UK Episode Discussion

[Red Ranger 1]

I tend to be a bit up and down with both Kate and Jade but I'm mostly up with Kate and mostly down with Jade.Kate might be annoying and judgemental at times and she was pretty unbearable in the period after Mark left but she's basically got a good heart.Jade, on the other hand, despite being pretty loyal to Sonya, often comes across as selfish and superficial.I don't think Rhys though the sun shone out of Kate, he only saw it as something casual.Noah seems to have a thing for her now but hey, if the hot student teacher kept being nice to me and asking me to hang out with her little sister I'd probably have a thing for her too.

I've actually been pretty disgusted with Michael the last few weeks.He spent months practically ignoring Tasha and doing what she wanted, then had a go at being a father for a bit and when she still kept doing things wrong, he rejected her in a way that bordered on the emotionally abusive, used his position as principal to discipline her whilst refusing to show her the same encouragement and interest he did other students like Chris, then actually tried to send her away because she was getting in the way of him going surfing and looking moody.(Doesn't help that the whole thing was basically Jade's fault for stopping him going to the police, which would have been a much better way of handling it.)It's a shame they used the cheap plot device of a near death experience to have him change his mind and even more of a shame the decision was so perfunctory;Summer seemed more pleased about her staying than Michael or Tasha did.I really hope we aren't back with Tasha messing up and Michael being useless in a couple of months, I think she's a great character, a genuine bitch with a heart of gold who works well when she's making sassy comments and being surprisingly caring underneath the cattiness, but she's never allowed to learn from her mistakes.The fact Michael's keeping things from her now doesn't bode well.

Susan...well, what can I say.She's at her selfish worst at the moment and, although he's not as bad as when he first came back, Malcolm does seem to act as though her abandoning her family to obsess over some bloke she hardly knew is just Susan being Susan and Karl should suck it up. Frankly, I wouldn't be disappointed if she doesn't come back and Karl really should just cut his losses and run, it's obvious she doesn't want his support or to spend time with him.

[Slade]

I'm quite enjoying the show at the moment. Susan is nowhere to be seen which is great although Karl did mention last week that she would be coming back in a few days so I'm dreading that. Really funny moment when he caught Andrew in just his underwear but even better was that fact the Karl was perfectly OK with Andrew staying over with Summer followed by Mal's - why weren't you like that with me when I was that age - response.

This storyline with Kate and Noah is the only thing I don't like at the moment. I didn't particularly like the way Andrew was with Noah but it's just annoying having to see Kate if I'm honest. It's hard to say whether she was right about the Sophie/Noah thing but I don't think there was anyway to let Sophie down gently. Really funny moment a couple of weeks back when Sophie told Kate she was always interfering and to get a life of her own.

I'm finding this development storyline fascinating. It seems as though it's really going to test the boundaries of some of the friendships i.e. with Kyle and Lucas and is seriously affecting Toadie's life outside work. I can't really blame Toadie. He took out a loan so Sonya could start her own business so he's now stuck between a rock and a hardplace. If the development doesnt go ahead he'll lose his job and be in serious financial difficulty. If it does he'll be very unpopular as he's already starting to find out. The thing that's most amusing is seeing Paul on the side of "good". After spending a lifetime of screwing people over, he now knows what it's like to be in that position - Oh the irony. I've really enjoyed the exchanges between him and Toadie and also Paul's scenes with Kyle.

I've mixed feelings about this storyline with Tash's mother. Summer can be annoying at times. She very often seems like a person on a crusade, is incredibly idealistic and I could see why Michael was annoyed but I thought he was completely out of order the way he was with her. In saying that I don't like the way Michael has kept Tash in the dark and refused to talk to her about her mum so I really hope Tash finds exactly what she's looking for.

Quite liking the Jade, Kyle, Rhys dynamic. I wasn't sure about Rhys at first. Didn't particuarly like the way he manipulated Karl into meeting that surgeon when they were playing golf but he's OK I guess. I don't blame him for Kyle getting beaten up because it was so obvious Kyle was looking for a fight and I thought Rys did the sensible thing walking away.

BTW I thought Jade looked quite hot in her supergirl outfit yesterday.

As aside, where is Libby? Is there any point in her even being in the opening credits? She seemed to be in very little the first half of the year and I can't remember the last time I saw her.

[Red Ranger 1]

I am kind of interesting in the Tasha's mum storyline.I think I say this every time I post in here but Tasha is by far my favourite teen and I tend to enjoy her scenes more than most, even when I'm frustrated with the way she's being written which hasn't happened lately.There was a period when it seemed like the storyline was becoming more about Summer than Tasha and it was all about her thinking she knew what was best for everyone and forcing the issue and going behind her back, which annoyed me greatly and, while it wasn't entirely called for, I was glad Michael had a go at her. But fortunately we're now back to Tasha leading it like she should.

I've kind of swung back and forth on the development storyline.I started off on the side of the small businessmen who stood to lose out but suddenly we had Paul, being as unpleasant as ever, opposing the development for selfish reasons and pretending he was doing it for the community and Toadie supporting the development because it's his job and he's got a family to support.So I've actually swung back the other way and I'm hoping the development goes ahead, everyone's fine and Paul loses.I was a bit worried when it looked like Toadie was forcing his friends to sell their businesses but now it turns out it's their choice I don't mind.It probably won't happen and they do seem to be trying to write Peter as the villain.Maybe he'll get fired and Toadie will take over.I can dream.

I like Kate but sometimes she has no brain.She's doing with Noah exactly what she was worried he'd do with Sophie, unknowingly encouraging his crush, and she could end up causing a lot of trouble.Not really bothered about Lou being back, hoping they'll focus more on his relationship with the Ramsays and less on him bullying Lucas or Kyle.

Kind of get the point about Libby.I get that they're leaving the door open for Kym Valentine but, unless there's something I haven't heard about, it doesn't look like she's returning in the near future.(I believe Malcolm's there for

six months

, which kind of suggests they're not expecting Libby back in that time.)At least they've finally taken her off the end credits but keeping her on the opening titles feels like more of a hope than anything else.

[Slade]

Didn't think I'd be saying this but it's reached the point where I actually prefer Neighbours to Home and Away.

I'm glad Susan and Karl have decided to go their separate ways. Let's face it, Susan didn't want to spend any time with him. Every time Karl tried to spend time with her she made out he was being selfish for not being sympathetic enough towards Jim. As I said before Jim was simply a scapegoat. Hopefully Karl will move on and find someone who treats him right. To be fair though since they announced the split although there's awkwardness at least the tension isn't as bad. I think it's very telling that Summer would rather spend time at Andrew's (with Paul there) than stay at the Kennedy's at the moment. Mal's reaction is perfectly understandable although I can't help thinking he should have been a lot harder on Susan with respect to how she was behaving towards Karl. Instead he was telling Karl he was making a mistake for wanting see Susan ASAP and sort his marriage out.

After not liking Jade for quite a while, then liking her she's disappointed me this week. She was clearly upset at the casual fling with Kyle because she wanted more but was afraid to tell him how she felt out of fear of rejection. Now that Kyle realises that he does want a relationship with Jade she decides that she doesn't want to be with him because she's afraid of change. She doesn't want to even try and things a chance. And to make matters worse she's now pursuing a married man. Mal is also disappointing. He was ready go back to the UK but wants to stay, not because of his parents marriage but because there's a chance he can have a fling with Jade. I'm hoping nothing will come of this though.

I'm really enjoying the Tasha storyline. I loved the stuff with her an her aunt and really liked the scene when her aunt looked at the receipt and realised who Tash was. It's a shame it was on a Monday and we had to wait until the Friday before they revisited it. I'm hoping there will be more focus on this storyline next week to compensate. I'm presuming that Tasha's aunt and Michael will cross paths eventually so it will be interesting to see what happens there.

[Red Ranger 1]

I am rather enjoying Tasha's storyline, it's great to finally see her do something over than self-destruct and cause problems.Summer being a bit pushy and trying to her to look into Serbia didn't bother me so much because it was obviously Summer trying to distract herself from what was going on with the Kennedys.Even though he's lying to Tasha, I do feel sorry for Michael, he's obviously on edge about something.

I am basically glad about the Kennedys splitting up, Karl does deserve better than Susan's prepared to give him.I'm a bit bothered by his announcing he's going to move out of the area, it's hard to imagine him leaving the show so I hope he finds somewhere else in Erinsborough rather than changing his mind.They had him living off Ramsay Street when he and Susan split up before so I think it could work.

Continue to be on the side of the developers, mainly because the people against them are Paul and Susan, neither of whom I like.I'm really hoping Kyle changes his mind.He seems to be on his way to becoming one of those brilliant guest/recurring characters who gets ruined by being turned into a regular, what with his dogmatic stance on the development and his messed up relationship with Jade.

Don't really know why they've bothered bringing up Brennan's death again.Kate seemed to have moved on and not care where he is and Toadie and Sonya seemed perfectly happy so having them suddenly traumatised and messing with everyone's heads as a result and Callum going all emo on us feels a bit odd.

I'm giving Malcolm the very small benefit of the very small doubt here.There does seem to be a mutual attraction/flirting between him and Jade and I wouldn't be surprised if something happens but I think if things were all right between Karl and Susan he'd quite happily shrug it off and jet off back to his wife.The way he kept looking at Jade while on the phone to Catherine I think was meant to suggest that he knew there was a danger in sticking around but he was prepared to risk it.

[Slade]

A true face-palm moment when Kate kissed Noah. She's made everything ten times worse. I can't really say what possessed her as obviously it was about Brennan and she was in pure shock. The problem is though Noah's infatuation has gone into overdrive. Even when Kate was telling him it wasn't going to happen again the words just weren't registering and with them both being caught on camera this is all going to end in tears.

Mal seems to have had an apparent U-turn about Jade. I wonder if it will last though.

I'm glad Karl's started to have a life separate from Susan.

A bit disappointed Kyle's gone for a bit as I would have liked to have seen the continuation of the stuff with Jade. Not really sure what to make of his cousin. Didn't like the way he just let himself into Kyle's but he did immediately offer rent money and made lunch for Jade. I didn't like the way he'd heard the rumour about the council taking a bribe re the development, immediately told Paul without any actual proof then when Paul wasn't prepared to run the story talked Summer into broadcasting it on her radio show instead. To be fair to him though when he found out that Summer could get into trouble effectively for slander he did go out of his way to try and stop her. Typical of Paul to not get involved himself because of how much trouble the paper could get into but was quite prepared to let Summer do it knowing full well it could wreck her future in terms of career prospects.

Really like Amelia. I enjoyed all the scenes with Tasha and the stuff with Lucas and am really hoping we'll get to see more of her. I went to the Five Neighbours website to watch an episode (why do they insist on putting spoilers right on the front page) and

accidentally discovered that the actor who plays Michael is leaving so I'm wondering if Amelia is been brought in as some sort of replacement.

Michael does appear to have all the signs of someone who is headed for some sort of breakdown. He really annoyed me when he opened Tasha's birthday present then hid it from her but that is indicative of how he's been behaving as of late - Somewhat irrational.

[Red Ranger 1]

I am really not liking Jade at the moment.There's just nothing appealing about the character whatsoever.We get the odd little scene here and there where something reminds her about Kyle and she gets an odd melancholy look on her face, as if the writers are trying to hammer home the fact that she's supposed to like him, even though she treats him and everyone else like dirt.She was probably going to sleep with that random guy she saw in the pub and then when he turned out to have a girlfriend she apparently turned round and slept with Malcolm(who has a wife)and is apparently ready to carry on doing so.It's been hinted she's got some deep, dark secret but it probably won't be that deep and dark and it's hard to see what can excuse her behaviour.

I'm really not sure what to make of Dane.He's been given a bunch of scripts intended for Kyle at a time when Kyle wasn't being very likeable anyway and spends a lot of his time being rude to Toadie and Sonya and setting Summer up(unintentionally at first but he didn't do much to stop her)in order to give the developers bad publicity.

Well, Kate seemed to forget about Brennan again pretty quickly, she was upset for less than an episode, seemingly as a plot device so she'd kiss Noah.Since then we've had a bunch of scenes where characters assume she's upset about Mark when really she's panicking about what a mess she's made.

Michael has been annoying me a lot, with his attitude towards Emilia and getting rid of the present, which Tasha would probably have appreciated.It seems as though he stopped his in-laws seeing Tasha after his wife died, which seems pretty self-centred behaviour.It does seem as though we're finally going to get to the bottom of it all and I'm interested to see where it goes.

I gather Michael doesn't leave until some way into next year, although they might keep Emilia around.I won't really miss him but I'm glad Tasha is sticking around and it'll be interesting to see how she develops without him.

[Slade]

I agree about Jade. She seems to have very few redeeming qualities but the reason why I don't actively dislike her like I did before is that I personally don't think she's been out of her way to be rude or mouthy and it's certainly helped having Rhys there who has taken her down a peg or two with his psycho analysis of her relationship with Kyle. In saying that at times it's hard to imagine that she and Sonya are sisters. Sonya seems for the most part the epitome of selflessness where as Jade is the exact opposite. She's still sleeping with Mal even though she knows that he's married. The worst thing is it's not as if she actually wants to spend any time with him. The relationship is purely physical. When Dane and Rhys came back in today's episode I was really hoping they would be caught out. Really hope their affair is fully exposed and Karl and Sonya give Mal and Jade a piece of their mind.

Although Noah is borderline obsessive I don't have any sympathy for Kate. Andrew tried to warn her that he was into her before but she was in denial then kissed him because her head was all over the place regarding Brennan so given Noah's age is it any wonder why the infatuation is so strong now? Party of me finds it mildly amusing every time he tries to approach her or talk to her and she panics worried her secret will get out. It's also made her quite paranoid as twice she's thought Noah's been in her house when it's turned out to be perfectly innocent although I did think today that the only reason he came round to see Sophie was an excuse to try and spend time with Kate. Now that Andrew knows about the kiss it will be interesting to see what he does and what she does. As annoying as I find Kate even I don't want her career to be ruined.

Started off thinking Michael had finally turned a corner when he decided to put his selfishness and paranoia aside after letting Emilia spend more time with Tash and really liked the scene where he thanked her for helping out and so was disappointed when he told her he he'd changed his mind. But what really bugged me was when he saw Lucas on a date with her and tried to put a spanner in the works purely because he doesn't want to share Tash with anyone else. I'm glad Emilia told Lucas everything and he decided to ignore what Michael said so hopefully things will work out.

Summer was doing my head in regarding PirateNet. Sometimes it's bad enough when she acts like a woman on a crusade but was she actually expecting everyone to not go to the exam just to protest that the council had closed the radio station down? Very selfish. I was very much on Karl's side when he was arguing with Susan but I think she did very well not to get sanctimonious like she usually does. And Summer still seems to be worrying about her beloved PirateNet rather than focussing on her exams which will help her get into a Uni that will provide the right track for her career choice. Seriously what's the harm waiting a few weeks then launching another campaign then?

[Red Ranger 1]

Although kissing Noah was stupid and she hasn't done herself many favours with her behaviour since then, I was actually sympathetic towards Kate until she got Andrew to delete Summer's footage, which was seriously crossing a line.So now I hope she does get found out.I was surprised Andrew went along with it, I'd have understood if it was a knee jerk reaction but he effectively chose Kate over Summer.

It's a shame the UK showings of Neighbours and Home and Away are so closely in sync because it feels like we're getting HSC dramas in stereo with Summer and April competing to be the most self-centred and annoying.(Still, I suppose in Australia it's like this every year...)I have been finding Summer pretty unlikeable these past few weeks, I didn't sympathise with her losing her work even though I disliked Kate for getting rid of it, and I really hope she doesn't get away with cheating just because of Michael's convenient amnesia.

Like Slade above, I began to like Michael again when he seemed to accept Emilia and be friendly with her but now that he's back to keeping Tasha away from her and trying to split up her and Lucas I'm not so keen on him.

I'm past being annoyed with Malcolm and Jade, I'm just letting the whole thing wash over me.I will, however, be annoyed if they keep insisting, after all this, that Jade's in love with Kyle and have them get together as if the Malcolm thing never happened.I haven't minded Dane so much since they've kept him away from the development storyline but unfortunately it looks as though we're going back to that.

[Slade]

I'm glad Karl knows about Mal and Jade. I don't care if he followed them. I also thought he did the right thing confronting both of them (separately) and telling them to end it. I really wanted Karl to tell Susan when she started throwing suspicious looks whilst she saw Karl with Mal and then Jade and quizzed him if everything was OK. Karl and Susan have got on a lot better this week and as much as I dislike Susan she was actually likeable.

Rhys at times comes across as arrogant but I did actually feel quite sorry for him this week. A lot of people might not like the way he does things but I have nothing against someone who is ambitious and I think he went to a lot of effort to meet Martin, befriend him and line up the interview for the surgeons position. And it all appears to be for nothing. I do agree with Rhys given his profession what Dane did was extremely irresponsible and I don't blame him one bit for being annoyed with him. I would. I do however think his pride got in the way and he should of taken Karl's advice and simply postponed the interview. Even Martin asked him if he wanted to. I think we saw another side to him when he went to visit his mother at the care home and he lied to her about getting the surgeons position in order not to disappoint her.

Well I'm glad Sophie knows that Noah has a crush on Kate as I felt he was only helping her as an excuse to be closer to Kate and Sophie didn't deserve that. After seeing how selfish Kate was about wanting Andrew to delete to footage Summer was going to use for her coursework I've done a U-turn and actually wouldn't mind if Kate got into trouble for kissing Noah. She very often comes across as holier-than-thou anyway.

Although Summer cheated in the exam, I'm actually hoping that Michael doesn't remember considering she never would have been in that position if not for Kate. I actually don't blame Andrew. I felt he was genuinely trying to be selfless i.e. putting his family's interests before his girlfriend's.

I'm curious to know what this secret is Michael and Emilia are keeping from Tash. Going by Emilia's "I've got as much to lose" remark, I wonder if they've slept together or even had some sort of affair. It would explain why Michael doesn't want her spending any time with Tash and why he tried to sabotage her relationship with Lucas (residual jealousy?). Also even before he mentioned it on Friday's episode when Emilia came to the house to help out I thought there was a bit of tension there or perhaps I should say chemistry.