Some Story Thoughts - Sep 2020

[SummerBay04]

Hi everyone,

I am really enjoying Home & Away this year, having watched since 2004, this year has felt like an improvement or sorts to previous years as the show solidifies a tone rooted firmly in character than it has in the past. I wanted to share my thoughts on some key stories that have played out, or are continuing to play out over this year.

Apologies if I have posted in the wrong place or if I should post in an existing thread, I am new here!

John & Marilyn’s Break-Up

The slow dissolution of John and Marilyn has been a slow-burner story for pretty much all of 2020, told across two key stories. Recently, Marilyn mentioned that nothing was ever the same since "those men held us hostage at the hospital", and looking back, you cannot fault that statement, considering pretty much immediately after the events at the hospital the conflict begun. Firstly, with Marilyn allowing the Parata’s to stay at their house, and secondly, John's medical crisis that escalated the lack of cohesion between the two. However, despite Marilyn linking the events of 2020 to the hostage situation from the 2019 cliffhanger, the drama and conflict this year was not necessary born out of that crisis. By that I mean, it does not feel like it was the consequences of the hostage crisis that impacted their relationship, rather than it simply being a point in time to which to refer to. Had the hostage crisis changed Marilyn forever, say by her developing PTSD, her re-evaluating aspects of her life or choices, then I would buy the stronger link to that traumatic event but in my opinion, I don’t think that’s really the story they were trying to tell.

I'm always a fan of stories that create conflict between a couple without the use of a third-party to drive them apart, such is the staple in most dramas. Don't get me wrong, it can be handled well if character motivations are clear and all sides are supported, but often, it does not work and it a lazy or quick way to cause tension or end a relationship (see: Brody / Ziggy). In that regard, the conflicts facing Marilyn and John are more interesting to me. However, it would be great to delve more into their mind-set as to why these conflicts have suddenly risen to the point where the relationship is broken. On the face of it, Marilyn and John are the same people they've always been, so I would love to further explore why exactly they are so fractured, and why now. This is specifically true with John's motivations. With Marilyn, we understand her a bit more, she is an open warm person who lets people into her home and life which often comes at odds with John's views. The show has made it clear that Marilyn has slowly fallen out of love with John as the events of this year have unfolded. In addition, she appears lost, without an anchor or clear path for what she wants out of her life moving forward. I think we can all relate to this moment, and it's a nice evolution of the empty nest syndrome Marilyn was experiencing back in 2019. For John however, and particularly where we are with the story now, with John almost driving the separation, it will be interesting to see just why he thinks it's over and what he wants out of all of this. Is he pushing her away because he does not want to be a burden to her? Is he doing it because he is scared? Or simply because he knows that Marilyn does not love him anymore and therefore just wants to cut it off and try to limit prolonging the pain of the inevitable? I'm not really feeling anything from him, he appears to be perfectly content getting involved in gossip and complaining about his rehab therapy.

Jasmine's mental instabilities relating to Grace.

This to me is a strong story that has successfully avoided the trappings of melodrama to create a strong, character-based look at Jasmine's mental health problems and how it has manifested itself with Tori's baby Grace. The story is strong, I feel, because although it is clear that Jasmine is not behaving appropriately, the show has taken care and time to look at the situation from her point of view, and make it clear that Jasmine is struggling and needs professional help. In addition to this, Tori has reacted, on the most part, with empathy towards Jasmine. I feel the show has done a remarkable job of showing Tori’s empathetic side without turning her into a doormat or an idiot for not seeing what Jasmine is doing. It would be a very easy story for Tori to either be completely idiotic and oblivious until the last minute to heighten the tension, or for Tori to react antagonistically to create more drama. Instead, the show chose to have Tori react in a very adult way, and instead moving some of the more extreme ‘one-sided’ responses onto Justin, which in turns creates ripples between Tori and Justin, and Leah and Justin, helping to deepen the story in creating multi-faceted points of view from all sides.

In particular, the show has been careful to show that Jasmine does have some basis in reality, although ones that she has admittedly blown out of proportion. A great moment was when Nikau impulsively drove away with Grace in Tori's car while Tori jumped out to help John. You can see that Jasmine would latch onto the fact that technically, Tori did leave the car unattended for a moment while helping John, and the addition of Tori's manifesting self-doubt about the incident and the reactions of the other residents of the bay to the incident was very effective in ensuring that it wasn't completely black and white. Where we are in the story now, with Jasmine seeking professional help further strengthens the story, as we start to confirm through her therapy that Jasmine has experienced significant trauma, and that she is likely not healed from her old wounds. It keeps her interesting, and I feel the story has not completely destroyed Jasmine beyond redemption. If anything, it has helped us understand her more.

The murder of Bella's Father

Home & Away has done a remarkable job this year of steering clear of some of the more convoluted plot-driven 'mobster / villain' stories that has threatened to trip it up, or in fact has tripped it up, in previous years. See: everything to do with the Robbo story in 2019. Therefore it will be interesting to see how this story, just beginning here in the UK, will evolve. It was clear that Colby murdering Bella's father a year or so ago was not simply going to be forgotten, particularly as I would imagine that the show has a responsibility to ensure that its principal cast face consequences for their actions. So we will have to wait and see exactly what this story is going to be about. The return of Angelo is an interesting decision, it's always great to see a character from the past. I do not know if the Angelo character has returned for this particular story, or if this is simply his re-introduction story, but time will tell (also please don't tell me if you know!) There is a risk it could be a more plot-driven story, but for now, I see that the time is being taken to explore the repercussions and how they impact Bella, Colby and their very unique and complicated relationship. It feels like, once again, they are taking efforts to ground some of the more plot-driven stories with character beats. It also looks like, following Bella's revelation to Nikau that Colby shot her father, that this story will weave the Parata's into the canvas to create even more drama (considering the antagonism and secrets built up this year between the Parata’s and Colby) in addition to potentially impacting the relationship between Dean and Ziggy following Amber's child revelation.

[Red Ranger 1]

I can see where they're going with John and Marilyn's break-up and I do take many of your points.I'm just not sure that what they've ended up with is worth it.It feels like we got a couple of weeks of Marilyn feeling lost and not being sure what to do with her life anymore, and then she just slipped back into her old role of the Stewart family's eccentric "cousin".I'm guessing that John has decided his marriage is a lost cause: He'd rather he and Marilyn stay together, but if that's not going to happen, he wants a clean break.But if these are their new roles, then there's a danger they've just been reset back to where they were in about 2013, with both of them, especially Marilyn, in danger of being spare parts.

Again, I'm mostly in agreement with you over Jasmine.I think in the first half of the year or so this was all well-handled.You had Tori and Jasmine looking after Grace together, and Jasmine seemed to overstep the boundaries a few times but nothing serious.But then that type of behaviour became more and more frequent to the point Tori couldn't ignore it anymore.But since the AVO, it feels like the wheels have come off the storyline a bit.They tried to explain it away by having Tori say it was just meant to be a wake-up call, but it might as well not be there for all that Jasmine is still spending time with Tori and Grace, usually at Tori's instigation, and Tori seems to be doing exactly what she said she wouldn't, presenting spending time with Grace as a reward for Jasmine going to counselling sessions.

I certainly agree that the Robbo storyline was badly handled, especially the way that the initial positive ending to the storyline was completely undone by a bitter-tasting coda in which just about everyone that tried to do the right thing was rewarded with a violent death.That said, I think it's more comforting in a way when the threats are external and we're confident with whose side we're meant to be on.I can see that it's a good source of drama, and I am glad that it's being revisited when on past evidence I wouldn't have been at all surprised if Colby had sailed off into the sunset with his crime undiscovered. But it's always problematic when the criminals in a storyline are the protagonists and it feels like we're being encouraged to root for them to get away with something.It is interesting that the show has chosen Angelo to be the face of law and order, someone who used to be a main character and who some people in the Bay are still friendly with, rather than bringing in some faceless police officer antagonist that we're meant to boo and hiss (see the police officers after Robbo in 2017). I guess the jury is out on how this is going to be handled.

[Lunar]

On 23/09/2020 at 11:31, Red Ranger 1 said:

I can see where they're going with John and Marilyn's break-up and I do take many of your points.I'm just not sure that what they've ended up with is worth it.It feels like we got a couple of weeks of Marilyn feeling lost and not being sure what to do with her life anymore, and then she just slipped back into her old role of the Stewart family's eccentric "cousin".I'm guessing that John has decided his marriage is a lost cause: He'd rather he and Marilyn stay together, but if that's not going to happen, he wants a clean break.But if these are their new roles, then there's a danger they've just been reset back to where they were in about 2013, with both of them, especially Marilyn, in danger of being spare parts.

This is my worry too. Its been nice to see Marilyn get back into her hippie stuff and support Roo, and John to get back to work...but I do wonder what they're planning on doing with them. I suppose they could get them back together in future if Marilyn realises she loves him again, or Marilyn could explore something with Ari, but I'm not sure if they'd bring in another love interest for John. I'd like to see them grow more as people as even when together, if they didn't have a big storyline they could at times fade into the background a bit anyway.