Yeah I really can’t fathom how he didn’t get burned or anything, they said he jumped out of the car but then idk how he even got that injured to be a coma for a year but be physically pretty much untouched :lol: Maybe his body is burned or the explosion made him hit his head idk, I just don’t think there was a point to doing it and it reduces James to his death being a plot device for Ste to have maximum trauma for the time jump.

 

If they had to write James out, the brain tumour thing just should have been his exit. Leah is leaving for uni anyway, so whatever. It just feels like they threw 89 things at Ste just so they could come out of the gate swinging with a big character. They could have had James live until just before the time jump and have him dealing with that, plus what’s going on with Leah and Lucas anyway is enough. It’s just convoluted and not even interesting to throw all of this at Ste, not just a coma but his son in jail, plus his daughter springing a baby on him and pissing off plus his husband dying in the same accident that had him in a year long coma. Ste is one of those characters where honestly him just being quiet and happy and… boring would actually be more interesting :lol:

Very moving scene with Mercedes in today's ep

Yeah I really can’t fathom how he didn’t get burned or anything, they said he jumped out of the car but then idk how he even got that injured to be a coma for a year but be physically pretty much untouched :lol: Maybe his body is burned or the explosion made him hit his head idk, I just don’t think there was a point to doing it and it reduces James to his death being a plot device for Ste to have maximum trauma for the time jump.

 

If they had to write James out, the brain tumour thing just should have been his exit. Leah is leaving for uni anyway, so whatever. It just feels like they threw 89 things at Ste just so they could come out of the gate swinging with a big character. They could have had James live until just before the time jump and have him dealing with that, plus what’s going on with Leah and Lucas anyway is enough. It’s just convoluted and not even interesting to throw all of this at Ste, not just a coma but his son in jail, plus his daughter springing a baby on him and pissing off plus his husband dying in the same accident that had him in a year long coma. Ste is one of those characters where honestly him just being quiet and happy and… boring would actually be more interesting :lol:

 

Lol right?! It is an impossibility that he survivef an actual bomb! It just literally shows that Hollyoaks has actual invincible characters - him and Warren, which made the whole, Warren threatening to kill him every 5 mins, storyline even more uninteresting. It makes it even more ubrealistic when, coming out of a coma, they throw a baby at him!

Whoever decided bringing Robbie back was a good idea needs to be fired. Freddie worked because they put him with Grace and built on making a bit of a family unit, he fits in with Darren etc too. Robbie is giving absolutely nothing yet they seem intent on thrusting him into every scene possible. Huge part of why the show feels like it isn’t quite working.

(+ Freddie is hot af, sorry not sorry)

I do think this isn’t quite working, more and more as the weeks go on. A lot of what’s happening is ridiculously obvious, yet again they just send Sienna in a circle of misery? Yet again a wedding lasts five seconds before one half of them die? :lol:

 

I also feel like the pacing is off, presumably this week will mostly be about Sienna/Ethan etc and you get a week or two at a time without storylines like Frankie and JJ, Cleo just left in the basement while Abe flounced off with Peri :lol: Pacing was often a problem with the show anyway but I think with only 3 episodes a week it’s worse.

At least they set up today's episode last week by leading up to the wedding and saying it's happening. Potentially the eps ending on a Wednesday is the problem and they need spacing out Mon-Wed-Fri? The pacing issue has been ongoing for a while now and I thought it would perhaps resolve itself by now but alas no. We've still got loads of unanswered questions from the time jump to be addressed so it's hard to struggle to care for some of the scenarios cropping up. So Ethan is supposed to have cheated on Sienna, Sienna found out but Vicky was pregnant and had an abortion which was only just revealed today. Having not seen any of it it's hard to then keep up with what's being portrayed on screen beyond a surface level "oh here we go".

 

Poor Sienna, losing Rafe and now Ethan on respective wedding days. Give her a break eh? She's the Whitney Dean of this soap. I guess this does create a whodunnit scenario BUT literally seconds before Ethan "fell" he was arguing with Sienna so are we to assume it was her or could it have been Vicky? The pacing within the episodes themselves are off too because how it played out on screen suggests Sienna pushed him

I can get on board with the 3 days a week and only airing until Wednesday.

But what I’m really struggling with, is the shortened length. How is there ever going to be any real character and story development?!

 

 

I can get on board with the 3 days a week and only airing until Wednesday.

But what I’m really struggling with, is the shortened length. How is there ever going to be any real character and story development?!

Very true, when I think about I don’t feel like anyone other than Mercedes and Frankie/Darren/JJ have really gone anywhere as characters since we came back, everyone else is more of the same and haven’t been pushed in a different direction or changed that much. Obviously the time jump had big changes but there’s so much we aren’t seeing, I’m sure they’ll fill in some of the gaps but with such limited time you’re waiting ages to check in with everyone again.

A MUCH better episode today but I think it was helped by the flashbacks and the smaller cast focus. Perhaps that's the way forward with these shorter episodes that we have them trying to cram less in

“The worst trauma of her life” for someone who has already lost a husband, had a child with her own twin brother, that child became a serial killer and tried to kill her, she then killed that child in self defence, had ovarian cancer, and just generally had a horrendous abusive upbringing :lol: I know Jez wasn’t there for that but that does just show that they keep throwing her in the same circles. I’m always happy to see more Anna Passey but I feel like they could give her an issue based storyline instead of another failed marriage where her husband dies on the wedding day.

 

I agree though this was much better in terms of focus, this is the strength of a smaller cast, you can focus in on stories like this in a much better way. You don’t have those filler scenes, you don’t really have filler characters just cutting about taking up airtime, you have an episode that delved into some of the missing year which I do wish they’d do more of as that’s one of the interesting things about a time jump.

This week feels like it has been paced much better. I guess it helped having a Wednesday episode last week also featuring Abe/Cleo/Peri. I genuinely cannot see how long Abe is going to be able to keep any of this up for

The cliffhanger today?? What the heck

I have so many questions about James now. Rex suggesting he isn't dead last week and then his urn being empty?? Not Ste digging up his grave though :mellow:

 

At least Diane has found out about Marie and Tony early on and we don't have months of them trying to hide from her. Maybe Diane will take it as a hint to leave ;)

Edited October 21, 2024Oct 21 by lewistgreen

I am assuming Ste is having a breakdown and psychosis and it’s all in his head, even this grief counsellor. Lord knows I’d have a breakdown if I woke up from a coma to all this.

 

Also can Robbie just LEAVE why are we wasting time on this utter shite when the episodes are only 20 minutes now.

Ah after today's episode

yes it does appear to be all in Ste's head. Well done to them showcasing it so we can see it from Ste's perspective before revealing it's not real

Exit confirmed for

Theresa McQueen. Apparently some of the family are coming back over Christmas for her exit. Jacqui PLEASE

Return confirmed for

Dodger!!! Didn’t expect that one at all, interesting

Actually very please about that and it's also kind of needed given

Jez is his dad. Perhaps he will be back in time for Theresa's exit as well so he can have some time with Myra-Pocahontas

Isabelle Smith is very possibly the best actress in all of soap right now, what an absolute star