Maddy Osborne - Kassandra Clementi

[Guest]

The writers are ruining the fact Maddy misses Casey. I just want her to mention him once. After all they went through together might as well not happened.

They showed Maddy crying just before the funeral and it showed her crying and Roo hugging her

[shyongirl]

The writers are ruining the fact Maddy misses Casey. I just want her to mention him once. After all they went through together might as well not happened.

They showed Maddy crying just before the funeral and it showed her crying and Roo hugging her She was crying because of Josh as he blanked her.

[Guest]

Maddy needs to get over Josh and good that Evelyn slapped Maddy for sleeping with Josh just wish it wasn't at the wake.

[chels24]

Its a shame I actually liked her at first the Spencer fall out and the trying to sleep with Casey ruined her for me, I do think though the early days of her and Josh were quite cool but they have ruined her to the point I cannot physically watch her without wanting to knock some sense into her. She has gone from having quite a lot of potential to a boy obsessed, self absorbed, shallow ,whingy brat

[Red Ranger 1]

I was dreading coming in here because I've seen a lot of negative comments about Maddy on the forum and I'm beginning to realise what it's like when I rage about other people's favourite characters.But actually, the discussion has been fairly balanced.So belatedly sign me up to the Maddy Osborne Defence Force because I really like the character and I do believe that she's a good person.

I think the writers did her a huge disservice by trying to make out she was bad girlfriend to Josh in order to justify him cheating on her.Because she wasn't.At all.He treated her terribly when she first met him, constantly insulting her because he was too scared to stand up to Andy or fell for his manipulation, and she never turned her back on him and is probably mainly responsible for him turning his life around.I found it rather distasteful that he ended up repeating Andy's lies about her only seeing him as a project in order to justify copping off with Evelyn.His and Maddy's problems came out of nowhere when she, in an out of character moment, didn't believe his story of wanting to study.Alf advised him to tell her he was struggling but for some reason he listened to Matt telling him, incorrectly in my opinion, that Maddy would see him as a wimp and lied to her.Then he went around making excuses not to spend time with her so he could study, so all she could see was that he wasn't doing what he said he was.Then he made mean comments about her to Sasha which she overheard, and for some reason Sasha has a go at Maddy for not noticing Josh was struggling, even though he'd been actively hiding it from her.Maddy tried to help him, and he thanked her by sniggering about her behind her back to Evelyn.Then he passed and she failed, which was her own fault and she made some very thoughtless remarks, but he wasn't willing to support her in the aftermath any more than she was him.Then Roo fell ill, Evelyn took advantage of Maddy's distraction to move in on Josh, and apparently Maddy deserved it.

I won't say much about Sophies treatment of her, writing off a whole year of school because of one exam was ridiculous, but Maddy picked herself up and got a decent job, despite Roo trying to sabotage her.She did use Oscar but not as much as people say, and people often tend to ignore that she was one of the first to pick up on his eating disorder and did her best to help him, preferring to blame her for his problems instead.She shouldn't have slept with him but I do think it was as much about making herself feel better as getting her own back, probably more so.

As for sleeping with Josh, I'm not entirely convinced she did anything wrong.She doesn't owe Evelyn anything after she did the same to her and it was Josh that made a move on her, she just convinced herself it meant they were getting back together and responded as such.She definitely did not deserve any of the treatment she got afterwards.When the positions were reversed, Evelyn's family were all egging her on (the show has sent out the message "Cheating is fine if you're happy at the end of it" far too many times this year) and Maddy's family didn't really care what Josh and Evelyn had done to her.The only person that ever said anything to Evelyn was Oscar, and even then it was portrayed as him misjudging Maddy and her not being worth defending.Maddy does the same and she has Evelyn assaulting her and judging her in a hugely hypocritical manner and then Alf does the same, showing a shocking lack of interest in the fact Josh used her, believing Evelyn's highly biased version of events without bothering to hear Maddy's side of the story and putting all the blame on her.I do accept though that Roo's a bit too much the other way, she should have pointed out to Maddy that her actions were flawed and encouraged her to move on from Josh rather than indulging her as much as she did.

Im slightly hampered by watching at UK pace, it sounds as though she's got worse and got better in the interim.I would love it if, after this, she's single for a while and manages to build a better relationship with her family.

Sadly, it seems like she might hook up with Matt next year.It's good that she moves on from Josh for her sake (I dont think he and Evelyn deserve to be happy at all but thats another discussion) but I'm not sure another relationship with a bad boy type will help.

[jodlebirger]

Oh yes she was a bad girlfriend. No one deserves to be cheated on, but how Maddy behaved is not justified either. We are just in that storyline when Josh and Evie get together (for the first time) now here in Norway. Probably a couple of months, probably almost 3, behind the UK. Maddy hasn't grown since she came into the show, but the exactly the opposite. She was a spoilt brat who run away from home because she didn't want to go to school apart from Spencer. When he wanted to be serious about school and other things she pushed him away, and after they had broke up she behaved like she still was his girlfriend. She is just using her boyfriends to have fun and to rebel against the adults.

She is not interested in education, and she is not listening to the adults, she don't care about Josh wanting to do something with his life. She is less interested in her future than an average 17 year old, but there are still 17 year olds like her in the world. But she wasn't interested in Josh and his work at all, so she pushed him away. And when he is wanting something else she is playing the victim. And that is the reason why he started to get interested in the more lovable Evie. He still should have broken up with Maddy before he got with Evie. But his behaviour doesn't excuse Maddy's. And use others to rebel and to make herself feel better.

I don't hate Maddy as a character, I find her quite interesting sometimes. There are a lot of teens like her nowadays. But the adults around her, and especially Roo has to be used differently to make this storyline work better. A character/person like Maddy need discipline, but still a lot of understanding. Understanding people around her, but not tip-toing. And Roo is tip-toing around her, she is not behaving like a responsible 40 something adult. Roo isn't a better guardian than Maddy's parents, and I think she should have been to make this storyline good and not so frustrating.

Edited November 25, 2014 by jodlebirger

[Angelica]

Oh yes she was a bad girlfriend. No one deserves to be cheated on, but how Maddy behaved is not justified either. We are just in that storyline when Josh and Evie get together (for the first time) now here in Norway. Probably a couple of months, probably almost 3, behind the UK. Maddy hasn't grown since she came into the show, but the exactly the opposite. She was a spoilt brat who run away from home because she didn't want to go to school apart from Spencer. When he wanted to be serious about school and other things she pushed him away, and after they had broke up she behaved like she still was his girlfriend. She is just using her boyfriends to have fun and to rebel against the adults.

She is not interested in education, and she is not listening to the adults, she don't care about Josh wanting to do something with his life. She is less interested in her future than an average 17 year old, but there are still 17 year olds like her in the world. But she wasn't interested in Josh and his work at all, so she pushed him away. And when he is wanting something else she is playing the victim. And that is the reason why he started to get interested in the more lovable Evie. He still should have broken up with Maddy before he got with Evie. But his behaviour doesn't excuse Maddy's. And use others to rebel and to make herself feel better.

I don't hate Maddy as a character, I find her quite interesting sometimes. There are a lot of teens like her nowadays. But the adults around her, and especially Roo has to be used differently to make this storyline work better. A character/person like Maddy need discipline, but still a lot of understanding. Understanding people around her, but not tip-toing. And Roo is tip-toing around her, she is not behaving like a responsible 40 something adult. Roo isn't a better guardian than Maddy's parents, and I think she should have been to make this storyline good and not so frustrating.

I think you have hit the nail on the head. I think the adults in Maddy's life have not been helping her characterisation. As you say, Roo often tries to be Maddy's friend rather than her guardian, and therefore, spends a lot of time acquiescing to Maddy's will. And I think sometimes Alf Stewart is good at trying to discipline Maddy, but I also think that sometimes, he lacks some of the empathy and understanding that might actually get through to her.

I often feels that Maddy comes off best with her interactions with Spencer (when he is not adopting his holier-than-thou attitude), just because she has been pretty consistent with the fact that she cares for his general well being. She was quite sweet and caring during his whole bipolar stuff (and sensible enough to try to get Roo involved as well). And I think Spencer (and occasionally Casey) seem to be able to get through to her.

I am glad that her and Josh broke up - it didn;t bring out the best in either of their characters. I think part of her problem is that she doesn't really have an identity outside of her relationships, What happened to her passion about music?

[jodlebirger]

Maddy is good at the bottom, she just lacks direction. And she is a character that needs a lot of understanding and also discipline.

I think she is kind of confused of who she wants to be.

Her parents loved her, but I think they haven't been the best guardians either. They probably could have done more to understand her, and probably use an another form for discipline than they did. Sending her away to boarding school isn't the answer.

She needs someone who can put her in place and bring more of that good inside of Maddy to the surface. I don't think that character is Spencer, he has more than enough with himself and is too young. She was not better with Spencer than with Josh...

I think it needs to be an adult and I still think Roo should be that person. But Roo needs to be more like an adult loving guardian and not a friend. Maybe she needs some advice from Irene? Irene used to be good with characters like Maddy, she is tougher than Roo.

[Red Ranger 1]

I guess we all see things differently but I really think it’s unfair to say that Maddy was a bad girlfriend to Josh who didn’t care about his future.They just tried to make her out to be that way so Evelyn would look nice in comparison.(At the risk of ranting about another character in Maddy’s thread, I’ve found Evelyn utterly unlikable about 90% of the time this year and it’s now reached the point where when we get a scene that tries to portray her as nice I just view it as forced or fake or part of an agenda because we’ve seen what she’s really like.)Josh would never have gone to Summer Bay High in the first place if he hadn’t had Maddy supporting him and helping him put his life back together when his entire family went to jail.Maddy was the one who had his back and was constantly convincing him to stay at school and finish his education when Andy wanted him to drop out and go back to Mangrove River and Montgomery was trying to force him out.Yet she spends a couple of episodes dismissing the importance of his exams (and her own, lest we forget) and suddenly she doesn’t care about him.Watching Josh denegrate everything she’d done for him while building up Evelyn as a pure and radiant angel is an insult to the characters’ history.

I didn’t really see much of Maddy rebelling after the break-up.Yes, she quit school but she was right to do so, she’d already been told that nothing she did that year would count and Sophie handled the situation appallingly.Maddy went out and got herself a job and has stuck at it.She was mean to Evelyn a few times but she had every right to be.And she used Oscar, sleeping with him and letting him think it meant more than it did, which was unfair but they got past it and stayed friends.And it’s no different to what Josh ended up doing to her, so I guess she got punished in some way.

It’s hard to judge whether Roo has been a better guardian than Maddy’s parents when we’ve hardly seen her mother and never seen her father, but I think she just about edges it.To be honest, I very rarely think that Roo’s too soft on Maddy.Yes, there are times when a gentle admonishment needs to be administered instead of a hug but I actually think the times Roo’s come unstuck are when she’s listened to Alf’s advice and handed out arbitrary punishments or when she’s tried to control her (eg getting Spencer to spy on her and Josh, trying to stop Casey giving her a job).Alf, I think, has been a total disaster, partly because it’s discipline for discipline’s sake or a complete overreaction (“Help with dinner or I’ll kick you out of the house!”) and partly because discipline just doesn’t work on Maddy.Have a go at her and she’ll either withdraw or dig her heels in.I know it’s a hard thing to do but I think the best any adult can do, and what Roo seems to be trying to do if not always successfully, is to offer advice where possible and just let her make her own mistakes and hopefully learn from them.Asking Irene for help isn’t a bad idea, she might have some insights.I actually think Maddy did mature but then, for the sake of the plot, she had to slide back again.At the end of last year and the beginning of this, we saw her being a supportive girlfriend to Josh, supporting Roo through her marriage break-up, making an effort with Andy and getting him his job at the gym, and keeping a clear head, working out Roo had been to Peru and probably saving her life.So I really hate that the writers undid all that just to change Josh’s girlfriend.

I think the fact her past has been filled in in such broad strokes has probably stopped people really understanding her and dubbing her “spoilt”.When her mother turned up and manipulated her into coming home, pretending things would be different when she really intended to send her to boarding school, it seems like half the audience saw her as controlling and the other half went “Well, that’s not so bad, what’s Maddy complaining about?”Extrapolating from what we know, I think her parents were inverse snobs, from a poor background but having a daughter who got a scholarship to go to a posh private school.There’s a potential fish out of water background there, we saw how Spencer’s family viewed her, as some sort of gold digger and lower class citizen that they didn’t want their family hanging out with.She may have got a lot of that.Her parents were clearly desperate for her to make something of herself, they viewed Spencer as a distraction and wanted to break up her relationship, they probably saw the idea of a daughter who’s a musical star as a kind of vicarious validation and in the process they destroyed her love of music, turning it from something she enjoyed doing into something her parents forced her to do.Looking at it from that perspective, her resistance to discipline and any attempt to control her or give her boundaries makes perfect sense, she’s been controlled all her life and now she’s been given a bit of freedom she’s determined to hang on to it and push it as far as she can, especially when she first appeared.But that’s just my take on the character and I’m sure others view her differently.

[jodlebirger]

I don't agree with you RR1 about Josh and Maddy. I think it is unfair to blame only Josh for the break up. She was a part of it. I think it is a bad excuse to say it was because Josh wanted to make Maddy look bad, or the writers. Then we can say that they wanted to make Josh look bad too, and making Maddy the victim. I think they both made mistakes.

Maddy also acted like this when she was with Spencer. She has done a lot of rebelling, running away with Spencer and also getting with Josh in the first place were ways of rebelling. But it is interesting that we can see things differently.

But I do agree with you about Roo and Alf's parenting. I don't think they have been too strict to her, but the opposite. But when they have tried to be strict it has seemed a bit out of place. And Roo isn't consequent. She gives Maddy a lesson and then later apologize for it. It isn't strange that Maddy is rebelling even more.

And I also think that both Maddy and Spencer's parents were portrayed inconsistently. First they were rivals (which was more realistic), and then suddenly Maddy's parents was described as people from the lower class. Which didn't exactly fit with what we saw. They were snobs. And so were Spencer's parents.

But still they loved their children, but they didn't quite listen to them.

I also think that especially Maddy's parents was a bit like Roo, first without discipline and then totally out of place gives some kind of punishment for bad behaviour. But it is far from abuse to want their children to get a good education and behave well... And that was all her parents wanted. But their methods lacked understanding. But they still loved her.

Edited November 26, 2014 by jodlebirger