So that hilarious spoiler of Shoat's is 100% TRUE! The reveal occurs 11th Feb.

 

In other news it's rating pretty well in Oz after moving to Ten's digital sister channel, Eleven. It ended its run on Ten with average ratings in the 400k region. During its first week on Eleven it was averaging about 270k (worth bearing in mind that not everybody in Oz has access to digital) and yesterday's episode scored upwards of 310k. I think it's safe for a while yet.

Is that the BIG reveal, or just the reveal to the audience? Surely the latter?

 

 

I'd have thought this was going to be the big slow-burner storyline for '11, in the same vein as the downward spiral of Steph last year.

 

I think it's when her sister turns up and the audience becomes aware of the situation.

I have FINALLY fully caught up with the last month's worth of episodes and I have to say the show is just really good at the minute. I would call it more consistent in terms of quality of episodes than Corrie or Emmerdale (although as soaps go Neighbours is obviously such a different breed). Some thoughts on the storylines...

 

Steph's final fortnight felt like a real event. The court scenes were properly tense and dramatic to the extent that I was hoping for some more courtroom action every episode and wound up disappointed if there was none. It was fantastic seeing Sam properly GO for Steph (and Libby), she's a genuine grade-A soap bitch (although it was outrageous that she was allowed to attack the people on the stand like that LOL). Ultimately though I thought Steph's final episode was a let down. No proper goodbye with Libby (which they wrote as though Libby had held off on one because she was convinced Steph would be fine, when clearly Kym Valentine was only working a few hours a week at that time), and that laughable final scene with Toadie where he tried and spectacularly failed to portray 'harrowing' emotion. The last night with Lucas stuff was lovely (if a bit convenient) but the actual final episode fell flat. In saying that they made a huge deal of her departure which for Carla Bonner has to have been totally satisfying and surely deserved.

 

Sorry for rambling on! As for the other storylines I'm liking the direction Tash/Andrew/Summer is going on. Tash is much better whispering threats into Summer's ear whilst playing the nasty bedside nurse than she is bragging to Andrew about how popular and beautiful they are like some sort of Mean Girls reject. She really steps her game up soon when she

realises Andrew has fallen for Summer and, sensing that she's about to be dumped, fakes a pregnancy to keep hold of him until such time when she fancies taking her revenge - FABULOUS

.

 

Lyn is acting like a crazed nut and I suspect the Lyn haters (she has her fair share) will be hating even harder than usual at the minute as she FLAPS around taking none of the good advice offered to her, throwing money she doesn't have at the most obviously sleazy lawyer you ever laid eyes on, blinking and stuttering a lot. I love her though.

 

Susan and Karl remain great - I loved seeing the wedge that the court case drove between them and equally I love seeing them playing petty pranks on one another a la this Citizen of the Year competition. Zeke is much more compatible with them and Donna than he is with Sophie/the high school crowd. It's a shame Libby's got another three months off though although obviously Kym Valentine has to prioritise her health.

 

Kate and Mark Brennan remains rather sickly sweet, with the added disadvantage of the storyline turning Declan into some sort of pantomime villain (just like Nick off Corrie is currently!) at which he is even less convincing than he is the friendly, misunderstood, brooding ex-boyfriend. Mark's accent is also rather grating but I can't bring myself to think of bad of Kate. She's just too nice. Bland but nice.

 

The Robinson affair remains a bit of a mixed bag... quite clever to keep progressing the storyline whilst Rebecca's off screen because at least it distracts Declan from Kate and gives Paul a chance to be really fucking horrible, but still it would be better with Rebecca around since she's probably the best character on the street. The Michael and Rebecca angle is a bit odd too and seems to have come slightly from nowhere...

 

And finally Sonya's naughty secret seems to be unfolding quite nicely although from first impressions I'm not keen on Jade. She seems a bit like a Disney character. I wish they would sort out the continuity on this programme though, it's so jarring to see four consecutive scenes of Toadie and Sonya at home, at Charlie's, at Harold's, at home with nothing else breaking it up. Also they need to find more original ways of having people coming face to face with people they don't want to see. The amount of times in one episode Sam would walk into Harold's or Charlie's only to cause TENSION (!!!) with Libby/Steph/Toadie was just ridiculous.

 

But overall I am liking it very much. AND THERE is my MONTHLY REPORT. I know you're dying to read it. I am sorry if it's a drag and I'm a dreadful bore but I'm not altogether sober at the minute.

Am loving Neighbours atm..was gutted Carla decided to leave as was one of my fav characters!!

 

Does anyone know anywhere I can watch full episodes from 1999 online? have looked but not had much luck!!

Do people think Andrew and Tash will get back together?

So LORD KNOWS if anybody out there is still watching this sh*t, but Neighbours have just announced FOUR returnees, all seemingly unconnected, which is genuinely quite terrific.

 

 

Steph Scully (out from prison and out for revenge on Paul for helping put her there)

DC Mark Brennan (presumably back for Kate)

Lauren Carpenter (Lou's daughter, albeit as a recast)

Sarah Beaumont (she of Kennedy homewrecker fame in the late 90s).

 

 

It sounds like

Lauren's return is permanent as she is bringing a whole family with her.

Not clear on whether the other three are permanent stays or temporary visits though.

 

Edited November 5, 201212 yr by Shoat

Sounds fantastic to me. I'm still going with Neighbours which I have to say has improved vastly since the last time I posted here. It's far from what it was abour 7 years ago but at least they've adjusted the teen number and now have a few more well-rounded, less-S Club 7 characters.

I've only been watching on-and-off in recent years, but from what I have seen it's much more balanced than it was during the Susan Bower era when you could go whole episodes without seeing an adult character. For the most part they've got a decent, likeable cast at the moment. Toadie and Sonya seem well placed to become the new Karl/Susan core supercouple, Vanessa is quite beautiful and breathing life back into Lucas, and it'll be a shame to see

Jade leave, as she and Kyle are a couple you want to root for despite the dysfunction.

Anyone else LOVING this again? I don't think I've been this into Neighbours since early 2007. There's a great mix of characters currently and storylines I actually care about. The dark days of 2008-9 seem a long time ago now.

yea, i love Neighbours, but not keen on the new tune :(

So Mark Brennan is back! :D

BUMP

 

Noticed on the EastEnders thread, people were talking about Neighbours.

 

Does anybody still watch this at all now? What do you think of the episodes being shown on the same day as they're shown in Australia?

 

This is still a bit hit and miss for me.

Love Neighbours, always have!

Ain't seen this since Olympia Valance started.

Its all about TERESE and her iconic stank faces.

And Lauren is such a low key tramp. that one episode where she hid behind the bins to watch Brad kiss Terese was the best soap moment of 2015

Its all about TERESE and her iconic stank faces.

 

 

I remember THERESE from Home & Away as Sophie, not so pretty now, actually Brad was also in Home & Away, I just grab my coat now :ph34r:

All about that Sonya whining to Toadie.

 

 

I'm about a week behind - can Sarah Beaumont's son just DIE already? The English accent he puts on is INSUFFERABLE.