atrus

KIRBY: How am I supposed to sing the songs we wrote together, and pretend they're not killing me? Jesus wept. Between Kirby and Theo's break-up-for-no-reason (though I'm assuming Mercedes will set her sights on him presently), Bree being possessed by the green-eyed monster, and this silly Mercedes/Eden feud, there was precious little reason to pay even the least bit of attention in this episode. I don't know how much longer this angsty muso stuff can realistically be sustained for; it's slowly throttling the life out of the show.

Two weeks on, and the Andrew and Marilyn stories continue to be the only games in town of any interest - and even when one of them features in an episode, it seems to be 50/50 at the moment whether they'll actually be advanced in any way or just have people standing around talking about the current state of play until it's time for the relevant cast to be back on-screen. ? Otherwise it's just been the usual mishmash of dull relationship dramas and band-related angst. The Vita Nova stuff continues to be the main highlight - strong twist with Andrew's mum turning out to be nothing of the sort, so look forward to seeing more of her and where things go from here. While Cash certainly screwed up to some extent, it seems to me that it's the lack of interest from the wider police force that's the real problem here; they haul him over the coals for it, and yet for some reason they're not interested in pursuing the fact that Andrew, who's still presumably a minor legally, has been driven off to a heavily fortified cult under false pretences by someone claiming to be his parent - raising the question of what on earth the police are for if not this. And yes, I'm guessing the fact men armed with crossbows were stood nearby might just have had some impact on Andrew's claim of not wanting to leave with Justin. Theo may be behaving rashly in the last couple of episodes but at least he's doing something at a time when everybody else seems to have largely given up. Wasn't really interested in Kirby's relationship whining in the midst of all that. On Stunning Organics, on the plus side we finally got Irene coming back to do the "gawd save us" routine thanks to all the boxes in her living room and the brick through her window. But now she's been released from her contract I really don't know why Marilyn keeps on 'poking the bear' rather than just quitting while she's ahead - particularly when her friends are all being threatened too by this hazy corporation. Still, it might be worth it drama-wise when things inevitably step up a gear. I'm still half hoping it gets tied into the cult stuff further down the line although it seems I'm alone in thinking along those lines at the minute. Bit of a damp squib ending with the Kahu story, if that's what it was - or is he going to follow Tane back to Summer Bay as a reformed character? Lyrik continues to bore and frustrate in most regards. And, oh, god, now we have another band-centred spanner in the works in the form of Mercedes, by the looks of things.

Back up to speed, and looks like Home and Away is finally back to doing what it does best: troubled waifs being taken in by pillars of the community and sheltered from the clutches of wacko cults. Joshua Hewson is putting in a wonderful idiosyncratic performance - it's great to see the little moments of the character relishing the freedom of the real world, such as in the music sessions or at the beach. This storyline is so far and away above everything else right now in terms of quality and engagement value that for four days this week I managed almost to forget the show is totally different to the one I grew up with. Justin and Cash frustrated at times with their questioning style; I get that impatience is an established character flaw for Justin, but it's hard to watch when Andrew is visibly terrified. I spent most of the time thinking that there must surely be ways to make these interviews easier for him: such as not needlessly dragging him to the police station when they could easily have conducted it at home. Maybe they could've put Rose on the case rather than the officious Cash, too, as I suspect she'd have been better at making it a less intimidating process and let's face it, didn't really have anything more worthwhile to do this week. Leah's softly-softly approach seems to be garnering a little more information, but evidently Andrew's still terrified of repercussions if he says too much, and understandably so given what Leah learned about their punishment methods yesterday. Of secondary interest is Marilyn's story, which also has somewhat of an old-school feel about it even if I can't exactly put my finger on why. (Maybe it's just that so many characters who've been in the show for more than two years are involved.) This cosmetics company seems fairly bullish and hardcore in how they deal with detractors, but we're taking a lot of time to uncover anything about them and have still yet to meet any representatives, which gave me a thought: is anybody else wondering if there's going to be a link-up between them and Andrew's cult somewhere down the road? Maybe it's how they make their money to buy endless supplies of tinned goods and mineral water? While Kirsty Marillier is valiantly putting baskets of energy into making Rose interesting, it still can't really save the fact that this thing with Mali is another by-the-numbers, heterosexual, twentysomething will-they-won't-they, and I'm just beyond caring. Beyond caring too on how Tane's random cousin will fund his fishing trawler, though I'm guessing we're leading up to Mackenzie getting suckered in (and she's not going to listen to any of her friends' warnings because she doesn't need to be wrapped in cotton wool - so just BACK OFF!) And even further beyond caring on the vexed question of how Lyrik is going to fund their new album - particularly the silly Cash/Eden interactions with him getting his nose out of joint because she even uttered the possibility that they might not be together in x years' time. Glad to see Xander a bit cheerier now he's out of the paramedic gig - but is he the only Salt employee who's exempt from wearing black and white stripes? Or does it count as one big stripe if his shirt's all black?

Well, at least Alf and Marilyn were back. Not that I approve of her lying to Alf and Roo, especially after the Heather saga, but at least she makes a halfway interesting watch. Definitely not sure of the wisdom of posting that video, though. If there's evidence that other people had bad reactions to the products (which I think was said a few episodes ago but I missed the details?) then wouldn't it be better to collate all that info into a dossier, show it to the company and then privately threaten to go to trading standards or whatever the Aussie equivalent is? That way they would surely agree to cancel Marilyn's contract. Or even better, just go to trading standards and if it's really that bad, the company will be forced to fold. I don't object to the Mackenzie/Kahu hookup on principle but, straight after Gabe, it makes the former story feel even more pointless than it already did.

I am reluctant to say 'hate', and yet... Ugh, I don't know what it is. It's not that they're even objectionable characters, individually speaking - if they were, I might be more engaged. But it does feel completely like a show of two halves at the moment, and on days like today when the 'other' half is rostered on, I just sit there and wonder what I'm doing. I can't bring myself to care about Tane's random cousin's fishing ambitions, or about Kirby poking about in the periphery of Marilyn's plot while she's offscreen, or about Eden navel-gazing over her dreary song about selective amnesia. I'm trying my hardest to care about Bree, honestly, but... it isn't working. What's the problem? Is it them, or is it me? And the logic behind Leah and Justin's flummoxed response to Andrew's ketchup technique continues to prove more intriguing than the totality of today's episode. I want answers to this question and more. Roll on Monday (or maybe Tuesday?) so we can find out.

Wasn't it because it was a very tiny dollop? I thought the subtext of that scene was that Andrew was very uncomfortable with the (admittedly obscene) amount of food Leah had piled in front of him and that he was being very frugal with the sauce to compensate. And an austere approach to food would kind of fit in with him being malnourished and the padlocked room full of tinned rations etc. Anyway, good to see the second decent storyline on the trot for Justin and Leah - more of this, please. Still not clear what's going on with Marilyn and whether she's actually intending to sell anything from the boxes or just accepting delivery and hoping the problem will eventually go away by itself (which would be a very Marilyn approach to take). Irene's going to hit the roof when she comes back and finds her house packed to the rafters with Stunning Organics.

The plot thickens with Andrew. His twitchy, terrified behaviour reminds me a lot of how Leah ended up being when she got kidnapped by that nutcase a few years ago - there couldn't be a link, could there? Could it all be a setup and Justin have been deliberately targeted? It seems unlikely, I think, but then Andrew watching him and Leah while they slept was incredibly creepy... I wasn't clear whether Marilyn was lying to Roo out of embarrassment or if she's actually intending on continuing to sell the cosmetics, because she's scared of the legal consequences if she doesn't. One would have thought the company would back off once word started to get round about the reaction to the products because the likes of Marilyn speaking up could ruin their reputation. But evidently they're not that concerned, and Marilyn doesn't seem to have thought of using it as leverage yet.

Hmm, intriguing developments with Justin and the mystery boy, whom I'm getting distinct Tasha Andrews vibes from, albeit the circumstances are a little different. Dangerously undernourished; doesn't know (or won't tell) his own birthday; afraid of cops; seemingly afraid of medical procedures. All seems rather grim and none of it exactly spells "happy and fulfilling childhood". Could possibly be a Bella-esque situation, too? Agree that it's got an old-school feel to it, whatever the case. Couldn't be arsed with Xander's "character stubbornly pretends not to need medical attention" storyline - unlike Andrew, seemingly, he doesn't have much of an excuse for it - so wasn't really paying attention to what happened there.

I've been really struggling to summon the will to watch again, but has it really been a month? Oh, well, here goes... I'll get the gristle out of the way first. Lots of daftness with Love's Young Dreams: we have Felicity barely getting in the door from her honeymoon before whining that marriage isn't what she expected; while Eden pretends to have got engaged to Cash when he was drunk and then gets annoyed when he's not exactly mad about the idea. Cash managed to get on my nerves too, though, with his grouchy reaction to Remi and Eden behaving as they always have. And then a whole episode of Eden navel-gazing about the prospect of having to sing her ridiculous song again. Bree being mopey and prickly is getting a bit old, so that didn't much interest me either. And not too keen on the arrival of another hot-but-not-particularly-interesting Parata - hopefully his status in the credits points to villain rather than a permanent extension of the family. I spent most of the paramedic attack/aftermath story thinking, 'If you have to get a tattoo every time you lose a patient, what is it for a colleague? A piercing?' - but interestingly it seems to have been a route into getting Xander into a different career path, rather than retreading too much old ground. Not that interested in Rose going all 'gung-ho cop' in his defence, and I get why Mali found it offputting - plus, for professional reasons, she was too close to the case and should've let others handle it. Meanwhile, offscreen Gabe continues to dominate Mackenzie's storylines and I continue to wonder why we're really supposed to care about him, even at the point where we learn he's dead. It has generated some nice bonding scenes between Mackenzie and John/Mali, though, so I liked the story more than I did when Gabe was actually in the show for a few weeks. The Stunning Organics storyline is pretty by-the-numbers Marilyn fare, though still pretty much the most interesting thing going on except for Justin's story (which I'll come to in a minute). But even I'm getting frustrated by Marilyn at this point. Before we even get to the shonky cosmetics, it struck me that most of this silliness could've been avoided if Marilyn hadn't decided to use paying for Jett's wedding as a distraction technique from doing what she was really feeling guilty about: not having met his fiancée yet because she's always felt secretly inadequate and secondary to John as Jett's parent. This could have been really easily resolved with a trip to the City (she could even have combined it with another stint at the food truck) but instead she sets about embarking on a pyramid scheme without reading the contract, to compete with John and assuage her guilt for her lack of presence in Jett's life. (I hope this subtext with Jett gets addressed before all's said and done, unlike with the Heather saga where Marilyn's neglected child just doesn't get mentioned again once the drama's over and done with.) After which point, both Marilyn and Roo annoyed me in equal measure; I do think it was premature for Roo to demand Marilyn close the business purely on the basis that she had had a bad reaction to one of the products, before having gauged anyone else's experience. But on the other hand it clearly was a reaction to the product, and not to a passing horse. And so they were behaving as badly as each other - although of course, H&A being what it is, we knew Roo's presumptions would eventually prove correct and that the company would turn out to be shonky. So, the Justin stuff: I was disappointed that Ava got shunted off yet again, as I'd hoped we finally had our first proper family unit in several years, but no such luck. Her explanation for her stalky behaviour - that she was jealous of Theo's relationship with Justin - does have some ring of truth, and it certainly puts events such as her photographing herself in Theo's bedroom in a slightly different light, as in different circumstances it would probably be her room. But her abandonment issues made it all the more important that she should've stuck around, rather than being marched off to her mum's again. Then again, I suppose if she'd stayed, the writers would have finally had to address the fact that Summer Bay High and its entire student population have fallen into an even bigger, off-screen sinkhole than the one Alf and Roo landed up in a few years ago. Which simply wouldn't do. I wondered if the lack of a courtroom was more about avoiding paying all the speaking barristers, judges, extras etc than the location itself, given that they shunted all the main actors out on location anyway, but I'm not an expert on how much all these things cost. Anyhow, I'm glad Justin got off with community service, and that this in itself seems to be an in-road into an intriguing new storyline with the mysterious misspelled note in the rucksack. Oh, and I wish that fellow offender had put in a complaint about Cash, because he clearly was giving his mate Justin preferential treatment without having any idea what it was they were arguing about. A couple of heavy-handed references to Irene 'jetting off', which will probably give the character more to do than she's ever given when she's actually present. But did it say where she was going? If so, I wasn't paying close enough attention. Sounds potentially further afield than 'up the coast', at any rate - possibly visiting one of her kids, although I think we're way beyond the years when they'd get the occasional token namecheck. Wow, you have an impressively long memory!

Tuesday - So, Theo and Kirby are off 'up the coast' as well now - and honestly, I can't blame them - what a dumpster-fire of a situation. I think the show is right not to let Justin off the hook for what he did; I don't condone vigilantism; but I also think it's a nuanced situation; he did think Ava was in danger and so arguably his behaviour was initially in defence of her, thought it clearly went too far and went on too long. Anyway, at least the Conor bloke is not seriously injured, which should limit the extent of the consequences, although he does (understandably) seem to want Justin held accountable. Maybe when he cools down and finds out about Ava's text he'll be moved to drop the charges, but because the police witnessed it I don't know if that's even possible now? Glad John didn't let his pride affect his relationship with Mali for too long, although I was half-expecting him to get some kind of farewell video message from Dean or whatever. Probably more realistic that he didn't, to be honest. Wednesday - Good to see Ava finally taking some responsiblity, even if things have had to become pretty parlous to prompt the wake-up call. However, I don't buy that the abandonment issues she spoke about as regards Justin, while maybe having some validity in themselves, really explain or justify her strange behaviour towards Theo, and I think that needs to be examined separately before everyone can move on. Finally, some movement on Remi and Bree. And I'm actually glad we're moving to this Tane/Flick wedding tomorrow, too - heaven knows it's dragged on long enough already, so time to get it done with, I think. Thursday - Felicity was annoying - couldn't she have just phoned Cash and Eden rather than hammering on their bedroom door when they were obviously indisposed until forced to emerge? I suppose we're supposed to find this behaviour endearing but it just comes across as attention-seeking. Still, she redeemed herself a bit by putting so much effort into the Māori vows, and by not having yet another pre-wedding meltdown. Well, Remi knows, and he responded a lot better than I expected him to, so that's good. I was imagining he'd give Bree grief about sleeping with Jacob and/or about having the termination - but he wins brownie points on both scores. Friday - I suppose I ought to say happy 8000th, and it felt like about as much of an occasion as we could've expected in the modern era. I thought the wedding ceremony was really nicely done; we've had a million beach weddings before so I was definitely pleased at the last-minute switcharound. Less excited by the Lyrik gig; and a daft cliffhanger - presumably now we have another potential wedding to mope and angst over? It speaks volumes that none of the old guard were invited to the afterparty; but it also speaks volumes that they don't particularly feel like omissions either, as none of them have more than a perfunctory relationship with any of these characters. And that's the real and enduring problem, rather than that they weren't invited to the shindig.

Annoying misdirect with the Possibly Evil Hitchhikee being made out to be as sketchy and murderous as possible before the first ad break, then totally fine and normal after that. Was the show trying to teach us a lesson about the dangers of assuming the worst of people, or was it just a way of maintaining our attention? (Which, in fairness, it did in my case.) Either way, I thought this entire pudding was a bit over-egged really, with Justin immediately assuming Ava was with some kind of psychopath - whereas I'm sure 99% of hitchhikes don't end in bloodshed, particularly ones that have only happened because the driver thought the hitchhiker was already in possible peril from a third party. However Ava's later message clearly didn't help matters, and in that context I think Justin's actions were more understandable. He should probably have left it to the police and/or just focused on getting Ava away from the situation rather than throwing his fists about, but I can also see why he went in guns blazing in the heat of the moment. I felt sorry for John being so affected by Dean's departure (especially because you can bet Dean isn't in Queensland pining for John in the same way), but he had no right being an idiot to Mali as a result.

Thursday - Ava seems to have levelled up on the stalkiness spectrum since her previous appearance, moving from the realm of merely obsessive to actively delusional, as she turns up with biscuits at Kirby's place as if nothing has happened and expects to just be able to hang out there. On the plus side, she did interrupt Kirby and Theo's song; but I'm starting to wonder if some kind of diagnosis is going to be involved here, as it's getting harder to explain away her actions; being hit by an all-enveloping crush is one thing, but believing it's reciprocated - at least, that's what I took from her spat with Kirby - is quite another. A bit random that Leah is moving herself out, at just the moment when you'd think she'd want to be there to (offer support/stick her bib in - delete as applicable depending on your views of Leah). I tend to agree this is likely an episode quotas thing, because I'd put the chances of seeing her hanging out at Summer Bay House right now at roughly zero. Friday - I'm not sure that 'laughing out loud and clapping with glee' is the reaction that the writers were going for from the scene where Ava was crushing biscuits into Kirby's keyboard, but there it was. (Sorry, Lyrik doesn't bring out my best side. ?) But seriously, the level of malice here suggests that this girl needs some help. I can understand Theo losing his cool with her in the moment because she clearly isn't taking any outside perspectives on board, and all more tactful attempts to help the scales fall from her eyes have fallen by the wayside - though I do think there were gentler ways of delivering the message, nonetheless. But ultimately I think it's time that some kind of professional help was sought - and no, I don't just mean Roo. That's if they can rescue Ava from Possibly Evil Hitchhikee (is that a word?) So, what, that's just the end of the Gabe story, then? ? What a monumental waste of time all that was, aside from proving that Emily Weir can act, which we already knew. And Mackenzie isn't even sticking around herself for us to see the consequences before jetting off 'up the coast'? Is the show strapped for cash right now or something, because it feels like everyone can't rush off-screen quick enough at the moment? It all feels very precarious and directionless right now.

Well, personally I think Flick and Tane ought to be grateful any of their friends and family reacted to their latest engagement with anything more than a sigh, roll of the eyes and a "here we go again", because that's certainly what I was feeling - never mind the attention-seeking flashing of the bling around and rudely demanding that Cash and Eden organise the second wedding for them. A lot of non-movement elsewhere, with incessant chat about Remi's adventures 'up the coast' - the go-to locale for those in personal crisis - and Ava's absence from the episode limiting Leah and Justin to having the same conversation over and over while trying to lure Theo home, when it feels like the easier and more sensible (if less dramatic) course of action is just to leave him at Lyrik HQ until Ava's stay has played out. Meanwhile Roo's Leah-sanctioned stickybeaking has yielded even more reason to think that's going to be the best thing for everyone. Happily, tomorrow's episode looks like it's going to move us forward a bit more significantly.

Well, not until Izzy Thompson-Astoni becomes a Hazmat Team Leader, in any case.

Thursday - it's certainly a generous gesture, but Dean just giving Mali the board shop doesn't seem very finance-savvy, especially when he presumably hasn't got anything lined up yet in Queensland and he has a new baby to fund, plus Ziggy presumably isn't heading back to work again yet and moving isn't cheap. (I'd forgotten Ben had handed over ownership to Dean as well, which would've been my next question.) What about just making Mali a partner in it, and gifting him 49% or whatever? That way Dean and Ziggy still have a bit of income from the business, at least. Don't really care that much about Remi and Bree, but given how Remi's been in the past, I'm not surprised really that she's reluctant to tell him about the pregnancy. Even so, I don't think he's going to give up until he has proper answers from her, so not sure her strategy of cutting him loose is going to pay off; and as others have pointed out, she's not going to be able to hide it from him forever if she's sticking around in the Bay. Friday - So, farewell Ziggy and Dean. I do think they're a good endgame couple and they've always worked pretty well for me as a pairing, so I'm really quite happy with this departure. I really liked the little flashback package; H&A ought to do more of this kind of thing (provided it doesn't look too much to network execs as if the show is engaging with its own past, of course); and the characters have certainly been around long enough to justify it. Monday - Another episode full of moping and uneventfulness. People are probably bored of me saying it, but am I the only one who's really struggling with the newer cast at present? I really tried to watch it, but every time the characters started talking about the board shop or their feelings I drifted out again within seconds. Low cast counts seem to be a particular problem at the moment, meaning we're just getting the same conversations time and again in slightly different configurations; and it's particularly noticeable in episodes like this one where there aren't even any Diner veterans rostered on to add some token variety. And today - well, it didn't take long for Tane and Felicity to iron out their issues, did it? I assume he'll say yes to her proposal, but if we're unlucky - and I suspect we will be - we might get a couple of episodes of Tane angsting about it first. I guess he's well overdue his 'turn' to have reservations about this marriage, as so far they've all been one-sided. More difficult-to-engage-with scenes with Remi and Bree; this pair can really drag out avoiding a simple conversation, can't they? And yeah, Bree is beginning to lose my sympathy too just because of the annoying repetitiveness of these scenes, even though on paper I think there's every reason she ought to be given a bit of a pass, after what probably legally constitutes rape by Jacob. Not that I've been paying the hugest amount of attention, but could it possibly be a caption size thing? I've noticed at times that some characters' surnames just arbitrarily get left off the credits - and I have it in my head that they're quite often (but not always) long surnames that get left off (Stacey Collingwood being a recent example, and I seem to recollect that they occasionally did it with Morag many years ago) and that it's maybe sometimes to do with space available on the slide (or perhaps not being bothered to rearrange the layout to make it fit?)