Lunar

I'm not going to lie, I can't even remember who I voted for haha, but I'm happy to see Charlie did well after not appearing last time. Its hard with there only being 6 choices - I'm always torn between picking longer-running characters, past characters who were my favs and current ones. Usually I try to do a mix. It does seem like with the new voting method (i.e not having to sign up to the board and voting via the website) that more votes were received overall, which is really nice to see.

I can see both sides of the push to be more young adult - teens may not be watching much now, so there's not much point in having storylines focused on them if they're not watching, but I also felt like it was very much a family show, so there's nothing to say that YAs or older couldn't invest in those storylines too. I think scrapping the school and university makes bringing in families a bit difficult, as often one of the parents would work there, and there aren't exactly many other jobs on offer in summer bay. Some of the newer characters I'm warming up to now, so don't mind if they stay, but I'd much rather they add another then have Justin as both a mechanic/manager and Theo as both an apprentice/singer. It feels a bit random. I would like if they didn't rush to put people in relationships within five minutes of them arriving. I do think Ziggy and Dean should probably leave next year.

Yeah I thought that was odd too, especially as he was just wandering about in the front garden. I almost thought it was a set up at first.

I think that would've been really good. Sometimes I think they glossed over her grief a bit too quickly - given just how many people she lost. I know she struggled for a bit but once they put her with Matt, it wasn't as if they had much to do until they left.

Yeah I thought that too. The coffee bit made sense, but the scene after where Irene went from Marilyn to Jas sitting down after her counsellor's appointment felt a bit awkwardly put in to me. ---------------------------- Amber's comment about 'the night Jai was made' felt widely inappropriate. She says she doesn't know Ziggy or see where she fits in, yet makes no effort to get to know her because she doesn't want to I'm guessing. Was nice to see Ryder and Owen bonding over his dad.

New interview with Sophie: She mentions wanting to try LA and/or London in the future.

Yeah I wouldn't be surprised. I don't think she's been around long enough to warrant that yet. I'd rather see growth that feels more natural and over a longer period of time.

I'm not sure I like her, but she seems to have simmered down a bit since she first joined.

They actually do look related here! The casting for them really was spot on.

I totally agree! I also didn't see the point in Mason sticking around longer - only to get shafted with working at the gym. I suppose maybe Orpheus wanted to extent his contract the extra 6 months, or maybe they promised a big/exiting exit for him...but if I were him, I would've just had Mason take the internship back then and save the boring storylines he was given the last few months. It didn't help that Raffy left before him and she seemed to be his only real purpose outside of work.

Yeah I agree. He doesn't feel that integrated into the community these days.

Yeah thats true. I think they're back filming now though, so hopefully they could do something. Even if they just did a clip of the cast or something and not in-show.

I'm surprised they haven't. I know it can be difficult as they film months in advance, but they could easily shoe-horn in something thats filmed on-set like Neighbours did surely?

I agree. I did like the stuff with his mum and Ben, but feel he's mostly just been there as a support system for everyone lately.

I think this is probably the case too. I'm sure sometimes being out can have a negative effect on someone's career (I think others have said to keep quiet if they want 'leading man' or 'love interest' roles), but I suppose the same could be said about soaps. Obviously there's been a ton of break out actors from H&A and Neighbours, but there's probably some executives that judge them based on it. I think LOTR was just going to be a hard role to get regardless - especially with how many people they auditioned and how big of a franchise it is.