2020 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[H&Alover]

Well hush my mouth!

After Alf doing his stubborn act, he did decide to go and see Martha.  We knew his "her friend needs her more than me"! speech was a load of toffee.  For all he and we knew Martha was waiting for him to ask when she was coming home as he missed her.   

Justin  did offer to get someone in to help Ziggy and there would be no shame in her accepting his offer despite her protests she's coping.  She can only do so much in  a day - though there did used to be days, weeks even when no-one seemed to be working there. May be boring but there is also the H&S factor too. 

Tane seems to have grown up since his arrival, he's gone from the fun guy about town to becoming a responsible adult, though still with that little bit of naughtiness.  Nice to get some sort of contact albeit from the other end of a phone from Gemma, no mention though if she was coming back.  Still bossing her brother-in-laws about though.   I think Tane has made the right decision to quit, he's a resourceful guy, he'll find something.  The working different shifts arrangement is still in place then with Mac's "You're not due in yet" remark.   Is it OK that you just quit like that so Mac will have to rewrite the rota, get someone I to cover Tane's shift? She did realise she had overreacted with Tane the day before, but of course her getting back with Ari may have had something to do with it, hence her apology to Tane and I thought it was sincere.   It's not only gong to be Tane being on his own, it's going to be Ziggy too now Mac and Ari are back together.  Ari did seem impressed with the Farm House, and he listened to Mac's 'argument' for why she said the things she did.  To use a well worn cliché, they are now singing from the same song sheet and he  knows when she tell him she loves him, she will mean it.

Poor Ziggy, where is that hole you need to drop in when you need it.

Can understand Amber's reaction to Dean's suggestion Jai meet Karen, she only remembers the 'old' Karen and all the problems she had and what she put Dean through, she doesn't know the new Karen.   Not suggesting he's left alone with her, but  OK as a family group.  

Leah is kind of busy at the moment and no that didn't look good at the end.

 

 

[Nephlim14]

  On 08/11/2020 at 14:47, H&Alover said:

Can understand Amber's reaction to Dean's suggestion Jai meet Karen, she only remembers the 'old' Karen and all the problems she had and what she put Dean through, she doesn't know the new Karen.   Not suggesting he's left alone with her, but  OK as a family group.  

Expand  

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Her reasoning was understandable, and yet she still came off as being ridiculously bossy. If she's not willing to tell her mom to drop the acrimony, the least she could do is make an effort with Dean's mom. Nobody was suggesting she leave Jai alone with her. They could stay with her and if it looked bad she could pull the kid out.

Speaking of her mother, I dont really get her attitude. From what I recall, Dean got hurt in that crash too. Was he the one driving and caused the crash?

 

 

Edited November 9, 2020 by Dan F
Spoilers

[hapitoby]

  On 08/11/2020 at 15:54, Nephlim14 said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Her reasoning was understandable, and yet she still came off as being ridiculously bossy. If she's not willing to tell her mom to drop the acrimony, the least she could do is make an effort with Dean's mom. Nobody was suggesting she leave Jai alone with her. They could stay with her and if it looked bad she could pull the kid out.

Speaking of her mother, I dont really get her attitude. From what I recall, Dean got hurt in that crash too. Was he the one driving and caused the crash?

 

 

Expand  

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Agreed with this. Amber could at least even meet Karen with just Dean to suss her out first before making a decision.

 

Regarding Amber's mum, I think she just blames Dean and Colby because they were in the car and both survived.

 

 

Edited November 9, 2020 by Dan F
Spoilers

[Homeandawayfan.]

H&A is still not without its flaws but it is head and shoulders above what it was in 2014. It has regained a lot of the original charm and balance, it still has dark stories but is much more watchable. I still dip in and out now and again. May start watching for good again soon. Neighbours now seems to be becoming the more crime driven soap now.

[Dan F]

Another reminder that this thread runs at UK pace with no spoilers to be posted - we've had posts referencing characters who are yet to appear on UK screens.

[Red Ranger 1]

I can kind of see where Amber's coming from too. It's not that long ago that Dean declared he never wanted to have children for similar reasons, he was worried about them being exposed to the same upbringing he had. He did suggest, quite reasonably, that Amber meet Karen without Jai to see how she is now, but Amber, not unreasonably, pointed out that even if Karen is all right most of the time, she could still have a bad day in front of Jai. But again, there's the feeling that Amber opened this box and now has to deal with the consequences: She can't expect Dean to hide his son from Karen for the next forty years or whatever. (And I must admit, I quite liked her brazenly recommending Tane to Ziggy!)

Tane finds himself a new job without even trying: Such is life in Summer Bay. It's good that Justin was honest with Leah straightaway about his symptoms, rather than hiding them for weeks again. It's up to him whether he tells Tori, I guess, but looks like it might not be as easy to hide it as he thought...

[Nephlim14]

  On 09/11/2020 at 19:27, Red Ranger 1 said:

I can kind of see where Amber's coming from too. It's not that long ago that Dean declared he never wanted to have children for similar reasons, he was worried about them being exposed to the same upbringing he had. He did suggest, quite reasonably, that Amber meet Karen without Jai to see how she is now, but Amber, not unreasonably, pointed out that even if Karen is all right most of the time, she could still have a bad day in front of Jai.

Expand  

That is a fair point, but I dont see why they just couldnt agree to watch her just in case. Similar to supervised visits. Or better yet, limit em to phone contact and then move on to supervised visits. Another way could be having one of them drop by her house to see if she's well enough before bringing him. To me it seems like this issue wouldnt be so difficult if Amber would learn to compromise and/or communicate instead of trying to make it her way.

[CaptainHulk]

  On 09/11/2020 at 18:19, Homeandawayfan. said:

H&A is still not without its flaws but it is head and shoulders above what it was in 2014. It has regained a lot of the original charm and balance, it still has dark stories but is much more watchable. I still dip in and out now and again. May start watching for good again soon. Neighbours now seems to be becoming the more crime driven soap now.

Expand  

Well, they do have several residents who have priors (Fraud, Burglary, DUIs, etc)

[H&Alover]

Willow also told Amber Karen wasn't the woman she was when she last knew her.  The least Amber could do would be to visit her and see for herself  and then decide.  But then again we don't know how Karen felt about Amber back in the day. Karen has come a long way and recognises when she is going to have an episode.  Wasn't the main reason why Dean said he didn't want kids was because he was afraid Karen's condition could be heredity? He doesn't seem that concerned about Jai may be affected, he hasn't had any symptoms himself but they could skip a generation.   It seems sad that Jai won't know his other nan.  From the brief glimpse we saw of Amber's mum she doesn't come across as particularly  warm and cuddly.   So sweet Dean working so hard to build Jai's bike.  I did wonder what John was going to ask when he spoke to Amber, but he was just angling for an invite to the party.   Dean had a whinge about the fact Karen never told Dean who his dad was but that was for a good reason - he didn't want anything to do with Dean  and still didn't all those years alter. 

I was glad Justin didn't go all macho and crack on everything was OK and told Leah his symptoms were back which is damn quick, hasn't it only been a couple of weeks?  Are we meant to infer from that he was told they didn't get all of the tumour out?   Best laid schemes of mice and men, did smile at Justin and Christian playing hide and seek from Tori. 

Seems the same in all soaps a local soon gets him/herself another job and close by too so they won't have to travel too far.   From not being especially bothered about working  Tane's suddenly in demand.  Not being sexist, I'm  a woman, and not saying Ziggy couldn't manage it perfectly well, but Tane will come in handy for any heavy lifting.  Why, oh why was everyone assuming Tane and Ziggy were on a date just because they had a couple of drinks together. Toi made the same wild assumption herself about Jasmine and Christian.   

Bit of an awkward conversation between Ziggy and Dean earlier and I'm guessing it's because he knows Tane's rep is why he's bothered about him and Ziggy working together. 

A really, really small quibble but it just niggles me the way Amber carries her handbag with the strap across her body. 

[Red Ranger 1]

Up until that last scene, Amber actually came across quite well here.Every time there was a clash between Dean and Francesca, Amber was on Dean's side.But...yeah. It was probably the wrong approach from Dean going in hard like that and I can kind of see both their points of view.Dean sees it as a double standard that Francesca can see Jai and Karen can't, whereas Amber thinks not wanting Karen in Jai's life is a separate issue.But threatening to stop Dean seeing Jai is getting tired, and she needs to consider the effect it would have on Jai to snatch his father away from him.As for Francesca, she's got a lot of bitterness, some of which is understandable given her son's death, but it sounds as though she looked down on Dean even before that.I'm guessing she doesn't know Colby was involved in the car crash (it's hard to imagine her keeping quiet), which makes her blaming Dean understandable, although not quite clear why she blames Willow, who wasn't even there, unless she thinks that whole crowd led her son astray.I was amused to see her on the receiving end of John being John.

Justin and Leah did a fairly good job of hiding things from Tori, and Leah's babbling attempt to keep her occupied added a bit of humour to an otherwise rather serious situation.So it seems like Leah and Justin do know about Tori telling Christian not to remove any more of the tumour: As with Jasmine's pregnancy test a few months back, it feels like that's something we should have been told before now because it looked like they didn't know the full story.Tori's putting Christian on the spot there: It's understandable that she'd want to know, but she knows he can't discuss a patient with her.

Oh...and what's with this new thing of castmembers popping up just before the credits to tell us when the show's on? Do they think we don't know?