyone’s favourite villain Dimato. We’re not adverse to Neighbours villains, indeed they can really liven things up every now and again – but not like this. Dimato himself isn’t the charming, compelling love-to-hate villain he needs to be and what’s worse, the plot itself is left without a compelling protagonist. Mark and Paige’s involvement is dull, dull, dull, and the plot is convoluted lacking structure, coherence or momentum. The only saving grace was the surprisingly effective scene of Michelle being slapped by Dimato which brought some proper drama and action to proceedings.
Erinsborough 