Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[atrus]

So not entirely sold on the generic hoons and the Evie/Matt 'rap-off', but otherwise I'm still enjoying this story. I think it's because Matt reminds me a bit of somebody I knew in real life - a genuinely warm-hearted person with good intentions who always found themselves back in the wrong crowd and on the road to self-destruction nonetheless. It's okay everyone saying that he's got nothing to be upset about compared to the much more severe traumas that others have faced, but that's not really how these things work. The truth of the matter is he obviously has incredibly low self-esteem, and the fact that he doesn't even have the strength to get himself through what some would consider relatively minor setbacks without turning to drink is in itself a major problem for any person to overcome.

It's good he has people looking out for him, though. Josh said Matt would have to come to his senses on his own, but actually I think the pair of them showing up (and perhaps most of all, Josh bringing up his family situation) are what brought him back to the Bay at the end there.

The Irene/Chris stuff was fun as ever, but again the fact they're bothering to set up Maddy's new living situation is making me wonder whether the Roo/Maz absence might drag on a while. I also loved the fact that the reason Chris didn't want to watch the rom-com was not because it was 'girly' but because he'd already seen it, and felt it inferior to the rom-com greats! It's really good characterisation and I think it's great to have a primarily comic character in the show who's under 30.

[Red Ranger 1]

Ricky was a bit too strident taking charge of things with Billie, even though I continue to appreciate her support of Ash.It was a nice touch to have her unable to run after Billie because of the pregnancy, makes more sense than some of these situations.I'm glad that Billie finally accepted Ash's version of events, although it was possibly taking it a bit too much on trust for her to believe someone she's only just met telling her that someone she's never met didn't kill Dean, a guy she probably considered a friend did.Anyway, the door's open for her to reappear: It'd be a shame to leave it like that after all the effort Ash has gone to find her.I'm not too pleased at Kyle being reduced to a monosyllabic grunt, hopefully he snaps out of it soon.Sadly it seems some things aren't going to end any time soon.Gunno backing out on the deal was always an option and they need to come up with a better plan than doing what he wants.What happened to getting Brax transferred?It was only going to take a week, did they not bother?More confusion: Ash says he's going to jail to see Gunno at one point, but then it seems he met with Bob.(Maybe he did both?Did he need to tell Gunno to retrieve the "stuff"?)

I thought the Josh/Evelyn/Matt stuff was a waste of time, personally.Josh and Evelyn spend half the episode looking for Matt, then just have a go at him for two minutes and go away again.Josh in particular didn't seem to care what happened to him: I think he was only there to keep Evelyn happy and quickly dragged her away once he'd done the minimum.Yet it still feels like we're meant to see them as saints.There could have been some fun/tense (depending on how much you like them) moments in seeing them out of their depth among Matt's old crowd but they don't seem at all bothered about being surrounded by half a dozen bulky youths, as if they've read the script and know they're okay, then Evelyn wins them over with her mastery of rhyming couplets.(Well, I say mastery, she only finished one without being interrupted.No idea what word she was reaching for to finish the second one. Crazy?Hazy?Gay?)And frankly, on past experience, Matt probably would have found his way home eventually.

I thought Chris was hard done by here.When exactly did he have a go at Maddy, as Irene claimed?What did he need to apologise for?It felt like another case of Irene overreacting and having a go at something who's done nothing wrong, which we're getting a bit too much of at the moment.And as is pointed out, Chris is missing his brother and his dad's in an induced coma: Maddy might just about have the suckier life but his is hardly a bed of roses.(He definitely didn't drive Spencer to their parents, we saw him standing by the roadside after he'd gone.Did Spencer take a taxi?)Anyway, I'm glad that after the contrived conflict settled down they all seemed to be getting on fine.I'm still hoping Maddy's back with Alf and Roo in the not too distant future but Chris has been missing a surrogate sister to spar with since Sasha left, Maddy could fill that role well.

Incidentally, yesterday was the first time that I noticed that second front door to the beach house which we often saw back in the 90s seems to have been restored.Unless it was there all the time and I've just never noticed.

[c120701]

Second front door? If you mean the sets of double doors either side of the one they use as the front door they've been doors all along - I remember there was a party in the 2000s (2006?) where all of the doors at the front were open. It was at night so the view being a backdrop wasn't quite as noticable.

[KIMIF1]

Ricky said Braxs transfer would be no time soon,  no mention of a week.

[CaptainHulk]

The Rapping was lame but in a good way.

People hardly use the front door for the beach house anyway, everyone comes right through the kitchen!

Is wrong to find some kind of catharsis in seeing Matt fall face first into the rubbish? He's like a 2010s Tug but like 6x Toolier?

 

 

[Brian]

Nice to see Nate and Kat open in their relationship. Will they be running the whole town soon? I only hope that Kyle and Phoebe sort things out eventually - they were so good together.

By the way, I saw on Facebook recently mention of an aussie magazine called TV Week, which showed some of the H&A cast on the front page of a recent edition. Does anyone if or where you can buy it here? 

[atrus]

Excellent scenes with Matt and Leah tonight. He had to crack eventually under the onslaught of Bay-wide care-bombing, and I'm glad it was with Leah. No coincidence, though; I don't think Evie (let alone Josh) could ever really have hoped to achieve the same effect. It does feel as if this is the start of a major turnaround for Matt anyway, but hopefully they won't just rush it and have him back to normal this time tomorrow.

So, yippee - Kyle's going to a 'dark place' again. No doubt we can look forward to someone being tied up in the desert and savagely beaten; I can hardly contain my excitement. I suppose it's too much to hope for that PC Kat nips this whole drugs mule thing in the bud before the week's through, and rounds up Kyle, Ash and the rest of the gang for lengthy jail spans of their own. But I have my fingers crossed just in case.

[Dan F]

By the way, I saw on Facebook recently mention of an aussie magazine called TV Week, which showed some of the H&A cast on the front page of a recent edition. Does anyone if or where you can buy it here? 

H&A cast are pretty much on the front of every edition

You can't buy it in the UK, but QA uploads scans of all the H&A articles every week in our Spoiler forum.

[Slade]

Surprisingly really enjoyed the stuff with Matt and Leah.  It's starting to feel more like a mother son/relationship although the cynic in me hopes this doesn't develop into a dependency thing.  I liked the scene where Leah blamed herself for Matt's current's state, Matt was dismayed when he overhead and in the end they comforted one another.

Really enjoying see Kyle reach his full potential.  I have to admit, I sometimes find him more entertaining like this than when he's acting responsible Kyle.  I've found Phoebe so annoying as of late I was glad the way Kyle treated her.  He's almost reaching full on psycho mode again.  Didn't realise Ash was unaware of what he did to Casey.  It's almost looking like if he doesn't stop he's effectively going to assume Brax's role now.  In some respects and in his own way he's just as bad (if not worse) than Brax.  Ash's text to Denny seemed rather short.  He just sends her a one line text that he has to go without at least making up some excuse.

[Red Ranger 1]

Okay, I misremembered how long Brax's transfer would take.Still...is he out of solitary yet?If he isn't, well, then he's safe.If he is, why aren't they visiting him and coming up with a better plan?Ash does at least have the sense to realise Gunno will keep coming back, shame Kyle didn't get the message.Probably the last thing Brax would want is Kyle and/or Ash ending up in jail (and rendering his confession meaningless).It was probably timely to get a reminder of what Kyle was like when we first met him, since it makes the sudden darkening of his personality seem more plausible, but I'm not really buying Ricky's rationale for the change: I thought it was more likely that breaking up with Phoebe meant he doesn't think he's got much of a life and doesn't care what happens to him so long as he keeps Brax out of trouble, rather than him suddenly being a danger addict.There were a lot of moments when Phoebe annoyed me greatly, storming into the Angelo's back room to have a go at Kyle and then yelling at Ash and Ricky, but no way did she deserve Kyle threatening and practically assaulting her.He's very lucky Kat didn't walk in on it, as she did a few seconds later, and even that was enough to make her suspicious.It's a shame because the Nate/Kat/Phoebe gym stuff was quite fun without dragging them into the drug run storyline.

My interest in Matt's storyline increases with Leah's involvement: She goes into school counsellor mode on the beach but there's also a very strong maternal streak to the character which is a good direction to take her in.I wonder if she saw that bottle on the beach or if she just knew he'd have one.(A surrogate mother may well have been what Tug lacked in 1994: If Bobby had been around then, she'd have done the same.)It does feel like it's only a week or so since we had a similar scene though; I think Matt's sincere but this could well be another false dawn.