Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[atrus]

Charlotte - ah, what a tangled web she weaves. Kat's looking so smug about the prospect of getting to the bottom of all this that I'm genuinely starting to fear for her safety; if Charlotte can bury Denny and run over Trystan while barely breaking a sweat, there's no doubt in my mind that she could take Kat out, too, with very little effort. Particularly since police characters in soaps almost always get peculiarly reckless and uncommunicative with colleagues about their progress once they're onto a good trail. Meanwhile I wish Kyle would just keep his nose clean for once, rather than flinging himself wholesale onto the nearest passing criminal bandwagon - especially one in which he has no obligation or personal interest other than that he's been sleeping with the criminal in question for all of a week.

The teen triangle: yes, there was a lot of contrivance here, as Red has already alluded to - not only with the hand-holding which was clearly the only writing motivation for Maddy's spontaneous iron deficiency (hardly a Nate-worthy medical emergency), but also with that thing they do in soapland where characters who haven't previously been portrayed as all that close - Oscar and Matt, in this case - suddenly become BFFs so that, when the inevitable partner-swap occurs, Oscar can utter the immortal words: "You cheated on me with my best friend!" (Or the like.) Still, I guess they were Fire Brothers (courtesy of Hunter), and that was recalled here a little with that moment around the campfire at the end. Where's this going from here? My prediction: Oscar completely (and uncharacteristically) overreacts, pushing an appalled Maddy closer to Matt in the process and, bang! There goes another hypotenuse.

Final comment: Summer Bay looks somehow prettier in the rain.

[CaptainHulk]

I really hope the class of 2015 finishes with SBH, Pass or Fail. Just for once, I'd like to see a scenario where nobody a teen group has to repeat.

[H&Alover]

Are we meant to surmise that if Irene hadn't so conveniently turned up right after Charlotte had flattened Trystan with her car, she would have just driven off?  One small thing, once the other cop had told Kat the guy's name, she asked Charlotte why she hadn't said she knew him, she replied 'didn't I?', surely the answer should have been 'why, who is it?'.  She is only supposed to just 'met' Trystan after all so couldn't/shouldn't be expected to recognise him. As they say in CSI the evidence doesn't lie as Nate, who hasn't been as busy as he normally is at the hospital, indicated when he said Trystan's injuries were consistent with him being hit head on not side on as Charlotte claimed. So now Kat is looking at it as a homicide rather than careless driving/driving without due care or consideration.  Emerson seems to have given her his backing if she can prove there was more to it than it looks. Know what you mean about YC cops doing their own thing atrus  Jack Holden was famous for it and it got him killed in the end.  Not sure if it's in the cops hand book but I liked that Kat tried to warn Kyle off Charlotte who was still being economical with the truth.  Seeing as Trystan was Gunno's henchman his name didn't mean anything to Ash who didn't react at all to hearing his name.

Can't we just accept that sometimes things happen like it did with Maddy going to the hospital with Matt rather than with Oscar, they aren't joined at the hip! He did still have another exam and she wouldn't him not to do it or be distracted worrying about her.  As for her cancer not being talked about lately didn't mean it had been forgotten about, I'm sure she would have it that way rather than people asking her how she was all the time. Actually good to see Nate back doing some doctoring, he's had no involvement with Josh. The spontaneous hand holding was just at first two friends waiting for and then getting good news, except it went on a little too long for both their liking.  This iron deficiency couldn't be a symptom of something else could it? Makes a change the conversation between Roo (could she have moved back in) was at home rather then  the usual public space, the clue  for me that something was going to happen was the  shot of the kitchen from the patio. Be interesting to see how Oscar handles it, who is he going to feel more betrayed by, even though nothing has happened?

Nice little chat between Ash and Pheob who seems more nervous than she is letting on, she may well remember being on the receiving end as she saw it from teachers, but I bet she gave them as good as she got - don't forget that old adage 'they can smell the fear'. Neat little mention of Denny and the fact no-one has heard from 'her' lately, but Charlotte has been busy recently!

[atrus]

Question as I think I've missed the on-screen explanation around this - where is Roo living if not at SBH? Is she still at James's place on her own?

[Psychic Wombat]

I actually think Matt and Maddie make a good pairing, I know Oscar was very sweet when she was ill but that was a while back. H&A seem to like pairing up unlikely couples - like Hannah and Chris... John and Marilyn. We shall have to see.

I think the way Kat is feeling all her energy will be channeled into her job, so it's not a question of if just when she gets Charlotte in cuffs, and I think Charlotte deep down knows it. Sigh, when Denny fell why didn't she just phone for an ambulance and claim it was an accident - too late now.

The blokes in H&A don't always come out well, Nate is storing up some bad karma with his behavior towards Kat which quite frankly stinks - Kat shouldn't have apologised for her recent public outburst as what she said was all true. Zak's reaction to Charlotte I thought was unfair after she bailed him out with $20K, I think he could have given her a reference based on her teaching ability without compromising his newly found morals.

Is Maddie a vege? That may explain her iron deficiency although it's not that uncommon. I surprised that mine was tested borderline!

[Pierced Musie]

So they are trying to make Oscar be the bad guy... by putting him on the same level as Tank & his coward punch. No... just no. It was stupid to have hit Matt but telling him he was basically as bad as Tank was just low.

Loved Ash trying to learn the guitar. Would have preferred Kyle teaching him but oh well.

[Red Ranger 1]

4 hours ago, H&Alover said:

One small thing, once the other cop had told Kat the guy's name, she asked Charlotte why she hadn't said she knew him, she replied 'didn't I?', surely the answer should have been 'why, who is it?'.  She is only supposed to just 'met' Trystan after all so couldn't/shouldn't be expected to recognise him.

Well, it's possible that Charlotte wouldn't have recognised Trystan if she'd only met him the one time Kat saw him, but given that Kat recognised him after that brief meeting (in order to know it was him at the hospital) there's a good chance she would have done, so best to be on the safe side.

Wow, I am really not liking Maddy and that is something that I thought would never happen.Oscar overreacted, but if Maddy had any sense of loyalty and actually wanted to save this relationship she'd have told Matt to butt out and give them some space, not spent the whole episode hanging off him.I have no problem with Oscar punching Matt frankly, although he didn't do himself any favours in the aftermath by acting as though he was in the right.(I suspect that he knew he shouldn't have done it but didn't want to back down and admit it.I could be wrong.)But Leah and Maddy completely overreacted, treating him as though he'd strangled a puppy, and by the time they'd both reeled out the "This is what happened to Josh!" line as if they were being paid to make a public information film I felt like banging my head against the wall.Followed by theirs. The show really needs to work out whether it's anti-violent or not: Kyle beats up Trystan without any real criticism, then Oscar punches Matt (in my opinion, not with enough force to cause the injuries Josh suffered whatever the morality brigade claimed) and he's treated like a monster.And then, right after Maddy's OTT rant, it cuts to Matt looking sad and I go "Oh no, they're not going to have another Matt/Maddy scene, are they", just as she saunters into shot...Having Maddy treat Oscar like dirt and then go off and flirt with Matt, clearly having Oscar's feelings at the bottom of her priorities (looking at it from the outside, who would choose to have the boy they know is in love with them support them on a hospital visit and hold their hand, that's definitely sending out the wrong signals), is making me disgusted with her and destroying any chance of me ever supporting Matt and Maddy as a couple.And that's a massive problem with the show these days, every relationship leaves casualties in its wake.We can't support Ricky and Nate without condoning them screwing over Kat, we can't support Ash and Phoebe without condoning them screwing over Kyle, I could never support Dexter and April because they screwed over Xavier...Basically, if you like any characters on this show, you'll hate all the relationships.

2 hours ago, Psychic Wombat said:

H&A seem to like pairing up unlikely couples - like Hannah and Chris... John and Marilyn.

Well, I'd have said that's what they did with Maddy and Oscar. Maddy and Matt isn't an unlikely couple, it's a depressingly unimaginative one.The feisty girl and the snarky ex-bully seems to be a Home and Away staple.

Anyway! Er, Phoebe was annoying. Ricky should have told Nate about his dad when she had the chance.And then Gavin turns up on the doorstep and I go "Yeah.That's Dennis Harling with a beard.It's obviously Dennis Harling with a beard.Is John going to recognise him and ask for his money back?" (Shonky developer from 2011-12, for anyone not au fait with past guest characters.)

[atrus]

I feel that Maddy drawing our attention to the fact that Oscar's gone 'all alpha' doesn't really make up for his having had a massive personality transplant in the first place. Then again, I guess he did pick a fight with Tank not so long ago, so him throwing his weight around isn't totally unprecedented. Maybe he feels like that's what blokes are supposed to do when put in that position - but for the most part it's just not like him at all, and it was disappointing that he didn't seem able to accept he'd done the wrong thing afterwards, either.

(Incidentally, I totally agree that the show needs to make up its mind on violence. For my money, Kyle was totally wrong to assault Trystan, Tank was totally wrong to assault Josh, and now Oscar is totally wrong to assault Matt - although I obviously accept there have been different degrees of violence involved in each case.)

Still, I think Oscar had a bit of a point in being angry with Maddy; she's actually done more wrong than Matt, in the sense that she chose not to tell her boyfriend about Matt's feelings, which made it look as if she had something to hide. All Matt did, meanwhile, was fall for Maddy, which I just can't accept is the criminal act that Oscar (or, initially, Maddy) has been making it out to be. It certainly doesn't make him deserving of being on the receiving end of a fist. Actually, Matt's spent more or less the whole of this storyline (yesterday's hospital hand-holding aside, which I concede was inappropriate) trying to do the decent thing, and has so far had very little reward for his troubles. Perhaps that's the writers' way of encouraging him to plough on regardless, because what has he now got to lose?

Personally I like Matt a lot - whether because of the acting or writing or whatever - and was open to the option of a Maddy/Matt pairing as I do think they have a good rapport. But I also always said I didn't want it to happen at the expense of Oscar or his characterisation, which is exactly what's happening right now. It's also annoyed me from a writing perspective that this storyline was punctuated at the half-way mark by Matt's second fling with Charlotte, because it's detracted a fair bit of credibility from Matt's position and made the whole thing less compelling as a result.

Not as uncompelling, however, as Phoebe's tutoring story, which is wearing thin incredibly quickly - and she hasn't even started the job yet. Likewise with Nate and his deadbeat dad.

[H&Alover]

22 hours ago, atrus said:

Question as I think I've missed the on-screen explanation around this - where is Roo living if not at SBH? Is she still at James's place on her own?

No you haven't missed any on-screen explanation atrus, unless we all have.  

It was a totally overreaction by both Leah and Maddy over Oscar punching Matt, there was no comparison in that and what Tank did to Josh. Matt was acting as if he thoroughly deserved it. Matt didn't dub him in Oscar admitted he did it to Leah. Did I hear Oscar how she would feel if the position had been reversed, well she does know how it feels, kind of, she sussed out Evelyn had a crush on Josh and even warned Josh about it. To my mind at least Maddy can't seem to decide if she just likes Matt as  a friend or does have feelings towards him.  Nothing has happened between Matt and Maddy though you can't blame Oscar for feeling insecure, he's not the most confident guy. Matt did try and give her/them some space it was her who tracked him down.

On the subject of Josh it seems he is blind which if it is permanent is going to scupper his plan of becoming an architect.

Ricky missed two opportunities to tell Nate she'd found his dad and emailed him, but who knew he'd turn up so quick and how did he find him so quick, had she told him where Nate was living?  Phoebe would certainly see Nate's side of things about him seeing as she and her dad are estranged.  She, Ricky, has a lot of explaining to do. Guess it's no surprise the actor playing Gavin would have been in it before, I wondered if that would happen, knew we could rely on you Red to tell us.

Told you Phoebe was more nervous about tutoring than she was making out, Ash actually was being an ideal troublesome pupil, something she'd better get used to, win them over and the others will follow. Btw was that a kind of reverse psychology he was trying out on her?

Wonder what is in that letter from James, don't tell me she is going to weaken and get back with him?

 

 

[atrus]

40 minutes ago, H&Alover said:

No you haven't missed any on-screen explanation atrus, unless we all have. 

OK thanks! So - I'm probably being very slow here - but Roo is still at James' place as far as we've heard, then?

I'm not sure about Leah and Maddy's reaction being all that OTT. We can surmise that Tank hit Josh a lot harder, but blows to the head can be quite a serious thing however they're delivered - and in any case, all it would have taken was for Matt to lose his balance and hit his head on the concrete, and you've potentially got the same situation. Not saying it's especially likely and I'm not sure Maddy or Leah were saying that either, but it's not impossible either; and moreover there's a general moral principle about not going around punching people which I felt they were right to enforce. As I said above, though, the show does need more consistency on this.

I think the main thing that got me about it, though, was that Matt didn't deserve it. If he and Maddy had been having an affair behind Oscar's back then I'd be more inclined to overlook it or advocate a lesser punishment - but all the poor boy has done is admit his feelings, and only then under some pretty persistent interrogation from Maddy, who had guessed the truth anyway. My concern with it all is that I'm being manipulated into disliking Oscar for throwing his weight around in what is essentially a very uncharacteristic way, so I'm hoping the writers don't take things too far down this route, and instead have him apologise to Matt before we go much further.