ebrett84

I completely agree. People used to absolutely blast Dani Sutherland (who I quite liked most of the time) for her selfishness / self centredness but to me Ruby is far worse and yet no one ever calls her out on it. You can tell what the viewers are supposed to think of a character by the way other characters react to them. When Dani acted selfishly or whined, other characters would almost always say "gee Dani, you're being quite selfish / whiney today". Have you ever heard anyone say something like this to Ruby (maybe Xavier might have done it when they were breaking up but I can't remember)? This leads me to believe that we are in fact supposed to like her and just...no. I often felt the same way about Belle but she didn't get away with it quite as much. And her relationship with Geoff is just sickening. I haven't been a teenager for a few years now, but teenagers aren't like that these days are they?

Well, I'm not saying that every teenage relationship needs to involve both members taking a compatibility test or anything, but how about a basic conversation or two before they start a relationship. When certain teenage (or just out of it) couples start talking about "we're meant to be together" and "you're my life" etc when I've never even heard them have a normal conversation it just sounds ridiculous. I mean, I know they're teenagers and I know it's a soap but...jeez. That example RR quoted above was one that had me rolling my eyes too.

The thing I dislike about this relationship and an increasing amount of H&A relationships is this: Have these two ever had any sort of proper conversation that went beyond flirting? It just seems that so often these days, a relationship starts by having 2 random characters meet, flirt with each other and then jump into a romance without even getting to know the other character at all.

^ I think the age difference seemed worse than it was for a couple of reasons. One was that, while the difference between the characters' ages was about 7-10 years (I'm not sure exactly how old Miles is supposed to be), the difference between the actor's ages was 12 years. Another reason was that Miles' twin was Kirsty's teacher once upon a time. And finally a lot of the time Miles just seemed to act more like her dad or older brother than her boyfriend. It just seemed that the dynamic of the relationship was always Kirsty getting into scrapes and Miles trying to get her out of them, or Kirsty disappointing him and then trying to get his approval back. But as I said, and you agreed with, I did actually like their relationship. It just should have and could have been better. Fair point about Sally, but I still think there's a difference. Sally had been on the show forever and was emotionally mature enough to pass for a lot older than what she really was. Kirsty was really immature a lot of the time. One missed opportunity for a storyline about Kirsty: Does anyone else wish they'd held off on Martha's stripping storyline and given it to Kirsty instead of the "escort" storyline which had logic and reason gaps you could drive trucks through? I could see Bartlett harassing / firing her from her secretary job, Kirsty trying to get another decent job but being unable to because she'd been on the run and had no experience / qualifications and somehow getting drawn into stripping to pay for Kane's appeal (have Kane's lawyer be a dodgy type who basically keeps taking her money and not doing anything / asking for more). And then Bartlett seeing her at the strip club and feeling really guilty about driving her to that point. I think that could have been far more powerful than Martha's storyline for a few reasons. One would be that she has a boyfriend who is completely unaware of her secret life. Another would be that she's doing it so her four year old son could have a relationship with his father. And finally, Kirsty was never the slutty / skanky type who flaunted her sexuality, so it would just seem more embarrassing and degrading for her than it did for Martha. I could really see Kirsty doing it as well. No, she was never the sex object type, but she was always rebellious and willing to push the limits and she struck me as the type who'd do anything for Ollie or Kane. And yes, Kirsty / Christie is definitely sexy enough to work in a strip club. Another minor continuity point: Why did Morag agree to represent Kane when he'd cost her $10,000 or so by breaking bail last time she represented him? Fair point about super couples. I'd totally forgotten how popular Kim and Rachel and Nick and Jade were. I'd disagree with the KK point though. I can remember being shocked and devastated when Kane took her back home and then just left her a letter. I never accepted Kirsty with anyone else until she came back and I accepted her with Miles.

Yeah, I know that was her role, but we already had Irene filling that role and doing it in a more down to earth, less unbelievable way.

The continuity going back to Kirsty's first stint was just terrible all round. The kidney stuff, not mentioning her previous miscarriage (or Shelley's) and acting like Kirsty stopped talking to her parents because of Beth being the worst examples. Also, did Shelley and Rhys really hate Kane at the end? I can remember they were actually all a happy family for a little while, but that changed when Kane found out about Rhys cheating on Beth. Still, I can remember after Noah died, Kirsty said she was going to try to patch things up with her parents (and was apparently successful - I remember her saying she actually enjoyed herself when she went to see them in the city) and Kane said he didn't have any problems with that. Still, after he took her on the run with him, they would probably hate him for that, even if it was her idea as much as it was his. I've got to say, in spite of her pro KK stance, I never really liked Beth. Her backstory was interesting (her ex-husband almost felt like a character on the show, he was mentioned that much), but she was just so saintly. Apparently she hadn't been an angel in her youth which caused her to strongly identify with Kirsty, but by the time she got on the show I just found her quite boring. I just found it annoying how she always seemed to have the absolute perfect piece of advice, no matter the situation.

I forgot to mention this in my post above: As for Kane, I wish he'd been mentioned more. Are him and Kirsty friends? Does he ever see Ollie? Stuff like that. I'm not sure about a reunion though. I spent most of her second stint hoping that it would end with her going back to Kane, but I'm not sure now. KK was a teen romance that I just don't think was sustainable long term. Kirsty does seem to have outgrown Kane a bit. I can understand the sentiment for them getting back together as they're my all time favourite couple on the show, but I'm not unhappy she's back with her parents instead. By the way, has a "golden couple" like KK ever actually been split up like this without getting back together later? KK were huuuuuge in their day and every other couple of even close to similar popularity has either got a happy ending if the actors are willing to leave together (Will and Gypsy, Robbie and Tasha) or been literally til death do us part (Sally and Flynn, Jack and Martha, Aden and Belle, Hayley and Noah, Shane and Angel etc.). Unless you want to count Vinnie and Leah, the biggest couple I can think of to have split up is Marilyn and Fisher. Somewhat ironically, Marilyn left Fisher in a very similar way to how Kirsty left Miles.

Slade: Yeah, Dylan was exactly what I was talking about when I said that Kirsty develops strong feelings very quickly. One day she was completely depressed about Kane "dumping" her and then the next day she was madly in love with this new guy and had basically forgotten about Kane. It's just the way she is. I thought she chose Seb because she realised that after what happened with Dylan, that they actually "felt" like brother and sister even though they weren't. I don't think she ever loved Seb. I think she was just trying to get on with her life after Kane and Dylan and thought that being in a relationship was the way to do that, and Seb was the most convenient choice. The thing I like about Kirsty though, is that unlike with a lot of characters, you're never quite sure what she's thinking. As for choosing Miles, yeah security and stability was definitely a big part of it, which makes sense given what she'd been through over the past few years. It annoys me that a lot of people seem to think she was "using" Miles for these things though. The guy's a teacher, not a millionaire, and there are a heap of guys who would have been willing to be a father figure to Ollie. They seemed to give up on the "athlete" stuff after her kidney illness, but yeah I would have liked to see her doing more outdoorsy stuff. As for the Trey stuff, yeah she had a bad attitude about it, but why shouldn't she? She didn't do anything wrong and this guy accuses her of forming an inappropriate relationship and jeopardises her career as a teacher before it even starts. I'd find it pretty hard to have a good attitude and be completely understanding about that. I'm not fussed they didn't make a big deal about her relationship with Mattie. Mattie was leaving soon afterwards so investing time in that relationship would have been pretty pointless and they were never even remotely close anyway. I'm surprised they didn't make a bigger deal about her friendship with Martha though. As you and others have pointed out, they would have been pretty natural friends (they were both very close to Tasha as well, so that would have been an easy starting point), but their "friendship" was entirely off screen. When Martha was sitting by her bed after the miscarriage, I distinctly remember thinking "what the hell's she doing there? Since when do these two care about each other?" But as I said above her real "lost and under developed" relationship was with Nicole. Judging by their last scene, they were supposed to be really close, but again, this took place almost entirely off screen.

Kirsty was my favourite character back in the day. I even loved her before Kane when she was portrayed as a total brat and everyone was supposed to hate her. I don't know, she just seemed to have a certain vulnerability that most bratty characters can't pull off. Also, while Christie isn't the best actress (and this was doubly true in her initial stint), she does have this natural likeability and warmth about her. I especially loved her drug overdose storyline (has H&A actually done one of those since? That'd be a good way to kill someone off) and the time she put a bag of rotten prawns in the air conditioning unit and stunk out the whole school . And, of course her relationship with Kane was classic. Probably the most original and controversial relationship in the show's history. When I heard she was coming back I was dead against it though. I didn't see what they could do with KK other than split them up and I didn't want that. It could have been ok though, if they'd done it right. I don't see why they couldn't have had an amicable breakup with Kane seeing that Kirsty had moved on and set up a good life for her and Ollie and leaving because it was the right thing by her, rather than turning Kane into a total unredeemable jerk and basically turning a memorable relationship into Kirsty's big mistake. By the way, as for people saying that Kirsty would never choose a guy she'd only been dating for a couple of months over Kane, I disagree. She ran away with Kane (basically choosing him over her family) after she'd been going out with him for about two weeks (The time from the Mirgini sinking to KK being discovered was 35 episodes or seven weeks, and that includes the actual shipwreck episodes, the trauma bonding etc). Kirsty is the kind to develop hard and fast feelings and act on them quickly. That's also why I didn't mind her moving on from Kane so quickly when others were saying it was out of character. It wasn't. I do think the writers missed the boat on her relationship with Miles though. Don't get me wrong, I did actually like them together but most people didn't and I think that's on the writers more than the actors or characters. Most people seemed to like them when they were actually allowed to be cute and funny together (I remember a scene where they were ragging on Romeo and Jai for writing poetry to Annie that was really good). But they didn't get nearly enough of these scenes and instead were made to fight over every little thing, and after a while it just seemed like "why are you even bothering to be together?". The other major complaint, as others have pointed out is the "middle aged" thing. Was the 10 year or so age difference with Miles even mentioned? Or her lack of age difference with Nic and Jai and Romeo (the actor who plays Romeo is actually older than the actress who effectively played his foster mum )? It seemed like they tried to hide this by dressing her in these mumsy, dowdy, frumpy outfits when they should have been going the other way. They should have actually played up her youth and made her into a character who is basically forced into a "mother to teenagers" role because of who she is dating, and constantly questions her suitability for such a role, but who draws on her own recent experiences as a teenager and tries her best and usually (not always) gets it right. Make her sort of a big sister / cool mother type. In particular, her relationship with Nicole (almost Kirsty's successor in terms of being a rebellious brat) was massively underexplored imo. That could have been really interesting, but whatever bonding that happened between them apparently took place offscreen, because lord knows we need to see more Hugo and Angelo scenes . One thing I did love was her exit. I know others hated it but I thought it was perfect for her. Kirsty's first instinct was always to run away from her problems, and for all the growing up she did, she was still the same old Kirsty at the end of the day. In the end, I think her return was appreciated but a disappointment. It was a disappointment because I thought they missed a ton of opportunities with her, but appreciated because even if she wasn't as good as her former self, she was still one of the better characters this year.

I agree that the way Kane left in the end made it difficult for him to return (having kidnapped his son etc), but my point is it was stupid for the writers to have him leave like that. If they had to split up KK (and even as a massive fan, I wouldn't have been totally against it), they still could have had him leave on good terms and come back later. Say he goes to jail for 10 years or whatever it was and then gets out after 6 months and comes back to see Kirsty has moved on with Miles. Kirsty tells him that she never would have done it if she knew he'd be out this soon, but she has moved on and built a stable and happy life for her and Ollie because that is exactly what Kane wanted her to do. Kane could try and talk them into coming back with him, but after a talk with Irene, he realises that they would indeed be better off where they are now and so he leaves as he's always wanted to do the right thing by Kirsty and Oliver. Kirsty says that she still loves him but she loves Miles just as much and she doesn't think she can give up what she has right now. This way Kane leaves but the door is left open for a reunion down the road. Easy. Instead they made Kane look like the biggest jerk on the planet and basically turned a hugely popular relationship into Kirsty's regret. Why did they do this? Probably because they knew KK had a massive fanbase who would hate the idea of Kirsty and Miles, so they figured the only way to make them accept it was by making Miles look like a saint by showing him in comparison to that jerk Kane. All they succeeded in doing was leaving a bad taste in the mouth of a lot of long time fans. With all that said, I did actually love her exit and did enjoy seeing Shelley back. It just could have been better. Kane didn't kidnap his son. He didn't? After Kirsty left with Kane at the beginning of the year, I seem to recall her coming back and saying that Kane had taken Ollie. The way I remember it, Kane thought Kirsty was still in love with Miles and took Ollie because she thought Kirsty would leave and take him or something. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong.

I agree that the way Kane left in the end made it difficult for him to return (having kidnapped his son etc), but my point is it was stupid for the writers to have him leave like that. If they had to split up KK (and even as a massive fan, I wouldn't have been totally against it), they still could have had him leave on good terms and come back later. Say he goes to jail for 10 years or whatever it was and then gets out after 6 months and comes back to see Kirsty has moved on with Miles. Kirsty tells him that she never would have done it if she knew he'd be out this soon, but she has moved on and built a stable and happy life for her and Ollie because that is exactly what Kane wanted her to do. Kane could try and talk them into coming back with him, but after a talk with Irene, he realises that they would indeed be better off where they are now and so he leaves as he's always wanted to do the right thing by Kirsty and Oliver. Kirsty says that she still loves him but she loves Miles just as much and she doesn't think she can give up what she has right now. This way Kane leaves but the door is left open for a reunion down the road. Easy. Instead they made Kane look like the biggest jerk on the planet and basically turned a hugely popular relationship into Kirsty's regret. Why did they do this? Probably because they knew KK had a massive fanbase who would hate the idea of Kirsty and Miles, so they figured the only way to make them accept it was by making Miles look like a saint by showing him in comparison to that jerk Kane. All they succeeded in doing was leaving a bad taste in the mouth of a lot of long time fans. With all that said, I did actually love her exit and did enjoy seeing Shelley back. It just could have been better.

I actually like Romeo. It's nice to see a character on this show who actually (gasp) kind of enjoys life. It's not that I'm in the demographic to find him "hot" either. Seriously, pretty much everyone on this show is so depressed / angst ridden at the moment. People call this guy a cliche but I actually can't remember the last character like him they introduced. Sexyluc, I can't remember Xavier ever being fun. I remember Ruby being fun before she met Xavier. Maybe you can refresh my memory.

That's exactly what everyone else is thinking - everyone except the writers. It seemed so obviously the right thing to do, and I have real trouble believing that Sam would refuse to return for a couple of episodes if it meant finally wrapping up KK's story properly, but the writers appear to have lost interest in what the viewers genuinely want. I too wish Kane could have come back for a couple of episodes. I think it would be massively out of character for Kirsty to actually have an affair with him while she's with Miles, but surely they could have figured out some way for them to leave together even if it only set up the possibility of a future offscreen reunion. They could have basically done with Kane what they did with Shelley. By the way, has a supercouple like KK ever actually been split up before (without getting back together later)? Every other golden couple on this show has literally been "til death do us part". Probably the biggest couple to have actually broken up that I can think of is Marilyn and Fisher. Am I forgetting someone?