Carly Morris - Sharyn Hodgson

[harrietjames]

Everything has to happen quickly - being drawn out gets too boring quickly - that's why people get over things(break ups, deaths etc) unrealistically quickly and move on

[Spinach]

In regards to Carly getting over Andrew Foley, I think it was believable she was over him - because she started getting over him before they even broke up. Basically, he fell off the pedestal she put him on: he had his own problems, he wasn't perfect - which implies Carly's feelings for him were never based on anything real anyway. It was realistic though and true for Carly's character.

As for Carly's "happy ending" with Ben, I don't know why the writers felt they needed to give her one. We can't really know for sure if Sharyn wanted to stay - I personally feel she would've been happy to keep going - but having her leave happily with Ben felt quite rushed and forced. Just the fact that they "fell in love" and got engaged within five minutes is completely ridiculous. Sure, it's true to Carly's character - but that's why she needed to NOT have a happy ending. Things needed to unravel with Ben so she could begin to learn about herself and relationships and the unrealistic expectations she has for them.

On the other hand, the storyline of a young couple learning about compromise and how to live with one another was interesting - but perhaps not for Carly and certainly not with Ben! In some ways, I get the feeling the writers were setting them up to be the new main couple of Summer Bay House. It felt like in killing off Tom they were setting Pippa up to be the single mother and eventual grandmother figure, paving the way for Ben and Carly to take centre stage as the heads of a new family. But then Vanessa Downing and Julian MacMahon quit and I guess they decided to ditch this plan, remarry Pippa and sacrifice Carly...

I think the writers could very have easily written Ben out and kept Carly on - perhaps not while keeping him likeable but why should Ben's likeability be more important than Carly (the longer serving of the two characters)? Ideally, when Ben realised he was AWOL from the army, I would've had him do the "noble" thing (a la Romeo or Josh) and leave Carly without explanation or goodbye, leaving Carly to pick up the pieces, revert to being Carly Morris - and perhaps then (after Ben's departure) realise she's pregnant with his child and see how she feels about this. Of course this would mean she'd be pregnant at the same time as Sophie... Or just have Carly eventually enter another relationship but take it slowly with less unrealistic expectations... I don't know, I just feel like Carly had at least a couple more years mileage as a character.

[Summer's Bay]

On December 14, 2017 at 06:42, harrietjames said:

Everything has to happen quickly - being drawn out gets too boring quickly - that's why people get over things(break ups, deaths etc) unrealistically quickly and move on

This is where creative writing comes into the mix. Andrew was her first real 'grown up" relationship I assumed the aftermath of the break up would've lingered in. 

[Summer's Bay]

Do you think the writers handled Carly’s assault well?

[homeandawayroxsomuch.]

On 15/04/2019 at 20:27, Summer's Bay said:

Do you think the writers handled Carly’s assault well?

So it's now been a couple of months since I watched that storyline, but I think the men in the cast who mattered were very supportive of Carly.  Frank and Steven were urging her to tell the police or Tom and Pippa (while Bobby and Lynn voted against it because that's what Carly wanted).  Tom got into a fight with Sam Barlow over his comments about Carly, and Lance and Martin were definitely on Carly's side too.  Admittedly, Fisher made it very clear that he thought that Carly hitchhiking was a terrible idea.

And then when Gary was around and Carly thought that he was her attacker, Steven was very protective of her and comforted her.

[homeandawayroxsomuch.]

So if Carly's final scene in 1991 was when Ben is being taken away by the military police with that tense music, she didn't get a Fletcher theme departure and no proper Goodbye scene of her own, which was a bit disappointing.

[Stewarts Point]

Possibly along with the original outing of Steven, Carly truly belonged to the Pippa and Tom era of the show. Maybe it was her late 80s style, I'm not sure if I can put my finger on it exactly. It just seemed that she suddenly looked out of place in the Debra Pip and Michael era. Dated in some way. 

 

The usual post school not knowing what to do with a character, let's get her married, usual stuff happened with her and the possessive passive aggressive Ben. 

Maybe best to have had her run away with Andrew or Martin when they left in early 1990

[adam436]

On 13/11/2022 at 11:11, Stewarts Point said:

Possibly along with the original outing of Steven, Carly truly belonged to the Pippa and Tom era of the show. Maybe it was her late 80s style, I'm not sure if I can put my finger on it exactly. It just seemed that she suddenly looked out of place in the Debra Pip and Michael era. Dated in some way. 

I'd agree with that. There was very much a "changing of the guard" in early 1990 with Tom, Pippa #1 and a number of supporting characters and Michael and Pippa#2 now leading the show. Carly and Steven didn't transition well into that new era, in the same way that Bobby and Sally did. Perhaps because Bobby had Fisher and the Diner, whereas Steven and Carly were very much tied to Tom and Pippa. Sally was still young enough that the transition was seamless. 

  

On 13/11/2022 at 11:11, Stewarts Point said:

The usual post school not knowing what to do with a character, let's get her married, usual stuff happened with her and the possessive passive aggressive Ben. 

Part of me does wonder if the initial long-term plan for Carly was for her and Ben to become foster parents in much the same way Bobby and Sally eventually did, but the problem was that Julian McMahon quit sooner than expected. 

[homeandawayroxsomuch.]

54 minutes ago, adam436 said:

Carly and Steven didn't transition well into that new era, in the same way that Bobby and Sally did. Perhaps because Bobby had Fisher and the Diner, whereas Steven and Carly were very much tied to Tom and Pippa.

I'm not quite sure what you mean about Steven, but to me, Steven was always written as a character who would go off to university after finishing his HSC.  Even if he was no longer planning to apply to Oxford or study Medicine, that direction felt like it was there very early on (interest in science from episode 46 or maybe earlier).  His departure at the beginning of 1991 would have felt natural even if they hadn't killed off Tom and recast Pippa.

[beachside]

Once Ben came on the scene i always did feel he overshadowed Carly from what I saw in re runs and I would of rather her be with Matt