Neighbours (AU) - General Discussion

[neutron]

12 hours ago, Nozycat said:

Go Holly, that was Izzy like manipulation of Izzy.  Pity she didn't tell Karl and Susan what Izzy did though imo.

But Holly still has nothing to lose. She tricked Izzy into signing over the money, but there is nothing actually stopping her from telling Karl and Susan what Izzy did. I guess she could be worried that they'll have to move away if she tells them, so she's probably just waiting to see if the baby actually starts growing. Totally ridiculous plot though, even for Neighbours. :P

[Nozycat]

Well at least it didn't take long to come out that Izzy stole Karl's specimen.

I wonder if Paige is the one who is pregnant and she doesn't know whether Jack or Mark are the father - typical soap story line.

Finally people are noticing that Rafael is behaving really weird and suss - although how Paul didn't notice is beyond me.

[TeeVee329]

I found Izzy's bad girl antics very entertaining yesterday - swapping snark with Paul and crumbling up his brochure and beaning him with it, her fake smile (and Susan's) sliding off her face the minute the hotel door closed between them, her breezy dismissal of Mark, her bringing up Dee/Andrea with Toadie (and I've watched a bunch of that on YT, it's so soapy and great!) and saying she admired her moxie, even her casual "Alright, ya got me!" attitude when Karl and Susan busted her.

I also found Mark's sincere remorse about the accident with Gabe very refreshing because I feel like that's something you'd never see on a US soap, that kind of naked emotional maturity from a leading male.

But, ugh, the Rafael stuff is so boring, I was bummed every time the show went back to it.

Edited March 13, 2018 by TeeVee329

[neutron]

10 hours ago, TeeVee329 said:

I found Izzy's bad girl antics very entertaining yesterday - swapping snark with Paul and crumbling up his brochure and beaning him with it, her fake smile (and Susan's) sliding off her face the minute the hotel door closed between them, her breezy dismissal of Mark, her bringing up Dee/Andrea with Toadie (and I've watched a bunch of that on YT, it's so soapy and great!) and saying she admired her moxie, even her casual "Alright, ya got me!" attitude when Karl and Susan busted her.

I also found Mark's sincere remorse about the accident with Gabe very refreshing because I feel like that's something you'd never see on a US soap, that kind of naked emotional maturity from a leading male.

But, ugh, the Rafael stuff is so boring, I was bummed every time the show went back to it.

Completely agree with everything you said. I loved Izzy yesterday!

[Nozycat]

I am not a NatBass fan but she is doing a great job with Izzy.

Ugh @ Rafael running away when Leo got hurt instead of helping.

[TeeVee329]

That was a nice intertwining of soap tropes, with Kirsha's hearing starting to come back just in time to overhear Mishti and Leo's pregnancy secret.

It's not like Izzy doesn't deserve to get ripped into by Karl, but I found Susan's glee listening kinda OTT.  I felt bad for Izzy later when she was tucking Holly into bed.

The teens, zzzzzzzzzzzz.

[TeeVee329]

I have questions...

- I noticed the show jumped from night to the next day between scenes at one point.  Does the show do that a lot?

- Why did Jimmy go to Toadie for advice on his crush?  I couldn't work out what the connection was with those two.

- I had thought Shane and Dipi's off-screen kid was the oldest, but he's not?

[neutron]

9 hours ago, TeeVee329 said:

- Why did Jimmy go to Toadie for advice on his crush?  I couldn't work out what the connection was with those two.

The only thing I can think of (apart from Jimmy not having many good male role models in his life to choose from) was that there was that storyline a little while ago where Amy liked Toadie while he was separated from Sonya, and Toadie was probably hanging around Jimmy a lot. Either that, or Ryan Moloney hadn't fulfilled his scene quota for the week, so they needed to use him for something. :P

Edited March 19, 2018 by neutron

[Nozycat]

It is a mystery how time works on this show, heh.

They are all connected on Ramsey St. ;-).

What off screen kid?  What did I miss?

I got why Susan was so gleeful after all Izzy had put her through.

[TeeVee329]

12 hours ago, neutron said:

Jimmy not having many good male role models in his life to choose from

See, I would have expected him to go to his uncle Leo for this type of advice, but I guess Leo was busy in his own story.

8 hours ago, Nozycat said:

What off screen kid?  What did I miss?

I'm not sure if I learned that Wikipedia-ing or watching old clips, but Shane and Dipi have a son named Jay who I believe is off at boarding school.  I thusly figured he was the oldest, but Dipi mentioned in her talk with Mishti that her first pregnancy was with Yashvi.

I actually think that's a smart thing international soaps do, plant another family member off-screen for them to bring in later if they need to.

[xfuse]

9 hours ago, Nozycat said:

I got why Susan was so gleeful after all Izzy had put her through.

Susan had always enjoyed the 'other woman' from Karl's life getting taken down a few notches. She's not above doing it herself.  I remember after Sarah was gone for a few years they(Susan and Karl) came back from England and she took a dig about her getting fat. I also think she took a few digs about her getting divorced.

Edited March 19, 2018 by xfuse

[Nozycat]

Thanks TeeVee and xfuse for the further info.

Yes Neighbours has done that a few times - have family members off screen, like the Brennan brothers.

Nice to see Terese and Piper getting close again.

Edited March 19, 2018 by Nozycat

[neutron]

10 hours ago, TeeVee329 said:

See, I would have expected him to go to his uncle Leo for this type of advice, but I guess Leo was busy in his own story.

I'm not sure if I learned that Wikipedia-ing or watching old clips, but Shane and Dipi have a son named Jay who I believe is off at boarding school.  I thusly figured he was the oldest, but Dipi mentioned in her talk with Mishti that her first pregnancy was with Yashvi.

I actually think that's a smart thing international soaps do, plant another family member off-screen for them to bring in later if they need to.

I am fairly sure they have mentioned Jay on the show before, back when the family first arrived. I also thought Jay was the oldest, and so did whoever made this thread: https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/2245794/jay-rebecchi-neighbours. I remember it always seemed to me like Yashvi and Kirsha were only about 2 years apart when they first joined the show, but somehow they are now 4 years apart. I wonder if they originally had Jay being the oldest and then decided that Yashvi should be closer in age to Ben (since she had storylines with him), and Kirsha should be Jimmy's age, and then they slotted Jay in between. Jimmy's age also doesn't make sense to me, because I seem to recall that when he joined the show in June 2015, he was supposed to be 9, but now he is somehow in Year 8. The actor is 13 though, so I think maybe they just aged him a bit to fit in with how old he appears to be, and to make him the same age as Kirsha. They did something similar with Ben, because he is somehow 18 already, even though he was supposedly a super genius who accelerated through high school, and Libby gave birth to him in the final episode of 2001.

Edited March 20, 2018 by neutron

[TeeVee329]

So SORAS is an affliction that affects Australian children as well. ;)

[xfuse]

10 hours ago, TeeVee329 said:

So SORAS is an affliction that affects Australian children as well. ;)

Yes but it's not as bad as the US soaps. It's usually only a year or two either way. The ones that are in boarding school or a special school that we never met do get mentioned at times. They also tend to leave the same actor or actress in the same role and not recast to make them older.

[TeeVee329]

Again, I thought Izzy delivered classic soap bad girl yesterday - that she does selfish, messed-up things, but she doesn't do them out of malice or actual evilness, but because she's a screwed-up, unhappy person who's trying to grasp at anything to fill "the gap", as Karl put it, in her life.  Her meltdown after trying to kiss Karl was really interesting to watch.  And I thought her parting line after Karl said he was disappointed in her ("Well, that's everyone, then") was so perfectly soapy.  I'll miss her.

I guess it's not that strange given this mostly a show about nice people who are nice to each other, but it struck me that David's brother and sister were both casually having food/drinks with David's ex.  I did enjoy Aaron being a well-meaning if jealous buttinski.

Edited March 21, 2018 by TeeVee329

[Nozycat]

Glad that Rafael has finally been caught out.  Poor David.

I don't understand why the new hospital wing is off the table now - it was a go subject to fundraising before Izzy came, why not now?

Edited March 22, 2018 by Nozycat

[TeeVee329]

"All I care about is Rafe".  David, dude, chill, you've known Rafael for like six minutes.  I did think, when Rafael was talking about the comfort he takes in reading his mom's diary, that that was the best acting Ryan Thomas has done on the show.

Shane repeatedly shushing Sheila from pointing out that Dipi's play sounds just like "Chicago" was a cute bit of comedy.

[Olivia Y]

On 22/03/2018 at 5:47 PM, TeeVee329 said:

"All I care about is Rafe".  David, dude, chill, you've known Rafael for like six minutes. 

Hahaha my thoughts exactly! I'm not even convinced by the initial 'attraction', it's like here's this random dude who's rude and distant and barely stops to say hello and everyone's going 'he's perfect for you David!', like wtf?

With the Mark/Izzy bits earlier I thought they were setting it up so they have a baby together.

[Nozycat]

Yeah what's up with David forgiving Rafael so easily and also don't get what everybody saw in the miserable git.

How dumb did they make Leo?  First he walks away and leaves his phone on the table, especially after she had shown interest in it, then he turns his back after threatening her with the usb stick.  He is not that dumb, especially after Paul's warnings.

And Paige was so stupid not telling Terese she was leaving and rude to leave her in the lurch with her job.

Edited March 27, 2018 by Nozycat

[Olivia Y]

Is that the first time we've ever seen the inside of the bathroom at the coffee shop?

Wow that thing with Leo was so incredibly stupid ("let me put this blackmail material right here in this easily accessible place and turn my back to you") even the actor playing Leo looked embarrassed to be playing it.

Kind of love Steph totally icing Jack out.

Not feeling David/Rafael thing at all, just makes David look pathetic. 

[Gulftastic]

Love Chloe flirting with Elly. And pointing out how odd Piper is being.

[Nozycat]

Lol, they really improved security at the hospital - not - when a work experience person can just walk into the files room and help herself.

And Karl didn't do that to protect Holly but to be self-serving.

Good riddance to Jack - the actor is terrible and the character boring imo.

Wow Terese is really selfish and work addicted imo to not take any holidays and spend time with her family.

Edited April 3, 2018 by Nozycat

[Nozycat]

Wow Sonja, you have been away for months and that is the first thing you want to talk about?

[TeeVee329]

So Sonya wants to find Fake Dee, with whom Toadie had a ONS, at the same time she's announcing, to his dismay, that she doesn't want to have another kid?  Oh yeah, Fake Dee 100% is/was pregnant.  That's just soap math!

[Nozycat]

Oh lordy, lol, of course.  I am ashamed I didn't think of that, heh.

[neutron]

I'm very confused about why Piper needs medication. It seems like Neighbours is just trying to make the point that it's not shameful to be on medication, but they are going about it in a weird way. Steph's use of medication makes sense because she actually loses control when she stops taking it. But Piper is clearly depressed due to extremely bad life circumstances over the last while; for instance, Tyler going to gaol, Piper being kidnapped, nearly drowning and then having panic attacks, and earlier on, her parents getting divorced, and Josh and Doug dying. As if a good doctor would just immediately prescribe her medication when they haven't even tried using therapy to change her thought patterns. How irresponsible, when the medication could potentially have other worse side effects, and she will probably get bad withdrawal symptoms if she ever does come off the medication. 

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, and I could be wrong about all of the above, but I just really thought it seemed like a bad idea to immediately get Piper to depend on medication for her happiness, when actually it's perfectly natural for her to be grieving right now. And I think it's potentially harmful for Neighbours to be perpetuating the idea that drugs are an easy and ideal solution to grief.

Edited April 20, 2018 by neutron

[Nozycat]

Totally agree Neutron except that lots of doctors will immediately prescribe medication - they certainly did for me and misdiagnosed me for years.  And heaven forbid we should grieve (sarcasm).  Piper has certainly been through the mill (and I must say I am getting tired of all the drama they are putting her through) and counselling would be my first go to for her.  But for David to prescribe anti-depressants after 5 minutes of talking to her is compeletly irresponsible imo.

Yay David and Aaron are back together finally.

[neutron]

18 hours ago, Nozycat said:

Totally agree Neutron except that lots of doctors will immediately prescribe medication - they certainly did for me and misdiagnosed me for years.  And heaven forbid we should grieve (sarcasm).  Piper has certainly been through the mill (and I must say I am getting tired of all the drama they are putting her through) and counselling would be my first go to for her.  But for David to prescribe anti-depressants after 5 minutes of talking to her is compeletly irresponsible imo.

Yes, I guess I was more concerned about the message the show is sending, rather than whether or not it happens to be realistic. I mean, racism is common, so it would be realistic for the show to have characters making racist comments, but that doesn't mean I would support the show sending racist messages. I'm sure it is quite common for doctors to misdiagnose people and to prescribe medication as an "easy fix". Sorry to hear that this happened to you. :(

[Nozycat]

Yes and I totally agree about your concern about the message they are sending.  And thank you, Neutron.

Hope this tiresome love triangle between Terese, Paul and Gary is finally over, so boring to me.  And the breakup is totally Terese's fault.  How stupid was she.  Poor Gary.

Lol @ Piper and Terese with the flat tire, I found that funny.

Edited April 24, 2018 by Nozycat

[Olivia Y]

On 21/04/2018 at 12:51 PM, Nozycat said:

How stupid was she. 

LOL exactly! She knows how insecure Gary is about Paul and so she just goes and has a meeting with him in a hotel room in the middle of the night wearing a bathrobe, that's not going to be a problem at all! TBH I couldn't be less interested in their relationship but that was all brands of stupid.

Does anyone remember why Jimmy's dad left last time? I recall Paul bribing him to leave but I can't remember why.

[Nozycat]

5 hours ago, Olivia Y said:

LOL exactly! She knows how insecure Gary is about Paul and so she just goes and has a meeting with him in a hotel room in the middle of the night wearing a bathrobe, that's not going to be a problem at all! TBH I couldn't be less interested in their relationship but that was all brands of stupid.

Does anyone remember why Jimmy's dad left last time? I recall Paul bribing him to leave but I can't remember why.

Yes and in the middle of their 'romantic' night away.  That was really a FU to Gary.

Oh I am horrible at remembering things but I have this vague memory of someone, maybe Jimmy's dad selling dodgy hotel toiletries before.

[neutron]

They mentioned Liam stealing from the Rebecchis in today's episode, which I'd forgotten about. But I googled it and it was back when Toadie was in a wheelchair after the jumping castle accident. He couldn't work, so he and Sonya were low on money, and then Imogen organised a fundraising benefit event for the family. But then later when they went to use the money, they discovered that it had been stolen, and eventually it came out that it was Liam who took it. I didn't really remember him being in more than a few episodes, but there's actually a fair bit of stuff about him on his Perfect Blend page: http://perfectblend.net/neighbourhood/bio/barnett-liam.htm

[Nozycat]

Yeah they mentioned the dodgy toiletries too.

[Olivia Y]

As someone who works in public health, this whole MRI storyline (with Karl is being portrayed as the one who's 'right') is pissing me off so much. 

[Nozycat]

7 hours ago, Olivia Y said:

As someone who works in public health, this whole MRI storyline (with Karl is being portrayed as the one who's 'right') is pissing me off so much. 

Can you expand on that?  I don't know much about MRI's.

[Olivia Y]

On 05/05/2018 at 1:53 AM, Nozycat said:

Can you expand on that?  I don't know much about MRI's.

[I should state up front that I know this is a soap opera so I shouldn't expect realism, so this is just me ranting at a TV show lol.]

It's not really about MRIs in particular, but the way the whole 'programme' is being touted. It's portrayed as if the hospital is only concerned about 'saving' money, but given it's a public hospital (and Karl wants the whole thing funded through Medicare), they have to deal with budgets, so every cent going into this programme is money taken away from another area - money that, you know, could be used to be treating/curing people. Now that would be all right if there is evidence to show that doing a preventative MRI screening is highly effective in detecting health issues that could potentially be highly costly down the line (not to mention improve general health), but they have shown NO such research being done (and believe me, this is not the kind of research that can be done by one man in his spare time). 

Okay fine, he's got a private donor now, so the budget's no longer an issue. So this person (sorry can't remember her name) is established as fabulously wealthy, and agrees to fund the programme for 'one year'. This is...so completely arbitrary. There's no mention of how many people it can cover. It's being sold as 'one screening per year', so...do you just assume it's everyone in the area? I did a quick search and apparently it takes up to 2 hours to do a whole-body MRI, so if you have one machine working 24/7 every day of the year that's still less than 5,000 people. That's JUST the scan. MRIs are highly sophisticated diagnostic tools but you still need medical specialists to interpret results. Specialists who could be working with patients who have legitimate reasons for having MRI scans, do they plan to add to their workload or take them away from their existing patients? Does this wealthy woman plan on funding the training of a whole new batch of specialists (which would definitely take more than one year) as well? 

Also, full-body scan once a year is /so/ excessive. Routine checkups for women's health like mammograms and pap smears are still only 2-3 years (unless there are other risk factors). For people who are otherwise healthy there's just no reason for that kind of screening.

Now, maybe MRIs /are/ that fantastic, and if there wasn't the question of limited resources then let's go for it! But again, the problem is that they've done no research to show it is effective, and resources are definitely limited. 

[Nozycat]

Thanks Olivia, that clarifies things for me.  The whole thing seemed excessive to me too but as I said I really don't know much about it.

[neutron]

Do these sorts of scans also increase the risk of cancer, or is that just a myth?

[Nozycat]

Nice to see Chloe finally wearing something appropriate for work even though she is being completely inappropriate with Leo, and he with her.  As her boss he should have been the one to put the brakes on.

Glad Dipi and Mark both got confronted, especially Dipi, I find her really awful at times.

Edited May 10, 2018 by Nozycat

[Olivia Y]

Does the guy trying to blackmail Chloe and Leo even have any leverage? Chloe's mother was the only other eyewitness and they can probably get her to say she didn't see anything inappropriate (we already know she's willing to lie to protect her kids lol). Heck, they don't even have to go through with the lie but just tell the guy that's what they'll do, it's not like he's got a photo of them or any other form of proof. 

[Olivia Y]

Okay they really need to stop these school trips out to the wilderness. Didn't they lose Zeke on one of those outings? Also Bridgette went into labour during a camping trip (who the heck authorised a pregnant teenager at near full-term out on a camping trip anyway?)

[xfuse]

10 hours ago, Olivia Y said:

Didn't they lose Zeke on one of those outings?

White Water rafting. They thought he died but he turned up months later thinking he was someone else.

[Nozycat]

Heh yes, camping trip = disaster.

Stupid, stupid people - Chloe and Leo not locking the door.  And Karl just staggering off into the bush on his own.

Loved Yashvi finally stepping up and also her tank top, heh.

[Kim0820]

The Nell kid has lines now!  She grew right up into it, starting as a baby.  

The childless mother and the motherless child, oh my.  

[neutron]

On 15/05/2018 at 12:41 PM, Kim0820 said:

The Nell kid has lines now!  She grew right up into it, starting as a baby.

Yes, I was thinking about that the other day too. I love how they have kept the same actress playing Nell ever since she was born. It's so special. :) Ryan and Eve must love her. ♥︎ I actually dread the day that she leaves the show. :( :P

[Nozycat]

Nell and the actress who plays her is adorable.  Maybe she will become like Sally Fletcher on H&A.

Why were Toadie and Mark not helping with the search?

How Sheila kept her job for so long at all is beyond me.

I like how Gary is coming into his own.

I have no sympathy for Karl, that was totally his own fault and stupidity and now Xanthe is traumatised as well all due to his idiocy.

Boy Jimmy sure is shooting up.

Edited May 18, 2018 by Nozycat

[Kim0820]

Amusing that Mark is so sure Chloe is having an affair with Paul.  Also wonder if the Cannings who together can do great things are going to wind up causing some humorous problems.  

[Olivia Y]

Considering he's a doctor, Karl is a total idiot.

Nice to see that Xanthe's come such a long way since she first arrived, but good grief she and Piper have gone through some seriously traumatic crap in the past few years.

Aww, David and Aaron are adorable, hope they work out. 

So...Steph is leaving again?

I only just started to notice how pretty Yashvi's become, much like Piper a while back, these teenage actresses seem to just suddenly blossom. This racism storyline could be interesting, but I hope they don't go too heavy-handed.

[Nozycat]

Yeah I think Yashvi is gorgeous.

Sure didn't take Sheila long to make a mess of things for Gary.  Glad Steph took him back, I think it's a good position for him.  And yay for him setting a boundary wtih Sheila, needed to be done long ago.

Why didn't they take Xanthe to hospital if only to get her bloods done for the police?