Frazer's the focus of tonight, as he and Rosie go for a drive out to the country to confront his buttoned-mouth folks about his dead brother, but as usual there are plenty of other things going on.
Pepper and Adam are still in the spotlight, and after leaving her place last night after he declined to give further comment about his bandaged hand, he came back to get his jacket. The way Pepper's dressed, you wouldn't know Melbourne in Winter is jacket weather, but whatever his excuse, it works, cos Pepper admits she overreacted a bit, and with Adam saying that he hasn't been in a fight since he was a teenager, they go the fullon pash.
Meanwhile... Steiger's at the General Store, muttering to himself about how he doesn't trust that damn Adam Rhodes character, he's got a bad feeling about this, he's too old for this shit, etc etc. He asks Frazer & Rosie, there for a pre-movie coffee, what they think of this scoundrel. Rosie: "I think he's really nice." Frazer: "Incredible pec definition. What? He does." Steiger: "Shut up Fiona." Steiger asks them to drop in home on their way to the cinemas, just to check everything's alright, which they reluctantly do. Pepper's not too pleased about that however, as she looks up from a long facewrestle to see Rosie peering around the corner. She gets bundled off, Adam & Pepper continue, and in the morning, on the couch, Rosie informs her bestie that the walls in this place are paper thin. "OMG you heard?" "I put on my headphones really quickly. Listened to the midnight quiz on ABC." "And Frazer?" "Bon Jovi." Fkn gold. So without really reconciling anything about Adam, that issue seems to be glossed over, right? Course not fool, cos the next morning, Adam's back to werk at the Scarlett Bar reno's, and grabbing some morning glow brekky at the General Store. Lou, incidentally, asks Adam to stretch out the work, cos business has never been better for their store. Dodgy, dodgy Lou. Adam grabs his drink and hears the familiar strains of Steiger behind him. "Getting to work late are you? Not very responsible." "I'm fine thanks, how's the belly...*turns around to see Steiger in Senior Sarge outfit* Whaa..ha..ha.haa... EXIT, STAGE LEFT!" and flees the scene in a blatant I'm-a-crim display. It's stuff like this, the fact that nobody's mentioned that his new gf's Dad happens to be a cop, that makes you think about Neighbours on several different levels, thinking back to conversations he's heard about Steiger, why he was overseas, etc etc. I dunno, it's well done that this fact was concealed from him somehow, without being at all obvious about it.
Ned's still struggling with parenting meanwhile, all wavy-legged and trembling bottom lip about how to tell Mickey his Mum's done a runner and he's his Dad. You know the best way to do it dickhead? Put him to bed, think he's asleep, and then talk to a shaking-head Janae about it in the next room while he's listening. That'd do it. So Mickey knows, but they don't know he knows, so next day he's very sooky indeed. "Not getting up. Feel sick. Jake's sick too." So he calls a doctor. Bringing attention to Ned's stupidity in these scenes is akin to shooting whales in a very small barrel, but it's such a damn overriding theme that it deserves constant attention. Ned doesn't actually call a doc, but Janae does pop round to the Kinski-Kennedys to ask the nondoc Karl to check out Mickey, a "family friend". Susan eventually susses who Mickey is and why Ned's got him, because she's all-knowing, and against his will, Karl's convinced to drop in and see if the kid's okay. He does the good doc thing, saying Jake looks sick too and needs to go for a long walk, does Mickey know anyone who could take him, and advises Ned to give him a large dose of TLC. Ned nods like he understands. Mickey soon admits that he knows his Mum's not coming back, and is worred that Ned's gonna send him and Jake to a home, but instead he says they're a team that sticks together, and everyone's happy. Except Ned, cos he's shitscared. Oh wells.
Susan's efforts to convince Karl to return to GPing keep escalating as she gets more people onside. In the General Store, Bree asks her how the mission's going, and Suse replies pretty well thanks, he was great with Ringo, you should have seen him... *Karl walks in*... and that's how, despite what you might have heard, there are many practical uses for long division, Bree and Zeke. Brilliant. Karl's got a bonus European watch for excelling sales targets with Davo's drug company, although Susan says it's a ladies watch. Watch for plot updates on this one.
Bree and Zeke were helping the shop with their overwhelming milkshake trade while discussing Lolly, who's gone back up home to her other Dad for a day or 2. (Rachel's also in Adelaide all of a sudden, presumably visiting Katya.) Zeke's obvously pretty hooked on Lolly, and both he and Lou are very happy indeed to see her walk in, saying how boring it was back home, and how glad she is to be back. However, with her amazing power to read people, Bree knows she's bullshitting and has a really nice talk with Lolly later on, just the 2 of them. Lolly wants to move back home. It's home, everything's changed since child-beater Sandy's gone, but she doesn't want to make Lou or Zeke sad. Bree, who looks really pretty in this ep, with bright red bits of hair, says they'll just want her to be happy, so it looks like a pretty soon departure for Lolly. I know a lot of you reading this will be happy wit this, but I think she was good as one of the gang, although she herself won't really be missed. The most important thing is the future of Lou. He has to have something soon, but I've said this before, and the world of blogging dare not stand for redundant repetition.
Finally, the biggest plot I guess was Frazer & Rosie's next day trip up to Muttatang, so the sign said, which is either a national park or a property or a community or something that his parents live in. It's in a rainforest, wherever it is, unusually green and beautiful. Frazer knocks on the door, his Mum answers the door coldly, says his Dad's not there, they shouldn't have come and she has nothing more to say, why won't he stop dragging up the painful past. Again, a lot of teary talking meaning I have little to outline, but eventually, sitting at a table in the rainforestry back yard, she spills the beans about Paul's death. Penny Cook passes around a coupla old photos of the kids as babies and says that it was Christmas Day (which Frazer didn't seem to know, even though we saw that on Paul's gravestone), it was a good day, and in the arvo Johnny, George (pssst, that's Frazer) and Paul were having a nap. She left them sleeping, came back, and only Johnny was still there. They started searching, and eventually found George and Paul in the backyard. 3 year old Frazer was standing by the side of the pool, and Paul was floating in it, dead. They don't know how they got out there, and his Mum didn't say anything abotu Frazer's involvement in it, but... Pretty traumatic stuff, and plenty of tears. But Frazer pushed on. "You think I threw him in the pool, don't you. You always blamed me didn't you. So this is why you always treated me different. I was THREE YEARS OLD! Just say it. Say it. You won't, then I will. YOU NEVER LOVED ME." /episode. It was a bit soap-operay, but pretty moving nonetheless. Poor Fraze, poor Paul, poor Ringo, whose fear of water, even though he wasn't born then, and was perhaps started by his parents not letting him near the pool or something, is now perhaps explained, and poor Frazer's parents, cos that's a tragedy. Yep, poor everyone, but mostly poor James and Susan who are missing some of the funniest K&S action for ages. Ladies watch, heh heh.
Friday 29 June 2007
The Baby Bitter Club
A week spent running behind, this was Wednesday night's show, and a fair few plots crammed in, from the lighthearted look at Steph's council plans, to the devastatingly dramatic baby show.
It was a big one for Ned tonight, as he came to terms with looking after a kiddly. Mickey's awful cute, and from having a dodgy mum who often leaves him in the car when she eats out or goes on dates, he's turned out pretty well behaved, but Ned was still losing his hair in gelled clumps as the kid refused to eat fuit and muesli for brekky, claiming his Mum lets him eat chocolate cereal. "Ya mum's not here" the frustrated Ned reasoned with him, so Mickey walked into the bathroom, closed the door and said "I'm never coming out". Outwitted, Ned called his brain, aka Janae, who hasn't lost her touch in lightening every scene she's in. Much <3. As she arrived at the hotel room, we briefly caught Ned sitting on the bed outside the bathroom trying to entice the fruit-hating Mickey out by singing "...they go pop pop pop/ Once you eat you can't stop stop stop/ If I had every bubble in the world...", possibly the best Oodles & Noodles throwback yet. "Would you come out if someone was singing to you through a toilet door?" she reasoned, and shot Ned the first of tonight's approx 30 "You fucking dimwit" looks. Janae instead got Ned playing cards and betting minibar items in a very loud voice, until Mickey came out to join in. Of course, N&J (I hate it that they've become an officially abbreviated couple, but they really have, even if it hasn't been confirmed by even a kiss or anything yet) still don't know how to tell Mickey that his dropkick Mum's probably not coming back for him, or rather, Janae wants to, but Ned keeps peddling the "Of course she'll be here mate, she promised, didn't she!" *you fucking dimwit* "What was I supposed to say?" *you fucking dimwit* (repeat, ad lib to fade).
Pepper and Adam are another big one tonight, as doubts are raised as to Adam's top bloke ranking. Personally (and I do consider myself an expert in this field) I would top bloke rank him below Oliver at this stage, which doesn't bode well. Oliver's pretty much the cutoff for any hope, as in he's fine, but not particularly top in any fashion, kinda the best of the worst or the worst of the best. Below him you've got, in descending order, Adam, Will, Caleb the drunk driver, Kevin Casey, Father Tom, Dr Darcy Tyler, Davo, Guy Sykes, Terrance the dead shonk, JP, Max and finally the least top bloke ever Boyd. Ned's not eligible in this ranking, more appropriately listed in the Most Annoying Pets column, between Audrey and Springsteen's nits.
Anyway, Steiger (Top 5 bloke) has a bad feeling about Adam, and after not being able to protect her against Mad Mary, is more vigilant than ever in looking after his little girl. He gives Adam the once-over, warns her that Pepp's ("Heidi actually, but she probably doesn't trust you enough to tell you things like that") had a rough trot lately, and if he has any plans to make things hard for her, he should vamoose now. Adam stands up to him politely and asks how the spewing's going. Actually, everyone's asking the malaria-carrying Steiger that at the moment, as he does his wincy glare. So Steiger's not impressed with Pepper's choice of men, and lets her know as much, including his feeling that he might have a violent past. (Not being an Aus citizen, he can't do a police check.) As a result, knowing that Pepper's inviting him over for dinner, since she popped over to the Timminses get wine glasses ("Wine glasses? Moving a bit fast aren't you?"), Steiger and Janelle undertook a stakeout at No. 30, waiting in the loungeroom in the dark, looking out the front window for Pepp & Adam, while Janae kept walking in with stakeout coffee and popcorn. Short story long, the happy daters arrived home, the idiots bundled out the back door, and Pepper, nervously, and Adam, bravado-fueled, shared their first kiss, despite Pepper's insistence that the lights be on cos she chipped a tooth on a first kiss once. (Obviously she didn't stay over Adam's place that time like I thought, unless they implemented a Pretty Woman-themed 'No Kissing' rule.) It was sweet, meaning of course that something was about to go wrong, and it did. Adam's had his hand in a bandage for the episode, and any enquiries about what happened were met with awkward "Oh, just work things, nothing interesting" dismissals. After the first snog, she asked again, he still wouldn't be any more forthcoming with details, so her father's words about a possible violent past ringing in her ears (he was possibly still outside whispering), she demanded he leave. Adam, for his part, took it pretty well, surprised but non-confrontational, and there we left poor ditzy-minded Pepper.
Drama took a backseat for a self-consciously stupid set up, the Erinsborough Beautiful Baby Show, which Janelle and Sky have been priming Kerry for , for weeks, much to Harold's could-do-it-in-his-sleep indignation. It was a light but unremarkable scene, where neither Kerry, nor the late entered by Toadie (without Steph's knowledge) Ugly Charlie, won, and in a twist, it was Harold most upset by this decision, having a go at the judges etc. Righto, a bit of a giggle at a cringey setup that would have perhaps made eyes roll on Home & Away or something else, but there were a few little details that made the scene 50 times better than it had a right to be:
*Toadie being, with Steph, dead against baby contests, until Janelle raised the age-old Timmins-Rebecchi rivalry.
*Janelle & Toadie unconsciously holding hands in support as the winner was about to be announced.
*Harold's outrage that the winner was unworthy. "She was sucking on her foot!"
*The compere for the competition was the long-missed GINO! Owner of Gino's Hair Salon, previous employer of Janelle and Lyn, director of many amateur theatre productions and singing contests, Gino is the campest man in Erinsborough, and apparently also the one with the most extra-curricular endeavours. He was wearing a full tuxedo, typically shit, and I was so happy to see him again. Recurring characters are excellent.
The reason Toad had Charlie with him in the first place was because Steph had an appt of some sort. We found out later it was a photo shoot, her first proactive step in running for council. She's such a nong. She had a professional photo blockmounted of her leaning against a big chopper hog motorbike thing, red lipstick, leather jacket and hair billowing. She looked like a bogan tart, and a really unattractive one at that. After revealing her campaign plan (having a sexy bike photo --> stickin' it to the chumps in council) to Toadie, he's slapped his forehead and told her that people don't want sexy biker mums in council, they want people who can do budgets and plan things... "They want NERDS Steph!" Steph's such a drip, seriously. Anyways, Toad has now become his lady's campaign manager (there goes the possible Lou salvation :( ), and she has to do what he tells her, on the condition that she doesn't pretend to be anything she's not. VOTE 1 STEPH, SHE'S HOPELESS seems to be his only option under those conditions, but looking forward to some zany underhanded scheming in the future.
After all that, there was still plenty of room to devote to the Robinson family, the ongoing feeling-out-the-relationships between Paul, Elle and Gail. Tues night's ep finished with a Paul-Gail pash, but tonight she's pushed him away, cos it's just not on. Gail's torn, cos she still loves the Paul she fell in love with 20 years ago, but not eh Paul he became, but now he's kinda back to that Paul, but for how long, and can she waste her life with him again, and... she's a bit confused. Paul, still manipulative even when he's nice, plans a family picnic for the 3 of them, and as they sit on rugs and throw bread to ducks, it's perfect. Like, really perfect. Elle uses the word 'fantasy', and that's what trigger's Gail to leave. Later on, she tells Paul it was perfect, but it's not real, and she can't stay around again, so Elle drives her to the airport, and Paul cries. The plot wraps up pretty simply here, but there was a lot of sweet and heartfelt talking between Paul and Gail about their history, how their relationship went wrong ("You let me and Izzy walk in on you with another woman!") and how they relate now. Good plot, and I hope Gail comes back. Maybe Gino could even give her another do.
Finally, I'm backtracking a bit to Mickey's plight, because against what everyone thought, his Mum did come back after all, carrying a box of chocolate cereal and everything! You were wrong to misjudge her, weren't you, poor Kirsten. She came back to the hotel earlier than she promised, grabbed Mickey and Jake, and took them down the park for a play. All sorted, Ned doesn't have any family here at all, looks like he can leave the show again. Now let's go down to the General Store for milkshakes... wait, Kirsten... Whaaaat are you doing here? "Oh Ned, what are you doing here?" *awkward* "Ok, look, I've left Mickey sleeping in your hotel room, and there's a letter at reception explaining everything. I've had him for 8 years, now it's your turn. SWOOOOOSH, I'm outta here kthxbye." *you fucking dimwit*
It was a big one for Ned tonight, as he came to terms with looking after a kiddly. Mickey's awful cute, and from having a dodgy mum who often leaves him in the car when she eats out or goes on dates, he's turned out pretty well behaved, but Ned was still losing his hair in gelled clumps as the kid refused to eat fuit and muesli for brekky, claiming his Mum lets him eat chocolate cereal. "Ya mum's not here" the frustrated Ned reasoned with him, so Mickey walked into the bathroom, closed the door and said "I'm never coming out". Outwitted, Ned called his brain, aka Janae, who hasn't lost her touch in lightening every scene she's in. Much <3. As she arrived at the hotel room, we briefly caught Ned sitting on the bed outside the bathroom trying to entice the fruit-hating Mickey out by singing "...they go pop pop pop/ Once you eat you can't stop stop stop/ If I had every bubble in the world...", possibly the best Oodles & Noodles throwback yet. "Would you come out if someone was singing to you through a toilet door?" she reasoned, and shot Ned the first of tonight's approx 30 "You fucking dimwit" looks. Janae instead got Ned playing cards and betting minibar items in a very loud voice, until Mickey came out to join in. Of course, N&J (I hate it that they've become an officially abbreviated couple, but they really have, even if it hasn't been confirmed by even a kiss or anything yet) still don't know how to tell Mickey that his dropkick Mum's probably not coming back for him, or rather, Janae wants to, but Ned keeps peddling the "Of course she'll be here mate, she promised, didn't she!" *you fucking dimwit* "What was I supposed to say?" *you fucking dimwit* (repeat, ad lib to fade).
Pepper and Adam are another big one tonight, as doubts are raised as to Adam's top bloke ranking. Personally (and I do consider myself an expert in this field) I would top bloke rank him below Oliver at this stage, which doesn't bode well. Oliver's pretty much the cutoff for any hope, as in he's fine, but not particularly top in any fashion, kinda the best of the worst or the worst of the best. Below him you've got, in descending order, Adam, Will, Caleb the drunk driver, Kevin Casey, Father Tom, Dr Darcy Tyler, Davo, Guy Sykes, Terrance the dead shonk, JP, Max and finally the least top bloke ever Boyd. Ned's not eligible in this ranking, more appropriately listed in the Most Annoying Pets column, between Audrey and Springsteen's nits.
Anyway, Steiger (Top 5 bloke) has a bad feeling about Adam, and after not being able to protect her against Mad Mary, is more vigilant than ever in looking after his little girl. He gives Adam the once-over, warns her that Pepp's ("Heidi actually, but she probably doesn't trust you enough to tell you things like that") had a rough trot lately, and if he has any plans to make things hard for her, he should vamoose now. Adam stands up to him politely and asks how the spewing's going. Actually, everyone's asking the malaria-carrying Steiger that at the moment, as he does his wincy glare. So Steiger's not impressed with Pepper's choice of men, and lets her know as much, including his feeling that he might have a violent past. (Not being an Aus citizen, he can't do a police check.) As a result, knowing that Pepper's inviting him over for dinner, since she popped over to the Timminses get wine glasses ("Wine glasses? Moving a bit fast aren't you?"), Steiger and Janelle undertook a stakeout at No. 30, waiting in the loungeroom in the dark, looking out the front window for Pepp & Adam, while Janae kept walking in with stakeout coffee and popcorn. Short story long, the happy daters arrived home, the idiots bundled out the back door, and Pepper, nervously, and Adam, bravado-fueled, shared their first kiss, despite Pepper's insistence that the lights be on cos she chipped a tooth on a first kiss once. (Obviously she didn't stay over Adam's place that time like I thought, unless they implemented a Pretty Woman-themed 'No Kissing' rule.) It was sweet, meaning of course that something was about to go wrong, and it did. Adam's had his hand in a bandage for the episode, and any enquiries about what happened were met with awkward "Oh, just work things, nothing interesting" dismissals. After the first snog, she asked again, he still wouldn't be any more forthcoming with details, so her father's words about a possible violent past ringing in her ears (he was possibly still outside whispering), she demanded he leave. Adam, for his part, took it pretty well, surprised but non-confrontational, and there we left poor ditzy-minded Pepper.
Drama took a backseat for a self-consciously stupid set up, the Erinsborough Beautiful Baby Show, which Janelle and Sky have been priming Kerry for , for weeks, much to Harold's could-do-it-in-his-sleep indignation. It was a light but unremarkable scene, where neither Kerry, nor the late entered by Toadie (without Steph's knowledge) Ugly Charlie, won, and in a twist, it was Harold most upset by this decision, having a go at the judges etc. Righto, a bit of a giggle at a cringey setup that would have perhaps made eyes roll on Home & Away or something else, but there were a few little details that made the scene 50 times better than it had a right to be:
*Toadie being, with Steph, dead against baby contests, until Janelle raised the age-old Timmins-Rebecchi rivalry.
*Janelle & Toadie unconsciously holding hands in support as the winner was about to be announced.
*Harold's outrage that the winner was unworthy. "She was sucking on her foot!"
*The compere for the competition was the long-missed GINO! Owner of Gino's Hair Salon, previous employer of Janelle and Lyn, director of many amateur theatre productions and singing contests, Gino is the campest man in Erinsborough, and apparently also the one with the most extra-curricular endeavours. He was wearing a full tuxedo, typically shit, and I was so happy to see him again. Recurring characters are excellent.
The reason Toad had Charlie with him in the first place was because Steph had an appt of some sort. We found out later it was a photo shoot, her first proactive step in running for council. She's such a nong. She had a professional photo blockmounted of her leaning against a big chopper hog motorbike thing, red lipstick, leather jacket and hair billowing. She looked like a bogan tart, and a really unattractive one at that. After revealing her campaign plan (having a sexy bike photo --> stickin' it to the chumps in council) to Toadie, he's slapped his forehead and told her that people don't want sexy biker mums in council, they want people who can do budgets and plan things... "They want NERDS Steph!" Steph's such a drip, seriously. Anyways, Toad has now become his lady's campaign manager (there goes the possible Lou salvation :( ), and she has to do what he tells her, on the condition that she doesn't pretend to be anything she's not. VOTE 1 STEPH, SHE'S HOPELESS seems to be his only option under those conditions, but looking forward to some zany underhanded scheming in the future.
After all that, there was still plenty of room to devote to the Robinson family, the ongoing feeling-out-the-relationships between Paul, Elle and Gail. Tues night's ep finished with a Paul-Gail pash, but tonight she's pushed him away, cos it's just not on. Gail's torn, cos she still loves the Paul she fell in love with 20 years ago, but not eh Paul he became, but now he's kinda back to that Paul, but for how long, and can she waste her life with him again, and... she's a bit confused. Paul, still manipulative even when he's nice, plans a family picnic for the 3 of them, and as they sit on rugs and throw bread to ducks, it's perfect. Like, really perfect. Elle uses the word 'fantasy', and that's what trigger's Gail to leave. Later on, she tells Paul it was perfect, but it's not real, and she can't stay around again, so Elle drives her to the airport, and Paul cries. The plot wraps up pretty simply here, but there was a lot of sweet and heartfelt talking between Paul and Gail about their history, how their relationship went wrong ("You let me and Izzy walk in on you with another woman!") and how they relate now. Good plot, and I hope Gail comes back. Maybe Gino could even give her another do.
Finally, I'm backtracking a bit to Mickey's plight, because against what everyone thought, his Mum did come back after all, carrying a box of chocolate cereal and everything! You were wrong to misjudge her, weren't you, poor Kirsten. She came back to the hotel earlier than she promised, grabbed Mickey and Jake, and took them down the park for a play. All sorted, Ned doesn't have any family here at all, looks like he can leave the show again. Now let's go down to the General Store for milkshakes... wait, Kirsten... Whaaaat are you doing here? "Oh Ned, what are you doing here?" *awkward* "Ok, look, I've left Mickey sleeping in your hotel room, and there's a letter at reception explaining everything. I've had him for 8 years, now it's your turn. SWOOOOOSH, I'm outta here kthxbye." *you fucking dimwit*
Wednesday 27 June 2007
Dazed And Transfused
I might have to start taking notes as I watch Neighbours, cos I have a feeling I miss out all the best stupid lines in these blogbacks. Nonetheless, let's have a quick rip through what happened last night. There was sex and drugs and... near car rolls. Ooh, good one. Except there weren't actually any drugs. I'm just trying to make each day's intro different. I won't any more. Sorry.
Last night we left as Oliver and Elle were pashing in a Lassiter's hotel room, and Ringo was careening like a crazy all outta control n shit. The inevitable happened in both situations. Rooting and a crash. Due to the CHANGE not having happened yet, which I assume will start the introdution of increasingly revealing nudity and sexual content, there was no rut vision, but we know Oliver and Elle did it, cos they were wearing Lassiter's robes afterwards, and looking a bit "Should we have done that?" They arrived at the conclusion that no, they probably shouldn't have, but it was so good who cares, and while we're at self-fooling, why does Carmella have to know about this, we're not doing anything wrong, and it would only hurt her, so let's keep this quiet. It's weird, I quite enjoyed the secret affair part of the show last night, but as soon as I try to remember what Oliver and Elle said to each other it just fades into a grey static. The more we see of Oliver, the less exciting he is. Eventually, thinking Elle's in the room crying over last night's fight with her Dad, Paul and Gail knock on the door to console their poor daughter. A quicksticks change back into civilised garb, and Elle opens the door with a "THANKS FOR COMING TO CONSOLE ME OLIVER, BUT I'LL BE FINE NOW THANKYOU VERY MUCH JUST FRIEND", and Oliver looks at the ground and runs out of there like nothing's up at all. It's funny to see Elle purposefully bad acting, cos it just comes across as a reasonable Ned impression. Paul and Gail aren't as stupid as Ned looks though, and knew exactly what was going on. Gail kinda called them both on it later, Don't hurt my girl/Don't be suckered in by a goodlooking dickhead talks allround, and that was that, it's all still a bit unresolved, as this storyline seems determined to be.
That was the sex. The car roll was courtesy Ringo, who gave us a better look at the Streets Of Erinsborough than anyone, courtesy his 100kph sook. Yesterday Carmella had told him she doesn't think they should be close any more, she fired him, withdrew her friendship, and, in a move she would soon regret, stopped giving him driving lessons. Biggest mistake ever. Ringo , all uted up in Carmella's stolen vehicle, was hooning around corners, making the tyres go SCREEEECH, there was probably some smoke I imagine, and if there had been a single person on the side of any of these streets, they would have been very :-O! But there wasn't, so they weren't. Poor Ringo was feeling like shit and crying, and... oh gees, is that Karl and Susan on the road ahead?! Turn turn turn turn regret regret screech slide bang clunk omg are you alright?!!? In his grief, Ringo had driven straight to the now Timmins owned garage. Karl and Susan had just finished a meal at Grease Monkeys, a place they never eat at, and Karl hated the burger, but the business had just conveniently pledged sponsorship to the school blogzine, so it was very poor luck that it was at the very moment of Ringo's tantrum that Susan feel a partonage obligation. Anyway, he crashed the ute pretty bad, but Karl and Susan were fine, and although Ringo couldn't say "I'm fine! Get off me I'm fine!" enough, he clearly wasn't, clunked against teh steering wheel, bleeding, and apparently doing a fair bit of damage to his legs. Possibly on purpose, as Stage 4 of his older brother hero worship. Karl slipped back into Doctor mode until the ambo arrived, and Ringo asked them not to tell Rachel, although I'm not sure that's really a reasonable request. At the hospital (where he was almost certainly given drugs, justifying my introduction more than it deserves) they said he'd done a bit of damage, lost a bit of blood, got a few scratches, but there's nothing longterm wrong with Ringo, except for being a bit of a doofus. For the record, his blood type's B+, the same as Frazer who immediately rolled up his sleeve and begged someone to bleed him dry for his little bro. Carmella was also there, apologetic about how she treated him, but still sure that her decision was right.
The 20-something gang got there, cos Susan rang Frazer from the crash site, and they all jumped in the Cripmobile and rolled to EH. Previous to this though, and this is where nextday blogging is a must, Frazer and Rosie were having some good attitude-changing talks about his parents and the dead Paul revelation. Details in my memory are sketchy though, all apologies NYers. It was pretty much Frazer being very determined that he was going to his parents' place, and going to confront them about brother Paul, and wasn't going to take "No comment" for an answer. Rosie was determined with him. It was actually a bit piddly, and they had to make do with some of the weakest writing on Neighbours for ages, but it was F&R, so it was great nonetheless.
What I haven't mentioned much is the ongoing and growing hints that Karl's headed back to doctor duty. Along with diagnosing Lou's dingleberries and Kerry's rash the other day, Susan has been pushing everyone to help convince Karl he should be Dr K again. A coupla nights ago Bree said she was having trouble sleeping, and he asked a few questions about her diet, found out she was drinking coke before bed at night, and advised she have a mug of warm milk instead. "Thanks Karl, I'll do that!" as Bree and Susan looked at each otehr smugly and conspiratorially. If I'd been a well-respected GP for 25 years or so, and my wife thought I could be convinced to re-enter the profession because I recommended warm milk over coke for bedtime drinks, I'd feel about as partonised as a human being can. But Karl's an ego man, so laps up the well dones like a thirsty Bob. The ambo officer last night, after he'd treated Ringo at the scene was very impressed with his handywork too, and asked "Are you a doctor?" "No" he said, but with that uncertainty that you know it's gonna change back soon. Which is good, cos this Davo job hasn't worked out well at all, and all the Susan's-me-slut-sister jokes have run their course.
The episode ended with Paul and Gail back at home on the couch at home, talking, getting along really well and generally being a comfortable couple. Paul brings up the possibility of a future together, Gail says she can't, he doesn't know the pain he's caused, she can't just start afresh, she has to go home to Tassie, etc etc, but then the episode ends with a pash. Cool.
Last night we left as Oliver and Elle were pashing in a Lassiter's hotel room, and Ringo was careening like a crazy all outta control n shit. The inevitable happened in both situations. Rooting and a crash. Due to the CHANGE not having happened yet, which I assume will start the introdution of increasingly revealing nudity and sexual content, there was no rut vision, but we know Oliver and Elle did it, cos they were wearing Lassiter's robes afterwards, and looking a bit "Should we have done that?" They arrived at the conclusion that no, they probably shouldn't have, but it was so good who cares, and while we're at self-fooling, why does Carmella have to know about this, we're not doing anything wrong, and it would only hurt her, so let's keep this quiet. It's weird, I quite enjoyed the secret affair part of the show last night, but as soon as I try to remember what Oliver and Elle said to each other it just fades into a grey static. The more we see of Oliver, the less exciting he is. Eventually, thinking Elle's in the room crying over last night's fight with her Dad, Paul and Gail knock on the door to console their poor daughter. A quicksticks change back into civilised garb, and Elle opens the door with a "THANKS FOR COMING TO CONSOLE ME OLIVER, BUT I'LL BE FINE NOW THANKYOU VERY MUCH JUST FRIEND", and Oliver looks at the ground and runs out of there like nothing's up at all. It's funny to see Elle purposefully bad acting, cos it just comes across as a reasonable Ned impression. Paul and Gail aren't as stupid as Ned looks though, and knew exactly what was going on. Gail kinda called them both on it later, Don't hurt my girl/Don't be suckered in by a goodlooking dickhead talks allround, and that was that, it's all still a bit unresolved, as this storyline seems determined to be.
That was the sex. The car roll was courtesy Ringo, who gave us a better look at the Streets Of Erinsborough than anyone, courtesy his 100kph sook. Yesterday Carmella had told him she doesn't think they should be close any more, she fired him, withdrew her friendship, and, in a move she would soon regret, stopped giving him driving lessons. Biggest mistake ever. Ringo , all uted up in Carmella's stolen vehicle, was hooning around corners, making the tyres go SCREEEECH, there was probably some smoke I imagine, and if there had been a single person on the side of any of these streets, they would have been very :-O! But there wasn't, so they weren't. Poor Ringo was feeling like shit and crying, and... oh gees, is that Karl and Susan on the road ahead?! Turn turn turn turn regret regret screech slide bang clunk omg are you alright?!!? In his grief, Ringo had driven straight to the now Timmins owned garage. Karl and Susan had just finished a meal at Grease Monkeys, a place they never eat at, and Karl hated the burger, but the business had just conveniently pledged sponsorship to the school blogzine, so it was very poor luck that it was at the very moment of Ringo's tantrum that Susan feel a partonage obligation. Anyway, he crashed the ute pretty bad, but Karl and Susan were fine, and although Ringo couldn't say "I'm fine! Get off me I'm fine!" enough, he clearly wasn't, clunked against teh steering wheel, bleeding, and apparently doing a fair bit of damage to his legs. Possibly on purpose, as Stage 4 of his older brother hero worship. Karl slipped back into Doctor mode until the ambo arrived, and Ringo asked them not to tell Rachel, although I'm not sure that's really a reasonable request. At the hospital (where he was almost certainly given drugs, justifying my introduction more than it deserves) they said he'd done a bit of damage, lost a bit of blood, got a few scratches, but there's nothing longterm wrong with Ringo, except for being a bit of a doofus. For the record, his blood type's B+, the same as Frazer who immediately rolled up his sleeve and begged someone to bleed him dry for his little bro. Carmella was also there, apologetic about how she treated him, but still sure that her decision was right.
The 20-something gang got there, cos Susan rang Frazer from the crash site, and they all jumped in the Cripmobile and rolled to EH. Previous to this though, and this is where nextday blogging is a must, Frazer and Rosie were having some good attitude-changing talks about his parents and the dead Paul revelation. Details in my memory are sketchy though, all apologies NYers. It was pretty much Frazer being very determined that he was going to his parents' place, and going to confront them about brother Paul, and wasn't going to take "No comment" for an answer. Rosie was determined with him. It was actually a bit piddly, and they had to make do with some of the weakest writing on Neighbours for ages, but it was F&R, so it was great nonetheless.
What I haven't mentioned much is the ongoing and growing hints that Karl's headed back to doctor duty. Along with diagnosing Lou's dingleberries and Kerry's rash the other day, Susan has been pushing everyone to help convince Karl he should be Dr K again. A coupla nights ago Bree said she was having trouble sleeping, and he asked a few questions about her diet, found out she was drinking coke before bed at night, and advised she have a mug of warm milk instead. "Thanks Karl, I'll do that!" as Bree and Susan looked at each otehr smugly and conspiratorially. If I'd been a well-respected GP for 25 years or so, and my wife thought I could be convinced to re-enter the profession because I recommended warm milk over coke for bedtime drinks, I'd feel about as partonised as a human being can. But Karl's an ego man, so laps up the well dones like a thirsty Bob. The ambo officer last night, after he'd treated Ringo at the scene was very impressed with his handywork too, and asked "Are you a doctor?" "No" he said, but with that uncertainty that you know it's gonna change back soon. Which is good, cos this Davo job hasn't worked out well at all, and all the Susan's-me-slut-sister jokes have run their course.
The episode ended with Paul and Gail back at home on the couch at home, talking, getting along really well and generally being a comfortable couple. Paul brings up the possibility of a future together, Gail says she can't, he doesn't know the pain he's caused, she can't just start afresh, she has to go home to Tassie, etc etc, but then the episode ends with a pash. Cool.
Tuesday 26 June 2007
Do The Fight Thing
I got behind in my Neighbours blogging over the weekend, a disgrace of a situation, so this here's a quick catchup on what happened on the first night back this week.
Previously on Neighbours... we'd just left Paul telling Gail how he doesn't think much of Elle in the middle of his welcome home party, and his daughter was listening from behind a counter. Oh noes! What will happen to this fragile father-daughter relationship?
Well, it went to shit, that's what. Elle was found listening when Sky walked in from the backyard party to ask for napkins to wipe up Kerry's puke (would have been funnier if it was Toadie's), which ironically caused a bigger mess as the shit hit the fan. Paul was fairly unapologetic, going on about how Elle had done nothing but lie to him since he came forward in time, Gail tried to do teh Mum in the middle thing, and Elle cracked it bad, ordering him to get out of her house. It was during this tirade that the rest of the party came back inside cos they were out of snags and witnessed the rest of it. Elle ended up storming out, Paul tried to get everyone to stay (everyone being Toad, Steph, Sky, Boyd & the babies - S&K, L&H, Janelle & Steiger all seem to have jumped the back fence), Toadie made some funny smirk faces, and they all left. No, first Paul called Boyd teh Dad of Kerry, they told him it was Dylan, and he responded "Elle's ex? Nice to know we're not the only messed up family in the street", then they left. It was all a bit awkward, because I'm not sure if Boyd and Paul have ever shared a non-family-revenge scene before. I wish teh skegly Fox was there to break teh tension. :( Anyways, everyone left, Gail then laid into Paul, "You're living proof of nature over nurture, putting your little girl last again" etc etc etc. God Gail's hair's bad. She looked pretty great when she came back for the fake trap-for-evil-son wedding, but now... A bit on the mutton-lamb side of things maybe.
Move to out on the street, and Rachel's trying to get Ringo to hold his tongue and say "I was born on a pirate ship". I did it and made a very naughty face when I realised what I'd just said. Rachel & Ringo are still having problems, stemming from the facts that Rachel really is a control freak who's gotten more sharp as time goes on, and Ringo is a bit of a chump, thinking far too much of his role in Carmella's life. They had a Carmella-based fight as Rachel told him to back off a bit, and she has other friends, but Ringo's gonna do whatever it takes to help his pal. Oliver also toppled things a bit when he flaired up at Ringo post-breakup and accused him of having a crush on "a grownup and you're just a little boy." Ooooh! Later on, Rachel caught up with Carmella at the hospital (I think she was there getting help for her pissweak pill addiction - she's taken 2 since stopping.) and had a really nice and mature talk about Ringo - she knows Carmella doesn't mean anything by it, but can she back off Ringo for a bit, not a threat, just a woman-to-woman request. Rachel has always been at leat a decade more mature than Carmella anyway, but this was a really nice moment of mutual understanding between them, and gave me back some further hope that Rachel is being groomed as Jnr Suse in years to come - rational, reasoned, compassionate and allround fkn tops.
Back at the Scarlet Bar there's a bit of action, as Steph continues shouting from about a week ago when they started the almost-forgotten Steph's Gonna Run For Council story. THE FKN COUNCIL SAYS ME FKN SIGN'S TOO FKN BRIGHT - PITY THEY AREN'T HEY! she roars, and Sky backs her in her council-running plans. "Yeah, a biker chick and a working mum, who wouldn't vote for you" Sky weighs in, showing her indepth understanding of the political constituency. Toad and Boyd are against it, Toadie for real reasons, and Boyd cos he's just a stupid fuckwit and hates anything his Dad didn't think of first. Then there's the discovery that despite council ruling against it, someone *everyone looks at Sky* has started a graffiti-style mural for STING-RAY on the wall outside. It's got a movie reel, and a skateboard, and like, looks like graffiti but isn't! But really is. Ooh, time for defiance! Let's leave it up there! In fact, tell your BFF Caleb, the Stinger-heart-drink-driver dude he can finish it! Steph's a bit of an idiot, but she's enthusiastic about it. No more plans on her campaign though, which is disappointing. Can't wait.
Oh, I almost forgot, Oliver had part of the show, which could have been interesting, but wasn't. He had that crack at Ringo, drove to Lassiters and chucked a wobbly in one of the rooms - Elle was called by staff, she called security, and opened the door to find poor ole distraught Ollie standing there, so they had a lovely arvo being sympathetic shoulders to each other. Just like the mud fight they had up at the cabin a few months ago when they first had feelnig for each other, last night there was a tiny mousse fight, a coupla cushions throws, and then a pash. Sweet. I'm pretty indifferent to Oliver, and Carmella not awful, just dull, but Elle's clearly a much better catch on pretty much every level, so good on him. I can't remember how that ended - them just pashing, or talking about it after, or deciding something wasn't a good idea so they better keep something quiet or wait or go ahead with it, I just dunno. The whole Carmella-Oliver-Elle storyline has been really drawn out and pretty boring, so I hope this new pairing up gives us something worth remembering.
Final bit of the show was a throwback to the Carmella-Ringo-Rachel thing, with Carmella taking Rach's advice and out on the street telling Ringo that they should keep their distance for a bit. Admittedly, she did go a little overboard, as she not only said she'd be talking to other friends from now on, and stopped teaching him how to drive, but also fired him from the organic fruit delivery business. Honestly, that does seem like unfair dismissal to me, but I guess she's a small business with less than 100 employees, so she can do whatever the frick she wants. Good subtle anti-Howard messages there, Neighbours writers. I'm with you, let's bring the system down. Ringo, poor fella, actually felt a bit let down with this, so grabbed Carmella's keys, stole the fruit-ute and went screaming off outta the cul de sac, an emotionally torn and heartbroken 17year old on his Ls. Didn't have to wait for the Tomorrow On Neighbours ad to guess that drive wasn't going to end well.
If Bree doesn't get a plot soon I'm going to frown.
Previously on Neighbours... we'd just left Paul telling Gail how he doesn't think much of Elle in the middle of his welcome home party, and his daughter was listening from behind a counter. Oh noes! What will happen to this fragile father-daughter relationship?
Well, it went to shit, that's what. Elle was found listening when Sky walked in from the backyard party to ask for napkins to wipe up Kerry's puke (would have been funnier if it was Toadie's), which ironically caused a bigger mess as the shit hit the fan. Paul was fairly unapologetic, going on about how Elle had done nothing but lie to him since he came forward in time, Gail tried to do teh Mum in the middle thing, and Elle cracked it bad, ordering him to get out of her house. It was during this tirade that the rest of the party came back inside cos they were out of snags and witnessed the rest of it. Elle ended up storming out, Paul tried to get everyone to stay (everyone being Toad, Steph, Sky, Boyd & the babies - S&K, L&H, Janelle & Steiger all seem to have jumped the back fence), Toadie made some funny smirk faces, and they all left. No, first Paul called Boyd teh Dad of Kerry, they told him it was Dylan, and he responded "Elle's ex? Nice to know we're not the only messed up family in the street", then they left. It was all a bit awkward, because I'm not sure if Boyd and Paul have ever shared a non-family-revenge scene before. I wish teh skegly Fox was there to break teh tension. :( Anyways, everyone left, Gail then laid into Paul, "You're living proof of nature over nurture, putting your little girl last again" etc etc etc. God Gail's hair's bad. She looked pretty great when she came back for the fake trap-for-evil-son wedding, but now... A bit on the mutton-lamb side of things maybe.
Move to out on the street, and Rachel's trying to get Ringo to hold his tongue and say "I was born on a pirate ship". I did it and made a very naughty face when I realised what I'd just said. Rachel & Ringo are still having problems, stemming from the facts that Rachel really is a control freak who's gotten more sharp as time goes on, and Ringo is a bit of a chump, thinking far too much of his role in Carmella's life. They had a Carmella-based fight as Rachel told him to back off a bit, and she has other friends, but Ringo's gonna do whatever it takes to help his pal. Oliver also toppled things a bit when he flaired up at Ringo post-breakup and accused him of having a crush on "a grownup and you're just a little boy." Ooooh! Later on, Rachel caught up with Carmella at the hospital (I think she was there getting help for her pissweak pill addiction - she's taken 2 since stopping.) and had a really nice and mature talk about Ringo - she knows Carmella doesn't mean anything by it, but can she back off Ringo for a bit, not a threat, just a woman-to-woman request. Rachel has always been at leat a decade more mature than Carmella anyway, but this was a really nice moment of mutual understanding between them, and gave me back some further hope that Rachel is being groomed as Jnr Suse in years to come - rational, reasoned, compassionate and allround fkn tops.
Back at the Scarlet Bar there's a bit of action, as Steph continues shouting from about a week ago when they started the almost-forgotten Steph's Gonna Run For Council story. THE FKN COUNCIL SAYS ME FKN SIGN'S TOO FKN BRIGHT - PITY THEY AREN'T HEY! she roars, and Sky backs her in her council-running plans. "Yeah, a biker chick and a working mum, who wouldn't vote for you" Sky weighs in, showing her indepth understanding of the political constituency. Toad and Boyd are against it, Toadie for real reasons, and Boyd cos he's just a stupid fuckwit and hates anything his Dad didn't think of first. Then there's the discovery that despite council ruling against it, someone *everyone looks at Sky* has started a graffiti-style mural for STING-RAY on the wall outside. It's got a movie reel, and a skateboard, and like, looks like graffiti but isn't! But really is. Ooh, time for defiance! Let's leave it up there! In fact, tell your BFF Caleb, the Stinger-heart-drink-driver dude he can finish it! Steph's a bit of an idiot, but she's enthusiastic about it. No more plans on her campaign though, which is disappointing. Can't wait.
Oh, I almost forgot, Oliver had part of the show, which could have been interesting, but wasn't. He had that crack at Ringo, drove to Lassiters and chucked a wobbly in one of the rooms - Elle was called by staff, she called security, and opened the door to find poor ole distraught Ollie standing there, so they had a lovely arvo being sympathetic shoulders to each other. Just like the mud fight they had up at the cabin a few months ago when they first had feelnig for each other, last night there was a tiny mousse fight, a coupla cushions throws, and then a pash. Sweet. I'm pretty indifferent to Oliver, and Carmella not awful, just dull, but Elle's clearly a much better catch on pretty much every level, so good on him. I can't remember how that ended - them just pashing, or talking about it after, or deciding something wasn't a good idea so they better keep something quiet or wait or go ahead with it, I just dunno. The whole Carmella-Oliver-Elle storyline has been really drawn out and pretty boring, so I hope this new pairing up gives us something worth remembering.
Final bit of the show was a throwback to the Carmella-Ringo-Rachel thing, with Carmella taking Rach's advice and out on the street telling Ringo that they should keep their distance for a bit. Admittedly, she did go a little overboard, as she not only said she'd be talking to other friends from now on, and stopped teaching him how to drive, but also fired him from the organic fruit delivery business. Honestly, that does seem like unfair dismissal to me, but I guess she's a small business with less than 100 employees, so she can do whatever the frick she wants. Good subtle anti-Howard messages there, Neighbours writers. I'm with you, let's bring the system down. Ringo, poor fella, actually felt a bit let down with this, so grabbed Carmella's keys, stole the fruit-ute and went screaming off outta the cul de sac, an emotionally torn and heartbroken 17year old on his Ls. Didn't have to wait for the Tomorrow On Neighbours ad to guess that drive wasn't going to end well.
If Bree doesn't get a plot soon I'm going to frown.
Monday 25 June 2007
Dude, Where's My Carmella?
Holy smokes, it's 6pm on Monday, just half an hour before the next episode, so I'm blogging pretty close to the line here. Will rush through what happened on Friday's show, with the emphasis on 3 storylines:
*Pepper & Adam having fights, and Adam giving off more signs of being a bit of a jerkface.
*Ringo's patented Rehab Centre
*the best one, Paul's arrival back in Ramsay St.
The first two were fairly dull, so we'll knock them over and get to the bulk of the third one, which involved over half the street.
*Pepper and Adam - so with all the talk of Paul coming home, talk turned to how he treated Pepper while they were gettin it ooorrnnnn, and how Rosie was interested in him at the time. Adam, because he's a bit annoying, was a bit annoying about it, giving Pepp a lot of shit about how she could do that to herself, to her best friend, to the world. It's been a few days, and I don't remember much else from that sideplot, but it looks to be building this week, with the Next Week being about "Has Pepper Picked The Wrong Guys again... Is Adam a killer romantic, or a romantic killer?", which is a bit of a stretch from having too many metro-fashionable tatts and giving your new gf shit about rootin Paul Robinson, so we'll see how that flies.
*Ringo's attempt at getting Carmella off the gear was kinda filler too. He's abducted her to the bush, she's cranky with him, he tells her how much he cares for her, the potential for creepy romance is still left hanging, she pretends to be thankful, pretends to go to sleep, tries to steal the bit he stole out of the engine that makes the car not go, he catches her, she admits she has a problem, chucks the windscreen wiper or whatever into the bush, and thanks him sincerely for looking out for her. Next morning, she cured, and thinking a lot straighter. Thanks for this opportunity to clear my head Ringo, things are making a lot more sense. Now let's go home. Crikeys. If that's the end of Carmella's drug dependency, which has kinda been really subtle since the shonkdoc's arrest, it was a bit of a go-nowhere plot, so I'm guessing it will rear its skinny not-sexy head again. One thing that did come of the bush abduction sleepout was that when Carmella got back, she broke up with Oliver. They're over. To me, that was the start of Oliver's end, and I would expect him to leave in the next few weeks, except for 2 things: a) Alan Napier, the old Barnes family friend who had a heart attack right before he could tell Oliver a dark family secret that could affect his access to the family fortune, is starting to wake up from his Erinsborough Hospital coma but can't talk yet, and b) Oliver was on a Seriously Ten dot-pressing ad for the first time this week, suggesting he's been made a regular cast member. He wouldn't be missed.
*Finally, and I gotta rush because Neighbours is on very soon, was Paul, who pushed Gail and finally got the answers he was after - exactly what he's done to everyone while he was evil, which was only caused, Elle reasons, by his brain tumour. Elle sent out invitations to the whole street to a Welcome Home - Get To Know The Tumourless Humourless Paul, and in one of Neighbour's honestly brilliant interlocking scene exercises, showed each house's reaction to getting the invitation at the same time that Gail explained to him what he'd done to them. Gail: "You robbed their house, framed them, and didn't even stop when Dylan's baby got luekaemia". Paul: *horror and shock* Timmins house: "Fat chance, limpy! Is he joking? etc etc outrage". Buying a gun to shoot Max, then he went mad and left, leaving Lyn at the altar... everything was covered, and I'd suggest there was a shitload of stuff noone except he and Elle know about too. The best part was Paul's real concern "I didn't do anything to hurt Harold, did I? Not Harold." That was sweet. Oops, tonight's episode's starting, I'll continue this later...
*21 hrs pass*
..Sorry, back. So a big bunch of decision-making Neighbours, most of the seniors of the street, get together at teh Timmins house for a group meeting to decide what they should do. Elle's asked all of them to keep quiet about Paul's past, and the general consensus is that idea can get stuffed. It was a pretty big group to have all in one room actually, more than they're able to schedule for some weddings or funerals. Janelle, Steiger, Bree, Karl, Susan, Harold, Lou, Toadie, Steph, Sky, Kerry & Boyd, and half were all "Not on your life sonny" and the other half were all "Let's go check out if he's faking or not". Janelle, who obviously didn't want to go, took over and put it to a group vote, saying they'd either all go or preferably, all not. Her kooky plan backfired as Steiger said he wouldn't miss it for the world, breaking the deadlock, and you could almost hear the "waa-waa-waa-waaaaaaaa" cartoon trumpet noise in the background. So they all trundled awkwardly off to Elle's house - she's greeted them and told them that her mum has told Paul everything anyway, so they don't have to pretend anything, and they've all said "Sif we gonna NEwayz", and then Paul, all nervous in the back room, came out to meet them all. With Elle, Paul and Gail, it was 14 talking Neighbours + Kerry and Ugly Charlie in the room, a bit of a scheduling coup surely. Paulie did the whole "I don't know many of you (only Harold and vaguely Lou) but I'm so ashamed, and his regret at hurting Harold again really touched the right spot, tears in eyes and everything. They all kinda looked at each other, went "C'mon, she's right mate, and hesitantly admitted he's probably telling the truth about the whole brainmelt thing, and we should stick around for the BBQ. Everyone went into the backyard for the very un-Paul snags n sauce, and looked to be a happy end to the episode. But that's just stupid, so Paul and Gail came back in to have a litle tiff about how Paul's treating Elle, i.e. not very well. He says he doesn't remember her, she means nothing to him and she lied to him about his life. Gail, with really really bad hair, what's teh go there, pulls out the "She's your daughter" card and Paul ends the episode with "But I don't love her. I don't even like her!" And guess who's followed them into the house and heard everything? Not Toadie. It's Elle! Corr, she's not gonna like that!
Good episode, mainly to see Paul react to all his horror stories, and get reintroduced to the neighbours.
*Pepper & Adam having fights, and Adam giving off more signs of being a bit of a jerkface.
*Ringo's patented Rehab Centre
*the best one, Paul's arrival back in Ramsay St.
The first two were fairly dull, so we'll knock them over and get to the bulk of the third one, which involved over half the street.
*Pepper and Adam - so with all the talk of Paul coming home, talk turned to how he treated Pepper while they were gettin it ooorrnnnn, and how Rosie was interested in him at the time. Adam, because he's a bit annoying, was a bit annoying about it, giving Pepp a lot of shit about how she could do that to herself, to her best friend, to the world. It's been a few days, and I don't remember much else from that sideplot, but it looks to be building this week, with the Next Week being about "Has Pepper Picked The Wrong Guys again... Is Adam a killer romantic, or a romantic killer?", which is a bit of a stretch from having too many metro-fashionable tatts and giving your new gf shit about rootin Paul Robinson, so we'll see how that flies.
*Ringo's attempt at getting Carmella off the gear was kinda filler too. He's abducted her to the bush, she's cranky with him, he tells her how much he cares for her, the potential for creepy romance is still left hanging, she pretends to be thankful, pretends to go to sleep, tries to steal the bit he stole out of the engine that makes the car not go, he catches her, she admits she has a problem, chucks the windscreen wiper or whatever into the bush, and thanks him sincerely for looking out for her. Next morning, she cured, and thinking a lot straighter. Thanks for this opportunity to clear my head Ringo, things are making a lot more sense. Now let's go home. Crikeys. If that's the end of Carmella's drug dependency, which has kinda been really subtle since the shonkdoc's arrest, it was a bit of a go-nowhere plot, so I'm guessing it will rear its skinny not-sexy head again. One thing that did come of the bush abduction sleepout was that when Carmella got back, she broke up with Oliver. They're over. To me, that was the start of Oliver's end, and I would expect him to leave in the next few weeks, except for 2 things: a) Alan Napier, the old Barnes family friend who had a heart attack right before he could tell Oliver a dark family secret that could affect his access to the family fortune, is starting to wake up from his Erinsborough Hospital coma but can't talk yet, and b) Oliver was on a Seriously Ten dot-pressing ad for the first time this week, suggesting he's been made a regular cast member. He wouldn't be missed.
*Finally, and I gotta rush because Neighbours is on very soon, was Paul, who pushed Gail and finally got the answers he was after - exactly what he's done to everyone while he was evil, which was only caused, Elle reasons, by his brain tumour. Elle sent out invitations to the whole street to a Welcome Home - Get To Know The Tumourless Humourless Paul, and in one of Neighbour's honestly brilliant interlocking scene exercises, showed each house's reaction to getting the invitation at the same time that Gail explained to him what he'd done to them. Gail: "You robbed their house, framed them, and didn't even stop when Dylan's baby got luekaemia". Paul: *horror and shock* Timmins house: "Fat chance, limpy! Is he joking? etc etc outrage". Buying a gun to shoot Max, then he went mad and left, leaving Lyn at the altar... everything was covered, and I'd suggest there was a shitload of stuff noone except he and Elle know about too. The best part was Paul's real concern "I didn't do anything to hurt Harold, did I? Not Harold." That was sweet. Oops, tonight's episode's starting, I'll continue this later...
*21 hrs pass*
..Sorry, back. So a big bunch of decision-making Neighbours, most of the seniors of the street, get together at teh Timmins house for a group meeting to decide what they should do. Elle's asked all of them to keep quiet about Paul's past, and the general consensus is that idea can get stuffed. It was a pretty big group to have all in one room actually, more than they're able to schedule for some weddings or funerals. Janelle, Steiger, Bree, Karl, Susan, Harold, Lou, Toadie, Steph, Sky, Kerry & Boyd, and half were all "Not on your life sonny" and the other half were all "Let's go check out if he's faking or not". Janelle, who obviously didn't want to go, took over and put it to a group vote, saying they'd either all go or preferably, all not. Her kooky plan backfired as Steiger said he wouldn't miss it for the world, breaking the deadlock, and you could almost hear the "waa-waa-waa-waaaaaaaa" cartoon trumpet noise in the background. So they all trundled awkwardly off to Elle's house - she's greeted them and told them that her mum has told Paul everything anyway, so they don't have to pretend anything, and they've all said "Sif we gonna NEwayz", and then Paul, all nervous in the back room, came out to meet them all. With Elle, Paul and Gail, it was 14 talking Neighbours + Kerry and Ugly Charlie in the room, a bit of a scheduling coup surely. Paulie did the whole "I don't know many of you (only Harold and vaguely Lou) but I'm so ashamed, and his regret at hurting Harold again really touched the right spot, tears in eyes and everything. They all kinda looked at each other, went "C'mon, she's right mate, and hesitantly admitted he's probably telling the truth about the whole brainmelt thing, and we should stick around for the BBQ. Everyone went into the backyard for the very un-Paul snags n sauce, and looked to be a happy end to the episode. But that's just stupid, so Paul and Gail came back in to have a litle tiff about how Paul's treating Elle, i.e. not very well. He says he doesn't remember her, she means nothing to him and she lied to him about his life. Gail, with really really bad hair, what's teh go there, pulls out the "She's your daughter" card and Paul ends the episode with "But I don't love her. I don't even like her!" And guess who's followed them into the house and heard everything? Not Toadie. It's Elle! Corr, she's not gonna like that!
Good episode, mainly to see Paul react to all his horror stories, and get reintroduced to the neighbours.
Friday 22 June 2007
Truth Ache
Big Paul episode last night as he continues to be the nice and good-hearted kid he apparently used to be before any of us watched Neighbours, and is determined to find out the truth about everyting's he's done in the meantime. Gail made a quick trip up from Tassie, and had a talk with Elle about how much they should tell him. Gail - everything, Elle - good highlights only. Still, you can't argue with yer mum too long, so Gail headed in to tell Paul what a bastard he's been. Except she couldn't, cos there's Pauly sitting up all sparkly eyed, wanting to kiss her and being all in luv with her, and wearing not a business suit but a pretty horrid quasi-chambray shirt and Gail was all "OMG it's teh old Paul I fell in <3 with", and while she's not yet keen to get it back on, she couldn't tell him all the awfuls he'd pulled and break his heart. Still, Gail and Elle have to learn that just cos you're in a room and someone else, say Paul, is not, cos he's gone for tests, that they can still hear you, and so Paul discovered the fact that Evil hated him so much he tried to kill him. For most people that would be the biggest shock in their history, but Paul's got a hell of a lot more coming, and it will be fun to watch him react to each of them individually. Maybe space it out over a year or so. *doing the dishes next week* Elle: "You poisoned Lassiter's Lake so Dylan's nuts and baby got infected." *stunned look* / *having Harold around for tea in August* Gail: "You got married to an annoying but nice woman and then didn't even consummate it before dumping her." *really?* / *chairing a Make Poverty History (Eden Hills committee) meeting* Chris Steiger: "You blew up a fruit n veg van." *wtf?* Yeah, looking forward to all 3 of those scenarios. Anyways, apart from a couple of slips (nobody in circa 1986 would have used the term "landline" for a phone, surely) he's doing a vey good job of being really ignorant of his past and with the possibility of romance back on with Gail, this is a great storyline.
The Ringo and Carmella storyline went a bit icky last night, but still not in the someone's-crushing-on-someone-inappropriate way. Ringo thinks moley has stolen Karl's drug kit and is an addict, not matter how K's Choice she gets on him, so his genius plan was to go driving out in the bush and fake a break down, then actually pull a plug or somethign out of the engine so they're stuck there. He's a dickhead. "If you can last tonight without the drugs, then you can do tomorrow and the day after that..." I suppose it's sweet of him, in a semi-abduction kinda way, but he's gotta have other plans or unfettered desires for the skinny one too, cos why wouldn't he go to Frazer, Rosie, Pepper or anyone else for help with what he thinks is a problem? We still don't know what Carmella's go with the pill sis, cos she has been taking pills occasionally, but I'm not sure if they're the same dodgy doc ones or what. So we left those 2 in the bush, Ringo's not answering his phone to Rachel, who's cracking it pretty bad at him, and it's not particularly important what happens at this stage. I've quite not-minded Ringo at all with all his school gang adventures, but with Carmella, he can't help but absorb some of her inanity.
Looks like they're hinting back up that Karl should go back into doctoring too, as he's hating this job with Davo, and also doing free consultations to a few close friends. Lou, most notably, who seems to have a nasty rash around the old... "downstairs". "Your feet?" "Higher" "Head?" "Lower" "Stomach?" "Lower" "Knees?" and so forth. The Are You Being Served treatment continued, hinting many times to the fact that Lou's got a problem with the pecker, but never stating as much. Instead, Karl and Lou came into the house, where the kids were all watching tele on the lounge, and asked Susan if the bedroom was free. *HONNNNNK!* They come out a couple of minutes later with Lou doing his trousers up and saying "I can't tell you how relieved I feel!" *KA-DOINGGGG!!* Then he's got his fly undone!!! *naughty slide whistle noise* Oh man, the looks on Zeke, Lolly and Rachel's faces when they thought their fake Dads were both having sex with each other were pretty priceless. Cheesy as all heck, but brilliant. The problem was just the new green-friendly washing powder Harold's using which is also giving Kerry a rash on her arm, and doubling her size - I'm not convinced they haven't upgraded the baby for an older model. So anyways, Karl's liking being a doctor again, and they're all happy having him for free consultations too.
The green washing powder reminded me - kudos for Susan and Harold's conversation about 2 nights ago about how the gardens were diong it tough under the water restrictions, and Harold's going to change over to mostly natives.
Looks like Lolly might be on the way out soon, or at least she's takling about going back to visit at home cos she misses her step brotehr & sister, and now "JonDad" has kicked the shoulderbruiser out, she misses that home. Her "boyfriend" Zeke, who was very very chuffed over his new title, doesn't want her to go obviously, but ahh, she won't really be missed if she does. It's just a question of what they do with Lou, whether they make him good again and stays, or over the hill and leaves, that the big question is. Option 1 is teh best, option 2 the next, and keeping him flat but on the show is the worst. A coupla more dick jokes, and he can stay forever. In his element tonight, I just hope it's not a grand farewell.
And finally, thinking about how much forethought must go into plannign the plots, it's impressive. They've got these police-crime heavy plots (kidnapping, shonky con people), and they've got to get rid of the cop without making it obvious that's what they're doing. that was pretty simple though, just send Steiger overseas, he's still a side character. But for the dodgy doc Charlotte Stone, they had to get rid of their resident Doctor too, and you can't send Karl away for months, so how about we make him give up medicine for a while... That must have been planned for so long, and then to fit all the plots alongside each other, including the Susan/Karl job stuff, Tom, Holly, London, remarried, Springsteen, plus other non-directly plots... I dunno, it's pretty incredible. I wonder what the big book looks like that has all this chronologically planned out in. Anyways, a new episode in 3 hours. Bye.
The Ringo and Carmella storyline went a bit icky last night, but still not in the someone's-crushing-on-someone-inappropriate way. Ringo thinks moley has stolen Karl's drug kit and is an addict, not matter how K's Choice she gets on him, so his genius plan was to go driving out in the bush and fake a break down, then actually pull a plug or somethign out of the engine so they're stuck there. He's a dickhead. "If you can last tonight without the drugs, then you can do tomorrow and the day after that..." I suppose it's sweet of him, in a semi-abduction kinda way, but he's gotta have other plans or unfettered desires for the skinny one too, cos why wouldn't he go to Frazer, Rosie, Pepper or anyone else for help with what he thinks is a problem? We still don't know what Carmella's go with the pill sis, cos she has been taking pills occasionally, but I'm not sure if they're the same dodgy doc ones or what. So we left those 2 in the bush, Ringo's not answering his phone to Rachel, who's cracking it pretty bad at him, and it's not particularly important what happens at this stage. I've quite not-minded Ringo at all with all his school gang adventures, but with Carmella, he can't help but absorb some of her inanity.
Looks like they're hinting back up that Karl should go back into doctoring too, as he's hating this job with Davo, and also doing free consultations to a few close friends. Lou, most notably, who seems to have a nasty rash around the old... "downstairs". "Your feet?" "Higher" "Head?" "Lower" "Stomach?" "Lower" "Knees?" and so forth. The Are You Being Served treatment continued, hinting many times to the fact that Lou's got a problem with the pecker, but never stating as much. Instead, Karl and Lou came into the house, where the kids were all watching tele on the lounge, and asked Susan if the bedroom was free. *HONNNNNK!* They come out a couple of minutes later with Lou doing his trousers up and saying "I can't tell you how relieved I feel!" *KA-DOINGGGG!!* Then he's got his fly undone!!! *naughty slide whistle noise* Oh man, the looks on Zeke, Lolly and Rachel's faces when they thought their fake Dads were both having sex with each other were pretty priceless. Cheesy as all heck, but brilliant. The problem was just the new green-friendly washing powder Harold's using which is also giving Kerry a rash on her arm, and doubling her size - I'm not convinced they haven't upgraded the baby for an older model. So anyways, Karl's liking being a doctor again, and they're all happy having him for free consultations too.
The green washing powder reminded me - kudos for Susan and Harold's conversation about 2 nights ago about how the gardens were diong it tough under the water restrictions, and Harold's going to change over to mostly natives.
Looks like Lolly might be on the way out soon, or at least she's takling about going back to visit at home cos she misses her step brotehr & sister, and now "JonDad" has kicked the shoulderbruiser out, she misses that home. Her "boyfriend" Zeke, who was very very chuffed over his new title, doesn't want her to go obviously, but ahh, she won't really be missed if she does. It's just a question of what they do with Lou, whether they make him good again and stays, or over the hill and leaves, that the big question is. Option 1 is teh best, option 2 the next, and keeping him flat but on the show is the worst. A coupla more dick jokes, and he can stay forever. In his element tonight, I just hope it's not a grand farewell.
And finally, thinking about how much forethought must go into plannign the plots, it's impressive. They've got these police-crime heavy plots (kidnapping, shonky con people), and they've got to get rid of the cop without making it obvious that's what they're doing. that was pretty simple though, just send Steiger overseas, he's still a side character. But for the dodgy doc Charlotte Stone, they had to get rid of their resident Doctor too, and you can't send Karl away for months, so how about we make him give up medicine for a while... That must have been planned for so long, and then to fit all the plots alongside each other, including the Susan/Karl job stuff, Tom, Holly, London, remarried, Springsteen, plus other non-directly plots... I dunno, it's pretty incredible. I wonder what the big book looks like that has all this chronologically planned out in. Anyways, a new episode in 3 hours. Bye.
Thursday 21 June 2007
Sin And Crispy
Neighbours has a pretty good run with excellent episodes, and Tues night's was all action-action-action, meeting new characters, Steiger coppin the malaria etc, but reasonably often there'll be an episode where you get to the end and nothing's changed. Last night's was a bit inconsequential, but still had a completely gold scene, predictably involving Susan & Karl.
UPDATES ON VARIOUS STORYLINES:
*The biggest was undoubtedly Ned's kid Mickey, who's still there and staying for at least "another week" as his mum rang on a private number with no forwarding address to tell him. Man, this bitch bad news. Janae's taken to the kid like Sky to a conman, and she's being great with him, but Ned was pretty standoffish, but he's getting the hang of it. One of Ned's only consistent traits since starting as a distinct non-character has been the way he's good with kids, from being Oscar's over-protective minder, to the glory of Oodles & Noodles, but he's all "I'm this kid's dad but he doesn't know, maybe if I pretend to be barely awake he'll go away", but he hasn't. Mickey in fact pulled out a pearler, telling Janae that Ned acts like a wooden pole when he's around or something, and Mickey's due to discover that that's got nothing to do with him. Anyway, in looking after the little tyke, they've pulled out all the "Won't Ned be a good dad" examples, taking him to the garage and letting him pretend to drive a car, letting him try to box, and eventually Ned giving him tips, and Mickey's dog Jack going missing and Ned finding him, but it's Janae that's the really good one here. In fact, the biggest progress in these scenes is not Mickey's introduction to his Dad, but how much of a couple Janae and Ned are acting like. That's yuck, but looks like something we'll have to get used to. Not happy about it though. Oh, and Mickey';s staying with Ned at Paul's house, but since he's coming home (see below), Elle wants Mickey out. She'll put him up at Lassiter's, but he can't have Jack there. I smell a Timmins take-in.
*Paul spoke to Gail again last night as he answered Elle's phone she'd left behind, and the forgetful pirate was a bit shocked when Gail abused him and slammed the received down. He got Elle to admit that she hadn't been completely upfront with him about his past, and he wants to have a BBQ with all his neighbours when he goes home tomorrow (prob tonight). Elle's being very cagey about telling her Dad he was a real prick, because she wants him to set things right, but it's a bit annoying as a viewer. Her and Paul's relationship was a great Dad-daughter one, with 2 sneaky conniving pricks who could be totally honest with only each other, and at least when she was conning him to sign over everything, it was a great scheme, but this is running a bit long. I just really want to see how Paul fits back in to life now that his dodgy past has disappeared. It looks like Gail might be part of that too, as Paul told Elle he doesn';t care what she has to say, he wants Gail to come up to see him. Paul and Gail had well and truly left the show by the time i started watching, but their reunion last year was pretty good, and Gail coming back full time would be a really positive thing I reckons. Also, it's a real chance for Paul to settle down with one woman preoperly, which would again be an interesting prospect, at least til he gets him in the head with an anvil and reverts back to slimy ole backdoor business Paul. Bringing Paul back a coupla years ago was one of the best casting decisions ever. He's great, whether he's good or evil, and never boring.
*Rachel's continuing her descent into annoying whiny teenager, although last night it wasn't really her fault. Zeke and Lolly, keen for revenge for the pashing internet video, stole Crispy, Rachel's pink pony toy that she can't sleep without, and made a cute ransom video. A little bit of "What? We didn't do it" poker-face later, and Rachel was convinced it was Ringo, so went and abused him. He cracked the shits, saying not everything was about Rachel, and he's really worried about Carmella right now, so shove off. Not sure where I stand on this: Ringo's right in that Rachel's self-obsessed and can be pretty damn irritating with it all, but Ringo's wrong in that his relationship with Carmella, even though nothing's happened and neither of them have expressed a desire to, is fkn downright creepy. Carmella's just an older, less pretty and dumber version of Rachel anyway, so stick with what you got, doofus. Looks like tonight's a climax of that relationship-amp-up, as the ad makes Ringo out to be a... well, that can wait til tomorrow. *suspense*
*Ringo and Carmella were also involved in Karl's minute storyline - he's plum tired cos Davo can't sack him for being married, not that that would worry the Davo we know, but anyway, he's trying to overwork Karl out of the business. Karl's pulling late shifts, getting in at 2am, back out again for breakfast meetings, he's such a go-getter! He's also falling asleep a lot, so asleep int he driveway, he woke up to find his drug kit missing! Shit! Where'd it go? It's not in the (open) boot, not in the back seat, not buried in the garden but really in China, where? OMG!!! Ringo was there to help him look, as Karl traced back his step... let's see Icame out of the house, talked to Carmella for a bit, fell asleep in my car... And at that Ringo's gone "Carmella? Did you put them on the ground when you were tlaking to her?" and freaked that the girl he's having inappropriate adolescent hardons for is back on the pills, after he discovered her last bottle of pills in her purse last week. SuperRingo goes into action, looking for the pills everwhere, under her bed etc etc, which is when Rachel came in and blasted him for something the poor guy hadn't done. Anyways, Karl had just left his drug suitcase on the couch, so there's no drug thief, but Ringo doesn't know that, and we can only see what krazee rehab measures he's gonna try ot dish up.
*I mentioned the gold scene with Karl & Susan - when Karl was asleep on the couch at the start of the episode, and Zeke and Lolly were hatching their Crispy-kidnap plan, Karl's head was right back, facing up, and he was doing a funny little stage-snore, kinda like Big Bird. Zeke quietly put a tissue over his mouth so that when he did the *whistle out* part of teh snore, the tissue blew up in the air. That was pretty awesome. Then Susan came home, had a how's-it-hangin chat with the kids about something, and they left. She then looked at Karl thoughtfully, quietly grabbed a tissue and put it over his mouth. Karl woke up "Wha-who-why you do that for?" and Susan, suppressing a laugh, was all "It was the kids. I'll have a talk to them." Pretty much the best thing on tele all week.
UPDATES ON VARIOUS STORYLINES:
*The biggest was undoubtedly Ned's kid Mickey, who's still there and staying for at least "another week" as his mum rang on a private number with no forwarding address to tell him. Man, this bitch bad news. Janae's taken to the kid like Sky to a conman, and she's being great with him, but Ned was pretty standoffish, but he's getting the hang of it. One of Ned's only consistent traits since starting as a distinct non-character has been the way he's good with kids, from being Oscar's over-protective minder, to the glory of Oodles & Noodles, but he's all "I'm this kid's dad but he doesn't know, maybe if I pretend to be barely awake he'll go away", but he hasn't. Mickey in fact pulled out a pearler, telling Janae that Ned acts like a wooden pole when he's around or something, and Mickey's due to discover that that's got nothing to do with him. Anyway, in looking after the little tyke, they've pulled out all the "Won't Ned be a good dad" examples, taking him to the garage and letting him pretend to drive a car, letting him try to box, and eventually Ned giving him tips, and Mickey's dog Jack going missing and Ned finding him, but it's Janae that's the really good one here. In fact, the biggest progress in these scenes is not Mickey's introduction to his Dad, but how much of a couple Janae and Ned are acting like. That's yuck, but looks like something we'll have to get used to. Not happy about it though. Oh, and Mickey';s staying with Ned at Paul's house, but since he's coming home (see below), Elle wants Mickey out. She'll put him up at Lassiter's, but he can't have Jack there. I smell a Timmins take-in.
*Paul spoke to Gail again last night as he answered Elle's phone she'd left behind, and the forgetful pirate was a bit shocked when Gail abused him and slammed the received down. He got Elle to admit that she hadn't been completely upfront with him about his past, and he wants to have a BBQ with all his neighbours when he goes home tomorrow (prob tonight). Elle's being very cagey about telling her Dad he was a real prick, because she wants him to set things right, but it's a bit annoying as a viewer. Her and Paul's relationship was a great Dad-daughter one, with 2 sneaky conniving pricks who could be totally honest with only each other, and at least when she was conning him to sign over everything, it was a great scheme, but this is running a bit long. I just really want to see how Paul fits back in to life now that his dodgy past has disappeared. It looks like Gail might be part of that too, as Paul told Elle he doesn';t care what she has to say, he wants Gail to come up to see him. Paul and Gail had well and truly left the show by the time i started watching, but their reunion last year was pretty good, and Gail coming back full time would be a really positive thing I reckons. Also, it's a real chance for Paul to settle down with one woman preoperly, which would again be an interesting prospect, at least til he gets him in the head with an anvil and reverts back to slimy ole backdoor business Paul. Bringing Paul back a coupla years ago was one of the best casting decisions ever. He's great, whether he's good or evil, and never boring.
*Rachel's continuing her descent into annoying whiny teenager, although last night it wasn't really her fault. Zeke and Lolly, keen for revenge for the pashing internet video, stole Crispy, Rachel's pink pony toy that she can't sleep without, and made a cute ransom video. A little bit of "What? We didn't do it" poker-face later, and Rachel was convinced it was Ringo, so went and abused him. He cracked the shits, saying not everything was about Rachel, and he's really worried about Carmella right now, so shove off. Not sure where I stand on this: Ringo's right in that Rachel's self-obsessed and can be pretty damn irritating with it all, but Ringo's wrong in that his relationship with Carmella, even though nothing's happened and neither of them have expressed a desire to, is fkn downright creepy. Carmella's just an older, less pretty and dumber version of Rachel anyway, so stick with what you got, doofus. Looks like tonight's a climax of that relationship-amp-up, as the ad makes Ringo out to be a... well, that can wait til tomorrow. *suspense*
*Ringo and Carmella were also involved in Karl's minute storyline - he's plum tired cos Davo can't sack him for being married, not that that would worry the Davo we know, but anyway, he's trying to overwork Karl out of the business. Karl's pulling late shifts, getting in at 2am, back out again for breakfast meetings, he's such a go-getter! He's also falling asleep a lot, so asleep int he driveway, he woke up to find his drug kit missing! Shit! Where'd it go? It's not in the (open) boot, not in the back seat, not buried in the garden but really in China, where? OMG!!! Ringo was there to help him look, as Karl traced back his step... let's see Icame out of the house, talked to Carmella for a bit, fell asleep in my car... And at that Ringo's gone "Carmella? Did you put them on the ground when you were tlaking to her?" and freaked that the girl he's having inappropriate adolescent hardons for is back on the pills, after he discovered her last bottle of pills in her purse last week. SuperRingo goes into action, looking for the pills everwhere, under her bed etc etc, which is when Rachel came in and blasted him for something the poor guy hadn't done. Anyways, Karl had just left his drug suitcase on the couch, so there's no drug thief, but Ringo doesn't know that, and we can only see what krazee rehab measures he's gonna try ot dish up.
*I mentioned the gold scene with Karl & Susan - when Karl was asleep on the couch at the start of the episode, and Zeke and Lolly were hatching their Crispy-kidnap plan, Karl's head was right back, facing up, and he was doing a funny little stage-snore, kinda like Big Bird. Zeke quietly put a tissue over his mouth so that when he did the *whistle out* part of teh snore, the tissue blew up in the air. That was pretty awesome. Then Susan came home, had a how's-it-hangin chat with the kids about something, and they left. She then looked at Karl thoughtfully, quietly grabbed a tissue and put it over his mouth. Karl woke up "Wha-who-why you do that for?" and Susan, suppressing a laugh, was all "It was the kids. I'll have a talk to them." Pretty much the best thing on tele all week.
Wednesday 20 June 2007
Taking The Mickey
With a little over a month to THE CHANGE left, last night was a pretty big indicator of where the "family based" drama might go, with the introduction of a couple of new characters, AND THE RETURN OF ANOTHER!! The Senior Sarge is back! Yep, Steiger arrived back from the Solomons peace-keeping duty (aka time off to give the Pepper-kidnap and Sky-framed-for-murder storylines time to unravel), and he's still such a loveable oaf! Yay! Janelle, Bree and Janae were setting up a welcome home dinner for him, complete with a little model train display and inappropriate comments from Janelle about gettin some action off "The Tiger", when he walked in, and oh my goodness, the relief that this was one minor character off on a little trip who actually did return was palpable. I don't know what it is about Steiger that's turned him from such an ugly prick of a Liliana-stealing martial arts trainer back when he was introduced a few years ago, to an uptight by-the-book hardarse cop during Stu's time in the force, to the disarmingly sweet and daggy father figure we know now, but he's really become one of my favourite people on the whole street. After such a run of excellent quality minor characters in '05 and '06, namely Mishka and Loris, as well as the return of Joe Mangel, I was dreading the non-return of Steiger, maybe to pop back in ocasionally like the much-missed Ange Rebecchi, but he's back, and unless I'm very much mistaken, will be an opening credits fixture in the next makeover, when Boyd's sickening couch hug with Janae will be replaced with Ned's queasy equivalent. Much love for Steiger.
I have this very second received a g-chat from my hott gf who has revealed to me she dreamed about Steiger and Janelle last night. My relationship could not be better right now. I wish I wasn't smiling this much, it's a little bit alarming.
Anyways, Steiger's back but feeling a bit crook, and after spewing before he could eat their welcome home meal, they took him to the hospital where he was diagnosed with MALARIA. Don't get too upset though, it's only a mild case and non-contagious, so it's just a chance for Snr Sgt Allan Steiger's acting ability to shine, maybe get used in his Most Outstanding Actor Logie clip next year. Steiger's great, and anyone who doesn't think so is probably a dirty crim or perp.
But onto the new characters - the one we were expecting was Frazer's mum, Prue Brown. He's gone on about how cold his parents are, and last night we met her - his Dad couldn't come for lunch, just to prove how ultra-cold he must be. His mum's played by Penny Cook, which is a bit of a joy for people like me who loved A Country Practice in the '80s, cos she was Dr Vicky Dean, Wandin Valley vet, wife to Dr Simon Bowen, and daughter of Shirley Gilroy. It sounds like I'm a massive Oz Soap freak or soemthing, but honestly, the only 2 I've ever really watched properly have been ACP when I was in primary school, and Neighbours over the past few years. I mean, I've gone through phases of knowing the characters' names from H&A, Blue Heelers, Rafferty's Rules (that's a paricuarly good one) and Breakers, but nothing like these two. So Penny Cook's followed Matron Sloan/Valda's lead and done the double up, although this time around she looks less like the pretty strong-willed fun vet, and more like a gargoyle with a Beatles bowl cut. Crikeys, she's on the rough end of things, moreso her prim manner and curt tongue than her actual head, of course. She's wearing this lacey top and looked much more like a grandmotehr than a motherly type. And not the cuddly "Here's a dollar" chocolate-bringing grandma, more the scared-to-touch-the-bedspreads-at-her-place one. Lunch didn't go that well, she lived up to Frazer's predictions that she would act as if nothign was wrong, whether it was not acknowledging the fact he's in a wheelchair, asknig why Johnny wasn't in his bridal party, and eventually when Rosie had to bring up the dead brother, essentially said it was none of his business. Frazer was a bit rough on his mum, but you could totz see why, and even Rosie who was trying really hard admitted his mum was a bit of a hardcase. No breakthroughs as to what happened with Paul's death, but Frazer has had a flashback to that Xmas day, (he was 3) - he and Johnny were playing, his mum and dad were happy and cuddlign the baby, but then he feels that he shouldn;t think about it anymore, like this dread that he should avoid. I think we've found the issue! It was all done pretty well, and I'm glad with the "family-based" changes that the Brown/Yeates family is one that's getting some attention.
The other new characters were a bit more of a surprise, both for us and for poor ole Ned, who found out that his girlfriend he took to the Grade 10 formal and hasn't seen for years and years has a kid who's exactly years + years - 9 months old, and guess who the dad is. If you didn't guess Ned, something is wrong with you. Mickey's the kid's name, he's a cute little blondie with a smart mouth, and Bree discovered him out on the street looking inside Steiger's ute. Long story short, Ned was a bit gobsmacked to see whatsherface, although he often looks gobsmacked when he's just talking someone out of doing something stupid, or ordering a sports drink. She spun him the usual, I didn't want you to feel obliged to help me, we've done alright, but now my parents and my grandparents have all died, so I need to grieve, can you look after him, just for a coupla days? Pretty big shock, I would imagine, and now Mickey's staying in Paul & Elle's house for "a few days" with his mum's "special friend" Ned. Janae's busy denying that she likes Ned from all angles, but she was a bit shocked by it all too, as well anybody in the world would be. Ned's ex-gf is certainly a bit flimsy and flighty, and although Ned's "seen the birth certificate and the dates match up", if Kerry, Holly and Bree have taught us anything, it's that paternity of soapie babies can never be assumed, and no idea when mum'll actually be back. I was hoping this whole family focus in regards to Ned would either a)bring Stu back, which was never gonna happen, or b) force him to finally leave for the final time. This is a pretty silly introduction to the Mickey character, but at least it might give Ned a reason to be on the show other than fulfilling their post-Australian-Idol-support-program quota, and teh only other time Ned wasn't pointless was when he was doing Paul's dirty work, so it could work.
Steiger's so awesome.
I have this very second received a g-chat from my hott gf who has revealed to me she dreamed about Steiger and Janelle last night. My relationship could not be better right now. I wish I wasn't smiling this much, it's a little bit alarming.
Anyways, Steiger's back but feeling a bit crook, and after spewing before he could eat their welcome home meal, they took him to the hospital where he was diagnosed with MALARIA. Don't get too upset though, it's only a mild case and non-contagious, so it's just a chance for Snr Sgt Allan Steiger's acting ability to shine, maybe get used in his Most Outstanding Actor Logie clip next year. Steiger's great, and anyone who doesn't think so is probably a dirty crim or perp.
But onto the new characters - the one we were expecting was Frazer's mum, Prue Brown. He's gone on about how cold his parents are, and last night we met her - his Dad couldn't come for lunch, just to prove how ultra-cold he must be. His mum's played by Penny Cook, which is a bit of a joy for people like me who loved A Country Practice in the '80s, cos she was Dr Vicky Dean, Wandin Valley vet, wife to Dr Simon Bowen, and daughter of Shirley Gilroy. It sounds like I'm a massive Oz Soap freak or soemthing, but honestly, the only 2 I've ever really watched properly have been ACP when I was in primary school, and Neighbours over the past few years. I mean, I've gone through phases of knowing the characters' names from H&A, Blue Heelers, Rafferty's Rules (that's a paricuarly good one) and Breakers, but nothing like these two. So Penny Cook's followed Matron Sloan/Valda's lead and done the double up, although this time around she looks less like the pretty strong-willed fun vet, and more like a gargoyle with a Beatles bowl cut. Crikeys, she's on the rough end of things, moreso her prim manner and curt tongue than her actual head, of course. She's wearing this lacey top and looked much more like a grandmotehr than a motherly type. And not the cuddly "Here's a dollar" chocolate-bringing grandma, more the scared-to-touch-the-bedspreads-at-her-place one. Lunch didn't go that well, she lived up to Frazer's predictions that she would act as if nothign was wrong, whether it was not acknowledging the fact he's in a wheelchair, asknig why Johnny wasn't in his bridal party, and eventually when Rosie had to bring up the dead brother, essentially said it was none of his business. Frazer was a bit rough on his mum, but you could totz see why, and even Rosie who was trying really hard admitted his mum was a bit of a hardcase. No breakthroughs as to what happened with Paul's death, but Frazer has had a flashback to that Xmas day, (he was 3) - he and Johnny were playing, his mum and dad were happy and cuddlign the baby, but then he feels that he shouldn;t think about it anymore, like this dread that he should avoid. I think we've found the issue! It was all done pretty well, and I'm glad with the "family-based" changes that the Brown/Yeates family is one that's getting some attention.
The other new characters were a bit more of a surprise, both for us and for poor ole Ned, who found out that his girlfriend he took to the Grade 10 formal and hasn't seen for years and years has a kid who's exactly years + years - 9 months old, and guess who the dad is. If you didn't guess Ned, something is wrong with you. Mickey's the kid's name, he's a cute little blondie with a smart mouth, and Bree discovered him out on the street looking inside Steiger's ute. Long story short, Ned was a bit gobsmacked to see whatsherface, although he often looks gobsmacked when he's just talking someone out of doing something stupid, or ordering a sports drink. She spun him the usual, I didn't want you to feel obliged to help me, we've done alright, but now my parents and my grandparents have all died, so I need to grieve, can you look after him, just for a coupla days? Pretty big shock, I would imagine, and now Mickey's staying in Paul & Elle's house for "a few days" with his mum's "special friend" Ned. Janae's busy denying that she likes Ned from all angles, but she was a bit shocked by it all too, as well anybody in the world would be. Ned's ex-gf is certainly a bit flimsy and flighty, and although Ned's "seen the birth certificate and the dates match up", if Kerry, Holly and Bree have taught us anything, it's that paternity of soapie babies can never be assumed, and no idea when mum'll actually be back. I was hoping this whole family focus in regards to Ned would either a)bring Stu back, which was never gonna happen, or b) force him to finally leave for the final time. This is a pretty silly introduction to the Mickey character, but at least it might give Ned a reason to be on the show other than fulfilling their post-Australian-Idol-support-program quota, and teh only other time Ned wasn't pointless was when he was doing Paul's dirty work, so it could work.
Steiger's so awesome.
Tuesday 19 June 2007
Adam's Glib
Oh ho ho, that's a terrible pun title, and not particularly even that relevant, but well done! Tres fromagey indeed! So new recruit Adam was obviously focussed last night, in that it was his and Pepper's first date. He's a pretty top bloke so far, all up front and honest and not in a BB-'I call a spade a spade' way, more just tells Pepper to settle down when he wants to, and doesn't pretend to be anything he's not. On the other hand, he seems pretty slimey, and I don't care how buffed his labourer tattooed arms are, he really should put on a shirt sometimes like a normal person. I think though that the negative parts are just due to the actor and wardrobe, and in all tests of his character so far, he's come up shining.
The date was to "some place special", so Pepp dressed up all purty and was very "Tell me where we're going, tell me tell me tell me" and eventually he relented, as he announced they were going to his place. Oo-er! But nothing untoward, he was just cooking a BBQ (chops and 3 veg) and serving wine (in promo jamjar glasses, possibly Spongebob), and his backyard was one of those very spare-tyres-and-bike-parts-everywhere deals, and there was even a special camera montage of different houses in suburbia to kind of show us where he lived, but I have no idea where, it's just not in Ramsay St, and possibly not even in Erinsborough! That was exciting, I just wish I knew more about where he was! So dinner was very simple and not at all flash, and dessert was ice cream with no-name topping, and, if I got this right, Pepper didn't get home til the next day, but that wasn't really made clear, so more on that to come I would suspect. Either way, she rang Rosie the next morning to say it was "The best date ever", so hooray.
Now, the reason Pepper had to ring Rosie instead of just sitting on the couch, playing with her hair and nattering on was that Rosie had gone after Frazer, who you will remember, pissed off at the end of Friday's show to sort out his paraplegic problems. Rosie didn't like that though, so she decided to follow her man, who had left no clues at all to where he was going. And she did it. How? The old early '90s trick of pressing "Redial" on the home phone, which reached the Royal Pines or some out of town resort. Excellent work Rosie. Dunno why Frazer wouldn't have used his mobile to book the room, but maybe he was near the end of his cap or something. It's a neat little trick from Rosie anyway, and after Toadie's impressive detective work chasing down details about Terrance, further evidence that Tim Collins Lawyers is going to change into Tim Collins Private Investigators, and fill the Seriously Ten gap that Veronaica Mars has left. Nifty work.
Pepp tried to talk her out of going, sayign Frazer just needs some time to himself, but ol Meditteranean-when-it-suits Rosie was hotheaded about it, and screamed off in the car to find him. She found him, he said "Hello but no thanks", she said "How long?", he said "Dunno", she said "Well don't expect me to wait" and handed the wedding ring back to him. What the frick? That's crazy, don't go Rosie, you're the best couple ever, don't do it!!! But she did, and walked off (just to rub it in), and cried in the car, and then drove off! Oh noes! But wait, what's that? Why, it's Frazer, hooning at 100mph in his wheelchair, "ROSIIEEEEE! WAAAAAAIIIT!!!" and just before she'd left the car park, he'd caught her, wheels sparking and his hands surely bleeding, he gave the ring back, and asked her to stay. YESS! They've done the mini 1-ad-break break-up with Rosie and Frazer 20 times before, and they'll do it a billion times more until they're K&S's age and K&S are H&L's age, because they can, and you want them to be together more than anything, cos they're just so great, so I can handle it. If this one-again-off-again shit was with anyone else, it'd feel more manipulative, or no, just more tedious and annoying, but with these guys it's like you can watch them get together over and over again, ahhhh.
So Rosie's staying at this Pines place with Frazer, and they're having a talk about it all, trying to work out why his legs are all *flump* instead of all *tippety-tap*, and running through what it might be. First up was Pepp's theory that he might be afraid of losing Rosie if he can walk again, cos they only got together straight after the accident, but he's all "Yeah good one lolz" at that, so count that out. Then Rosie's "What about your childhood" and he's "Mmm, nah, most uneventful childhood ever", and then they kinda don't know what it is, well this bush resort didn't do any good, let's hit the road back home. I forgot at this stage that Frazer's got a car fitted out for Norman Nolegs, and can brake, accelerate etc with his hands, so that's pretty rad, like playing Simpsons Hit And Run but for real. But halfway home he pulled up, Rosie behind him, and said that he thinks just down the road is the cemetary his grandparents are buried in, and he hasn't been here since their funeral when he was a kid. They stopped in, had a lovely conversation remembering about grandparents while they were strolling around looking for the graves, and finally found them. Frazer was saying it was just like his parents that they'd never come back here since they were buried, and Rosie said "Oh well, someone's been here recently" and picked up some flowers off an attached grave. And there's the big twist:
Here Lies
PAUL BROWN
Beloved son of Graham and Prudence
BORN 7 November 1984
DIED 25 December 1985 (13 months)
"I've got a dead brother, and I never knew he existed."
Wow, bit of a shock right there for sure. I'm pretty proud I remembered all that too (although I did go back after and pause the screen to soak up all the details). So let's look at this in more detail.
First of all, best of all, and the reason I went back to double check the grave, is that the fourth Brown boy known to us, after John (Johnny), George (Frazer) and Ringo, is Paul. I would have been nigh on devastated if they'd let the Beatles thing slip there. Second of all, this raises the question as to how old Frazer is. If you were having 4 boys named after the Beatles, surely you'd go for the classic order: John, Paul, George and the drummer, and true to this, Johnny is Frazer's older brother, Ringo his younger one, but if George (Frazer) was born after Paul, that would make him younger than 22. Yeah, no way there. I would have said Frazer's around the 27 mark, and oh yeah, just recently he said he was counting cards with "Dr" Charlotte Stone over 7 years ago, so he's at least 25. Which means he was young, but probably 3 or 4 by the time Paul was born. So why doesn't he remember it? Then there's the date of death, 25 December. Was there some tragic Xmas accident, a new pool, a new bike, a new toy, soemthing that killed Paul, and was Frazer involved somehow? Is that why he doesn't remember - he's blocked it out, his parents never spoke to him about it, and it might explain why they don't get along, and could even be the cause of his psychosomatic no-walking... Man, I know I'm getting ahead of myself here, and I don't normally like projecting too far what plots could happen, cos it's more fun to just let the writers do what they do best and surprise, but this gravestone raises so many questions. I really wanna re-meet the whole Brown family now. Mark this one down as a potentially really interesting storyline.
In other matters, in an apparent satirical look at local council's inefficiency in the wake of Qld's Amalgamation issues, Steph has cracked the shits about the council for beingso damn beaurocratic. They won't let her do the Stinger tribute mural on the side of the soon-to-be refurbished Scarlet Bar, because it contravenes several neighbourhood aesthetic rules, and the graffiti nature of some of the design would attract further vandalism. Also, she has to pay to test if her new neon signs are too bright. LIKE HELL I DO roared Steph in her ockerest accent, and after a few unsuccessful attempts to get the decisoins overturned, she's done what any firey idiot would do in that situation and is gonna run for council herself. I'm not sure when the next elections are, but you'll have to assume they'll be conveniently soon. It would be more realistic for some hotheaded small business owner to rage and scream how the system doesn't work and they're going to run for council and fix everything, and then discover the elections are 2 years away and completely forget about it by then, but Steph's sure to have a campaign to run soon, and to be honest, it could be an excellent plot for her. Toadie's against it, cos he thinks she's too hotheaded "...and honest" to be a councillor, and he's right, but I hope she has a decent crack at it. I also hope Lou gets in her camp, being, I think, a former Erinsborough Mayor, if memory serves, and local politics could be just the right campaign to get his devious schemey side back up and active. Fingers crossed.
Finally, there was some shit with Caleb, the heart receiptient, but I'm finding this pretty boring. We found out he was drink driving when he had his car accident, not his first time, he's got real problems with alcohol, and killed his best mate, so now his friends and family want nothing to do with him, but Sky's not like that, are you Sky? "No, I'm not" she realises, even though Sky Mangel, original character would have been exactly like that, only more so, and wouldn't have taken pity on a serial drink driver. But oh, he's got Stinger's heart now, so la-di-da-da. I can't remember what else with these 2, they hung out, Boyd tried to talk to her, my attention was distracted by dinner cooking, and I stopped listening. Ixnay on the Alebcay please.
Cheers.
The date was to "some place special", so Pepp dressed up all purty and was very "Tell me where we're going, tell me tell me tell me" and eventually he relented, as he announced they were going to his place. Oo-er! But nothing untoward, he was just cooking a BBQ (chops and 3 veg) and serving wine (in promo jamjar glasses, possibly Spongebob), and his backyard was one of those very spare-tyres-and-bike-parts-everywhere deals, and there was even a special camera montage of different houses in suburbia to kind of show us where he lived, but I have no idea where, it's just not in Ramsay St, and possibly not even in Erinsborough! That was exciting, I just wish I knew more about where he was! So dinner was very simple and not at all flash, and dessert was ice cream with no-name topping, and, if I got this right, Pepper didn't get home til the next day, but that wasn't really made clear, so more on that to come I would suspect. Either way, she rang Rosie the next morning to say it was "The best date ever", so hooray.
Now, the reason Pepper had to ring Rosie instead of just sitting on the couch, playing with her hair and nattering on was that Rosie had gone after Frazer, who you will remember, pissed off at the end of Friday's show to sort out his paraplegic problems. Rosie didn't like that though, so she decided to follow her man, who had left no clues at all to where he was going. And she did it. How? The old early '90s trick of pressing "Redial" on the home phone, which reached the Royal Pines or some out of town resort. Excellent work Rosie. Dunno why Frazer wouldn't have used his mobile to book the room, but maybe he was near the end of his cap or something. It's a neat little trick from Rosie anyway, and after Toadie's impressive detective work chasing down details about Terrance, further evidence that Tim Collins Lawyers is going to change into Tim Collins Private Investigators, and fill the Seriously Ten gap that Veronaica Mars has left. Nifty work.
Pepp tried to talk her out of going, sayign Frazer just needs some time to himself, but ol Meditteranean-when-it-suits Rosie was hotheaded about it, and screamed off in the car to find him. She found him, he said "Hello but no thanks", she said "How long?", he said "Dunno", she said "Well don't expect me to wait" and handed the wedding ring back to him. What the frick? That's crazy, don't go Rosie, you're the best couple ever, don't do it!!! But she did, and walked off (just to rub it in), and cried in the car, and then drove off! Oh noes! But wait, what's that? Why, it's Frazer, hooning at 100mph in his wheelchair, "ROSIIEEEEE! WAAAAAAIIIT!!!" and just before she'd left the car park, he'd caught her, wheels sparking and his hands surely bleeding, he gave the ring back, and asked her to stay. YESS! They've done the mini 1-ad-break break-up with Rosie and Frazer 20 times before, and they'll do it a billion times more until they're K&S's age and K&S are H&L's age, because they can, and you want them to be together more than anything, cos they're just so great, so I can handle it. If this one-again-off-again shit was with anyone else, it'd feel more manipulative, or no, just more tedious and annoying, but with these guys it's like you can watch them get together over and over again, ahhhh.
So Rosie's staying at this Pines place with Frazer, and they're having a talk about it all, trying to work out why his legs are all *flump* instead of all *tippety-tap*, and running through what it might be. First up was Pepp's theory that he might be afraid of losing Rosie if he can walk again, cos they only got together straight after the accident, but he's all "Yeah good one lolz" at that, so count that out. Then Rosie's "What about your childhood" and he's "Mmm, nah, most uneventful childhood ever", and then they kinda don't know what it is, well this bush resort didn't do any good, let's hit the road back home. I forgot at this stage that Frazer's got a car fitted out for Norman Nolegs, and can brake, accelerate etc with his hands, so that's pretty rad, like playing Simpsons Hit And Run but for real. But halfway home he pulled up, Rosie behind him, and said that he thinks just down the road is the cemetary his grandparents are buried in, and he hasn't been here since their funeral when he was a kid. They stopped in, had a lovely conversation remembering about grandparents while they were strolling around looking for the graves, and finally found them. Frazer was saying it was just like his parents that they'd never come back here since they were buried, and Rosie said "Oh well, someone's been here recently" and picked up some flowers off an attached grave. And there's the big twist:
Here Lies
PAUL BROWN
Beloved son of Graham and Prudence
BORN 7 November 1984
DIED 25 December 1985 (13 months)
"I've got a dead brother, and I never knew he existed."
Wow, bit of a shock right there for sure. I'm pretty proud I remembered all that too (although I did go back after and pause the screen to soak up all the details). So let's look at this in more detail.
First of all, best of all, and the reason I went back to double check the grave, is that the fourth Brown boy known to us, after John (Johnny), George (Frazer) and Ringo, is Paul. I would have been nigh on devastated if they'd let the Beatles thing slip there. Second of all, this raises the question as to how old Frazer is. If you were having 4 boys named after the Beatles, surely you'd go for the classic order: John, Paul, George and the drummer, and true to this, Johnny is Frazer's older brother, Ringo his younger one, but if George (Frazer) was born after Paul, that would make him younger than 22. Yeah, no way there. I would have said Frazer's around the 27 mark, and oh yeah, just recently he said he was counting cards with "Dr" Charlotte Stone over 7 years ago, so he's at least 25. Which means he was young, but probably 3 or 4 by the time Paul was born. So why doesn't he remember it? Then there's the date of death, 25 December. Was there some tragic Xmas accident, a new pool, a new bike, a new toy, soemthing that killed Paul, and was Frazer involved somehow? Is that why he doesn't remember - he's blocked it out, his parents never spoke to him about it, and it might explain why they don't get along, and could even be the cause of his psychosomatic no-walking... Man, I know I'm getting ahead of myself here, and I don't normally like projecting too far what plots could happen, cos it's more fun to just let the writers do what they do best and surprise, but this gravestone raises so many questions. I really wanna re-meet the whole Brown family now. Mark this one down as a potentially really interesting storyline.
In other matters, in an apparent satirical look at local council's inefficiency in the wake of Qld's Amalgamation issues, Steph has cracked the shits about the council for beingso damn beaurocratic. They won't let her do the Stinger tribute mural on the side of the soon-to-be refurbished Scarlet Bar, because it contravenes several neighbourhood aesthetic rules, and the graffiti nature of some of the design would attract further vandalism. Also, she has to pay to test if her new neon signs are too bright. LIKE HELL I DO roared Steph in her ockerest accent, and after a few unsuccessful attempts to get the decisoins overturned, she's done what any firey idiot would do in that situation and is gonna run for council herself. I'm not sure when the next elections are, but you'll have to assume they'll be conveniently soon. It would be more realistic for some hotheaded small business owner to rage and scream how the system doesn't work and they're going to run for council and fix everything, and then discover the elections are 2 years away and completely forget about it by then, but Steph's sure to have a campaign to run soon, and to be honest, it could be an excellent plot for her. Toadie's against it, cos he thinks she's too hotheaded "...and honest" to be a councillor, and he's right, but I hope she has a decent crack at it. I also hope Lou gets in her camp, being, I think, a former Erinsborough Mayor, if memory serves, and local politics could be just the right campaign to get his devious schemey side back up and active. Fingers crossed.
Finally, there was some shit with Caleb, the heart receiptient, but I'm finding this pretty boring. We found out he was drink driving when he had his car accident, not his first time, he's got real problems with alcohol, and killed his best mate, so now his friends and family want nothing to do with him, but Sky's not like that, are you Sky? "No, I'm not" she realises, even though Sky Mangel, original character would have been exactly like that, only more so, and wouldn't have taken pity on a serial drink driver. But oh, he's got Stinger's heart now, so la-di-da-da. I can't remember what else with these 2, they hung out, Boyd tried to talk to her, my attention was distracted by dinner cooking, and I stopped listening. Ixnay on the Alebcay please.
Cheers.
Monday 18 June 2007
Vomitatious
Hey guys, sorry about the late entry about Friday's show, and it's only gonna be a small one too, because I've had very little sleep and I'm grumpy, so cop that.
Friday's episode was Vomitatious, because that's the word the primary school level mature Pepper used to describe the clearly hot for it Adam. In a very "How you doing?" scene, Pepper and Rosie were chillaxing in the backyard in bikinis, and Adam pops up wondering if he can plug his extension cord in at their place. Very Benny Hill wink wink know what I mean? It must be said here that I'm no reader of Zoo Magazine, or Ralph, and chicks in bikinis, while not the grossest thing in the world unless it's Emma on BB, is not usually the huge turn on for me that meathead advertisers generally feel it is. However, the double team of Pepper, and specifically Rosie, lounging in the backyard, was just plain hotttt. Anyways, this "I don't like him shut up do not takes one to know one" shit continues for a little while until thankfully Rosie tells her to STFUPS and Papper and Adam agree to have a drink because there's clearly something between them. Thanks fuck. Pepper's awesome and lovely and very very funny, but much more of that Grade 3 shit and I was gonna start cringing, and once that starts, it's hard to stop. Just becomes a natural Pavlovian reaction to that character's appearance on screen. Like yelling "FUCK OFF CUNT!" each time Boyd breathes. What a fuckhead.
As an aside, Voodoo Child is on the radio right now, and I'd forgotten what an awesome all-time brilliant song this is. As much great work Kylie's done, and as good as Torn was, this is easily the best musical result of Neighbours' long history. Oodles & Noodles "Do The Hop" second.
Now, back to important matters at hand, an important part of Pepper's shitstirring with Adam was Rosie going on about how gorgeous he wa and just being a bit of a tard, but Frazer overheard her calling him a perfect Englishman etc, and presumably because he can't walk, he got a bit hurt and trundled off. That was a bit sad, cos Frazer's the best dude ever, and Rosie felt bad and made him his favourite meal for dinner (can't remember what - Oh I think it might be Thai, cos that's what Pepper made him ages ago and he cracked the shits at her cos someone had just died - maybe Camrob?) but he's gone. Frazer's done the whole "I'm off B back when I'm better n can walk n shit kthxbye" so we don't know where, how long or antyhing, but he's done a runner, pardon the awful discriminatory term there any handicaps having this read to you.
Getting pretty tired, so I can't really remember what else happened - oh yeah someone called THORN has stolen Steph's high score on teh SEGA motorbike game, and it's not Toadie, cos he';s shit at it, but Boyd (CUNT!) seems to be pretty good on the ole motortreadly, so Steph thinks it might be him. It's not really interesting at all, unless it turns out it's Little Britain Andy who's THORN, cos that would be something. I'm sure there were bigger plot developments, but buggered if I can remember.
Oh no wait, the big plot was with Caleb in the hospital, the dude with Stinger's heart. Sky, Bree and Boyd went back to hang with the pal, and he's a funky dude, does graf art and everythinks! He's about to get out of hospital but he and Sky are gonna keep hangin, and it's obvious there's some connection there, and sh even asked him to do some wicked graffiti on the mural she's gonna paint in Stinger's honour. Gnarley! The little cool crew of Sky, Boyd and Bree is nausiating, and Bree shoulc stop calling wacknut 'Soul Sister' and start saying goodbye. If Boyd and Sky survive the next round of cast cuts, the world is crazy.
The one upshot was that they took the piss out of each of them a little in a nice discussion, where Boyd uncharacteristically had some character insight into someone other than his Dad ("Always right"), and remarked that Sky's burgeoning friendship with Caleb was "her latest lame duck" she could take care of. She fired back that he's always gotta be the "knight in shining armour" which was a nice little rebuttal from Sky. Of course these well-scripted insights turned into shit as Sky and Boyd had a playfight shouting "Lame duck!" and "Shining armour" at each other, and felt forced, like the final coupla month of Stinger & Sky's antics (that cross dressing Euro artist schtick was more painful than Katya & Ned's Backstreet Boys scheme), and just showed that Boyd shouldn't try to be a real person.
There was probably some further fallout over Davo too, but I don't remember what. Sorry guys, hanging up the descripting gloves for one day, I'm buggered, and it's just too easy to rant about who's shit, when normally I pretend to justify how each and every separate criticism of Ned is individually warranted.
Cheerio, love you all.
Friday's episode was Vomitatious, because that's the word the primary school level mature Pepper used to describe the clearly hot for it Adam. In a very "How you doing?" scene, Pepper and Rosie were chillaxing in the backyard in bikinis, and Adam pops up wondering if he can plug his extension cord in at their place. Very Benny Hill wink wink know what I mean? It must be said here that I'm no reader of Zoo Magazine, or Ralph, and chicks in bikinis, while not the grossest thing in the world unless it's Emma on BB, is not usually the huge turn on for me that meathead advertisers generally feel it is. However, the double team of Pepper, and specifically Rosie, lounging in the backyard, was just plain hotttt. Anyways, this "I don't like him shut up do not takes one to know one" shit continues for a little while until thankfully Rosie tells her to STFUPS and Papper and Adam agree to have a drink because there's clearly something between them. Thanks fuck. Pepper's awesome and lovely and very very funny, but much more of that Grade 3 shit and I was gonna start cringing, and once that starts, it's hard to stop. Just becomes a natural Pavlovian reaction to that character's appearance on screen. Like yelling "FUCK OFF CUNT!" each time Boyd breathes. What a fuckhead.
As an aside, Voodoo Child is on the radio right now, and I'd forgotten what an awesome all-time brilliant song this is. As much great work Kylie's done, and as good as Torn was, this is easily the best musical result of Neighbours' long history. Oodles & Noodles "Do The Hop" second.
Now, back to important matters at hand, an important part of Pepper's shitstirring with Adam was Rosie going on about how gorgeous he wa and just being a bit of a tard, but Frazer overheard her calling him a perfect Englishman etc, and presumably because he can't walk, he got a bit hurt and trundled off. That was a bit sad, cos Frazer's the best dude ever, and Rosie felt bad and made him his favourite meal for dinner (can't remember what - Oh I think it might be Thai, cos that's what Pepper made him ages ago and he cracked the shits at her cos someone had just died - maybe Camrob?) but he's gone. Frazer's done the whole "I'm off B back when I'm better n can walk n shit kthxbye" so we don't know where, how long or antyhing, but he's done a runner, pardon the awful discriminatory term there any handicaps having this read to you.
Getting pretty tired, so I can't really remember what else happened - oh yeah someone called THORN has stolen Steph's high score on teh SEGA motorbike game, and it's not Toadie, cos he';s shit at it, but Boyd (CUNT!) seems to be pretty good on the ole motortreadly, so Steph thinks it might be him. It's not really interesting at all, unless it turns out it's Little Britain Andy who's THORN, cos that would be something. I'm sure there were bigger plot developments, but buggered if I can remember.
Oh no wait, the big plot was with Caleb in the hospital, the dude with Stinger's heart. Sky, Bree and Boyd went back to hang with the pal, and he's a funky dude, does graf art and everythinks! He's about to get out of hospital but he and Sky are gonna keep hangin, and it's obvious there's some connection there, and sh even asked him to do some wicked graffiti on the mural she's gonna paint in Stinger's honour. Gnarley! The little cool crew of Sky, Boyd and Bree is nausiating, and Bree shoulc stop calling wacknut 'Soul Sister' and start saying goodbye. If Boyd and Sky survive the next round of cast cuts, the world is crazy.
The one upshot was that they took the piss out of each of them a little in a nice discussion, where Boyd uncharacteristically had some character insight into someone other than his Dad ("Always right"), and remarked that Sky's burgeoning friendship with Caleb was "her latest lame duck" she could take care of. She fired back that he's always gotta be the "knight in shining armour" which was a nice little rebuttal from Sky. Of course these well-scripted insights turned into shit as Sky and Boyd had a playfight shouting "Lame duck!" and "Shining armour" at each other, and felt forced, like the final coupla month of Stinger & Sky's antics (that cross dressing Euro artist schtick was more painful than Katya & Ned's Backstreet Boys scheme), and just showed that Boyd shouldn't try to be a real person.
There was probably some further fallout over Davo too, but I don't remember what. Sorry guys, hanging up the descripting gloves for one day, I'm buggered, and it's just too easy to rant about who's shit, when normally I pretend to justify how each and every separate criticism of Ned is individually warranted.
Cheerio, love you all.
Friday 15 June 2007
Forgot the name again - we'll call it Davo's A Prick
I've gotta start writing the names of teh shows down. Sorry. I'm not remembering them the next day at work. Nonetheless, last night's ep was a pretty good one with a few revelations which we'll look at, namely...
1) Frazer should be able to walk. His spine's healed like the clappers, and the doc says there's nothign wrong with him, except obviously in a psycho-sematic way. I have no idea what the word actually is for that, but it's a mental issue. Hang on, I've just googled, and now I know everything. Psychosomatic: Pertaining to the relationship between mind and body, disorders that have a physiological component, but are thought to originate in emotions, are called psychosomatic. Thanks, computer, cos that's exactly what Frazer's got. It's another classic done-to-death soapie thing, but with someone as awesome as Frazer, they can easily get away with it. He cracked the shits, said it's crazy, the doctor's crazy, this whole stinkin place is crazy, but eventually Rosie helped him with it, and now he's all a bit confused. He was pretty upset by it, saying that he always thought he was pretty strong mentally, and could cope with anything life threw at him, and it was a pretty good framing of the plot - how does a hero champion dude like Frazer come to terms with the fact that there's some issue deep deep down that stopping him from walking of all things, so he's forced to confront it, when he doesn';t even really know what it is. Pepper thinks it's that R&F didn't really properly fall in smoochies til after teh accident, so subconsiously he fears that if he walks again the relationship will fall apart, but I don't reckon, Frazer's more confident than flaky ole Pep. It's gotta have something to do with his family or dark past, or gult about being a prick trying to cash in on the Cammeniti gold when he first turned up prospecting in Ramsay St. I dunno, but what it really made clear last night was how goddamn fucking gorgeous Rosie is, how much of an allround bloody ripper Frazer is, and how brilliant their relationship is. I was thinking about this yesterday, that I suspect when these characters were devised, they were supposed to be teh golden couple, the young ones to really rally for, and especially with Pepper as a bestie too, so I guess feeling this huge love for them all is what was always planned, and there's probably not that many people out there thinking Boyd's a real hero, but the actors have made Frazer, Rosie and Pepper so successful, so appealing and so real, they're great. Maybe the same thing was meant to happen for Will, Oliver or Camella, but not even close. With this theory in mind, that I feel about each character how the writers designed them to be initially, I'm very intriugued as to what the purpose behind Ned was. Hero? Villain? Oh, opportunity to stir the pasta. Thanks Neighbours!
2) Davo really is a fuckwit. this has been apparent from the beginning, but after the conspiracy with Susan to teach Karl a lesson, and Susan telling Pepper he really did seem like a catch, I thought maybe the actor was just a bit shit, and he was meant to be a nice cheeky guy. Nope, good acting after all, cos he's a total cock. First we found out that when he told Susan Karl hadn't told him the truth about Susan not being his slut older sister at all, so that Susan would rip through him, he was lying, "just for laughs". Bit nasty Davo, but still a bit cheeky I guess. But then he went on a date with Pepper, who's having a total freakout about attracting the wrong sort of guy, and again proving her scatterbrain theories true. He reeled out all the usual "ATTENTION: THIS MAN IS A CUNT" signifiers; a) a woman's place is in the home, b) he had a beloved pet put down because the $1000 vet bill was too much, c) he was a tool, d) his profesional name is Davo and he says BANG! a lot. You know, just a real wally wanker. But because Pepp's having all her insecurity shit, she didn't want to say anything and be mean, so she formed a system with Toad & Steph at teh bar, whereby the way she tossed her hair meant either "Help" or "This is teh orsum". Obviously they couldn;t tell the difference and dragged it out further for Pepp. But during this episode-length scene, another revelation happened...
3) And his name's Adam. He's a construction labourer, got a flat-out ole Brit boy accent, and looks to be a potential new cast mate. Steph's giving the Scarlet Bar a bit of a makeover, at least on the outside, and a new name too that's still a secret!!!, so there's a workcrew there, and the Bar will be closed for about a week. the only labourer paid for a speaknig role seems to Adam who's a bit rough, but seems to have his heart in the right place, although possibly not in as handy a place a his hair product. He'd have his lights punched out by now for looking that pretty onsite, surely. Anyways, he bumped into Pepper before the Davo drinks, she was mortified and flew off teh handle, he was a bit of a smartarse back, and so obvioulsy they'll be getting married by the end of the season. His speaking role kept coming all episode, clueing Steph & Toad into what Pepper's hand signals really meant because he's obvioulsy got some deep insight into her, and finally... Well, Steph saved Pepper by saying her Mum had called, she needs Pepper now cos she's sick, Pepper was making her excuses, Davo called her bluff, proposed they go back to one of their houses so he could dick her sumfin chronic, and Adam did some minor assault on him. I know he spun Davo round over the table with his arm behind his back, but he might have also smacked him one in the schnoz, cos that was pretty ugly the next day. Anyway, Steph barred Davo from the bar, Pepper was all "I can take care of myself, how dare you" while probably planning their first root, and I presume this was teh introduction of Adam to teh regular cast, at least until July 23 when nobody's safe. I don't think Davo will be there.
4) Elle has very few friends. There was a bit more about Paul last night, asking Harold whether he could trust Elle etc, and he wanted to call Gail. While Elle was off getting sandwiches in hospital (he's still in), he went through her handbag, found her mobile, which met with a "Well lookee here at teh future" snort, and called Gail,l, leaving a message for her to call him at the hospital. A couple fo revelations here. Elle doesn't lock her phone, cos the 1980s tech-savy Paul could just use it straight away, and I would have thought for a little schemestress like Elle, she would both carry her phone on her, and certinaly keep her security tight. And then there was the list of names in her phone, which a screen shot showed. The shot we saw had 4 names on the screen. Dad, Lassiters, Michael, Mum. Now, Elle might have many friends' numbers starting with A-C and M-Z, but nothign between Dad and Lassiters? Surely some business contacts! And who the fuck's Michael? Ooh, that could be interesting. Thinking however, of who else you'd expect to be in there, there are very few. On the Ramsay St side of things, Carmella's before, Oliver's after, Ned's after... She wouldn't have need for Karl's, Harold's, Lou's, Frazer's, Janae's or Janelle's. I would have thought she's still have Dylan's name in there, but then again they broke up so many times, and Elle is pretty proud, maybe she's deleted it. She probably wouldn't have Izzy's in there, granted, especailly cos of how Izzy kinda cut herself off from everyone. But then I thought of one today for sure - Glenn Forrest. Elle's best friend in the world. And sure, whether or not she calls her by her first or last name, Glenn has ridiculously appalling taste in men, but she's still Elle's BFF, and he name's not in her phone. She must have yet another dinky little nickname that Elle calls her. Hope they reveal it.
5)And finally, last night was teh Little Britain cameo, and it was certianly a cameo. During the Pepper-Davo rendezvous in the Scarlet Bar, a couple of unlikely strangers came into the bar, the dude with bad hair pushing the fat guy in teh wheelchair, which wikipedia reveals to me to be called Lou and Andy, names which I now recognise. Sorry. I've only seen one episode of teh show, twice, and it made me not laugh, so I haven't jumped on the bandwagon. Anyway, Lou wheeled Andy in, no speaking roles, and parked the chair towards the back of the bar while he went up towards the bar. Andy, as is the charcter's want I assume, got out of his chair and walked over to play the new SEGA motorbike game Steph's put into the bar. While Pepp and Davo made awkward conversation, you could just see Andy's bare shoulders steeringin the background. Lou meanwhile was talking to Harold, which I think is pretty cool now I know their names, silently, about something in a Salvos catalogue. Andy got back in his chair, Lou came back and they walked out again, brief but hopefully enough to please fans, and certainly not enough to piss off non-fans. James, I'll keep the episode for you in case you can't youtube it. The fact they were in the same episode as Frazer finding out he really can walk and doesn';t need teh wheelchair was a bit genius I think.
And that's about all I recall. I'm sure there were other bibs and bobs, and Pepper and Janelle's closeness, bonding about Pep's romantic retardedness like a Mum and daughter, was really sweet. But that's for another day. Love you.
Hope the flight today was fun and uneventful James and Susan.
1) Frazer should be able to walk. His spine's healed like the clappers, and the doc says there's nothign wrong with him, except obviously in a psycho-sematic way. I have no idea what the word actually is for that, but it's a mental issue. Hang on, I've just googled, and now I know everything. Psychosomatic: Pertaining to the relationship between mind and body, disorders that have a physiological component, but are thought to originate in emotions, are called psychosomatic. Thanks, computer, cos that's exactly what Frazer's got. It's another classic done-to-death soapie thing, but with someone as awesome as Frazer, they can easily get away with it. He cracked the shits, said it's crazy, the doctor's crazy, this whole stinkin place is crazy, but eventually Rosie helped him with it, and now he's all a bit confused. He was pretty upset by it, saying that he always thought he was pretty strong mentally, and could cope with anything life threw at him, and it was a pretty good framing of the plot - how does a hero champion dude like Frazer come to terms with the fact that there's some issue deep deep down that stopping him from walking of all things, so he's forced to confront it, when he doesn';t even really know what it is. Pepper thinks it's that R&F didn't really properly fall in smoochies til after teh accident, so subconsiously he fears that if he walks again the relationship will fall apart, but I don't reckon, Frazer's more confident than flaky ole Pep. It's gotta have something to do with his family or dark past, or gult about being a prick trying to cash in on the Cammeniti gold when he first turned up prospecting in Ramsay St. I dunno, but what it really made clear last night was how goddamn fucking gorgeous Rosie is, how much of an allround bloody ripper Frazer is, and how brilliant their relationship is. I was thinking about this yesterday, that I suspect when these characters were devised, they were supposed to be teh golden couple, the young ones to really rally for, and especially with Pepper as a bestie too, so I guess feeling this huge love for them all is what was always planned, and there's probably not that many people out there thinking Boyd's a real hero, but the actors have made Frazer, Rosie and Pepper so successful, so appealing and so real, they're great. Maybe the same thing was meant to happen for Will, Oliver or Camella, but not even close. With this theory in mind, that I feel about each character how the writers designed them to be initially, I'm very intriugued as to what the purpose behind Ned was. Hero? Villain? Oh, opportunity to stir the pasta. Thanks Neighbours!
2) Davo really is a fuckwit. this has been apparent from the beginning, but after the conspiracy with Susan to teach Karl a lesson, and Susan telling Pepper he really did seem like a catch, I thought maybe the actor was just a bit shit, and he was meant to be a nice cheeky guy. Nope, good acting after all, cos he's a total cock. First we found out that when he told Susan Karl hadn't told him the truth about Susan not being his slut older sister at all, so that Susan would rip through him, he was lying, "just for laughs". Bit nasty Davo, but still a bit cheeky I guess. But then he went on a date with Pepper, who's having a total freakout about attracting the wrong sort of guy, and again proving her scatterbrain theories true. He reeled out all the usual "ATTENTION: THIS MAN IS A CUNT" signifiers; a) a woman's place is in the home, b) he had a beloved pet put down because the $1000 vet bill was too much, c) he was a tool, d) his profesional name is Davo and he says BANG! a lot. You know, just a real wally wanker. But because Pepp's having all her insecurity shit, she didn't want to say anything and be mean, so she formed a system with Toad & Steph at teh bar, whereby the way she tossed her hair meant either "Help" or "This is teh orsum". Obviously they couldn;t tell the difference and dragged it out further for Pepp. But during this episode-length scene, another revelation happened...
3) And his name's Adam. He's a construction labourer, got a flat-out ole Brit boy accent, and looks to be a potential new cast mate. Steph's giving the Scarlet Bar a bit of a makeover, at least on the outside, and a new name too that's still a secret!!!, so there's a workcrew there, and the Bar will be closed for about a week. the only labourer paid for a speaknig role seems to Adam who's a bit rough, but seems to have his heart in the right place, although possibly not in as handy a place a his hair product. He'd have his lights punched out by now for looking that pretty onsite, surely. Anyways, he bumped into Pepper before the Davo drinks, she was mortified and flew off teh handle, he was a bit of a smartarse back, and so obvioulsy they'll be getting married by the end of the season. His speaking role kept coming all episode, clueing Steph & Toad into what Pepper's hand signals really meant because he's obvioulsy got some deep insight into her, and finally... Well, Steph saved Pepper by saying her Mum had called, she needs Pepper now cos she's sick, Pepper was making her excuses, Davo called her bluff, proposed they go back to one of their houses so he could dick her sumfin chronic, and Adam did some minor assault on him. I know he spun Davo round over the table with his arm behind his back, but he might have also smacked him one in the schnoz, cos that was pretty ugly the next day. Anyway, Steph barred Davo from the bar, Pepper was all "I can take care of myself, how dare you" while probably planning their first root, and I presume this was teh introduction of Adam to teh regular cast, at least until July 23 when nobody's safe. I don't think Davo will be there.
4) Elle has very few friends. There was a bit more about Paul last night, asking Harold whether he could trust Elle etc, and he wanted to call Gail. While Elle was off getting sandwiches in hospital (he's still in), he went through her handbag, found her mobile, which met with a "Well lookee here at teh future" snort, and called Gail,l, leaving a message for her to call him at the hospital. A couple fo revelations here. Elle doesn't lock her phone, cos the 1980s tech-savy Paul could just use it straight away, and I would have thought for a little schemestress like Elle, she would both carry her phone on her, and certinaly keep her security tight. And then there was the list of names in her phone, which a screen shot showed. The shot we saw had 4 names on the screen. Dad, Lassiters, Michael, Mum. Now, Elle might have many friends' numbers starting with A-C and M-Z, but nothign between Dad and Lassiters? Surely some business contacts! And who the fuck's Michael? Ooh, that could be interesting. Thinking however, of who else you'd expect to be in there, there are very few. On the Ramsay St side of things, Carmella's before, Oliver's after, Ned's after... She wouldn't have need for Karl's, Harold's, Lou's, Frazer's, Janae's or Janelle's. I would have thought she's still have Dylan's name in there, but then again they broke up so many times, and Elle is pretty proud, maybe she's deleted it. She probably wouldn't have Izzy's in there, granted, especailly cos of how Izzy kinda cut herself off from everyone. But then I thought of one today for sure - Glenn Forrest. Elle's best friend in the world. And sure, whether or not she calls her by her first or last name, Glenn has ridiculously appalling taste in men, but she's still Elle's BFF, and he name's not in her phone. She must have yet another dinky little nickname that Elle calls her. Hope they reveal it.
5)And finally, last night was teh Little Britain cameo, and it was certianly a cameo. During the Pepper-Davo rendezvous in the Scarlet Bar, a couple of unlikely strangers came into the bar, the dude with bad hair pushing the fat guy in teh wheelchair, which wikipedia reveals to me to be called Lou and Andy, names which I now recognise. Sorry. I've only seen one episode of teh show, twice, and it made me not laugh, so I haven't jumped on the bandwagon. Anyway, Lou wheeled Andy in, no speaking roles, and parked the chair towards the back of the bar while he went up towards the bar. Andy, as is the charcter's want I assume, got out of his chair and walked over to play the new SEGA motorbike game Steph's put into the bar. While Pepp and Davo made awkward conversation, you could just see Andy's bare shoulders steeringin the background. Lou meanwhile was talking to Harold, which I think is pretty cool now I know their names, silently, about something in a Salvos catalogue. Andy got back in his chair, Lou came back and they walked out again, brief but hopefully enough to please fans, and certainly not enough to piss off non-fans. James, I'll keep the episode for you in case you can't youtube it. The fact they were in the same episode as Frazer finding out he really can walk and doesn';t need teh wheelchair was a bit genius I think.
And that's about all I recall. I'm sure there were other bibs and bobs, and Pepper and Janelle's closeness, bonding about Pep's romantic retardedness like a Mum and daughter, was really sweet. But that's for another day. Love you.
Hope the flight today was fun and uneventful James and Susan.
Thursday 14 June 2007
"Call Me Paul"
After mentioning yesterday that they do excellent puns with the show titles, it's not really Exhibit A with which I present you today. Oh well. After focussing on a lot of the dullard elements on Tues night, Wed's show was bursting with brilliance. But first we'll deal with the Paul issue, since that's where the title has directed us. Paul's out of hospital, but not before Elle was forced to tell him everything about Cam (good, dead) & Rob (evil, jail). The whole Elle-Dulliver-Carsmella (OMG SATIRE ON A MAD TV SCALE!!! I promise I won't make a habit of that shit.) triangle came to a head last night after Carmella, just in smalltalk with Paul, mentioned something about Cam/Rob, and so then Elle had some 'splainin' to do. But she cracked the shits massive with Carmella, accused her of trying to sabotage her life and all that kinda crazy stuff, and went the fullon soapie megaslap. CRACK!!!! It echoed around the hospital, and looked very fun for both of them to do, the ole huge slap windup, then Carmella's hed went flying to teh side, and someone off camera slapped 2 rulers together. Awesome. If they're gonna upgrade teh production vaules on July 23, maybe stunts shuold be their first port of call. After Kevin's fake as heck headknock, Lolly's Mum's pool debacle, and Frazer's crossed legs paralytic accident, I reckon if they're going to rely on head and body trauma for so many plotlines, they should make them look either in some way real, or go the other way and completely shonk them up, with blood capsules and everything. Stinger was always pretty ace with stunts, Paul makes a decent fist of them, especially with getting punched out so many times (Dyl, Steph and Ned just recently), and Rosie's headknock a coupla months ago when she stood up from fixing her stockings and bumped her pretty noggin on a picture frame was actually pretty okay too. Otherwise, more stunt training thanks.
So Elle slapped Carmella a beauty, she did the "I'm just a poor wounded boring thing" look and lfed, and came back with Oliver. He's being a total fuckwit right now, which is going against everything we know about him so far. "Elle, did you slap Carmella?" "Yes." "WHY I OUGHTA..." "But she told my Dad that his sons were dead." "Carmella, did you?" "Yes." "WHY I OUGHTA..." "But I didn't know she hadn't told him already." "Carmella, is this true?" "Yes." "WHY I OUGHTA..." "I just told you that. You don't even know why you're angry. You just wanna bone both of us, even though we're being really really really annoying." "WHY I OUGHTA..." etc etc. Elle finally brought the whole thing to a head by shouting "Oliver you love both of us and that's just not cool!" and storming off, so hopefully this whole thing is resolved soon. It's the most frustrating time-consuming but boring storyline since... Ned and Janae. But before that, maybe Sky and JP, or Steph and Max trying to get back together. In that league anyway. BOR-ING! Nonetheless, it looks possibly promising, as Paul is starting to take the piss out of his recent self, saying things like "Did I wear nothign but suits? We're going shopping for some new clothes" so keep an eye out for Paul in a Cosby sweater before too long. Pretty excited.
It was a big night for Karl & Susan though, back from visiting Billy & Anne's new bub, Jackson Kennedy. Good name. As they walked back in, Zeke had a sheet of paper out and a nikko drawing arrows trying to work out his and Rachel's relationship to Jackson, and eventually he concurred they were step-uncle and step-aunt. It's more of this old-school references to past characters that's great. I don't even know when Zeke & Rachel would have met Billy & Anne. I know Rachel stayed with Libby & Darren when she did 2 weeks work experience on the Shepparton newspaper, but... I dunno, just stuff that's fun to think about. No word on how Lance is doing.
K&S didn't really have much of their own plot last night, but featured in a few others. At the hospital, they dropped in to see Paul, as Karl tried to catch him out as faking. It was a pretty pissweak effort, to be honest. Better was when Rachel was caught out being the total control-beast she is right now, and busted for putting the almost-pash vid of Zeke and Lolly on the school blogzine/webzine (I don't know which it is or what the difference is, but I shall endeavour to keep improving myself, thanks Tvan). She was pretty stoked cos it got 310 hits, but everyone was all "Dude, you suck". K&S made her take it off, and then she had to apologise to everyone involved - Lolly, Lou and "especially Zeke". Rachel's pushing Ringo so much to go to uni, but stunts like this proves she still has a lot to learn herself. Mmmm. The best part of the episode however was Karl's announcement to the unwilling room that he's glad they didn't have video phones for some of his first date encounters. "I tried to impress Julie Kavanagh (Simpsons reference?) by eating a really hot vindaloo. I spent all night on-the-loooooo! Nearly passed out from fluid loss actually..." I love Karl.
Zeke and Lolly sat in the gutter and comforted each other later, without tongues, or any kissing actually, I'm just making it sound dirty. But they each admitted that they thought the other was really great, and Lolly made reference to the fact that she misses her home and maybe should go back. Zeke said she's got him here, and they did the head-on-shoulder hug, but sounded like another potential set-up to leave. What we do know about teh July 23 A CHANGE IS COMING is that there's supposedly a big cast makeover, so they've gotta be losing significant numbers, you'd think. Sky and Lolly have made reference to leaving, and their departures wouldn't be huge, and surely Boyd and possibly Oliver are not far behind. Lou's teh other one we've identified as close to deadwood lately, and if Ned ever gets the final sendoff it'll be a good ep. Otherwise, I'd say Carmella could leave and not be missed, except somehow she's become the Gold Logie contender, so they'd be a bit stupid to flick her, even if her storylines and scenes are weak as piss. There are a few characters whose contributions lately have been fringe - Bree, Janelle, Toadie, Steph - but surely they're all safe. The Timminses better not be leaving ffs.
One last storyline I forgot was the Rosie & Frazer marriage talk, talking about some of the big issues, with a priest, which Frazer wasn't a big fan of to begin with. I love both of this couple very much indeed, and they fight really well, in a younger K&S way, where you know they love each other a heap, so each throwaway comment and glare means 100 times more. Compared, Oliver & Carmella's fights are so fucking annoying and trivial. Frazer & Rosie's are 2 strong stubborn wills competing, and it's great to watch. Love them. The big issue is kids - they both want them, but after going to the doc, it seems like Frazer's nuts can't provide them, so that's a bit of hanging tension. The meeting-with-the-priest bit was really just to set up that even perfect couples have problems when things like family and longterm relationship expectations come into the mix. And Rosie wants to live in Italy? I was with Frazer, all like "What the hell?". Really good shit.
That was last night. Thanks for reading. Tonight's the Little Britain cameos, but I don't particularly like that show, so don't expect too much on that.
So Elle slapped Carmella a beauty, she did the "I'm just a poor wounded boring thing" look and lfed, and came back with Oliver. He's being a total fuckwit right now, which is going against everything we know about him so far. "Elle, did you slap Carmella?" "Yes." "WHY I OUGHTA..." "But she told my Dad that his sons were dead." "Carmella, did you?" "Yes." "WHY I OUGHTA..." "But I didn't know she hadn't told him already." "Carmella, is this true?" "Yes." "WHY I OUGHTA..." "I just told you that. You don't even know why you're angry. You just wanna bone both of us, even though we're being really really really annoying." "WHY I OUGHTA..." etc etc. Elle finally brought the whole thing to a head by shouting "Oliver you love both of us and that's just not cool!" and storming off, so hopefully this whole thing is resolved soon. It's the most frustrating time-consuming but boring storyline since... Ned and Janae. But before that, maybe Sky and JP, or Steph and Max trying to get back together. In that league anyway. BOR-ING! Nonetheless, it looks possibly promising, as Paul is starting to take the piss out of his recent self, saying things like "Did I wear nothign but suits? We're going shopping for some new clothes" so keep an eye out for Paul in a Cosby sweater before too long. Pretty excited.
It was a big night for Karl & Susan though, back from visiting Billy & Anne's new bub, Jackson Kennedy. Good name. As they walked back in, Zeke had a sheet of paper out and a nikko drawing arrows trying to work out his and Rachel's relationship to Jackson, and eventually he concurred they were step-uncle and step-aunt. It's more of this old-school references to past characters that's great. I don't even know when Zeke & Rachel would have met Billy & Anne. I know Rachel stayed with Libby & Darren when she did 2 weeks work experience on the Shepparton newspaper, but... I dunno, just stuff that's fun to think about. No word on how Lance is doing.
K&S didn't really have much of their own plot last night, but featured in a few others. At the hospital, they dropped in to see Paul, as Karl tried to catch him out as faking. It was a pretty pissweak effort, to be honest. Better was when Rachel was caught out being the total control-beast she is right now, and busted for putting the almost-pash vid of Zeke and Lolly on the school blogzine/webzine (I don't know which it is or what the difference is, but I shall endeavour to keep improving myself, thanks Tvan). She was pretty stoked cos it got 310 hits, but everyone was all "Dude, you suck". K&S made her take it off, and then she had to apologise to everyone involved - Lolly, Lou and "especially Zeke". Rachel's pushing Ringo so much to go to uni, but stunts like this proves she still has a lot to learn herself. Mmmm. The best part of the episode however was Karl's announcement to the unwilling room that he's glad they didn't have video phones for some of his first date encounters. "I tried to impress Julie Kavanagh (Simpsons reference?) by eating a really hot vindaloo. I spent all night on-the-loooooo! Nearly passed out from fluid loss actually..." I love Karl.
Zeke and Lolly sat in the gutter and comforted each other later, without tongues, or any kissing actually, I'm just making it sound dirty. But they each admitted that they thought the other was really great, and Lolly made reference to the fact that she misses her home and maybe should go back. Zeke said she's got him here, and they did the head-on-shoulder hug, but sounded like another potential set-up to leave. What we do know about teh July 23 A CHANGE IS COMING is that there's supposedly a big cast makeover, so they've gotta be losing significant numbers, you'd think. Sky and Lolly have made reference to leaving, and their departures wouldn't be huge, and surely Boyd and possibly Oliver are not far behind. Lou's teh other one we've identified as close to deadwood lately, and if Ned ever gets the final sendoff it'll be a good ep. Otherwise, I'd say Carmella could leave and not be missed, except somehow she's become the Gold Logie contender, so they'd be a bit stupid to flick her, even if her storylines and scenes are weak as piss. There are a few characters whose contributions lately have been fringe - Bree, Janelle, Toadie, Steph - but surely they're all safe. The Timminses better not be leaving ffs.
One last storyline I forgot was the Rosie & Frazer marriage talk, talking about some of the big issues, with a priest, which Frazer wasn't a big fan of to begin with. I love both of this couple very much indeed, and they fight really well, in a younger K&S way, where you know they love each other a heap, so each throwaway comment and glare means 100 times more. Compared, Oliver & Carmella's fights are so fucking annoying and trivial. Frazer & Rosie's are 2 strong stubborn wills competing, and it's great to watch. Love them. The big issue is kids - they both want them, but after going to the doc, it seems like Frazer's nuts can't provide them, so that's a bit of hanging tension. The meeting-with-the-priest bit was really just to set up that even perfect couples have problems when things like family and longterm relationship expectations come into the mix. And Rosie wants to live in Italy? I was with Frazer, all like "What the hell?". Really good shit.
That was last night. Thanks for reading. Tonight's the Little Britain cameos, but I don't particularly like that show, so don't expect too much on that.
Wednesday 13 June 2007
Tues, June 12 07
I've gotta start remembering the name of each episode for this blog. I've never seen a better collection of cheesy yet retrospectively explanatory puns.
Last night was this week's first appearance by Paul, who after his brain tumour removal last week, seems to be recovering okay, except his memory doesn't go beyond the late '80s. So he was very upset to discover that Jim and Gran had died long ago, and had no idea who Elle was. Even though I didn't watch Neighbours very much when those older cast membes were on it, they're still pretty famous, and I love the way there's ample referencing to history and old cast members. Karl & Susan are off visiting Billy & Anne, and even just the fact it was an issue that Steph hadn't told Max about Boyd's shit running off with dodgy "Dr" Charlotte Stone, is brilliant. It makes the Erinsborough world all the more real, and I live in hope one day of a Connor reappearance.
Anyways, Paul came out of hospital last night and returned to Ramsay Street. He didn't know which house was his, and I had to agree with him, as I always struggle to remember who lives in which house - except No. 30 (nee House of Trouser) - but the issue was more involved, as he went to go into the original house he lived in with Jim etc, then No. 30 which Jim gave him for a wedding present, and then finally Elle led him to their current house. Elle's being pretty honest with her dad, but not completely, to save him heartache in the short term, which I guess you'd want to do, but what the heck? As if he's not going to find out that his beautiful sons aren't overseas like she said, but one's dead, and the other a nutbar murderer in jail. He's being all wise and nice and unselfish, so it's a bit unnerving, but I do miss the evil Paul. He's such a great villain. I hope this gets more interesting.
Heaps of Oliver/Carmella shit last night, and Oliver's being a bit of a cunt which is funny. At least it's a stain on his beige personality. Again, please just get the emphasis off these two because it's standard tiresome soapie bullshit, although when Carmella spoke about their first date, which was atcually with Ollie's brother Will, that showed a bit of promise. No, actually not really at all. Boring. And the underplot of Ringo and Carmella's relationship is a bit silly too. Ringo needs a strong partner like Rachel or else he'll wander into the Boring camp too, and that's already over capacity.
Never fear, Janae didn't drown, but instead walked out of the ocean herself. Ned's right into her, but when he went in for a post-drowning pash, she told him to bugger off, which is the ocrrect repsonse. Still, he's trying to make her jealous by pretending to get it on with another camping girl who was in on the ruse, but since he's stopped being Paul's henchman, Ned's schemes are a bit pissweak. No real progress here - he still likes her, she hasn't said she does, but I fear it's getting close that she will express interest, and settle back in to another shithouse relationship. Fingers crossed Bree gets on the case, and devises a plan to reveal what a boring tepid guy Ned is. Taping him and watching him for approx 6mins 3 nights/week should do the trick.
In a prophetic piece of synchronicity for this blog, Rachel was worried that nobody liked the school webzine (The Borough, nee BUNS), mainly cos people posted the usual internet slander shit on it, so she's done the old go-back-on-your-principals-for-success storyline. She's posted the video of Zeke and Lolly getting busted pashing, and Ringo's telling her it's wrong. She's also on his back that not going to uni will be a waste of his life, instead of his current plan to open a fruit stall. Fucking hell those two are getting old fast.
With Paul not really being Paul, and Janae being compromised with an appalling storyline, it was a bit of a non-event last night, missing most of the show's best characters. Which can only be good, meaning a strong Toadie/Karl/Susan/Frazer/Rosie/Pepper/Harold/Zeke show coming up.
And can Bree please get a flipping storyline soon?
Thanks.
Last night was this week's first appearance by Paul, who after his brain tumour removal last week, seems to be recovering okay, except his memory doesn't go beyond the late '80s. So he was very upset to discover that Jim and Gran had died long ago, and had no idea who Elle was. Even though I didn't watch Neighbours very much when those older cast membes were on it, they're still pretty famous, and I love the way there's ample referencing to history and old cast members. Karl & Susan are off visiting Billy & Anne, and even just the fact it was an issue that Steph hadn't told Max about Boyd's shit running off with dodgy "Dr" Charlotte Stone, is brilliant. It makes the Erinsborough world all the more real, and I live in hope one day of a Connor reappearance.
Anyways, Paul came out of hospital last night and returned to Ramsay Street. He didn't know which house was his, and I had to agree with him, as I always struggle to remember who lives in which house - except No. 30 (nee House of Trouser) - but the issue was more involved, as he went to go into the original house he lived in with Jim etc, then No. 30 which Jim gave him for a wedding present, and then finally Elle led him to their current house. Elle's being pretty honest with her dad, but not completely, to save him heartache in the short term, which I guess you'd want to do, but what the heck? As if he's not going to find out that his beautiful sons aren't overseas like she said, but one's dead, and the other a nutbar murderer in jail. He's being all wise and nice and unselfish, so it's a bit unnerving, but I do miss the evil Paul. He's such a great villain. I hope this gets more interesting.
Heaps of Oliver/Carmella shit last night, and Oliver's being a bit of a cunt which is funny. At least it's a stain on his beige personality. Again, please just get the emphasis off these two because it's standard tiresome soapie bullshit, although when Carmella spoke about their first date, which was atcually with Ollie's brother Will, that showed a bit of promise. No, actually not really at all. Boring. And the underplot of Ringo and Carmella's relationship is a bit silly too. Ringo needs a strong partner like Rachel or else he'll wander into the Boring camp too, and that's already over capacity.
Never fear, Janae didn't drown, but instead walked out of the ocean herself. Ned's right into her, but when he went in for a post-drowning pash, she told him to bugger off, which is the ocrrect repsonse. Still, he's trying to make her jealous by pretending to get it on with another camping girl who was in on the ruse, but since he's stopped being Paul's henchman, Ned's schemes are a bit pissweak. No real progress here - he still likes her, she hasn't said she does, but I fear it's getting close that she will express interest, and settle back in to another shithouse relationship. Fingers crossed Bree gets on the case, and devises a plan to reveal what a boring tepid guy Ned is. Taping him and watching him for approx 6mins 3 nights/week should do the trick.
In a prophetic piece of synchronicity for this blog, Rachel was worried that nobody liked the school webzine (The Borough, nee BUNS), mainly cos people posted the usual internet slander shit on it, so she's done the old go-back-on-your-principals-for-success storyline. She's posted the video of Zeke and Lolly getting busted pashing, and Ringo's telling her it's wrong. She's also on his back that not going to uni will be a waste of his life, instead of his current plan to open a fruit stall. Fucking hell those two are getting old fast.
With Paul not really being Paul, and Janae being compromised with an appalling storyline, it was a bit of a non-event last night, missing most of the show's best characters. Which can only be good, meaning a strong Toadie/Karl/Susan/Frazer/Rosie/Pepper/Harold/Zeke show coming up.
And can Bree please get a flipping storyline soon?
Thanks.
Tuesday 12 June 2007
First Blog Ever
Hello. This is a blog for my friend James, and to a lesser extent because she didn't actually ask me to do it, my friend Susan, so that they can keep up with what's happening on Neighbours while they go crazy on their New York City holiday. Going on holidays to one of the world's most interesting places is probably going to be fairly rad, but it does mean missing some of normal life's daily highlights, like sticking to the household chores roster, and rushing in to the loungeroom with an early dinner while Neighbours' pre-credits backstory plays. So now James and Susan can totally chillax while they're posing for cliched Times Square photos and hilariously being shouted at by locals that they're in fact walking here, because they'll also be able to check in whether the Zekester's gone the pash yet.
It's a weird time for Neighbours right now, because it's been getting a bit of press about its relatively low ratings, so A CHANGE IS COMING at 630 on July 23. That's a bit concerning. While I generally don't read any interviews or articles about Neighbours, because they often contain unlabelled spoilers, and then for the next six months you're just waiting for whatever it is you read to happen, and tehn when it does it's a real anti-climax and you haven't enjoyed anything as much as you would have if you weren't expecting whatever it was in the first place, and so it's better just to not read articles. Also, most journos write about Neighbours like it's interchangable with Home & Away, and the show hasn't changed since Scott & Charlene moved to Qld, and that ancient attitude can get knotted. But the upcoming changes are intriguing and a little worrying, as they're talking about 'taking Neighbours back to its family-driven roots' and giving the whole show a production, storyline and cast makeover. WTF's that mean? For someone who's been over-enjoying the show for the last few years, I only hope that they keep the good shit, and if there's any indication that the suits think things like Ninja Suse or the Rebecchi-Timmins Boxing Day paint fight have driven down ratings in recent years, then those same suits can get fucked. Sorry, I'm a bit defensive. Whatever your favourite show is, imagine hearing talk that the network needs to change basic elements of it to up ratings, and you'll get an idea of how nervous a time this A CHANGE IS COMING period is. FFS, don't fuck things up. Just dump Boyd and watch the viewers roll back.
Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself. What happened in Erinsborough last night? The Janae-Ned fledgling romance is wrong for starters. It's just wrong, and Janae's newfound passion for boxing is not much more chop. At least the romance is so far only one-sided, with wet blanket Ned wanting a piece, and last night, with an upcoming boxing match (fixed against Janae we found out, but for some reason she still wants to fight) Ned's taken her away on a fitness boot camp. The real reason for the overnight trip is so that blandy can bring on the love, because so far the fitness regime seems to be running a lot, which strictly speaking could have been done in Erinsborough. But they're at the beach, there's a lot of uncomfortable hints that there might be something going to happen, and eventually Ned sends Janae in for a swim. I want to say here that Janae's a fuckin hottie, and my hott gf P-M has informed me that she'd turn for a piece o that. The fact that Janae is straight and fictional doesn't seem to factor in to her consideration. Nonetheless, Janae heads in, in a sporty black two-piece, and Ned cops an eyeful. Then, proving what a fuckhead he is, Ned decides to cop two more eyefuls of bikini, and stares way too prolongedly at beachtarts. Meanwhile the supposed crush of his gets a cramp in the surf, yells out to cockwit, and disappears under the waves. Then he's all "JANAE! JANAE!" and it's a particularly unexciting cliffhanger to the show.
In other news, Karl and Susan have gone up to Qld to visit Billy & Anne's newborn kid, and I can't remember what they called it, but I'll let you know. Karl and Susan have a lot of holidays.
After little fap-happy Zekester has been busy getting hard over Lolly for a while, she finally admitted last night that she might kinda like sorta you know like him too maybe, and they went on a date, like a proper date, to teh movies. Lou slapped on some uncharacteristic and pantomime-strength Angry Dad, leaning over Zeke and Ringo, being all >:( GRRRRRRRR! while they were all intimidated "Hummina-hummina" stuttering and shit. I love the zany OTT antics they go on with sometimes, but Lou was too much last night. If that's all he's got left to offer the show, and since he's stopped being called "Loubear" he's had little else, then maybe it is time to put ole Lou out. I hope not, but unless he comes up with the shonkiest get-rich-quick scheme of his life pretty soon, he's just hanging around like those leftovers in the fridge you don't want to throw out cos the original meal was so damn good, but seriously, they've been sitting there for a week and a half now, and it's time.
There might have been some Carmella and Oliver stuff too, but I wouldn't have noticed because I would have been asleep. Man, they gotta sort that shit out quick. One scene - Carmella announces she's got a new job co-hosting Video Hits, so that she can leave but Channel Ten don't lose their inexplicably popular face, and Oliver says 'Oh well, goodbye' as quick as his brother Will did. Elle gets evil again, and crazy shit goes down like you wouldn't believe!!! Good plan.
Oh, and in the biggest news, it looks like finally there might be an end to Sky coming up pretty damn soon. She's been up visiting Dyl on Hamilton Island or somewhere, and reports that he's settled in really well, and Kimbo and Dyl are really close. That's great news for Dyl, but a bit shit that we won't be getting him back. Dylan in himself wasn't the best character, and by far the weakest regular Timmins, but he's been missed, especially considering that in the giant cast makeover earlier this year we got rid of Lynn, Oscar, Max, Will, Katya, Stinger and Dyl, but kept fkn Boyd, Sky and Ned, who's almost left but then hasn't at least twice now. It's like they keep writing him out but he's so dumb and offensively nice that he just turns back up to work to the next Monday, and everyone's looking at each other but nobody's got the heart to tell him to fuck off. So anyway, Sky has said that she enhoyed her time up at the Island so much that she'll probably move up there permanently, because she owes it to Kerry to have her Dad in her life. It's only a couple of years too late, as she should have left the week after she changed from alternative music-blogging lesbo-experimenting fringe-culture poster girl to the skank-a-dank-dank short-denims-&-knee-high-uggies slurry she is now, but I really hope this is the end of Sky Mangel. Her character honestly died a couple of years ago, and there's just been an increasingly-overacting unreasonably-gullible big-tittied corpse in her place. Bye.
And other plots just keep on raising their heads. Here's a shock revelation - there's a bloke in Erinsborough Hospital with Stinger's heart. He got a transplant, and somehow found out who the donor was, and said "G'day, thanks for yer son's heart, hey missee!" to a bit of a distraught Janelle last night. It's a bit weird, but we'll see where it goes. Everyone you'd expect is going crazy over it (Janelle, Sky) or being reasonable about it (Bree <3) but there's no real clear direction the story's gonna go in yet.
Updates as they come to hand. Thanks for reading. James and Susan leave for NYC on Friday this week, so I hope to have things blogging smooth by then you guys. Cheers.
It's a weird time for Neighbours right now, because it's been getting a bit of press about its relatively low ratings, so A CHANGE IS COMING at 630 on July 23. That's a bit concerning. While I generally don't read any interviews or articles about Neighbours, because they often contain unlabelled spoilers, and then for the next six months you're just waiting for whatever it is you read to happen, and tehn when it does it's a real anti-climax and you haven't enjoyed anything as much as you would have if you weren't expecting whatever it was in the first place, and so it's better just to not read articles. Also, most journos write about Neighbours like it's interchangable with Home & Away, and the show hasn't changed since Scott & Charlene moved to Qld, and that ancient attitude can get knotted. But the upcoming changes are intriguing and a little worrying, as they're talking about 'taking Neighbours back to its family-driven roots' and giving the whole show a production, storyline and cast makeover. WTF's that mean? For someone who's been over-enjoying the show for the last few years, I only hope that they keep the good shit, and if there's any indication that the suits think things like Ninja Suse or the Rebecchi-Timmins Boxing Day paint fight have driven down ratings in recent years, then those same suits can get fucked. Sorry, I'm a bit defensive. Whatever your favourite show is, imagine hearing talk that the network needs to change basic elements of it to up ratings, and you'll get an idea of how nervous a time this A CHANGE IS COMING period is. FFS, don't fuck things up. Just dump Boyd and watch the viewers roll back.
Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself. What happened in Erinsborough last night? The Janae-Ned fledgling romance is wrong for starters. It's just wrong, and Janae's newfound passion for boxing is not much more chop. At least the romance is so far only one-sided, with wet blanket Ned wanting a piece, and last night, with an upcoming boxing match (fixed against Janae we found out, but for some reason she still wants to fight) Ned's taken her away on a fitness boot camp. The real reason for the overnight trip is so that blandy can bring on the love, because so far the fitness regime seems to be running a lot, which strictly speaking could have been done in Erinsborough. But they're at the beach, there's a lot of uncomfortable hints that there might be something going to happen, and eventually Ned sends Janae in for a swim. I want to say here that Janae's a fuckin hottie, and my hott gf P-M has informed me that she'd turn for a piece o that. The fact that Janae is straight and fictional doesn't seem to factor in to her consideration. Nonetheless, Janae heads in, in a sporty black two-piece, and Ned cops an eyeful. Then, proving what a fuckhead he is, Ned decides to cop two more eyefuls of bikini, and stares way too prolongedly at beachtarts. Meanwhile the supposed crush of his gets a cramp in the surf, yells out to cockwit, and disappears under the waves. Then he's all "JANAE! JANAE!" and it's a particularly unexciting cliffhanger to the show.
In other news, Karl and Susan have gone up to Qld to visit Billy & Anne's newborn kid, and I can't remember what they called it, but I'll let you know. Karl and Susan have a lot of holidays.
After little fap-happy Zekester has been busy getting hard over Lolly for a while, she finally admitted last night that she might kinda like sorta you know like him too maybe, and they went on a date, like a proper date, to teh movies. Lou slapped on some uncharacteristic and pantomime-strength Angry Dad, leaning over Zeke and Ringo, being all >:( GRRRRRRRR! while they were all intimidated "Hummina-hummina" stuttering and shit. I love the zany OTT antics they go on with sometimes, but Lou was too much last night. If that's all he's got left to offer the show, and since he's stopped being called "Loubear" he's had little else, then maybe it is time to put ole Lou out. I hope not, but unless he comes up with the shonkiest get-rich-quick scheme of his life pretty soon, he's just hanging around like those leftovers in the fridge you don't want to throw out cos the original meal was so damn good, but seriously, they've been sitting there for a week and a half now, and it's time.
There might have been some Carmella and Oliver stuff too, but I wouldn't have noticed because I would have been asleep. Man, they gotta sort that shit out quick. One scene - Carmella announces she's got a new job co-hosting Video Hits, so that she can leave but Channel Ten don't lose their inexplicably popular face, and Oliver says 'Oh well, goodbye' as quick as his brother Will did. Elle gets evil again, and crazy shit goes down like you wouldn't believe!!! Good plan.
Oh, and in the biggest news, it looks like finally there might be an end to Sky coming up pretty damn soon. She's been up visiting Dyl on Hamilton Island or somewhere, and reports that he's settled in really well, and Kimbo and Dyl are really close. That's great news for Dyl, but a bit shit that we won't be getting him back. Dylan in himself wasn't the best character, and by far the weakest regular Timmins, but he's been missed, especially considering that in the giant cast makeover earlier this year we got rid of Lynn, Oscar, Max, Will, Katya, Stinger and Dyl, but kept fkn Boyd, Sky and Ned, who's almost left but then hasn't at least twice now. It's like they keep writing him out but he's so dumb and offensively nice that he just turns back up to work to the next Monday, and everyone's looking at each other but nobody's got the heart to tell him to fuck off. So anyway, Sky has said that she enhoyed her time up at the Island so much that she'll probably move up there permanently, because she owes it to Kerry to have her Dad in her life. It's only a couple of years too late, as she should have left the week after she changed from alternative music-blogging lesbo-experimenting fringe-culture poster girl to the skank-a-dank-dank short-denims-&-knee-high-uggies slurry she is now, but I really hope this is the end of Sky Mangel. Her character honestly died a couple of years ago, and there's just been an increasingly-overacting unreasonably-gullible big-tittied corpse in her place. Bye.
And other plots just keep on raising their heads. Here's a shock revelation - there's a bloke in Erinsborough Hospital with Stinger's heart. He got a transplant, and somehow found out who the donor was, and said "G'day, thanks for yer son's heart, hey missee!" to a bit of a distraught Janelle last night. It's a bit weird, but we'll see where it goes. Everyone you'd expect is going crazy over it (Janelle, Sky) or being reasonable about it (Bree <3) but there's no real clear direction the story's gonna go in yet.
Updates as they come to hand. Thanks for reading. James and Susan leave for NYC on Friday this week, so I hope to have things blogging smooth by then you guys. Cheers.
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