carld2
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Post by carld2 on Apr 13, 2023 16:26:06 GMT -5
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carld2
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Post by carld2 on Apr 13, 2023 16:24:54 GMT -5
Not them pulling wlw with one of their main characters. Don't get me wrong, I love this character and the story, since we already had clues on this from first seasons. But the fact that they're developing that relationship very differently compared to mlm is so... sigh 💀 We lost again. She is (assuming) likely to end up with a man at the end (Roy), and a number of queer female fans have pointed out their dislike of this trope, which shows the limitations of any show for representation. If it were up to me, Jamie Tartt would be bi as well, but they would likely say Colin (and possibly Trent Crimm the reporter) are "enough."
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carld2
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Post by carld2 on Apr 10, 2023 16:20:45 GMT -5
I had a glance at today's episode and it definitely looks like they're going with the "patient of the week" format. I appreciate that we're getting to see more than just the usual hospital and the same 4 houses that keep getting recycled between staff, but how are they affording this? Is it not more expensive to film stuff outdoors and in real houses? Did they get a bump in budget? I wonder if the money is coming from elsewhere. We seem to have a few less regular characters than we used to have (is Leanne a regular anymore...or was she ever?) I'm not sure how I feel about a patient of the week format. It feels like the show deciding they can't count on viewers to care on a long-term basis and are instead just trying to add a week-to-week format, which is also reflected in the increasingly short-term storylines characters like Madonna or Logan are getting. I think in the long term such a plot-based approach hollows characters and shows out, not helped by a number of the show's long-runners, like Harper, Dawn and Nicole, feeling so exhausted.
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carld2
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Post by carld2 on Apr 3, 2023 22:47:47 GMT -5
Does anyone know if Anthony Langford is alright? I know they used to post here sometimes. Their channel hasn't been uploaded in over a month.
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carld2
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Post by carld2 on Apr 2, 2023 23:38:38 GMT -5
An interview with one of the producers mentioned that they nearly told the story in season 2, but decided to wait. You get some hints in season 2 (at one point Colin compares the name of their new sponsor [Bantr] to Grindr).
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carld2
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Post by carld2 on Mar 30, 2023 11:32:39 GMT -5
Nothing. Cassie still pops up on Maeve's phone but we've not seen nor heard from her, and she should be heavily pregnant by now. I wonder if they plan to take down the movement as a whole. Wasn't Justine deeply involved in what happened to Wilder? This story has left so many loose ends. I know that's how soaps are, especially the poor state of modern soaps, but these really grind my gears for some reason. I guess because so much time was spent on what amounted to little more than a replay of Jack/Hamish (without that ever being acknowledged in the writing).
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carld2
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Post by carld2 on Mar 30, 2023 7:33:27 GMT -5
I have missed some episodes. Have they said anything about Tyler, or is he still just stuck in an ex-gay camp now that his story use is over?
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carld2
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Post by carld2 on Mar 23, 2023 22:20:18 GMT -5
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Post by carld2 on Mar 20, 2023 15:32:19 GMT -5
Marty yet again being trashed by the characters we're supposed to love and adore no matter what. Gross writing.
And you can bet Jack will be made to look bad compared to Viliami.
Why are Nicole and Drew already so chummy again?
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Post by carld2 on Mar 20, 2023 0:29:19 GMT -5
Maybe things will improve now that Chris is back in the CEO's chair - although I do think there is something grating about portraying the only person who can set the hospital to rights as the same straight white man who led it into any number of scandals over the years - while the Maori man and the lesbian woman are turfed out. I wonder if this is all an attempt at overcompensating for the negative response the whole story about Chris' white privilege forcing him out of the CEO position received.
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carld2
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Post by carld2 on Mar 18, 2023 19:52:10 GMT -5
Jack is just written for whatever suits the plot, plots that seem to have less and less to do with him. I was more put off with how blatantly he was used to advance Viliami's story than anything with Rebekah.
I also think it was a lazy choice to reveal Rebekah as Wilder's killer when we saw Scott do so. Just felt like trying to throw more drama on.
I found the interview with the producer to be defensive, and also very thin. No one is criticizing the show for its "new look" because the new look only lasted for about two weeks.
The choice of the Brightshine story to dominate so much wasn't the worst idea, but what made it worse the choice of backup stories, like Logan's creepy sister and the stuff with Esther and Marty which managed to be depressing and completely forced and lacking in genuine feeling (as you knew they were never going to be happy together and their reunion never felt believable in the first place).
There's just something not right at the core of the show at present, especially in way of the relationships.
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Post by carld2 on Mar 17, 2023 18:02:48 GMT -5
Considering this story first kicked off when Arthur hangmaned "I AM GAY" to Nicola, I'd say that's a bit hard to dispute. I do agree that Arthur should find someone else - even if it's just a dayplayer - because him waiting around for someone still as sexually confused and uncertain as Marshall is just tedious. It might be different if Marshall was a character we were invested in before he was floated as a potential love interest for Arthur, or better yet, a legacy character from the show's history, but the truth is Marshall didn't exist outside of Arthur's homophobic bullying storyline ... and now everyone else's airtime - Arthur's, Laurel's, Jai's and now even Cathy's - seems to be in service of Marshall's problems. I can't imagine the actor's age is a barrier to him kissing another actor - they've certainly never held back from heterosexual kissing between juvenile actors so the double standards will be glaringly obvious. Some of Arthur and Marshall's peers are already sexually active. I can't recall now if the Jacob actor was even 18 when he was rolling around shirtless in bed with his teacher/would-be stepmother who'd groomed him. He was 17, I think. I don't really have a problem with them not immediately putting Arthur in a romance (yes, other characters around his age have had more, but some, like the actors who play Noah, Amelia and Samson, are all in their late teens or early twenties, and even then they had nowhere near the level of sexual material the show was giving young actors in the early '00s, or as you mentioned, with Jacob). I also don't have a problem with other characters worrying about Marshall - they have to fill up 6 episodes a week, and most of those characters have had plenty of other story (especially Cathy of late). The problem for me is Arthur just had a coming out story and is now in this storyline, rather than his own story being able to breathe. It feels like Marshall is just a short term character and this is something that runs too closely with Arthur's own story, rather than letting Arthur develop more in his own right, then maybe later this year, having the Marshall story. It comes off a bit to me as trying to capitalize on a trend.
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carld2
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Post by carld2 on Mar 7, 2023 11:23:32 GMT -5
Jack did look really offended, and realistically this is the kind of transgression you don't forgive, but you're probably right that Vili will get away with it especially if next week's spoilers mean what I think they mean. I have the feeling Vili is himself the victim of child sex abuse and that's why he's so paranoid about it. But it should not be an excuse for him to falsely accuse, insult and harass Jack. I hope Jack won't be expected to be the bigger person and wave off any need for an apology from Vili. Did you catch that Tyler had been shipped off to a Brightshine "camp"? Are we thinking conversion camp? Rebecca is a well-established hypocrite of course but that would be a new low considering her own concurrent same-sex affair, subjecting a child to that kind of mistreatment. I was wondering if they'd have Vili "redeem" himself by investigating Tyler's absence and end up rescuing him from the conversion therapist. I would've liked it to be Jack but in this case I think he should steer well clear before he gets the People of the Valley treatment (where a gay teacher wanted to rescue his gay student with a crush on him from his homophobic dad but ended up sleeping with the lad and permanently labeled a groomer). I don't think Reuben Milner wants to leave; he tried that once but came back and pretty much said he wants a lifelong career on Shorty, so unless the show has tired of writing for Jack, I'm optimistic this isn't leading up to a farewell. But they sure are enjoying heaping the misery on the character - at least we saw Stanley! I'm glad he, unlike the rest of these characters, is able to stand on principle and refuse to work at Brightshine's Shortland St. Speaking of Kate, wasn't she back for a longer stint? She's totally disappeared and you'd think this is a moment where Jack needs someone who's firmly in his corner, like his stepmother. She would definitely be useful to knock some sense into Jack for drinking the Rebecca kool aid. He is a complete idiot to believe her narrative, not realizing that she only sped things up after Chris's lawyer got in contact or that she got him to drop his complaint and, apparently, back her all the way. Maeve is setting herself up for the same epic fall Jack had last year when Hamish's crimes were revealed after he'd spent months blindly defending him. But the complete 180 the character has done is pretty hard to reconcile with her previous activism, even accounting for the shock of losing her only child, her incarceration for murdering him, the end of her marriage and now possibly the abortion of her only grandchild. I definitely don't think that Reuben would leave by choice, but I had wondered if someone might have decided if the character had nowhere else to go. Then again that's true of at least 4 different characters currently on the canvas, and they're still around... You're probably right about Viliami. And that would be another instance of a story that should have been about Jack ending up being about someone else. If that is where the story is going, they did a lousy job setting it up. What else is new at present. I did think Kate would be on more often, after the interview the actress gave talking about going back to work, that and the clear hint of more Chris/Kate that was dropped. Maybe the story was ended abruptly, or they are just waiting until Brightshine is finally done. Always good to see Stanley. Maeve is another character sacrificed for the plot. I don't think the Rebekah/Maeve aspect was necessary for the storyline. They could have just as easily had Rebekah harboring feelings for Maeve and this leading her even deeper into a messianic complex. I remember when this story started last year we heard that Brighsthine did not do conversion therapy, which absolutely means they do, as we wouldn't have heard it otherwise. It would be nice if Tyler could stay around, maybe get taken in by CeCe or something, but he'll be lucky to survive the story without killing himself.
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carld2
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Post by carld2 on Mar 7, 2023 10:22:49 GMT -5
Thank goodness for the scene where Jack pointed out to selfish "friend" Dawn that she is never there for him when people spew homophobic bile in his direction.
I really do wonder if this is leading to an exit story for Jack. He's faced homophobic abuse at work for months - two different workplaces - and is now seen as a groomer and not even allowed to be near a child. I could see him taking Kate's offer to return to Central, or just leave, period.
Viliami is a piece of shit and I'm never, ever going to forget this storyline, even if the show will ASAP, just as they have forgotten what he did to Jojo.
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Post by carld2 on Mar 4, 2023 7:39:28 GMT -5
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Post by carld2 on Mar 3, 2023 8:31:14 GMT -5
Based on today's episode, it's not going to be dropped - which makes me fear for what happens next that will put Jack in the firing line again. Hopefully next time Jack will not brush off Viliami's cruelty. While I agree this is a fraught social issue that the show was better off not touching, I don't think it would played a significant part in nurturing those commenters' mindsets. I've seen similar comments accusing Arthur on Emmerdale (a 15yo out gay boy) of molesting and trying to convert another obviously-closeted boy of the same age. The poisonous groomer rhetoric is down to the politicians and other public figures who are spreading it. I didn't think the story would be over quite yet, but given how quickly stories on this show burn out, I think we are still going to have this dropped soon enough, which bothers me, as in real life, there's no way Jack should ever want to go near Viliami ever again. I agree people are likely to say these things no matter what, at least Emmerdale does not have any established characters saying these things. Shortland Street has chosen to repeatedly have a "good" leading character accuse a gay man of grooming.
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carld2
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Post by carld2 on Mar 2, 2023 12:20:02 GMT -5
The worst thing about this story is you know when it's all over, Viliami and Jack will likely never talk about it again, even though it's always going to be there in the background.
I'm already seeing people on Youtube saying Jack is a groomer trying to force young men into being gay. I know it's just idiots, but does this show ever think about the consequences of the poorly done social issue stories it keeps pumping out?
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Post by carld2 on Feb 28, 2023 13:15:15 GMT -5
you get two answers in a single scene today. Leanne's been left destitute (her word) selling the IV at a loss, and she's the one who's been wrangling Amelie, somehow at the same time as wrangling Drew's trio. And Chris can offer to help Drew settle his kids into bed while presumably Leanne is with his granddaughter? And apparently she's been doing it for free, when she could probably have financed the IV's rebuild with babysitting fees from these 2 top surgeons alone. Instead she's risking serious health issues chasing after four very young kids - even before today's episode, it was a ridiculous position to put a stroke patient with osteoporosis. Chris having only Leanne as childcare must be one of the most unrealistic things ever on this show. I agree that pacing is a big issue, although I do think the lack of lighter material doesn't help. No romance (unless you are mad for Dawn/Logan and his sister I guess), no comedy-based characters, etc. I don't need more 'comedy' along the lines of when Desi would go around treating Damo like garbage, but it's a shame Stanley has all but completely vanished and when we do see him he's barely doing anything. I wonder if or when Gia will be back. It seems like the show is wrapping up most of the TK-related stories of last year. And if they want to do Esther/Rahu, this is another step in that direction. If they do I hope they just do it fast because I'd like a reason to get to skip all of Esther's scenes.
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Post by carld2 on Feb 27, 2023 2:14:54 GMT -5
Sorry justinate I did not see that you had posted the spoilers with Jack's upcoming story several days ago. I know most people online (myself included) love to complain, but the sheer amount of negativity in that Instagram spoiler post was staggering. I hope this Brightshine story is over soon and the show can shape up its overall plotting to a place less miserable and overly focused on tiresome characeers.
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Post by carld2 on Feb 27, 2023 0:58:42 GMT -5
The Brightshine interns were back but not Tyler. They have brought back Vili's nephew Junior and had him join the interns, so I don't know if that will lead to something? I noticed on Monday's episode that Viliami had an odd look on his face after he saw Jack talking to Tyler. I am starting to think either Tyler will be convinced to falsely accuse Jack of trying to have sex with him, or that Jack will try to help Junior and Viliami will falsely accuse him of going after young boys. I may be wrong, but with Rebekah going after Gia and the Rainbow Clinic, Jack seems like another step toward making the hospital more of the fundamentalist utopia she wants. Your idea about Rebekah and Esther makes more sense than having Lovely return again just to try to kill herself and cause yet another crisis of faith for Madonna. How many is she on now? A dozen? The actress who plays Madonna is strong but they just keep throwing so much at Madonna when she needs a breather. I've never had this hard a time watching the show. It took me forever to get through the week of episodes. The show is completely joyless and unpleasant. Even if I get the idea of the Brightshine extremism storyline, I can't take much more of it. And the lighter material, if that's what it is intended as, with Logan's sister is a no-go. Not only does she annoy the hell out of me, she also seems extremely mentally ill, and was out of bounds trying to manipulate that amnesiac into thinking they were siblings. No wonder Logan's father wants nothing to do with her. Anyway, this is a cute video:
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Post by carld2 on Feb 22, 2023 2:25:10 GMT -5
Anyone notice that the official descriptions don't align with what's airing on TV? Monday's ep description says that Rahu asks the wrong questions and Tuesday's ep descriptions said that Gia hides a game changer. I've watched both of these episodes, and I don't even recall Rahu or Gia being in them. I mentioned this in the main thread but it's been happening a while. A few weeks ago there were spoilers that were meant to air that week about Chris being warned off opposing Rebekah. That didn't happen until last week. There were also some spoilers back in 2022 during Dawn's absence that still mentioned her as being there.
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Post by carld2 on Feb 21, 2023 6:18:44 GMT -5
No idea what happened to Amelie - that's been bugging me too, considering how hard Chris fought for her - but I guess we're meant to believe Leanne invested the bulk of her scratch card winnings into the I.V. and either can't afford the repairs on her own or doesn't think it's a good value proposition to pour even more money into the place. Looks like we've got another recurring gay on the show. Tyler's only 17 so I can't imagine he is a love interest for Jack unless we're going to see groomer rhetoric thrown around (even though it'd be perfectly legal in NZ where the age of consent is 16). I'm not sure this is the case where something is better than nothing. Between Tyler's story, Cassie being convinced not to terminate her pregnancy, and the roadblocks to Drew's trans patient getting top surgery, it's obvious that Brightshine's bigoted agenda is coming to the fore. I wonder how Rebecca justifies her lesbian romance with Maeve. I'm glad Daisy turned out to be wrong about the amnesiac patient being her and Logan's half-brother. It was beyond ridiculous that another half-sibling would literally drop in like that. But I suspect it's building to a story where a half-sibling does appear and Logan won't believe Daisy even though she's right next time and missing her warning will lead to some kind of trouble for him and/or Dawn. Something odd is going on with the spoilers on the Shortland St website again. Below are the ones for the last 2 days. The second half of both days' spoilers didn't happen; Rahu never appeared yesterday nor Gia today. - Monday 20 February (7933) - Logan embraces the past. Rahu asks the wrong questions.
- Tuesday 21 February (7934) - Madonna finds new faith. Gia hides a potential game-changer.
Thanks for answering my question. I had a feeling they wouldn't want Chris to keep raising a kid forever, but I wish they'd managed even a line. (I'm also not thrilled with the idea of Tom raising a child he only really knew for about six months, those six months often spent on treating her mother like crap, so hopefully that hasn't happened) I shouldn't say it, but I had a feeling Tyler might be gay. I don't think the show will pair him with Jack, but I could easily see Jack trying to support him and then get accused of grooming. Maybe that would finally snap Maeve out of where she is now. The spoilers for the show have been confusing me for a while. The Chris spoilers I asked about weeks ago (him being warned) finally ended up appearing onscreen last week.
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Post by carld2 on Feb 21, 2023 4:29:57 GMT -5
A few other questions I have:
- Did Leanne lose all her scratch card money, the way TK seemingly lost all his father's money? - Did Chris say what happened to Amelie? Is Tom raising her now?
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Post by carld2 on Feb 20, 2023 22:27:07 GMT -5
I was hoping for Todd & Paul So did I. I still wonder if that may happen but I'd settle for Todd just having a good storyline.
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Post by carld2 on Feb 20, 2023 22:24:19 GMT -5
Was there any buildup to Marcus cheating?
The whole story has been flat, from the parts I've seen. Maybe I missed some better moments. I think Marcus could have been a strong character if he'd had the chance, but I can't blame the actor for moving on.
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