Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[Pierced Musie]

... I love Dr. Peta Bradley.

She could order me round any day of the week and I would be her slave .

[alreetlike]

Another up-vote for Dr Bradley here. Oh how I love to see April put in her place.

[Red Ranger 1]

Alf's episode count this week:Four.Roo was in all five, for the second week running I think, while Sally continues to defy her non-regular status by appearing in four.

Peta continues to stand her ground.Colour coding the files might be a very April thing to do but it's not the most efficient use of time and she shouldn't expect a pat on the head and a lollipop for doing her job.Dexter did her no favours by trying to get Peta to tiptoe around her.It's interesting that they've kind of got the opposite of what they expected:Dexter was expecting a tyrant and April was expecting a nurturing presence.It's curious how Peta treats them differently:I don't think it's a divide and conquer technique, I almost wonder if she used to be a nurse with the way she seems to appreciate the work they do while not having much time for medical students expecting an easy ride.The inconclusive nature of their showdown was curious:April's probably within her rights to leave at the end of her agreed hours, so Peta probably can't have her removed as she suggested, but it's not going to make it easier for herself.

After not being too keen on her last episode, Roo plays to her strengths here with her gambit to force Sally to move into the house.The final chat between Alf and Sally was great:Sally's used to being independent but she's back in Summer Bay now and it doesn't work like that, people are going to help whether you want them to or not.Interesting the way the balance has shifted between them:For a long time, Alf was basically part of Sally's family, now it seems to be the other way round.Kind of underlines that Pippa's really all she's got left, especially since she's never going to have any more children and probably not going to remarry.

Loved all the stuff between Irene and Marilyn.Irene gives her much better advice than Roo, Alf and the others did:While they forced Marilyn to stay away from John, Irene tells her to get stuck in there and see what happens.Sparkling scenes between all three of them, especially the discussion on options and John and Marilyn's chat about the business("We need to come up with a new name"). Actually, the pier scene was great too, with Marilyn trying to repeat Irene's bon mot and getting confused.

[Pierced Musie]

I am on Peta's side 100% and not just because I dislike April. The respect she shows towards the nurses is quite telling because it shows she hasn't got a vendetta towards April at all. The fact is that med students need to be thrown into the deep end to get a real taste of what their chosen profession is truly like. That means doing the scut work that so many think they can just pass on to the nurses and it also mean not having the option of clocking off at the exact time they are supposed to.

I also liked the way Peta was trying to teach April about time management, which April failed miserably at. I think I wrote a lot about this a few weeks back in the character thread... or Aus weekly discussion thread. Should I copy & paste it over?

[Slade]

And then we get that terrible scene between Roo and Maddy, which is the sort of thing that always gets the anti-Maddy fans' backs up

Of course because anyone here that DARES to say anything negative about the precious Maddie must a hardcore anti-fan, can't possibly be any other explanation.

I thought the sentencing was an absolute joke but it's reached the point where I'm not surprised anymore. I think Casey did well in court not to try and seal Ricki's fate. He put Brax's happiness ahead of his own revenge (i.e. helping the woman he believe ruined his life) so I thought he showed a certain level of selflessness. I do think his attitude towards Tamara is the opposite. To me it's likes he's more focused on getting back with her than he is about her being happy. Not that I blame him of course. Why should Kyle stab him in the back like that and get to have her. Her memory's coming back anyway so I'm hoping it will just be a matter of time before she remembers it all and then what? Hopefully Kyle will get a taste of his own medicine and have her stolen from him. I was kind of glad Casey blew Tamara out like that. Maybe she'll have some idea of how he felt.

I did actually find the stuff with Casey and Maddie quite amusing. I think what I found really funny was Roo's reaction when she came to the Gym, realised something was up and then clocked on that Maddie was drunk. Her facial expression to me was a combination of being quite displeased and not really knowing what to do.

Extremely annoyed that Nina wouldn't give Jett another chance all because of VJ.

I quite liked the way Marilyn has been trying to fight John's corner. And I was willing her to tell him how she felt. Given that they were getting close just before Gina died, it will be interesting to see John's reaction if she does muster enough courage to tell him eventually. I think he would be torn between being loyal to Gina and wanting to move on.

At first I found it quite funny seeing Dr Bradley giving April a hard time but now it seems like bullying. Initially I thought she didn't really like anyone but then she was OK with Dex earlier on in yesterday's episode. Then I wondered whether she had an issue with interns in general, or if it's just April she hates. And then I wondered if she's trying to give April a hard time to toughen her up because maybe she was in a similar position when she was an intern and in a roundabout sort of way is actually trying to do her a favour.

[Red Ranger 1]

I am on Peta's side 100% and not just because I dislike April. The respect she shows towards the nurses is quite telling because it shows she hasn't got a vendetta towards April at all. The fact is that med students need to be thrown into the deep end to get a real taste of what their chosen profession is truly like. That means doing the scut work that so many think they can just pass on to the nurses and it also mean not having the option of clocking off at the exact time they are supposed to.

I also liked the way Peta was trying to teach April about time management, which April failed miserably at. I think I wrote a lot about this a few weeks back in the character thread... or Aus weekly discussion thread. Should I copy & paste it over?

I can kind of see both sides of this.Yes, medical students need to learn that there's work, it's important and it needs to be done, which means they can't always just walk out when their hours are up if they're in the middle of something.On the other hand, Peta suddenly gave April a load of extra work just as she was about to leave for a family meal, even though the situation had been in existence all day.April does need to learn how to do a job efficiently, rather than doing something flashy to try and impress people, which is what Peta said, although she could have given her a few tips as to how to do the job in an appropriate amount of time rather than just making a dogmatic statement.

And then we get that terrible scene between Roo and Maddy, which is the sort of thing that always gets the anti-Maddy fans' backs up

Of course because anyone here that DARES to say anything negative about the precious Maddie must a hardcore anti-fan, can't possibly be any other explanation.

I apologise if it sounded like I was generalising.But I have read comments on other threads(not by anyone who frequents this one)by people who are so determined to portray Maddy in a negative light and make Sasha out to be the "good guy" in the situation that they've spent weeks dragging up Maddy campaigning to get Bianca's job back and trying to turn it round by going "That whole storyline was about Maddy and everyone saying how wonderful she is, while Sasha was nice to Rosie and no-one needed to praise her for it."(Which I don't agree with, plenty of people stood around saying what a good friend Sasha was.)So, when I saw that scene, knowing Maddy gets more negative comments that a lot of other characters, I could anticipate the reaction.So I look in Australian Discussion.And there's some people who are normally negative about Maddy who are capable of being balanced and recognising the positive things Maddy did while criticising Roo's comment.There's some who completely ignore the positive things Maddy did and just ridicule Roo's comments.And there's some who go "I liked Maddy in that episode up until Roo started going OTT and calling her wonderful...They're trying to tell us what we should think of her...They did the same at the protest."So, I accept my comments may have been directed at the wrong audience and I apologise if anyone in this thread felt they were directly at them personally, but I think my fears were justified.

[Slade]

I apologise if it sounded like I was generalising.But I have read comments on other threads(not by anyone who frequents this one)by people who are so determined to portray Maddy in a negative light and make Sasha out to be the "good guy" in the situation that they've spent weeks dragging up Maddy campaigning to get Bianca's job back and trying to turn it round by going "That whole storyline was about Maddy and everyone saying how wonderful she is, while Sasha was nice to Rosie and no-one needed to praise her for it."(Which I don't agree with, plenty of people stood around saying what a good friend Sasha was.)So, when I saw that scene, knowing Maddy gets more negative comments that a lot of other characters, I could anticipate the reaction.So I look in Australian Discussion.And there's some people who are normally negative about Maddy who are capable of being balanced and recognising the positive things Maddy did while criticising Roo's comment.There's some who completely ignore the positive things Maddy did and just ridicule Roo's comments.And there's some who go "I liked Maddy in that episode up until Roo started going OTT and calling her wonderful...They're trying to tell us what we should think of her...They did the same at the protest."So, I accept my comments may have been directed at the wrong audience and I apologise if anyone in this thread felt they were directly at them personally, but I think my fears were justified.

Fine, I accept that you weren't specifically referring to anyone in this thread however you've expressed frustration at posters who you feel have not been balanced with Maddie but I've read many of your posts over the years and some of them seem to reflect what you've mentioned some of the other posters are doing in the Australian Discussion thread e.g. Aden/Belle in the latter part of the 2008 season and the beginning of the 2009 season, Xavier when he first appeared (granted the two I just mentioned are a long time ago now). More recently Romeo/Indy, Brax/Charlie, Dex/April and Sasha/Spencer. And I have to say some of the comments have been particularly aggressive. You mention balance but I personally feel that some of your frustration with those pairings has been that they've ruined other potential/current pairings i.e. Romeo/Indy stopping a potential Romeo/Ruby romance, Dex/April obviously ruining Xavier/April and more recently Sasha/Spencer putting a dampener on a Maddie/Spencer reunion. And subsequently you've looked for any reason to have a go at them. That's all fine, well and good but then you can't really expect other posters not to do the same just because it happens to be a character you like.

[c120701]

Just catching up, there was a really odd scene a couple of weeks ago where Roo basically implied Leah would be pretty broke having not worked for 6 months and she agreed. Well firstly she was loaded after Dan died and although she has refurnished her house twice, it seems unlikely that all of that money would be gone. Also, surely she'd have still been getting paid from the Diner as a shareholder.

[Red Ranger 1]

I apologise if it sounded like I was generalising.But I have read comments on other threads(not by anyone who frequents this one)by people who are so determined to portray Maddy in a negative light and make Sasha out to be the "good guy" in the situation that they've spent weeks dragging up Maddy campaigning to get Bianca's job back and trying to turn it round by going "That whole storyline was about Maddy and everyone saying how wonderful she is, while Sasha was nice to Rosie and no-one needed to praise her for it."(Which I don't agree with, plenty of people stood around saying what a good friend Sasha was.)So, when I saw that scene, knowing Maddy gets more negative comments that a lot of other characters, I could anticipate the reaction.So I look in Australian Discussion.And there's some people who are normally negative about Maddy who are capable of being balanced and recognising the positive things Maddy did while criticising Roo's comment.There's some who completely ignore the positive things Maddy did and just ridicule Roo's comments.And there's some who go "I liked Maddy in that episode up until Roo started going OTT and calling her wonderful...They're trying to tell us what we should think of her...They did the same at the protest."So, I accept my comments may have been directed at the wrong audience and I apologise if anyone in this thread felt they were directly at them personally, but I think my fears were justified.

Fine, I accept that you weren't specifically referring to anyone in this thread however you've expressed frustration at posters who you feel have not been balanced with Maddie but I've read many of your posts over the years and some of them seem to reflect what you've mentioned some of the other posters are doing in the Australian Discussion thread e.g. Aden/Belle in the latter part of the 2008 season and the beginning of the 2009 season, Xavier when he first appeared (granted the two I just mentioned are a long time ago now). More recently Romeo/Indy, Brax/Charlie, Dex/April and Sasha/Spencer. And I have to say some of the comments have been particularly aggressive. You mention balance but I personally feel that some of your frustration with those pairings has been that they've ruined other potential/current pairings i.e. Romeo/Indy stopping a potential Romeo/Ruby romance, Dex/April obviously ruining Xavier/April and more recently Sasha/Spencer putting a dampener on a Maddie/Spencer reunion. And subsequently you've looked for any reason to have a go at them. That's all fine, well and good but then you can't really expect other posters not to do the same just because it happens to be a character you like.

Fair enough, we've all got characters we don't like and most of us tend to put a negative slant on their actions.And it's probably wrong of me to single people out for their opinions just because they're different from mine, at least without being constructive or presenting a counter-argument.I guess the term "balanced" is a relative wrong, I think in most cases if a character I don't like genuinely does something I approve of then I'll acknowledge it, as some people have done with Maddy.It may have been lost in my unfortunate phraseology but at heart I'm not really criticising people who make negative comments about the character, even though it may have sounded that way.My real criticism was for the writers who, at the end of an episode where you couldn't really fault Maddy's actions (and, indeed, I don't think anyone has), suddenly included a scene that was bound to provoke fans who dislike the character and thus, in some cases, undid any inroads that may have been made in changing their opinion of her.

[c120701]

Just catching up, there was a really odd scene a couple of weeks ago where Roo basically implied Leah would be pretty broke having not worked for 6 months and she agreed. Well firstly she was loaded after Dan died and although she has refurnished her house twice, it seems unlikely that all of that money would be gone. Also, surely she'd have still been getting paid from the Diner as a shareholder.

Just to add to this, where is Alf's money? There would have been insurance money from the Stewart House destruction, ok they would have invested part of that in the Beachside Diner having bought Sam out of the Bayside Diner, but surely not all of that money. Presumably Ailsa had life insurance too. Alf would then have had money from the sale of the Diner, then insurance money from the building collapse. Presumably he also got money from the Gelato business (I assume he sold it as a going concern, or at least the lease). All he's bought since is the Bait Shop, he also would have the money from the sale of the farm to Sid.