Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[c120701]

I was thinking with this Maz story that if ever there was a decent story to bring Pippa back for a visit, this was it. Irene & Alf are away, Don is off with Alf, so Pippa is the obvious alternative.

[Red Ranger 1]

21 hours ago, CaptainHulk said:

Ailsa kept her married name til her death. Pippa, despite marrying a third time, stayed "Ross." Leah still is Patterson, chopped the "Baker" off bar the credits (Think she may have reverted to that first married name to keep in sync with VJ)

Okay, I suppose using hyperbole leaves me open to pedantic corrections so let me be equally pedantic in reply.(And say are you really sure Pippa married a third time because I still don't remember that at all?Plus...if true, kind of proves my point, she didn't take her husband's name.) The last person to change her name when she got married was Gina in 2010, and the show did it very grudgingly, keeping her as Austin on the credits for about a year after.(Not that that was her maiden name either but still.)The previous one was Sam in 2007 and she died less than six months later.No-one has done it since Lucy Addario took over as producer.Bianca stayed Scott, it was Rocco who was Scott-Braxton.

Roo's episode count this week:Four. Denny was in two but only appeared as a corpse and audio stock footage on Tuesday.VJ was in two but didn't seem to have any dialogue on Monday.Chris was in one, although he was credited on Friday for no appearance.

I find that these continuity fest storylines walk a very dangerous line.I know we complain about there not being enough references to the past, but ironically we're also the first to complain when they get the details wrong.(To clarify, Marilyn wasn't around in 1993, so couldn't have had a conversation with Morag then:She left in 1992 and didn't return until 1995.)I don't think there's been anything insurmountable but there's an awful lot of contrived things and things that indicate a lack of research.Marilyn going to the caravan park house feels like she knows she's in Home and Away and that's the main location, rather than her going somewhere that would actually have meant something to her in 1996:Why not the Stewart house (which isn't there anymore but still), or the old Diner (ditto), or the beach house for goodness sake where pretty much everyone she was close to at the time lived, or the surf club (which she did go to eventually but she took her time)?Or if she was looking for Don, why not go to the school?(It apparently isn't a school day but she didn't know that.) Would there really be photos of Pippa and Sally and Alf and Ailsa there but none of the current residents, and one of John and Marilyn's wedding?(The number of photos of Ailsa we've seen recently make the fact Maddy lived with Alf for two years without seeing one even more ridiculous...and now we have Oscar not knowing who Pippa is when there's a photo of her in his living room.)Marilyn does say she went to her 1996 home but "it wasn't there"...well, that's new information, it was still there when Don left in 2003.Plenty of time for it to have been demolished since of course, but hard not to shake the feeling someone got mixed up with Don's previous house that burnt down in 1995, before he and Marilyn were together.And Letter for Byron, bizarrely, doesn't have Byron on the cover anymore.(But it does have photos of Don and Hayley Mark 1, which is a nice touch.)Guess it's a later edition? To be fair, I don't think either John or James bothered to tell Leah and Roo that Marilyn had amnesia before sending them in, explaining their confused behaviour.Roo did a lot better today, although I had to roll my eyes at Saint Andy being the one to find Marilyn (Marilyn found Oscar more intimidating than Andy?!), almost makes you forget it's partly his fault she's like this.Marilyn either didn't know what a mobile phone was in 1996 (the rest of us did) or is puzzled by the fact they don't look like phones anymore.That cliffhanger was laughable though, feeling like someone wanted a big cliffhanger to end the week so got James to announce an arbitrary deadline.Might be true in the real world (although I suspect it's not), but in television people regain their memories years later.Anyway, Marilyn remembered details of the accident last episode, so she's already started getting her memory back.Panic over.

Moving on! More nice girls' talk scenes between Evelyn and Maddy: To be fair, Maddy only said Oscar was one boy she's felt like that about (she'd probably include Spencer too). I'm glad that Evie's friends mostly got on with Tank, I don't know if we're meant to dislike his enjoying winding up Josh, I'm too busy disliking Josh's attitude towards him, although he eventually realised that being more immature than Andy and Matt is not a good thing.Shame I always feel like beating Josh to a pulp when he calls Evelyn "the best thing that's ever happened to me": No, Josh, that was Maddy, she was the one who changed your life for the better, Evelyn is just...there.I'd have been surprised by Evelyn's response to Tank's stunts if they hadn't felt the need to include it in the promo at the end of last week.Not sure about the psychology there given that she seemed scared by the ride, maybe it was out of relief and wanting to make sure she was still alive?I'm surprised we never cut back to them after that...they didn't Do It in the car, did they?!

I think all Denny said was that James had his daughter with him?

[Jamie2811]

Wasn't Marilyn close to Pippa back in the 90s, which would explain why she went to the caravan park house? 

[atrus]

9 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

Would there really be photos of Pippa and Sally and Alf and Ailsa there but none of the current residents, and one of John and Marilyn's wedding?

I believe I'm right in saying that whenever Summer Bay House is bought and sold, there's a clause in the contract which stipulates that framed photos of Pippa and other assorted oldies are to remain screwed into the Shelf of Nostalgia for all time, and must under no circumstances be replaced with pictures of the house's current occupants.

On the debate over female characters not changing their names when married, in my experience this seems to be a lot more common in soap in general than in real life. I think it's often partly because it usually doesn't come up on-screen, and because people never get round to changing the credits - I assume more out of oversight/apathy/character recognition purposes than out of some kind of political gesture. As a modern, feminist kind of guy, obviously I think women should have the choice and if the man wants to take her name, all the better! But the truth remains that taking the man's name is overwhelmingly the most common choice in real life.

Emily, Shane and all the other cast are doing their utmost to maintain straight faces, but I'm struggling to take the Maznesia story all that seriously. Amnesia does not work in this way; but accepting the premise that it does, it was at least good to get so many retro mentions out of it without it feeling too forced. Seeing 'A Letter to Byron' with Hayley and Don on the back was nice; Shannon got name-dropped; and we had the Ailsa, Sally and Pippa pictures, as well of course as the rather sacrilegious...

OSCAR: Who's Pippa?

Anyhow, all will be forgiven with this storyline if it turns out to be an opportunity to bring back Don Fisher in a guest capacity - or indeed Pippa, Sally, Fridge Ghost Bobby or any other beloved legacy character I could name.

Maddy and Evie's scenes were nicely observed and acted, although I can see Evie doing her best dosed-up-on-heavy-painkillers impression in every scene becoming a little tired before this saga is through. It's the same goofy face she gets as when she plays Cupid, and I guess that is what she's doing - except for herself this time. I'm glad Josh seems to have toned down his silly outbursts of earlier in the week; but I'm afraid the fact that he seems to have grudgingly accepted the situation, and the fact that everyone else seems to think Trunk is sound, makes it a dead cert that he will turn out to be a baddun.

 

[Red Ranger 1]

On ‎13‎/‎11‎/‎2015‎ ‎03‎:‎09‎:‎18, Changelo shipper <3 said:

He took drugs and was drinking since being on the show?

The drugs thing was years ago before we met Zac, he'd already served his time.He did have a drink problem last year.Then...he didn't.

9 hours ago, Jamie2811 said:

Wasn't Marilyn close to Pippa back in the 90s, which would explain why she went to the caravan park house? 

Well...she knew Pippa and got on with her and I suppose broadly speaking they were friends, but I don't recall them being particularly close.I'd say she was closer to Irene and Ailsa.

[Red Ranger 1]

2 hours ago, atrus said:

On the debate over female characters not changing their names when married, in my experience this seems to be a lot more common in soap in general than in real life. I think it's often partly because it usually doesn't come up on-screen, and because people never get round to changing the credits - I assume more out of oversight/apathy/character recognition purposes than out of some kind of political gesture. As a modern, feminist kind of guy, obviously I think women should have the choice and if the man wants to take her name, all the better! But the truth remains that taking the man's name is overwhelmingly the most common choice in real life.

I would say that in UK soaps the majority of women take their husband's name(having just looked over lists of marriages and cast lists to check).It's less common in Neighbours but still happens more than in Home and Away.

[Homeandawayfan.]

I also noticed a few shaky things about the Mazza storyline. As if she would not have heard of or seen a mobile phone in 1996? They were around in 1985, a full 11 years before and by 1996 were becoming more common, and while they were still bigger than now, they were still around, we are talking about 1996 not 1896. In 1996 mobiles looked more like landline phones but were common. I also wondered if the writers confused Don's 1996 house (apartment) with his one that was burnt to a crisp in the bushfire in 1995. Don moved to the apartment after that. Unless she did mean his old house which burned down in 1995, and thinking it was 1996, she thought he lived in that still and forgot he had moved. Dan Bennett must have amnesia never mind Mazza if he thought mobiles did not exist in 1996. I did like the Shannon mention, many of the teeny bops who tuned in for the Braxtons and are still watching after they left probably are thinking "Who the devil was Shannon when she was at home"?

Why would someone in a privately owned house have photos of residents from 20 years ago on their mantelpiece if the house has changed hands so many times, Nashes, Sutherlands etc? That is like the residents of my old house having photos of me and my family on their mantelpiece when we moved out 15 years ago.

 

[Angelica]

I hate amnesia storylines, and this is no exception. It seems contrived that if Marilyn was going to have amnesia that she could randomly think she was in 1996. However, glad that at least Marilyn is given something to do.

Yet again, I am finding the teens a lot better now that they feel more like an actual friendship unit (and though I wouldn't say I warmed to new VJ, I guess having him older helps with integrating him with the others). Liked Maddy and Evie's friendship scene - I find they bounce off each well, and have good chemistry. And they actually felt like teenagers talking about boys. While I agree that Josh would have been the best analogy for the "in lust" given his bad boy status at the time, I could see why that would be awkward in that circumstance. Similarly, I have been enjoying Matt and Josh's scenes. It's nice to see Matt give some sensible advice to Josh even if he kept ignoring it. I am glad someone pointed out to Josh that last year he was considered the "bad boy". And nice reference to the past when Josh pointed out that Matt pined a lot longer for Sasha.

To be honest, I imagine that H&A do not get the women to change their surnames because 6 months later they end up getting divorced again so easier to keep the surname the same.

[CaptainHulk]

On 14/11/2015, 00:26:33, Red Ranger 1 said:

Okay, I suppose using hyperbole leaves me open to pedantic corrections so let me be equally pedantic in reply.(And say are you really sure Pippa married a third time because I still don't remember that at all?Plus...if true, kind of proves my point, she didn't take her husband's name.) The last person to change her name when she got married was Gina in 2010, and the show did it very grudgingly, keeping her as Austin on the credits for about a year after.(Not that that was her maiden name either but still.)The previous one was Sam in 2007 and she died less than six months later.No-one has done it since Lucy Addario took over as producer.Bianca stayed Scott, it was Rocco who was Scott-Braxton.

Roo's episode count this week:Four. Denny was in two but only appeared as a corpse and audio stock footage on Tuesday.VJ was in two but didn't seem to have any dialogue on Monday.Chris was in one, although he was credited on Friday for no appearance.

I find that these continuity fest storylines walk a very dangerous line.I know we complain about there not being enough references to the past, but ironically we're also the first to complain when they get the details wrong.(To clarify, Marilyn wasn't around in 1993, so couldn't have had a conversation with Morag then:She left in 1992 and didn't return until 1995.)I don't think there's been anything insurmountable but there's an awful lot of contrived things and things that indicate a lack of research.Marilyn going to the caravan park house feels like she knows she's in Home and Away and that's the main location, rather than her going somewhere that would actually have meant something to her in 1996:Why not the Stewart house (which isn't there anymore but still), or the old Diner (ditto), or the beach house for goodness sake where pretty much everyone she was close to at the time lived, or the surf club (which she did go to eventually but she took her time)?Or if she was looking for Don, why not go to the school?(It apparently isn't a school day but she didn't know that.) Would there really be photos of Pippa and Sally and Alf and Ailsa there but none of the current residents, and one of John and Marilyn's wedding?(The number of photos of Ailsa we've seen recently make the fact Maddy lived with Alf for two years without seeing one even more ridiculous...and now we have Oscar not knowing who Pippa is when there's a photo of her in his living room.)Marilyn does say she went to her 1996 home but "it wasn't there"...well, that's new information, it was still there when Don left in 2003.Plenty of time for it to have been demolished since of course, but hard not to shake the feeling someone got mixed up with Don's previous house that burnt down in 1995, before he and Marilyn were together.And Letter for Byron, bizarrely, doesn't have Byron on the cover anymore.(But it does have photos of Don and Hayley Mark 1, which is a nice touch.)Guess it's a later edition? To be fair, I don't think either John or James bothered to tell Leah and Roo that Marilyn had amnesia before sending them in, explaining their confused behaviour.Roo did a lot better today, although I had to roll my eyes at Saint Andy being the one to find Marilyn (Marilyn found Oscar more intimidating than Andy?!), almost makes you forget it's partly his fault she's like this.Marilyn either didn't know what a mobile phone was in 1996 (the rest of us did) or is puzzled by the fact they don't look like phones anymore.That cliffhanger was laughable though, feeling like someone wanted a big cliffhanger to end the week so got James to announce an arbitrary deadline.Might be true in the real world (although I suspect it's not), but in television people regain their memories years later.Anyway, Marilyn remembered details of the accident last episode, so she's already started getting her memory back.Panic over.

Moving on! More nice girls' talk scenes between Evelyn and Maddy: To be fair, Maddy only said Oscar was one boy she's felt like that about (she'd probably include Spencer too). I'm glad that Evie's friends mostly got on with Tank, I don't know if we're meant to dislike his enjoying winding up Josh, I'm too busy disliking Josh's attitude towards him, although he eventually realised that being more immature than Andy and Matt is not a good thing.Shame I always feel like beating Josh to a pulp when he calls Evelyn "the best thing that's ever happened to me": No, Josh, that was Maddy, she was the one who changed your life for the better, Evelyn is just...there.I'd have been surprised by Evelyn's response to Tank's stunts if they hadn't felt the need to include it in the promo at the end of last week.Not sure about the psychology there given that she seemed scared by the ride, maybe it was out of relief and wanting to make sure she was still alive?I'm surprised we never cut back to them after that...they didn't Do It in the car, did they?!

I think all Denny said was that James had his daughter with him?

Sally alluded to Pippa marrying Ian and even went away to attend the wedding at the best of my recollection. And in soap some Married women after a point are like "Screw it, I've been ________ long enough, why should I bother changing it?")

The continuity guys are sort of screwing with us a bit but I nearly jumped 1.5ft in the air with the first mention of Shannon since about 2000.

 

[Slade]

Matt was hilarious on Thursday.  The scenes with Josh have had me in stitches, particularly where Josh was harping on about Evie and Tank and Matt made comments about cancelling the rest of his life to listen to the whining and sarcastically suggesting how Evie could think about being with someone else after going out with Josh.  The scene where he and Matt bumped into Evie and Maddy by the peer was also funny, especially Evie's fed up expression when Josh told her he had something to say about Tank.

First impressions about Tank are that I don't like him.  I don't like the way he was deliberately trying to antagonise Josh re Evie.  However Josh has just been so annoying that I was almost cheering Evie when she told him to get lost.  He should just listen to Andy and Matt.  He's looking like a jealous, obsessed idiot.  He needs to move on.  There's really nothing he can do about their relationship.  If Tank is really as bad as he thinks, Evie will find out eventually.  Although Tank must be his worst nightmare especially considering that he seems to get on with everybody else.  Have to say I was a little surprised at Evie.  When Tank was speeding in the car and recklessly did a handbrake turn, I was expecting Evie to get on her high horse them storm off.  But her just kissing him like that seemed uncharacteristic.  I'm wondering if Tank is related to Greg because going by the end credits he appears to have the same surname.

It's funny because I'm not a fan of Maddy and have gone off Evelyn since she broke up with Josh but there's just something about these two.  A while back when Maddy was first ill I really liked the way Evelyn was with her when she hugged her.  I actually liked their chat on Thursday.  And that scene where they were talking about Tank and Evelyn said "Have you ever had that with someone?  Just the overwhelming urge for them to kiss you".  When Maddy was leaning in I wanted Evelyn to grab Maddy and plant one on her then stick her tongue down Maddy's throat.  They were too far apart.  They should have been closer (Although Evelyn was referring to Tank I would like to think she she was really referring to Maddy).  I have wanted something to happen with these two for a while now:  (I think I know why they were arch enemies.  Evelyn really fancied Maddy.  She was jealous that Maddy was going out with Josh so to hurt Maddy Evelyn decided to steal Josh off her.  At this time Maddy realised that she liked Evelyn.  She became fueled by jealousy so to punish Evie she decided to sleep with Oscar.  This enraged Evie but Maddy didn't stop there.  She went one further and slept with Josh to hurt Evie again.   Evie didn't realise that Maddy liked her so when Maddy got sick she decided that Maddy's happiness was more important hence she decided to push for her and Oscar to be together.  Eventually Evie decided that she didn't want to be with Tank and Maddy now couldn't be with Oscar so they both decided to ditch their respective partners to be together - Anyway back to reality).

Really liked the scenes with Andy and Marilyn also with John and Roo afterwards.  Good to see people changing their attitude towards him.

I think the situation with John and Marilyn really sucks.  John desperately wants his wife back but if Marilyn has no recollection of their wedding and marriage towards John then she can't be forced to be with him especially with someone who is now a lot older than she was when she had her memory.  Not sure how this amnesia works.  Has Marilyn tried looking in the mirror to see how much she's aged?

Once again we have Oscar and Maddy in the same episode not spending 'valuable' time with each other.  She's out socialising and generally having a good time but he's left at home to watch out for Marilyn.