Best and Worst Characters from 1988-1996

[Old H&A Fan]

On 03/05/2020 at 18:33, Trudy Heine said:

I didn't like Colleen, found her too annoying. Also Dodge for bullying cute lil Sal and making her say Milco wasn't real.

She was asking for it. Constantly antagonising him from the first day he was in town. I have zero sympathy for poor little Sally, she brought it on herself.

[Red Ranger 1]

On ‎16‎/‎05‎/‎2020 at 20:37, Old H&A Fan said:

Same here. She did us a favour getting rid of David. It's a shame she regretted doing it (or maybe she regretted going too far?). Other than that, it was sad once she fell under the spell of "Revhead", then being sent to the University Of Crime (jail) which did nothing to improve her outlook on life, as was obvious with her return in 1993.

I don't think Karen actually meant to do anything to David? She had nothing against him, just wrong place wrong time. (She didn't seem to regret it that much though, just be worried about getting into trouble!)

[Sally Keating]

I wonder why they wrote Karen out and replaced her with Finlay.

And I agree with the above post. Karen didn't seem to regret what happened to David too much. She was more worried about herself.

[CaptainHulk]

On 18/05/2020 at 09:15, Red Ranger 1 said:

I don't think Karen actually meant to do anything to David? She had nothing against him, just wrong place wrong time. (She didn't seem to regret it that much though, just be worried about getting into trouble!)

What's even scarier is how HORRIFIED *Revhead* of all people was as his own mother had died in a car accident some years previous. Look at his reaction in that episode before he does a runner.

[cymbaline]

Revhead wasn't all bad, though he could be pretty obnoxious. He didn't start well, did he? Later on he showed that he could be a nice(ish) human being by looking after his sister Julie (who had been paralysed in that same accident, of course) and was working in the boat shed.

The Karen exit seemed to be the culmination of a long build up. Way before she ever hooked up with Revhead, she was insecure about her looks and attractiveness to boys. Perhaps removing the sour puss from her face would've been a good start. She first broke bad when she went off with a couple of hoons she met in the Surf Club and demonstrated her questionable driving skills when trying to get away from them. She didn't seem to have improved much as a driver by the time she met David on the road. Has anyone ever read why she left? I have a feeling they probably felt they'd had enough of whiny Karen and wanted to replace her with Fringley Finlay instead. I've also read that Belinda Jarrett didn't always get on with Les Hill and had trouble with Gavin Harrison as well. So maybe the powers that be decided that it was time for a change.

[Sally Keating]

19 hours ago, cymbaline said:

 I've also read that Belinda Jarrett didn't always get on with Les Hill and had trouble with Gavin Harrison as well. So maybe the powers that be decided that it was time for a change.

Where did you read that?

It's possible they felt that, other than "going bad", there was little else that could be done with Karen. She and Blake shared exactly the same backstory so there wasn't much to explore there that couldn't already be explored with Blake. Replacing her with Finlay - a different character with a backstory completely separate from Blake gave more story opportunities (eventually introducing us to Damian, Nathan and of course Irene - something Karen was unable to provide I suppose).

While I do think Karen's descent into "badness" was well done and gradual - like you said her low confidence about her looks and about boys not liking her was well established before Revhead came along, making it believable that she would become his little lapdog - I also find the COMPLETE 180 a bit hard to swallow. It's like the old Karen completely disappears - she shows NO remorse for anything, she immediately stops caring about Alf and Ailsa despite how good they had been to her, she sides with Tracy over her best friend Sophie, frames her to get caught with cigarettes, and shows very little remorse at all. It's just bizarre how cut off she becomes and in turn she becomes a bit 2-dimensional. If they had shown some inner conflict a little more, like showing both sides of her at the same time, instead of just the sudden change, it might have been a bit easier to understand her as well.

[baywatcher]

42 minutes ago, Sally Keating said:

While I do think Karen's descent into "badness" was well done and gradual - like you said her low confidence about her looks and about boys not liking her was well established before Revhead came along, making it believable that she would become his little lapdog - I also find the COMPLETE 180 a bit hard to swallow. It's like the old Karen completely disappears - she shows NO remorse for anything, she immediately stops caring about Alf and Ailsa despite how good they had been to her, she sides with Tracy over her best friend Sophie, frames her to get caught with cigarettes, and shows very little remorse at all. It's just bizarre how cut off she becomes and in turn she becomes a bit 2-dimensional. If they had shown some inner conflict a little more, like showing both sides of her at the same time, instead of just the sudden change, it might have been a bit easier to understand her as well.

It's interesting that even back then the writers were happy to trash a likeable character who was on the way out, so that the audience no longer liked them and wouldn't care when they left, like they did recently with Brody.

I'm guessing that as Belinda was on the show a relatively short time, they possibly had Karen's story arc planned out from the start.  We probably only got to see her again briefly when she got out of prison because it gave them a convenient way to write Blake out of the show.

[Old H&A Fan]

On 22/05/2020 at 00:19, Sally Keating said:

.....

While I do think Karen's descent into "badness" was well done and gradual - like you said her low confidence about her looks and about boys not liking her was well established before Revhead came along, making it believable that she would become his little lapdog - I also find the COMPLETE 180 a bit hard to swallow. It's like the old Karen completely disappears - she shows NO remorse for anything, she immediately stops caring about Alf and Ailsa despite how good they had been to her, she sides with Tracy over her best friend Sophie, frames her to get caught with cigarettes, and shows very little remorse at all. It's just bizarre how cut off she becomes and in turn she becomes a bit 2-dimensional. If they had shown some inner conflict a little more, like showing both sides of her at the same time, instead of just the sudden change, it might have been a bit easier to understand her as well.

Did this low confidence in boys start when Hayden gave her a kick-in-the-guts rejection at the end of Episode 661 (late 1990)?

[CaptainHulk]

1 hour ago, Old H&A Fan said:

Did this low confidence in boys start when Hayden gave her a kick-in-the-guts rejection at the end of Episode 661 (late 1990)?

It Didn't help that he passed her over for her best mate (who in fairness was hotter).

[cymbaline]

On 21/05/2020 at 15:19, Sally Keating said:

Where did you read that?

If I could find it, I'd happily share the source. I remember reading it somewhere and being a bit taken aback. I was surprised to check her IMDB and to see that her acting career seems to have ended after Muriel's Wedding. I don't suppose we'll ever know whether she chose to quit acting or if she just couldn't find work after this. 

On 25/05/2020 at 15:41, Old H&A Fan said:

Did this low confidence in boys start when Hayden gave her a kick-in-the-guts rejection at the end of Episode 661 (late 1990)?

That's how I read it. The Haydn episode was pretty humiliating for her, culminating in her finding him and Sophie kissing passionately after Romeo & Juliet in the Surf Club.  Long after she had supposedly forgiven Sophie for stealing Haydn from her, she brought it up again. I can't remember exactly when but she definitely mentioned it. Obviously the bit about Haydn never really fancying her in the first place hadn't registered with her. 

Personally I don't buy that 180° character transplant either. it just looks like the powers that be wanted to ruin the character and get her out the door. It seems to be a premature exit too. Most of the fostered teens left Summer Bay for reasonably normal reasons (uni/family/job) and got a good stretch on the show.  Karen left in a prison van, leaving a trail of destruction behind her. I don't think Fin was much of an improvement on her but she got a better run,