'Sun, Sea and Scandal' - Old H&A on Fiver

[alreetlike]

Watching these episodes, I'm realising how much worse the show is now. I used to be really interested in the storylines.. now they're nowhere near as good.

[Slade]

Episode 3485

Brilliant. Another one of my all time favourite episodes. Angie was awesome.

Finally we start to see real cracks. Firstly there was the way she reacted when Rhys informed her that Dillon had decided to stay with him and then in the classroom she totally lost it. Throughout most of her time in the bay she was always really calm and collected (bar when she ripped part of her shirt of and started screaming when Nick was in the room and made out that he’d assaulted her).

I thought Sally was unprofessional helping Nick and Seb but I don’t really think she had any choice in the matter. It was the only way they could take Angie down.

At the time I thought Jesse was going to deck Josh. I thought he did really well not to, to be honest. I was also glad that Alf and the committee didn’t back down and found it funny when Josh stormed off because he didn’t get his own way. I did actually like Leah and Jesse together back them.

Loved it when Sally announced she found a tape which Seb claimed was his, Angie’s “I’ll take that” followed by Sally’s polite decline. Angie knew she was in trouble and the net was finally closing in.

After the whole class saw what was on the tape I really liked it when Paris told her she had five minutes to pack her things and leave and about 5 seconds later said she had four minutes.

The walk of shame was another one of my all time favourite moments in Home and Away. I loved the way they played the music in the background with Angie walking slowly down the school corridor, with students either side, having to endure the humiliation with most of them looking at her with utter contempt. I remember thinking at the time when Irene stepped out in front of her she was going to say or do something but she just took her place. And finally a perfect way to end the episode with Nick stepping out in his school uniform and Angie delivering (and whispering) the classic line “You will die with my name on you lips. That much I promise you”.

Episode 3601

This was another really good episode. Mainly because it was during the height of the whole Kirsty/Kane/Dani saga. I’m glad that it was fairly Dani centric and to a lesser degree KK. I think after the original broadcast there was a lot of dislike generated towards Dani from some (not all) of the KK fanbase. Objectively speaking I think a lot of neutrals would argue how badly the whole thing was handled (I won’t because I’m biased) mainly due to the ambiguity amongst the younger audience.

I’m not sure quite what went wrong when they brought Kane’s character back in 2003. Although it was obvious he loved Kirsty he seemed to have an attitude that he was determined to reclaim her and to hell with everybody else. I really didn’t like the way he was at the hospital accusing Dani of continuing her vendetta and the remark he made about her getting over it. It was almost like the mediation session in 2002 didn’t happen. I’m glad Flynn set him straight.

IMO when Dani was opening up to Haley her behaviour and was completely understandable. Everything was going ok for her then Kane turns up completely turns her life upside down, rekindles his romance with her sister, drives a wedge between them and we’re almost back to were we were the previous year when it almost broke up the entire family. The reason why she acted so irrational with Scott, Rhys and Kirsty because she felt that no one was really seeing thing from her perspective.

“I hate you. It makes me, sick even, even looking at you. To think of you being with my sister”

“Yeah, well you better get used to it because I’m going to be in your life forever. And your gonna know for the rest of your life that your sister loves me. And when you have nieces and nephews, I’m gonna be the father see. I’m gonna be in your life and in your face from this moment on and there is not a DAMM thing you can do to stop me. You got that!”

I really loved that scene. I know this sounds hypocritical because of what I said above but it was so intense and I liked it purely from a rival point of view. Great acting and could really sense the chemistry between them.

I liked Jesse sticking up for Kane at the gym and thought Haley was extremely unprofessional and he was right I’m not sure if they could have fired him for what happened with Seb.

Watching this again, I actually thought Kirsty came across really badly in that episode (yes I know Kane did as well but I felt she was the person holding all the cards). She wasn’t even trying to be impartial and again I felt sorry for Dani was when Kirsty told Kane how much she loved him on the phone, looked around and saw Dani behind her and just the way Dani looked at her without saying anything before walking off.

I really liked her at Ross’s. She seemed for more likeable and relaxed with her mind obviously detracted from Kane for a short while at least. I’ve said this before but she should not have been driving that night. She was not in the right frame of mind coupled with the fact that there was heavy rain. Still think Kane was very lucky to survive in all honesty. She would have had to be doing at least 40mph possibly even more.

Personally from Wednesday to Thursday, I thought the episodes shown within those two days were better than any within the last two years of Home and Away (bar a few episodes with Amanda).

[I love music]

Thanks for giving me that info, Sladeand RedRanger1. I just watched Episodes 3319 and 3320 and, wow! They were so intense! It was compulsive viewing plus the acting was superb, especially from Shelley (Paula Forrest).

Who actually wrote those two episodes? The script was brilliant and I was intrigued by the Noah, Hayley, Aimee triangle too, which I hadn't actually tuned in for, I'd tuned in for the Kane/Sutherland story. I saw Bevan Lee's name as "script editor" but I thought the script editor just okayed it and only sometimes rewrote or whatever...?

And whatever happpened to Nick? I don't remember how he left the show.

[Dan F]

Well I don't have 3319 to hand, but 3320 was written by someone called Edwina Searle - Bevan was in his role as Network Script Executive at that time (which he has been for the past 13 years)

Nick went to Hollywood after his stint in 'The Dorm' Shame that Irene doesn't mention him being in a movie or something every now and again.....

[I love music]

Well I don't have 3319 to hand, but 3320 was written by someone called Edwina Searle - Bevan was in his role as Network Script Executive at that time (which he has been for the past 13 years)

Okay, thanks for that, Dan, and sorry for the late reply, I went to have a sleep!

Nick went to Hollywood after his stint in 'The Dorm' Shame that Irene doesn't mention him being in a movie or something every now and again.....

Never mind, I did in SBH but to be honest I'd forgotten where I got the idea from.

[Red Ranger 1]

Just caught up on today's episodes.I remember being really impressed by Sally at the time, I'd pretty much given up on Martha by that point given that she seemed perfectly happy to let a sleazebag like Cam pull her strings but Sal did a fantastic job of reaching out to her and saying all the right things. And then Colleen turned up, behaved like Colleen and undid all her hard work, making me once again wonder why everyone(or indeed anyone)in the Bay is so ridiculously fond of a frequently nasty old women who causes more trouble than she's worth.Ric showed why at times the best way to deal with him is to tie him up and lock him in a cupboard until he promises to behave while Jack obviously hasn't learnt that putting the hard word on Cam is just going to make Martha see him as the bad guy. Nice to see what Tony's hair was like before he randomly lopped most of it off.

The Peter and Amanda stuff was quite good as well.Nice father/son bonding moment between Peter and Drew and Ryan giving Amanda away was very cute.Even Dan, who by that point was pretty much just a background character, was amusing.Kelli must have had her blinkers on;both she and Belle looked terrible in their bridesmaid dresses, they were completely the wrong colour for their skin tone. Not sure what Amanda meant at the end when she told Peter it wasn't what it looked like, as far as she was aware she did sleep with Ethan, did she just mean it was a one-off?Going back to a discussion we had on another thread a while back, there clearly wasn't any opportunity for Peter and Amanda to sign the register after the service, Ethan turned up as soon as they were pronounced husband and wife, yet later on everyone acts as though they're legally married.Are the laws different in Australia?

Looking forward to the rest of the week, they definitely showed the first episode tomorrow last year and I think they showed the second one as well but they seem to be showing the continuation of that which I don't think we've had recently...Well, not last-12-months recently anyway.

[Slade]

4288 - Although the episode was far too recent it was still quite good. Glad that Amanda was in it as she was another one of my all time favourites and I always enjoyed the stuff between her and Belle. I’m still unsure how believable her falling for Drew was like that though. And considering how she was when Kitty first turned up (i.e. she was still suffering the after effects of losing a child when she was 14) and how she wanted to make an effort with Belle once she found out she was in fact the child she never lost, I wasn’t sure about the level of consistency TBO. I have to say Drew seemed so smug and really couldn’t give a stuff about Belle.

Really liked the fact that Macca was there to support Amanda and didn’t judge her when she told him the truth. It’s a shame what happened with Cassie in the end because when he was like that he was quite likeable.

I loved Belle giving Drew and Cassie a serve earlier on in the day (and the fact that they both stood there and took it). I also really liked the way Lucas looked out for her. I thought the serve Brad gave to Sally was even better. That actually brought a smile to my face as I thought she had no reason to involve herself in something which didn’t really concern her, especially as Martha said without any proof.

Really liked the chat Brad had with Rachel. It reminded me of the times when I used to like her.

It's a shame we couldn't have seen the episode after that.

4380 - Some mother Kitty is. First she steals her granddaughter, sells her, makes her Amanda believe she’s dead, keeps quiet about it for years and now she finds out that Amanda’s deranged, bitter and twister sister, hell-bent on revenge is planning to ruin Amanda’s wedding so what does she do? Rather than do the honourable thing and tell her the truth she took the money and ran. In saying that I really liked the whole Amanda/Kelli/Ethan storyline even thought they dragged it out for quite a while. I also really liked Amanda and Peter together. Ethan made me laugh. I always loved the self-satisfied smug expressions he gave whenever he was blackmailing Amanda, and liked the comment he made to Kitty about sending her a postcard.

Although I couldn’t stand Martha for about two years, I still thought that storyline with her and Cam was ok (I actually thought she evolved much more as a character). It was interesting watching her rebel and seeing the breakdown of her relationship with people such as Sally and Cassie. I have to say I loved the part at the end when she was pole dancing and Cam was talking about how much money she was going to make him.

[haaxhaa]

Just watching an old ep right now.

Cringed at the site of Martha poll dancing, the look on all of their faces made me burst out laughing how I miss these eps, am so grateful fiver are showing them.

Though I think that everyone is being really hypocritical (especially Ric, who was getting excited up and till he realised it was Martha)

Why is it alright to watch some girl who "probably" has a family degrade herself on a poll and for it to be OK, yet when Martha does it... it's a train smash.

They didn't care when it was someone else and they were paying money to see it....

Though got to admitt, LOVE'n IT!

And Jack .... he's alive !!!

[Red Ranger 1]

Didn't see much of the first episode today but then I saw it not so long ago.Not quite sure why it was there other than because they had it to hand, we see a bit more of the Martha/Cam storyline but not enough to know how it ended, although it is the point where the scales finally fall from her eyes.I was glad that Cam wasn't willing to cross the line and just stand by while Martha was raped by Crais off Farscape although the fact that he then went and robbed the Diner stopped him becoming sympathetic. It was probably included because it was the introduction of Naomi, who features heavily in the next two episodes.At the time it looked like we could be heading for a forbidden romance between her and Lucas and that would arguably have been better than what we did get.Instead we were treated to weeks of her saying nothing could happen and him acting more and more like a stalker, with the stuff with Tony thrown in to spice it up.

Which neatly leads into the second episode.Some good stuff in there I thought, notably the double act between Ric and Lucas who sparked off each other well.I miss Ric, you could count on him to lighten the mood.Bit of a nice comedy moment when Dan and Belle catch Amanda packing and both go "Again?"Interesting that even then Belle had an unfortunate habit of having a go at people for something that wasn't really their fault as with Peter here.But the whole thing resulted in a nice scene between Belle and Amanda which nicely summed up their relationship.Even though Irene was Belle's mother figure for most of the time on the show, there was never any doubt that Amanda loved her and while she probably wasn't Belle was expecting I don't think she was left thinking that finding her mother was a waste of time.Her comment about wasting time hating her really hit home, it was a shame that Amanda left when they'd possibly been getting on better than they ever had.

Nice to see a bit of Kit, a character I was extremely fond of, who started off deeply flawed but who had a good heart in there somewhere and matured nicely over her time on the show:Like Morag and possibly Peter, she probably made more appearances as a guest character than as a regular.Although watching it I was reminded how young she always seemed, it was quite a shock when we were told she was 23.Naomi wears the sexiest negligee possible for just sitting around in a caravan and doesn't really seem bothered about covering herself up when Tony arrives;she's at least put on an equally sexy dressing gown when they're having a drink but she takes it off again before the end.I do recall at the time thinking that cliffhanger wasn't really done very well:Ominious music aside, two people hugging, even on the bed, doesn't really scream "We're about to have sex" at me.

[Slade]

Looks like I’m lagging behind by quite a bit. Anyway the scene at the end of the first episode from yesterday was classic. The look on everybody’s faces when they realized Martha was the pole dancer was priceless. Martha’s reaction was equally amusing. Loved the double-standards from everyone, firstly egging each other on when they realised they were going to a strip bar and then cheering before they realised who the stripper was. A stark contrast to their reactions afterwards (although I would probably be the same to be honest).

Ric’s reaction still annoyed me watching that again. His usual shoot first ask questions later approach only made the situation worse.

Liked Sally sticking up for Martha when Colleen had a go at her and then her abruptness at the wedding.

It’s a shame Kelli had to ruin Amanda’s wedding considering how well everything was going for her at the time. She was getting on like a house on fire with Belle and they were forming a real relationship. It appeared as though most of the residents had finally accepted her and things were going great with Peter. I even liked when Kelli was being like a sister to her (even though it was all just an act).

In saying that I thought the scene with Ethan was brilliant. It was set up perfectly. The wedding itself was quite good, with Amanda in absolute bliss and then the change in music, everybody heard Ethan clapping and gave him odd looks. I just loved to look of absolute horror on Amanda’s face. She looked mortified. And then after the reveal just the humiliation when Peter walked off closely followed by Amanda. Loved Ethan’s “Oh well” expression. I did feel really sorry for both Amanda and Peter but at the same time found the part just before hilarious. Again love the self-satisfied smugness Ethan displayed.