Summer Break 2011

[Red Ranger 1]

Pretty much given up on the 5* broadcasts because my signal is terrible but some of them are turning up on Demand5 so I caught yesterday's episodes.Didn't see much of Tuesday's Jesse episodes, I think it's only a couple of years since they were last on:Main thoughts were how perky Leah used to be(they seem to have been trying to get her back to that point last couple of years, with mixed results), how much VJ's grown in nine years and how Dani and Josh's commentary was actually rather cute.

So, yesterday's eps with Duncan's return actually being one of the least interesting elements.Don't think I'd seen those two since they were first shown.I always found it bewildering how desperate they were to turn Jade and Seb into some sort of golden couple, I could never see them as more than a rebound relationship.Hearing them planning to move in together was just weird.I think I'd forgotten just how bad things got between Sally and Flynn at that point, with Leah beginning to enter her stalker phase.Shame Jesse ended up the loser in the whole thing, I liked him and Leah together more than any of her previous relationships but they were obviously going off the boil by that point.I did think he was a bit harsh on Flynn, who really couldn't have stopped Sally and probably did the right thing giving her space.I actually thought Sally was in the wrong for running off like that.

Loved that second episode, I counted twenty regulars in it.(Only ones not to appear were Sally, Kirsty and Colleen.)I think that was probably the lowest Matilda got with her baiting of Jade. Although, maybe it's from remembering how fond I grew of her later, but I actually found myself smiling at most of her comments and Jade would probably have been better off listening to her and pulling herself together than taking drugs and indirectly putting her boyfriend in a wheelchair.And she was on the receiving end of Henry's brilliant "It saves time" put down.(Given the later attempts to portray Mattie as insecure, it's interesting to look back on those early episodes...)Jade did seem unnecessarily harsh towards Shelley as well, who was trying her best.

Tasha has to be the hottest geek ever, her birthday present to Robbie was really cute.I loved the moment where Noah realised he'd lost the engagement ring and started patting his pockets in a panic and then Irene's desperate attempt to get it back off Hayley and her realising what it was. Almost makes you forget how short-lived the marriage actually was...

[Ryan]

There was a lot of relationships in 2003 that they seemed to go for that seemed to go against the grain of what the fans wanted I thought. Splitting Nick and Jade up and putting Jade with Seb, splitting Hayley and Noah to have short lived relationships with Alex and Josh.

[alexx]

Main thoughts were how perky Leah used to be(they seem to have been trying to get her back to that point last couple of years, with mixed results),

Yeah I miss that Leah - shes pretty much like a totally different person now. It started somewhere in 2003, probably into the year as the character settled without Vinnie. By 2004 she had become very miserable and serious most of the time, always shouting. I wouldn't have cared if they got rid of her at that point which is crazy since she was a firm favorite of mine for the first couple of years or so.

They did try and hark back to how she used to be when she had her 30th party in 09 and got drunk, but oddly it was treated as a storyline, a one off. I think she is still a rather serious character these days with a nod to the previous happy-go-lucky character she used to be, but its so few and far between. I'm thinking she is more like Ada rather than Leah now.

[jodlebirger]

I think its natural for Leah to have settled down and become more mature and more quiet as a person. She was very young when she first came in, and her relationship and marriage to Vinnie was very teenlike. As for her being drunk at her 30's I think that it was good that was a one nights happening, because that is what is normal for a 30 year old. People do act and handle differently when they are in their thirties than they did in their early twenties. I actually think that the writers have a big problem with moving the characters forward and making them older and more mature. But I think with Leah they have done a great job, concidering what she has been through. I don't want the 32 year old Leah to act like the 22 year old one... But she has lost enough husbands/boyfriends!!

I don't like when the young characters acts like adults like when Drew was in bed with his girlfriends mother... But it certainly not good when the characters in their late 20 and 30's are acting like teens. That is the main reason why I've never liked the character of Charlie...

[Si-Co]

Interestingly, the cuts to the "bulbs" references from the original transmission have remained - including a really dodgy edit of the recap of the 18:30 episode! Thought with Dirty Des in charge now things would be more liberal. I remember that the car crash episode which followed was hacked to bits due to a combination of drug references and flashing images - I think about 5 minutes' worth was taken out. Only one of 2-3 times C5 have really taken the scissors to the show, the other being the Plane Crash in 2005 (due to it airing three weeks after 7/7) and the 2006 Cyclone (flashing images).

Anyway, I remember me and others getting rather pissed at the Bulbs cuts, although they're a legal drug in Oz. I guess they aren't so over here. Can't believe that was 7 years ago.

Must admit I'm really enjoying this selection of episodes.

Yes, I remember 'bulb-gate' from first time round, and typing up an account of all the cuts, which got lost in the Great Server Crash of 2005! I guess if the episodes were already cut and edited for broadcast, they've just pulled the same copies off their shelves and played them again, rather than going to the trouble of re-editing the original material.

[Red Ranger 1]

Caught up on Thursday and Friday's episodes.Felt disappointingly familiar:I think those Evil Josh episodes turned up a couple of years ago and goodness only knows how often Sally's Wonderful Life has been shown, don't know if there's anything more to say about that one.Once again reminded of how the show seemed to expect the audience to want Scott and Hayley back together when I'd have rather they stayed where they were.Maybe if the writers hadn't been so sold on giving them a sunset ending we could have seen a bit more of Ella Scott Lynch.It's always interesting to see the evolution of Leah's haircuts in these repeat runs:After seeing her red phase from 2004, she seemed to spend one episode looking like Cleopatra, although oddly it was different in the next episode.Even knowing how duplicitous Amanda had been and was being, and that her darkest hour as Evil Josh's partner in crime was just around the corner, I couldn't help sympathising with her and being annoyed by Leah's attitude.I was expecting Beth to stick the boot in when she had that knowing look on her face around Scott and Hayley but she was actually pretty even-handed.Loved Kim's sarcastic reaction to Evil Josh's cover story.("Oh thank goodness, I thought we might have to cancel the wedding.")

Looking forward to next week's episodes, I don't think I've seen those Viv episodes since they were first on.

[Light of the Bay]

Have to say i have enjoyed the episodes that have been shown, apart from the Duncan and Josh ones! It's Alf's 60th birthday tonight :-), always loved those two episodes!

[Red Ranger 1]

I've enjoyed this last week.Alf's vision of a nightmare future is amusing in retrospect.He imagines a future where Hayley married an idiot, Sally was a failure as principal, Don ended up a lonely old man, Flynn and Sally lost the baby, Seb had a motor accident, Jesse went to prison, the Beachside Diner closed down, the drop-in centre closed down and the Bay was overrun with developers and louts and ended up in a future where...all that still happened.Plus Flynn died, Noah died and Josh grew an Evil Beard and then died.(Okay, some things were better but it still makes me laugh.)

I haven't seen those middle episodes in years so it was nice to see them again.I loved that scene where Matilda thought Kim was interested in here and he's just stood there going "Oh...heck" as she rabbits on.Nice to see the beginning of Ric and Mattie's eighteen month courtship too with that chat on the wharf.And proof that Ric recognising Kane in 2008 was definitely right, as they're sat there looking at each other.Kirsty and Kane's marriage did, frankly, seem on the verge of collapse even without them going on the run, they reminded me of Aden and Belle on their middling days.The plane crash was actually one of the better disasters:Kim seemed to do a surprisingly good job of taking charge of things.I remember at the time I was quite keen for Hayley and Scott to get together and wanted Kim to go away but, having seen how much of a disaster they were as a couple (and yet they still left together!), I did actually see a bit more of a spark between them. Although them getting together at that point, when they hardly knew each other, was a bit of a bad idea.Barry Hyde really was a worthy successor to Donald Fisher by that point, with that lovely understated moment of panic while Kim was missing.

That 4000th episode and the follow-up...never been entirely sure about them.It did seem like they brought together far too many characters to do very little and then followed it up by killing Chloe only a few weeks after she came back, which was guaranteed to annoy all her fans.

[Ryan]

I've enjoyed this last week.Alf's vision of a nightmare future is amusing in retrospect.He imagines a future where Hayley married an idiot, Sally was a failure as principal, Don ended up a lonely old man, Flynn and Sally lost the baby, Seb had a motor accident, Jesse went to prison, the Beachside Diner closed down, the drop-in centre closed down and the Bay was overrun with developers and louts and ended up in a future where...all that still happened.Plus Flynn died, Noah died and Josh grew an Evil Beard and then died.(Okay, some things were better but it still makes me laugh.)

I haven't seen those middle episodes in years so it was nice to see them again.I loved that scene where Matilda thought Kim was interested in here and he's just stood there going "Oh...heck" as she rabbits on.Nice to see the beginning of Ric and Mattie's eighteen month courtship too with that chat on the wharf.And proof that Ric recognising Kane in 2008 was definitely right, as they're sat there looking at each other.Kirsty and Kane's marriage did, frankly, seem on the verge of collapse even without them going on the run, they reminded me of Aden and Belle on their middling days.The plane crash was actually one of the better disasters:Kim seemed to do a surprisingly good job of taking charge of things.I remember at the time I was quite keen for Hayley and Scott to get together and wanted Kim to go away but, having seen how much of a disaster they were as a couple (and yet they still left together!), I did actually see a bit more of a spark between them. Although them getting together at that point, when they hardly knew each other, was a bit of a bad idea.Barry Hyde really was a worthy successor to Donald Fisher by that point, with that lovely understated moment of panic while Kim was missing.

That 4000th episode and the follow-up...never been entirely sure about them.It did seem like they brought together far too many characters to do very little and then followed it up by killing Chloe only a few weeks after she came back, which was guaranteed to annoy all her fans.

I stuck my tape of that period on this week, and Chloe's return fits on the one tape, but looking back on it, six or so years on now, it's up there with the most bizarre reappearances in the history of the show, though perhaps usurped by the fact that James comes back for a few episodes a few weeks later. I don't quite know what killing Chloe achieved.

[beau_t]

And proof that Ric recognising Kane in 2008 was definitely right, as they're sat there looking at each other.

From the way you worded this it sounds like this may be some on-going debate I don't know about, but whether Kane and Ric saw each other in that episode or not, it's entirely believable that Ric would know Kane in 2008 anyway as they were both (unless I'm mistaken) long time Bay residents before they appeared on screen. Well at least, I'm sure Ric was. And Kane was around from at least 2001 and was caught up in some pretty major scandals, so it's not surprising Ric would know who he was in 2008, even if they didn't happen to be on screen together very much at the same time in the past.