Dion

Nicole basically turned into Leanne tonight...tbh it's a direction that sorta makes sense for the character should they wish to develop it further.

I absolutely loved the second episode.

On 8/30/2019 at 4:09 AM, Adamski said:

Is anybody on here still watching Shortland Street? Are you able to summarise the big plots from 2018 and 2019 so far, if so, please?

Here's 2018, i'll write 2019 some other time:

After surving her ordeal with Mason and having a brief affair with Curtis, Sass left Shortland Street after finding Hawks was alive and well.

The cult run by TK's brother committed mass suicide in the hospital carpark. Dawn and Ali got together in the aftermath but briefly split up when Dawn had an affair with Dylan Reinhart (see more about Dylan below). Dawn and Ali later reconciled and married, but Ali was diagnosed with a brain tumour.

Curtis joined the police force and had an affair with Becky, the wife of one of his instructors (Tank Reid) at the academy.

Damo's ex Erin turned up to apologise for holding him hostage about - oh nine months earlier - and ended up giving birth to his baby. She didn't know she was pregnant. Not sure what exactly happened next but I think Leanne convinced her not to abandon the child.

Nicole was run over by Finn, and took a while to recover, also developing anxiety issues. Later Vinnie was offered a job in Singapore and Nicole declined to go with him, leading to the end of their marriage.

Esther and Finn married, but Finn began abusing her. The two separated and Esther began dating her ex boyfriend Kawe, while also suffering from a heart ailment. However Kawe was in trouble with some drug dealers or something and was pushed off a balcony. Kawe's aunt Te Rongopai convinced Boyd to give Kawe's heart to Esther.

After briefly dating Boyd, Te Rongopai got together with TK. Te Rongopia's daughter Rangimarie began dating TK's nephew Ezra.

A serial rapist began attacking victims in Ferndale (the first attack was actually in 2017 when a woman Dawn had a brief affair with when she was exploring her sexuality was attacked). Jack's friend Claire was raped while a few weeks later, Kate managed to fight off the attacker.

Nicole's anxiety issues worsened when she had a run in with a paramedic, Tim who seemed obsessed with her. Nicole also learned that the serial rapist targeted her. Tim was suspected of being the serial rapist, but it wasn't him. Curtis and Jack's copper love interest investigated the crime.

Kate's sister Zoe began having an affair with Chris and fell pregnant. Zoe also began to fall for Finn. Tragically, Zoe was raped by the serial rapist and lost the baby. The rapist turned out to be Ian Reid, the father of Curtis' police instructor Tank. Curtis' girlfriend Becky went back to her husband to support him or something. Both Zoe and Finn left Ferndale (seperately).

Curtus then went undercover to expose Kawe's killers. After he did this, He and Esther almost reunited but Natalie, a fellow copper whom Curtis had briefly dated (oh Curtis!) arranged for him to get transferred to Christchurch.

Drew and Harper welcomed their newborn child Billie who is intersex. Later Drew and Harper had a threesome with their nanny, who conned them out of $30K. Drew was then busted for tax evasion and after a brief stint in jail, was released and had to wear a ankle bracelet.

Boyd's ex Eve returned for an episode with the twins Romulus and Remus so Boyd could perform surgery on one of them. Later on Boyd was blackmailed. Te Rongopai tried chasing after the blackmailer but failed to catch the person.

Kylie's sister Julia married Dr Dylan Reinhart. Julia also agreed to be surrogate mother for Kylie and Frank. Shortly after learning Julia was pregnant, Dylan killed her in a car accident. Frank was suspicious of Dylan but ended up fleeing town after he assaulted Dylan. After a brief affair with Dawn, Dylan got with Kylie. The two married, despite Dylan's twin brother Daniel trying to warn Kylie. Dylan then tried to kill Kylie in another car accident but Dylan was injured and severely burned. In all of this drama, Julia's son Toby was not mentioned at all and now it's as if he doesn't exist!

Jack got involved with a new bisexual doctor, Lincoln who was also sleeping with Nicole off and on. Lincoln was also a recreational meth user and Jack began taking meth to impress him. Later Jack recovered from his addiction and he and Lincoln decided to have a baby with the help of Jack's friend Claire.

Mo was feeling jealous of Chris and for some reason, Kate, Jack, Mo and Chris went off on a plane for Christmas along with another passenger Denise. The plane crashed in the middle of nowhere and Jack was badly hurt. Mo was focused on helping Jack and ignored his own injuries. Sadly, Mo died. Meanwhile Kate realised that Denise was hiding money and that's why Denise wouldn't call for help.

Ian Reid returned to the hospital and was promptly murdered. Moments later Kylie went to Dylan's room and murdered him.

Other than that it was the usual dramas with the King family, though at least this time the drama was a bit more down to earth, relatively speaking.

What does everyone think of the King family?

I personally feel that they've had a bit too much drama - Jean's dementia and suicide, Sophia's pyromania, Ben drunkenly raping Esther and Cece revealing he'd also raped her, the drama with Louis' biological mother and the revelation that she killed Louis' twin brother in retaliation for Ben cheating on her with Cece, Louis getting Shereez pregnant and the subsequent abortion, Blue finding out that Ben was his father and the subsequent genetic sexual attraction story with Sophia and now Louis' surfing accident and paralysis - and that's only in 7 months!

To be fair, the King family did have a pretty coherent story arc up to as far as Shereez's abortion with every incident flowing into the next incident quite seemlessly. However, the pacing was too quick (I mean there was enough storyline potential to last more than a year or so but it was exhausted in months!) and now it seems the writers are just throwing anything that sticks at the family.

The pacing problems were particularly egregious during the storyline with Blue where it seemed Blue and Sophia went from strangers to kissing to potential brother and sister all in one episode! And as Blue is no longer a regular cast member (he left last year but has recurred intermittently since then) he was packed off overseas after only a few weeks.

And then there's the problematic storyline of Ben and Esther - everyone including Esther moved on too fast from the rape, and Cece's revelation that Ben had forced himself on her when they first got together has been glossed over.

Lucy's currently too busy undoing two years of character development to listen to Ali

Well blow me down...Curtis is now gone too.

I'm sure Lucy and Ali will break up at some point...then perhaps end up reconciling and marrying at their originally planned wedding date lol

I don't like the way the show has been handling Billie's rape. It feels like a giant plot device to get Billie to pass the baby off as VJ's, and also the aftermath got a bit lost during the explosion episodes.

Were it not for Sarah's current newborn, i'd suggest Todd and Sarah have another baby together.

Yeah, though hopefully they don't get carried away like Neighbours did with their triplets, killing Cameron off and having Robert so totally un-reedemable.

Well I would have loved to have had Carrie back but as with Phoenix's mum Alison they first thing they did was kill her off! One of the tweets last night was that somebody should really warn Grace lol!

It's a long complicated story regarding the triplets. Basically Carrie was single but wanted a child. After being turned down for adoption she decided to go via Artificial Insemination. She approached her ex lover Michael McKenna (Rachel's father) first but he'd had a vasectomy so basically Carrie went around the clinic (as it was back then) soliciting donations. The father remained unknown, and during that time Carrie met and eloped with Declan Kennedy, father of Nurse Steve Mills (who was one of the potential fathers!). Carrie initially thought she was having twins but when the birth happened, it turned out there was an extra child, a girl named Sarah in addition to Frank and Finbar (Finn).

Being triplets, the babies were premature (I think about 30 weeks or something) and Sarah was especially poorly. Declan ended up fleeing or being arrested or something (not quite sure) for his dodgy dealings and Steve stepped in to help Carrie with the triplets, falling in love with her in the process. Carrie was eventually threatened by Declan's criminal associates and decided to move to Australia.

Months later, Chris made a mysterious trip to Australia. It was soon revealed that he was the father and he had gone to donate blood to Sarah who was in need of a transfusion. Steve, who had become convinced that he was the father, was devastated. This (and Chris' interest in a nurse Jo Jordan) led to Steve and Chris having a fateful argument in a car one day. The car crashed and Steve and Sam's first wife TP were killed.

Later on, Chris' then fiancee Tiffany was so upset by the attention that her furture in laws were giving to Guy and Carmen's child, that she ended up blurting out that they already had three other grandchildren. As Chris' father was dying, the Warner clan made a trip over to see Carrie and the triplets who were about two years old at that time. That, as far as we know, was the last time Chris saw them.

At this point i'm wondering if Margaret will come back at all. Mo scenes with Cate seemed to be setting a storyline up for them once Victoria leaves.

Also if what I suspect is true, the new doctor should be very interesting.

Just to expand on the situation with the Nash family a bit more, Travis Nash and his wife Rebecca (Fisher's daughter) initially took over fostering from Pippa - Sam went to live with Fisher, while Tiegan and Justine stayed with Travis and Rebecca (Sally moved into Travis and Rebecca's old place with Vinnie and Jesse at this time).  They were eventually joined by Travis' brother Joel, his wife Natalie and their kids Tom and Gypsy (initially they lived in separate houses but after Joel and Natalie's house was destroyed in an arson by Gypsy's stalker, they moved in with Travis and Rebecca). Travis and Rebecca eventually left the bay, while Tiegan  had already gone off to live with Pippa after her break up with Joey.

Over the next year, Justine and Tom left and Joel and Natalie eventually split up and left town as well. Gypsy stayed in town and the Sutherlands moved in to the Summer Bay House.

Patricia Hewitt was CEO then, but Rachel was her 2IC and as such was involved in the story.

I don't remember most of the details of that story as I was a bit busy with Uni at the time but I do remember Toni (Harry's late mum) being ostracised for going against the strike and looking after her own interests.

There have been two Nurses' strike stories, one in 1993 and one in 2001.

I had a feeling the 'writing was on the wall' for Jimmy when Bella started having feelings for Boyd. A shame really, but Joel Tobeck's not the type of actor who would stay too long. As for Murray, he could be back but I think his exit is permanent as well.

I don't know if Damon Andrews is still with the show. Google only brings up mentions of the Virgin Mary apparition in cup from 2011.

KJ Apa has been cast as Archie in Riverdale, a new CW show based on Archie comics.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/297478/nz-actor-cast-as-archie

http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/eastenders-star-natalie-cassidy-reveals-7361467

Natalie Cassidy is pregnant and due in the (Northern) Summer.

More and more I'm convinced Victoria is the second shooter and I can't wait for her to go down. I hope they explore her misandry a bit more before she goes. I think she shot Drew in part because she believed he was a misogynist, when in fact he's definitely a Philogynist.

Well there goes the best thing to happen to the Masoods in years. Ugh!

I'm comforted by the fact that at least it seems to be her decision and not a stupid axing.

"baby-kidnapping a..." - yup that aptly sums up Sean Slater

She's been quiet on CBB, and even reconciled with Chris Maloney. Though I'm still a week behind so things could have changed.

John Patridge on the other hand has been playing a strong game.

Yeah I'm about a week behind as I forgot it about it so have been trying to catch up, but Stephanie has definitely been one of the talking points.

Well I wouldn't go as far to say they have form for lying, but sometimes promos over the years can be misleading/misdirecting, 4 examples I can think of:

A print advertisement asking "Who killed Oscar Henry" in early 1999, when he actually initially survived and languished in a coma until finally being killed off in May.

The episode outline for the final episode of 2007, which said that Luke Durville and Alice would have a scene together, when they didn't - a scene featuring Luke and Alice was released as part of the series of videos mentioned below but (unlike the other scenes) none of their video was never in an actual episode.

A series of videos showing various characters being revealed as the Ferndale strangler, but not having one that saw Joey revealed as the serial killer. The first half of all these videos were actually scenes from the show - except for the aforementioned Luke and Alice video - and would end before the reveal seen in the episode eg Scotty and Shanti argued about her arranged marriage and then Scotty strangled Shanti. The argument was actually seen in the episode but the part where Scotty strangled Shanti was of course left out in the real episode.

When the whitetails opened gunfire in the hospital operating theatre in 2008, promos said there would be 3 casualties. Of course casualties doesn't actually mean death, so three characters were injured and noone died!