Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[Slade]

Firstly I'm sick to my back teeth of My5.  I very frequently get performance issues but it was down for a day and a half so wasn't able to stream H & A or Neighbours.

Looking at Josh's attitude in the recap "Oscar's dead someone needs  to pay" - All this despite the fact that he fessed up to killing someone and let an innocent person go to jail.

One thing I like about Hannah's death is the way some of the other characters are suffering - Phoebe, Chris, Kat etc.  Although I wasn't happy about Andy (honestly thought he was over her) but I think his outburst was more at the fact that his actions indirectly lead to her death than the fact that he will never have a chance to rekindle a romance.  As I mentioned before do feel for Evelyn.

So whilst trying to cope with her rape and the loss of Oscar, Billie decides to steal VJ's virginity.  Admittedly she told him not to read to much into it as it was just a bit of fun but come on a boy his age is not going to see it that way.  See how happy he was afterwards despite the fact that Oscar just died and he should be anything but (Did he really go all the way to the farm just to bring them food).  That's how much it meant to him.  He almost gave the game away with Ash.  Knowing Ash he probably would have blamed VJ for sleeping with his sister even though Billie was is the older one and the and it was a two way thing.  Have to say the writing is a bit sloppy.  Given that VJ's been on the show the whole of his life why haven't the made such a big deal of his first time.

I mentioned a while back this is the first period of time in the show where I don't actively dislike Maddy.  This storyline was the perfect opportunity where I could feel really sorry for her especially considering that I know someone in real life who went through a similar experience.  However I'm mostly empty because during the traumatic scenes again I'm not feeling it from the acting.  Have to say I'm disappointed with Roo for not putting more pressure on Maddy to tell her mum or at least making the decision to tell Maddy's mum herself.  I agree with the comments about Maddy's longevity given what's happened.  There seems to be a mass clean out - Kyle, Oscar, Hannah, Maddy probably won't be around for much longer and I'm guessing Josh doesn't have much time either.

If Chris and Skye move in with John that means Olvia can have the whole house to herself.

So after losing to Kat last week Dylan makes a surprise comeback and takes Ash out with relative ease.  His skills looked more like someone who had been doing combat than can simply handle themselves in a street fight.

[c120701]

I like that John knows Irene well enough to know the name of her daughter, but it was like a game of how many times can you name drop a past character in one scene?

[CaptainHulk]

18 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

I'm torn between that and the 70s version which I'm also extremely fond of, I think it does improve once Roger Price gets booted upstairs and can't keep on making the same mistakes in story structure he was making 20 years previous and not giving Adam and Megabyte a single moment of interaction...

However, They interacted for the remainder of the series outside the origin story.  Early in the setup The group basically had 2-person dynamics Adam/Lisa in the ship and Megabyte/Kevin in London. 

My all-time favorite arc is the Rameses Connection and my least is Monsoon Man (due to the villain being... an idiot)

Now, I think of it, CITV kicked some serious ass in the 90s! 

[CaptainHulk]

2 hours ago, Slade said:

Firstly I'm sick to my back teeth of My5.  I very frequently get performance issues but it was down for a day and a half so wasn't able to stream H & A or Neighbours.

Do you live in London, because My Internet played the fool too due to the s***ty weather we've been having as of late (Though it wasn't a 24hr thing like last week)

[Blaxland 89]

I'll probably find out that she is Irish in real life after saying this but talking of Nathan, does anyone remember his girlfriend nurse grace's hilarious Irish/Jamaican accent! 

[Red Ranger 1]

4 hours ago, CaptainHulk said:

My all-time favorite arc is the Rameses Connection and my least is Monsoon Man (due to the villain being... an idiot)

I like The Culex Experiment. Ramases is good but could do with a few more explanations. I think The Origin Story was worse than Monsoon Man. Not only are all the villains idiots (a frequent NTP problem, even if the main villain's sensible there has to be a dumb henchman in there somewhere) but someone forgot to give it an ending.

Back to Home and Away.

Alf's episode count this week:Four. Things get really crazy with the credits and the episode counts in the big event week. Roo, Chris, Kat and Tori all appeared in four (Roo was also credited on Tuesday for no appearance, whereas Chris wasn't credited on Wednesday).Irene, VJ, Hunter, Olivia and Skye only appeared in one each (but VJ was credited on Monday and Irene on Wednesday despite not appearing).Oscar was in two but was only seen alive in a dream sequence (and wasn't credited on Monday, where he only appeared as a corpse).The weirdest of these erratic credits: Kyle and Andy were credited on Wednesday despite only appearing in a clip from an old episode, but Kyle wasn't credited on Monday (and neither was Charlotte for that matter) when he appeared in new material!

Talking of which, watching those flashbacks it's slowly dawned on me: Irene, Kyle and Zac all ran into Charlotte that night and none of them bothered to tell the police where she was?!

Okay, today's episode. To be honest, the material with Carter felt like an unnecessary dog leg and a bit too much drama on top of what we've already had this week.Still at least he's finally been arrested, even if we don't get to see it.I appreciated Ash baiting him but telling him he hooked up with Kat was rather dumb.Still, it looks like they are a go judging from that kiss near the end.Shame Kat's tainted by her covering for Josh because in isolation she put in a decent showing here.It must have been traumatic for Billie to go through that so soon after her rape, she must have been scared of it happening again (by the same person?), but she actually kept it together well and gave Kat the opening she needed, although recent experiences seem to have hardened her views towards Dylan.What was she trying to do when she turned up though?The sensible thing would be to a)get as far away from the house as possible and b)dial 000.Instead she stands with her back to the door and...starts texting someone? Bit of a shock for her at the end.I take it we're meant to assume she's pregnant from the rape, given that she only slept with VJ a few hours earlier and there doesn't seem to have been anyone else since Kyle last year.But...okay, any doctors or midwifes feel free to correct me but...since when do you get an accurate conception date, to the day, from a urine test? Unless it's a new thing, it makes a mockery of all that fuss about Maddy needing an ultrasound to find out how pregnant she was, they should have been able to tell her straightaway.Also, the time frame seems completely out of whack. It's not even been 10 days for the audience and when we had two and a half episodes set on the day of the explosion and the action's been continuous ever since the rape, so far as I can tell it was only four days ago.

I was very disappointed with Skye here, a shame because in the first part of the episode I really liked her.But her sudden switch of allegiance to the lynch mob felt both out of character and hard to justify.Tank, who was badly injured in the explosion himself, tells her that he accidentally knocked over some gas cylinders and caused the explosion (featured word: accidentally) and her response is "Oh my god, you're a monster, you killed Oscar and just walked away [Did she forget the part where he was in shock?], everyone was right about you!", before rushing to tell everyone it was his fault. That felt very wrong given her earlier compassion.I could forgive her if I felt it was grief over Oscar, but she seemed very upbeat despite her reference to "stopping and crying".(Why don't we see that scene instead of the pointless one of John inviting Olivia to move in?Even though they're briefly in the same scene, John seems to spend more time with every other teen except his foster daughter!)Seems like Barrett still hasn't told anyone what happened, despite saying he would three episodes ago.

I knew they'd had their three episodes so were unlikely to appear again but having Zac, Leah and presumably Evelyn and VJ just up sticks to the city and leave Alf and Roo to organise the funeral just feels wrong?(Why would they go to the city?Do they fancy catching a film at the multiplex?)Instead we have Hunter trying to pretend he cared about Oscar, less than a year after he nearly killed him.(I'm reading interviews suggesting TPTP decided to get rid of Oscar.If that's so, given the numbers of characters who are complete wastes of space or simply awful that got passed over, it seems they couldn't recognise a decent character if they fell over them.)Olivia finally notices Irene's missing, you really think someone would have thought to ring her before now.

[Dan F]

7 minutes ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

I like The Culex Experiment.

I've not seen the series properly since it aired (I regret not buying the DVD before it went OoP and ridiculously expensive), but the one scene of Jean Marsh chucking that mosquito into the back of the limo always stuck in my mind for some reason.

Sorry...had to mention that....yeah, H&A....

[CaptainHulk]

 Last I'll say on Tomorrow People  '92 here (let's move the discussion to another venue in case Ryan bashes us ) is that The Origin was probably my second favorite arc. It's not bad for a first go. 

But back to H&A... Yeah, a lot of eyerolling going on this week.

Another want to" Jump in the screen and backhand characters and say "WTF is wrong with you?!" period.

[H&Alover]

We certainly saw a lot of shots of Carter's tat's making him my prime suspect of being Billie's rapist (but then I was wrong about him being the murderer). Billie did very helpfully say to Ash and Kat "Just last week I was feeling sorry for him" so it does point to the rapist (whoever he is) being the father of her baby.  That was a tad strange her seeing carter through the window then deciding to call the cops right there, instead of sneaking off! I was wondering about her quick diagnosis although I realise giant steps have been made in that area.  The doctor (another new one?) said she was about 10 days gone, could her collapse (and I guess some women are more susceptible) due to whatever was in her urine have helped make it more accurate?  Don't forget most girls/women don't have a clue until their periods are late, then do an urine test.  I'm not usually cynical but I do hope she won't do what I think she may be thinking of doing, like sleeping with VJ again and he certainly looked happy enough that Billie was 'stealing' his virginity then telling him it's his. There are sympathy snogs and  then there are sympathy shags.  Be rather too soon for TPTB to have another abortion. Was a bit insensitive for him to go into the Diner with a big soppy grin on his face, then run into Ash!

It was only when they were questioned they all mentioned they left  Charlotte by the Pool.

Olivia, Hunter, VJ and I think Skye had all been away which was why she hadn't noticed she wasn't around (unless she had been ringing her).  It was everyone else who didn't seem that bothered even though John had suggested Chris ring her after the explosion.  It was her keep bothering John as she was worried Irene hasn't replied to any of her texts/calls that got him to ring round the hospitals. Seems odd Irene wouldn't have had Fin's number at home somewhere and John had to go and ask someone else if they had it. An aside when Hunter and Olivia were at the house he asked where everyone was and she answered down at the park acknowledging belatedly the park was now nowhere the house.

Personally I found Roo and to a lesser extent the others, very annoying hassling Maddy the way they were, glad Tori ushered them out and let Maddy have some breathing space.  Once again her not knowing the people involved helped her keep a clearer head. It was Maddy's choice to not have her mum there, she is now an adult people can't make that decision for her. She told her mum last time when she was ready.  Oscar indeed would have been the one to persuade her to have the op.  Acutally I liked Matt's part in the proceedings at least he made her laugh.

Certainly was one hell of an U turn for Skye over Tank, he said he was 'involved' in the gas canisters causing the explosions, though the broken electrical  wires also played a part, but he couldn't  ( due to the head wound) remember exactly what happened and not surprisingly wandered off in a daze, he's obviously seeing some sort of counsellor but I note his dad isn't in a hurry to get back. Is he deliberately keeping Andy's name out of it or is that because he can't remember. 

[H&Alover]

H&A Thursday & Friday part two.

Talking about explosions Emmerdale has one this week (another one) - no-one dies, but people are injured and it is deliberate not an accident.

I know some have their theories about Billie's rapist but I still can't see how Carter could realistically bully/cajole/pay anyone enough to rape Billie, unless they were some real head case. Smashing up a garage definitely, beating someone up, yes, murder maybe. I found Carter's downfall a bit of an anti-climax a few well chosen words by Kat which kind of made up for her unprofessional  behaviour a few days before and he crumples, though perhaps it had to be her, she knew him and how he was affected by his son's death, even if as she admitted to Ash it was a gamble, he could have just as easily snapped and lashed out. I'm guessing Carter senior wasn't a lot of help at the time. Still feels too early for her to get together with Ash romantically. 

Always amazes me that when people looking for other people (in this case Irene) they inevitability  go in the right direction. So it seems Mick has dragged Irene off into the bush.

I can see why John and Phoebe are worried about Chris and don't want him to be on his own, but I agree them keep bothering him is going to make him keep even more to himself then find it awkward to approach someone when he does keep company.

I liked how John repaid the favour of Leah having made him meals in the past by sending them food as he had the feeling they wouldn't be bothered to cook, community spirit again.