Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[H&Alover]

Thanks for that Dan F!   I was right about it being a generation on as Maddy said her great granddad served in WW2 so it would have been her great great granddad who served in WW1.  Good to see Evie felt embarrassed about what she said to Alf as she didn't realise he had fought in Vietnam, though how could she know it's not something he goes around talking about. Her main argument was they had their HSC coming up and the trip was interfering in their studies. Commendation to the make up department for making Maddy looking somewhat drawn.  Nice that they mentioned the dawn service at Yabby Creek and Maddy said she'd like to go.

Yep that secret certainly didn't stay one long and they used the old overhearing it ploy!  To be fair it was only a kiss not a full on snog!!!  Of course we got the usual 'why didn't you tell me' from Josh and the stock reply 'there was nothing to tell' from Evie. Definitely trouble brewing between Josh and Matt, who's snuck a bottle of booze on board the bus after he'd promised Zac he was clean which he was at the time.

I refer to my last post that  despite her reassurances she's fine something is bound to happen to Leah now both Zac and VJ are out of town, how come one of them didn't rope Irene in to keep an eye on her, I thought she was only going to Heath & Bianca's overnight?

They are rather short staffed at the diner now Chris has had to dash off to see his dad.  Chris couldn't really understand how it was for Spencer, he'd did a flit and he wasn't the golden boy either.  Give him his dues though he did try his best to persuade Spencer to go home with him, but of course he wasn't there the last time Spencer and his dad clashed.  It was inevitable it would be Maddy who changed his mind she knew better than anyone else the problems between their respective parents. Even if he doesn't want to be there for his dad he can be there for his mum. It was bound to make her think about her own mum and it being time she knew about  the cancer, though going by the trailer Roo doesn't come out of it well and she gets blamed for not telling Maddy's mum.  We know it wasn't her decision say anyhing Maddy is over 16 so can't be classed as a child. 

Another pot, kettle, black moment when Alf said to Spencer about facing up to his fears re his dad which Roo pulled him up on about facing his own.

I'm with you Slade I liked the strip study. Sneaky Hannah just taking off her necklace when he got the answer right. I can see why Andy would find it embarrassing having his girlfriend take him through his written exam, a man thing, Heath was the same and of course Bianca was a teacher which made it worse. Glad he saw sense and let her help.  He could always 'imagine' her being there and getting further than he did last night.

I rather liked the way Marilyn got the attention of the pupils at the War Memorial. 

What  an imposing and beautiful place it was, reminded me of the Taj Mahal with a dash of St. Paul's. Sweet of Marilyn to take hold of Alf's arm as he looked quite nervous about going in.

[c120701]

Marilyn was fab pulling the kids into line, even if there was a point where I thought her voice sounded more Emily that Marilyn.

Nice of Irene to visit Bianca, Heath, Darcy & Harley. I wonder if she thought to visit Damo, Fin, Barry and her grandkids?

[Brian]

A truly amazing episode today at the War Memorial. One of the best episodes ever. The schoolkids pulled it off very well for teenagers, first of all treating it flippantly because they were bored, which upset Alf no end and John saying "you can't make them care". Then Marilyn takes over and convinces them very quickly to look again. The expressions on their faces the second time was truly wonderful, as they were looking at what people their own age had experienced. The background scenes and videos were very good as well.  Would have been nice to have heard them discussing it afterwards and talking about what they had recorded on their notes. Why wasn't Alf given a chance to talk to them afterwards about he had experienced or even inside near the Vietnam section?  Rather surprised to see that they were sleeping in a trench that night - Zac was taking a chance there, especially with the build up between Matt and Josh. Had he done a risk assessment, I wonder? Be interesting to see how it turns out next week. 

Just 2 things that spoilt it Why only 1 girl amongst the main group?.. Doesn't Evie have any friends? Be good to see some other girls talking. Why interrupt with the Roo/Maddy/ mum scenes? The War Memorial could have been the whole episode.  

[Homeandawayfan.]

Great episode, that is how a dramatic H&A episode should be. I did feel for Alf there, an ex Vietnam vet.

So Duncan Stewart Snr, Alf's grandad served in WW1. Gordon must have been quite young at the time. I did miss the start of yesterdays episode as I love snippets of info about the characters family histories and past residents of Summer Bay.

 

 

 

[Red Ranger 1]

Alf's episode count this week:Four. Brax doesn't appear at all as the show finds it increasingly hard to shoehorn him in.

So, three episodes for me to catch up on.Ash probably should have had some plan before going to see Gunno and is now stuck between a rock and a hard place.I was a bit puzzled by the laboured set-up though: Gunno was obviously expecting him so why not just contact him and arrange a visit instead of going to Zac and Kat? (A time scale thing?) We hear a bit more about Kat but don't get the full story: We can draw a connection between the ring and what she told Nate but it's not confirmed.Nate trying to kiss her straight afterwards seemed somewhat inappropriate.

I said ages ago they'd have been better off making Spencer manager than Andy.I get that he's only part-time but it'd be nice if he does get qualified.Can't say the strip study enthralled me particularly.I am very much in two minds about Spencer and Maddy's families reappearing, since I've always felt that they're in the past and their real family is in Summer Bay.I wasn't even sure Chris was on particularly good terms with their father given that snatch of phone conversation we heard when he was being held hostage by Andy's old cellmate last year.As Slade said, he verbally abused Spencer and especially Maddy last time he was around so, while it was nice to see Spencer consulting surrogate family Alf, Roo and Maddy, I'm not convinced she'd encourage him the way she did.And while it's believable that, with her setback, Maddy would feel she needed to contact her mother, it kind of went as well as you'd expect.Nice to get proper confirmation that Roo is Maddy's guardian (something viewers in other forums have tried to deny) and a name for one of her sisters (Annalise: A part of her back story so neglected that for a long time I was convinced she was an only child) but unfortunately they well and truly muck up her age: She should be 18 by now, not 17.

Did Matt know Josh was there when he mentioned the kiss?It's hard to see how but he didn't seem surprised when he turned round.Sadly, as predicted, it's caused Josh to start acting like an aggressive jerk towards Matt.Why did Evelyn not care about Matt stealing from Angelo's once she found out he wasn't stealing booze?It was frustrating, given that I've quite liked her lately, that Evelyn continued acting like an ignorant brat even after realising she'd offended Alf, even if we did eventually get a moment between them where she finally got it.While the war memorial scenes were very emotional and I'm glad the teens began to see the point...I'm always cynical of speeches about "You wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them" because is that really the case? Both Britain and Australia are among the most stable parts of the world, mainly by being among the most isolated, and truthfully very few of the engagements our armed forces were involved in made a scrap of difference to people back home.I'm not saying they were a waste of time, many of them made a difference to someone, but I felt the emphasis of Marilyn's speech was all wrong.That of course raises the question of what is the point: Is the remembrance an aim in itself, an acknowledgement that young people like them, some through choice, some not, went off to war and some didn't come back and some of those that did come back didn't have a particularly good time of it?Because if we are meant to learn something from it...most of the time we don't and we just end up adding names to war memorials.Sorry, getting a bit deep there, and as an act of remembrance it was very effective.Jett, I thought, came out of the episode with the most credit: Even before Marilyn's speech, he seemed very aware of Alf and how it was affecting him.

[Slade]

Firstly I thought John and Alf handled the school kids ignorance and blase attitude towards the war memorial quite badly.  If they really wanted to blame someone they should blame the kids parents.  I actually think their attitude is entirely realistic and is fairly indicative of a lot of young people certainly in this generation.  I wasn't particularly interested in anything like that when I was that age.  I remember having a conversation at work recently with one kid about World War 2 and he had never heard of the holocaust which surprised me a little but I would never have blamed him for not knowing.  It was something I was never taught at school and only researched when I got older.

I found it hard to believe that given how bored they all were, Marilyn has a go at them then they are all suddenly focused and interested.  I found Evelyn crying with Alf very hard to believe.  Whilst I appreciate this storyline is obviously more about Alf than anything and probably where he is in his life at the moment, I really didn't like the fact that they placed quite a bit of emphasis on the Vietnam war.  Whilst I appreciate that soldiers gave their lives that's not a war to be proud of as far as I'm concerned!

I don't blame Tanya for having a go at Roo and I didn't like Irene getting involved.  Don't think she would have been too happy if Finlay or Damien were in the same position as Maddy.  Similarly don't think Roo would have been too happy about Martha if she found out that way (really can't remember when she found out).  I did disagree with Tanya when she accused Roo of trying to becoming between her and Maddy though.  I honestly believe that Roo was doing what she felt was best and right.  Although the fact that she didn't tell Tanya makes me wonder whether she was more worried about wrecking her relationship with Maddy than she was about doing what was best for her.  So Tanya wants Maddy to move back with her.  Not sure how I feel about that especially with Chris going off.  Does that mean both of them are going to stay away?  Doubt it.  I'm not getting my hopes up about Chris and Maddy is the focal point of a significant part of the show so we can't have her leaving can we?

[sydney]

Does anyone know the song that was playing during the strip study session and when Maddy was in the diner thinking of phoning her mum?

[Brian]

I disagree with two of you. Firstly Slade about the kids' attitude being entirely realistic. If that is true, then all credit to Zac for organising that trip to fill in the gap in their knowledge. Don't always blame their parents - they can't teach them everything. That's what schools are there for and it requires dedicated teachers like Zac who will go the extra mile and spend much time organising what could be a difficult time with teenage kids. I've done it myself and I know how wrong it can go sometimes. You only hope that some of them will learn something and perhaps remember in later life what they saw.

Then Red, doubted "we wouldn't be here if not for them" We never know how true that was/will be, but I certainly feel that the world might not be as stable and peaceful as we know it now (and not just UK and Australia) if these countries had not gone to war. As Harold used to say in Neighbours ; "It only takes good men to do nothing, to allow bad men to prevail". Yes I believe that really is the case and I am proud of the fact that our country has gone to the aid of others so many times in our history. We have made a difference,

[CaptainHulk]

Friday's ep was one of the best in a long time. 

[Slade]

I disagree with two of you. Firstly Slade about the kids' attitude being entirely realistic. If that is true, then all credit to Zac for organising that trip to fill in the gap in their knowledge. Don't always blame their parents - they can't teach them everything. That's what schools are there for and it requires dedicated teachers like Zac who will go the extra mile and spend much time organising what could be a difficult time with teenage kids. I've done it myself and I know how wrong it can go sometimes. You only hope that some of them will learn something and perhaps remember in later life what they saw.

Then Red, doubted "we wouldn't be here if not for them" We never know how true that was/will be, but I certainly feel that the world might not be as stable and peaceful as we know it now (and not just UK and Australia) if these countries had not gone to war. As Harold used to say in Neighbours ; "It only takes good men to do nothing, to allow bad men to prevail". Yes I believe that really is the case and I am proud of the fact that our country has gone to the aid of others so many times in our history. We have made a difference,

Fine.  If you don't blame the parents then it's the schools fault.  However I don't think you can blame the kids which is really the point I was getting at.  It's been many years since I did them but WW1 is only covered if you do GCSE history and WW2 only if you go on to do A-level history so a lot of youngsters won't have any knowledge of this if they don't do those subjects (or research them outside of school).  And in both cases they are optional.  I think the attitude of kids nowadays is completely different as most of them are not really interested in stuff like that.  Whether you like it or not this is how I see things and I think it's quite accurate.  It was even like this when I was doing GCSEs.

Regarding your other point, I know it wasn't addressed at me but I think you're right.  The reason why Britain is stable is because they fought the axis powers in WW1 and WW2 more specifically Germany and Japan.  So you could argue the soldiers giving their lives has ensured the freedom of people in this generation.  In the case with Australia I think again fighting against the Japanese ensured the stability of their country.  There's also the argument with WW2 that the US/USSR probably could have handled it themselves but it's a different subject altogether.