Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[atrus]

Far too much focus on the 'cardboard' characters today for my liking. As well as the daily dose of angst from Brax and co, we touched base with Andy, Hannah, Josh, Evie, Denny and Nate all in one fell swoop - a challenge for all but the hardiest of fans to endure. Even John's part didn't feel especially strong today, although he had some nice moments.

I'll take an example - I'm glad they're trying to give Josh a bit more of a character, but I'm just not quite believing it at the moment. It's clear they want him to become the Casey of the Braxtons-Plus, but he doesn't have anything like the depth required so far. Has he always been artistic (I'm sure I remember a storyline about him expressly being marked out as a philistine on a school trip?), and if so, why hasn't his totally conventional teen-drama-personality been tailored to match this supposed bohemian flair? I have the same issue with Kyle the musician (though to a lesser extent) - it's like they think simply inventing hobbies for characters is enough to draw them out of the two-dimensional confines of the page. And I feel nearly all the characters focused on today suffer from this lack of proper delineation.

[Angelica]

Far too much focus on the 'cardboard' characters today for my liking. As well as the daily dose of angst from Brax and co, we touched base with Andy, Hannah, Josh, Evie, Denny and Nate all in one fell swoop - a challenge for all but the hardiest of fans to endure. Even John's part didn't feel especially strong today, although he had some nice moments.

I'll take an example - I'm glad they're trying to give Josh a bit more of a character, but I'm just not quite believing it at the moment. It's clear they want him to become the Casey of the Braxtons-Plus, but he doesn't have anything like the depth required so far. Has he always been artistic (I'm sure I remember a storyline about him expressly being marked out as a philistine on a school trip?), and if so, why hasn't his totally conventional teen-drama-personality been tailored to match this supposed bohemian flair? I have the same issue with Kyle the musician (though to a lesser extent) - it's like they think simply inventing hobbies for characters is enough to draw them out of the two-dimensional confines of the page. And I feel nearly all the characters focused on today suffer from this lack of proper delineation.

I agree. I was half tempted to switch it off half way through as I found myself indifference to all the storylines.

The whole Josh being artistic has been inconsistently written - Josh never showed any interest in art when he was in Maddy, and then there was the storyline where Evie and Josh drew each other for a school assignment, only for him to behave childishly when they were at a gallery (although, at the time, it may have been jealousy in relation to Evie). I find Josh is one of the least defined characters only the show - only really there to be a love interest to someone.

I see what you mean about Kyle, although I think the whole music thing fits with his whole broodiness and his difficulty with self-expression. I could see music being a way for him to express himself in the way he can't in normal every day life.

The Andy and Hannah stuff was too dire for words. It’s bad enough they’re trying to turn Andy into Heath with a more shallow and less convincing version of the “Redeemed by love” storyline (yeah, not buying it) but when it gets reduced to the level of “Hannah might never walk again but what’s really getting her down is that Andy won’t have sex with her”…Yeah, don’t care. Ascribing Hannah’s improvement to Andy, as Denny seems to do, is possibly being a bit generous given that it was Zac who gave her the push while Andy’s still carrying her everywhere rather than letting her do it herself.

I totally agree about Andy. The problem with his redemption is that it has all happened too quickly for it to be believable. Any normal person, would have doubts about the situation Andy has been placed in, even if they had been in a committed relationship for a long time. And yet, we are meant to believe, that Andy, who has never shown an ounce of maturity, it suddenly up for the task - not blinking an eye at the idea of being his girlfriend's permanent carer or living in a household with 2 teenagers who now expect him to sort out their issues. All this for someone who hadn't exactly treated him well before all this happen. It just doesn't sit well, and it is a stark contrast, to the better written storyline of Zac and VJ where Zac wants to the right thing by VJ and yet consistently struggles with that decision.

[Red Ranger 1]

I just can't feel the urge to make any sort of comment on Andy and Hannah.I just don't care.At all.

Chris was incredibly irritating bossing Spencer about at the start and didn't really make it up to him despite apologising, so I didn't actually mind Spencer having a go at him.Spencer getting angry is getting very old though so I hope this is the beginning of it being resolved.Not too happy about the show acting like he's in the wrong with Matt though when Matt's made it his life's mission to make Spencer angry.When Matt holds his hand out in friendship to Spencer, watch the other hand where the hammer is.

Shame John's sculpture was quickly jettisoned in favour of Jett being a brat.I've just got no sympathy for him.His "I don't want things to change" whining is just childish: Is he planning to stay living in that house until he's 50?And when he says that they should help neighbours in trouble, he seems to miss the point that the neighbours are the trouble.

So really not a good episode, I'm afraid.

EDIT: So is Irene still in the city fetching VJ? If so, she seems to have missed the point of "fetching", it's meant to mean coming back with him.

[CaptainHulk]

Today, I just skipped over every scene that didn't involve The Palmers and Roo/Spencer/Chris.

Chris should know not to push Spencer's buttons, You saw what he did to that old Perv and Matt!

Miserable Spencer does get old after a while but given everything in the current product, can you seriously blame him?

[Gerard]

I'm glad the Palmers were in that episode as it saved it from being one of the dullest and depressing in a while. I know Hannah's situation is sad, but it all seems to revolve around whether or not she and Andy can "take it to the next level", I was just watching it today thinking how awful it must be for the actress who plays Hannah to sit in bed day after day crying. I quite liked Denny when she first appeared, but her involvement with the Hannah storyline is draining her character. I'd kind of lost interest when it came around to Spencer's woes... and there weren't even any Braxtons today...

[Slade]

Spencer's face when Roo told him about Maddy and Oscar was priceless. It will be interesting to see how he contains his jealousy when he actually sees them 'together'.

Yesterday's episode proved exactly why I find Chris so annoying. He is completely incapable of taking a hint. It was obvious that Spencer just wanted to be left to his own devices and he kept pushing and pushing until Spencer understandably snapped.

I felt a tiny bit sorry for Hannah but I'm still not liking her. I actually don't mind this storyline with her and Andy (Must be the only one here!).

[H&Alover]

To answer my own question about Kat's advice about locking doors - not long!!!!!

Did we all blink and miss it or was the viewing of John & Maz's house done off screen because all of a sudden there's been an offer made? Jett may come across as a tough cookie and all rounded kid, but he had a traumatic upbringing being dragged from pillar to post by his mum, until you have been in a position like his you shouldn't dismiss his reluctance to move from the only stable home he has known so easily. Maz is an adult with no such issues and she doesn't want to move, even though at first she was uneasy about living in Gina's house.

Did like Josh likening John's montage to Marilyn to what a serial killer would have as a shrine. Wonder if Ryan has one for Phoebe at home?

Brax is being sensible by arranging for Kyle and Ricky to be joint owners of Angelo's and Andy being in charge of the gym while he's away. Even if it had been four years as he hoped, he couldn't have run the businesses' from prison as Ricky rightly said. Andy did put up a half hearted plea of his not being qualified, but Brax overruled him. Maybe eight years for manslaughter was the deal made between Craig and the prosecution. There were no witnesses, no history between them so the prosecution would have a hard job to prove motive.

Hannah and Andy both need to speak to each other properly, she did rather spring the 'let's have sex' on him! It's not her he's rejecting, at least it's not the way I see it, I think he feels awkward about resuming their relationship and Nate got it right when Andy asked him about it, it's not medical, it's emotional. She may think/feel she's ready, but she needs to talk to Andy. He said himself he's not good at putting his feelings into words, hence the 'It's my duty to look after you' boob. Nate does seem to have become a sounding board for Andy and Denny. You're not alone Slade - it's an interesting storyline to pursue, an off and on couple, him being a bit of a villain and not very educated, her a nurse. One of them are currently paralysed and depending on the other. It'd be a strain on a 'normal' couple but on a pair like them!

Chris means well and he does love Spencer, he just has a very unfortunate way of trying to help him, though Spencer doesn't make it easy for people to help him when he gets in a mood. I don't knoe if he is a mood because Oscar and Maddy are a couple (for now) so ending any hope for them or because she didn't tell him and he had to hear it from Roo.

[atrus]

Just caught up with Wednesday and today. The Chris and Spencer stuff felt repetitive at first - yet again Chris was going overboard with the big brother routine, and yet again Spencer was being unnecessarily bratty in response. But then things did seem to move on a phase when Chris gave Spencer a deserved kick up the backside, and he actually took heed for a change. Leading to another brief but smouldering scene between Spencer and Matt, and his cancer fundraising idea - which, incidentally, it's obvious that Maddy's going to hate. Just because it's a soap, and people who are ill in soaps always hate fundraising on their behalf, even though it seems like a perfectly nice and reasonable thing to do.

The Matt/Sasha stuff is becoming repetitive too, much as they're solid performers. If she's going to uni, maybe she should just go and not come back, because we just seem to be retreading the same ground with the pair of them.

Good that Zac finally apologised to Irene, and I enjoyed Maz standing up to John over the house - even though, in reality, both she and Jett probably would have done well to accept that their family is about more than bricks and mortar, however fond the memories.

It feels like Maddy and Oscar's days are already numbered, which is a shame, but predictable.

[Red Ranger 1]

I agree that it was nice that Chris' speech actually had an effect on Spencer rather than just being something that happened.The scenes between Spencer and Maddy that followed were quite good and Spencer seems to be accepting that being her friend is a pretty important job.Maddy seemed less crazy here and the semi-kiss with Oscar seemed quite natural: Not sure if his running off was because he was uncomfortable being the boyfriend or embarrassed about Spencer walking in on them, but while they're not being depicted as love's young dream it could work if Oscar gave it a chance.Alarm bells did start ringing when Spencer talked about having the fundraiser "in honour of Maddy", which sounds like she's dying.There are ways to handle it and ways not to.I remember when they did something similar for Irene and basically dragged her down there on a pretext then all turned round and shouted "Surprise!" so she ran off:That's not the way to handle it.On the other hand, I seem to remember Heath handling the fundraiser for Rocco pretty well because they talked to him about it in advance and made sure he was comfortable with his role in it.If they manage to avoid turning Maddy into someone for people to stare and gawk at, she might be okay with it.

I am glad that Zac apologised to Irene, not everyone would, but...I can't help feeling she let him down here.She was meant to go to the city to pick up VJ and didn't do anything of the sort.I knew when Oscar made that comment about it meaning a lot that Zac's always there for him that it would end with him running off to the city after VJ.But frankly I'd have preferred if he just left him there and let his family look after him rather than chasing him around out of some sort of obligation to Leah.He doesn't need to turn into another principal who keeps disappearing off to deal with personal problems.

The Sasha and Matt stuff failed to make any impact on me.I'm guessing Matt's upset that she's messing up at uni because of him but his non-reaction to her just didn't feel natural, it came across as him feeling nothing which his counting down the days didn't match.I loved the stuff between Sasha and Chris though, those two always sparkle together, from his hailing her with the megaphone to his brilliant bit of snitching on her to Irene ("Sasha's come back early!She's messing up uni because of a boy!").

Not sure how I feel about the John/Marilyn stuff.It's nice he got to give her his "lovely thing" and I did appreciate the sentiment behind her speech about the happy memories that come with the house. But John had very good reasons for wanting to move away and no-one ever came up with a decent counter argument, yet again he has to be the bigger person and back down.And I don't like that Jett got his own way: He seemed to feel less affection and loyalty to the person that gave him a family than to the building where it just happened to happen, and I kind of wish Marilyn had pointed out to him that they'll still be a family wherever they live rather than making the popular decision.(And what about the poor people who were planning to move in there?Guess they don't matter?)

[CaptainHulk]

Yep, I see this fundraiser coming back to kick Spence in the nuts.