Dion

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!

Oh dear I think Jasmine's a drug mule.

Yes Janine literally held the show together during that time.

Oh you haven't heard then?

Apparently she's back permanently...

She's a doctor now, she'll take over the hospital, they are renaming the show "Jasmine Cooper: Medicine Woman" and she'll appear in every scene...

It's good to see Jasmine and Evan back for Wendy's funeral but a part of me thinks they should have been there to say goodbye before Murray switched off life support.

Oh yes, I already knew about this, she said as much in an interview with one of the woman's magazines here not long after she left. Basically she started wondering in early 2014 why her contract renewal negotiations hadn't started, they eventually came to her with the news that they were planning to kill her off, she was disappointed at first but as she says in the interview, came to realise it was the push she needed to try other things.

Another thing that piqued my interest was the reference to her great-great-great grandmother. Apparently she was sentenced to life in Tasmania (i'm assuming during the time of convict transportation) after having been raped by own father. Truly horrible and unfair that they seem to have charged her with incest after having been sexually abused.

As for the show, we really should have seen it coming when Wendy got all involved with Murray's sailing hobby and the two started making plans to sail away together. Looking back on it, hat was an obvious portent of doom!

I'm leaning toward Curtis being the shooter (haven't watched tonight's episode yet so may change my mind)

Just as an aside to the above video featuring the pub quiz, I'm not entirely sure but the answer to the final question (which dish of meringue, cream and fruit is named after a Russian ballerina), the answer should be Pavlova, but Peggy says Desdemona (which I believe is three biscuits sandwiched together with whipped cream apricot glaze and fondant).

Tonight is the night Shorty returns with a hour-long episode (been quite spoilt lately)

I don't find it that strange...at one point NZ was over three years behind as Neighbours didn't start airing here until the second half of 1988! (we caught up through a combination of double episodes and screening the show all year round)

There were even periods when Neighbours did not screen at all in NZ...and when it resumed they just picked up from roughly where the episodes would have been had they not stopped airing (meaning we skipped the last few weeks of 1995, all of 1996, half of 2000 and nearly all of 2001 except the final week).

As for the current situation, I guess the problem is that since Neighbours occupies a 6:30pm slot like in Australia, we'd end up getting it two hours ahead of the first Australian broadcast. Screening it within 24 hours of the Australian broadcast would either mean a later timeslot, or playing it the following day which would mess up the Monday to Friday flow, so being a week behind seems perfectly reasonable to me.

I don't begrudge UK viewers getting ahead of us either as the UK audience (and broadcaster whether it be the BBC or Channel 5) have always supported the show to the extent that it sometimes could be considered a UK/Aus co-production. The UK should have caught up years ago.

I

The Shabnam death stare is worthy of a million memes.

I've always thought that all three of the "antipodean" soaps (H&A, Neighbours, Shortland Street) have been quite reluctant to commit to long term storylines (particularly H&A). Villians such as Charlotte will only last about six to nine months....a year at the absolute most (Characters such as the Braxtons and Paul Robinson being a slightly different kettle of fish).

In Charlotte's case, obviously she was brought on to be this year's cliffhanger drama. It's actually good that she was brought on five to six months before the end of the year instead of arriving five to six weeks before. But I do feel that Charlotte had not yet outlived her purpose and could have done much more.

Yeah NZ is a week behind.

There actually was a brief period (following the Delhi Commonwealth Games until the end of the 2010 season) where NZ was actually two hours ahead of the NSW and Victoria screenings, thus was briefly the first in the world to show Neighbours.

I think Lucas' brief return is a set up for a recast Jordan. Denise will get about a weeks worth of episodes out of the reunion before he's predictably sent off to become Vincent's minion in his war with the Mitchells, leaving Denise with nothing more to do other than hand-wringing. Of course, the recast will probably turn out to be Dexter 2.0 and be gone within 18 months....

Charlotte was the best thing to happen on the show in years.

I'm still watching Neighbours. It comes back in NZ next week.

You'd think Paul wouldn't pull such a stunt after what Nick did to him but I guess he has a short memory lol.

I like how they misdirected us regarding Shay, letting us believe she was in someway connected to Terese when it turned out that Shay had just been in a kids programme that Terese had run and her real target was Paul.

I'm really enjoying the Charlotte storyline (Season finale in NZ is today, followed by Eye for an Eye tomorrow which is getting a free to air run in NZ) and like how she's pissing everyone off. I like how her story has been tied into the main plot strands of the past year (Andy killing Jake as revenge for Casey, Billie and Kat's rivalry, Brax faking his death, Marilyn's amnesia even). The show on the whole is actually quite entertaining at the moment.

Hopefully Dayna's going to feel so stink when she finds out that while she and George were "pinching" (ok perhaps that's a bit too strong) Boyd and Harper's wedding, her baby sister was being held hostage but since she thinks the whole world revolves around her and George probably not.

I don't think Drew is dead. He'll spend the next few months  in recovery being angry before finally learning some humility. Maybe Virginia will try to take care of him, but he'll end up driving her away by being too difficult to deal with.

I thought the set up for this whodunnit was quit unique. Having Drew already be shot twice by Gareth and then once again by a mystery shooter. I strongly think it could be Mags though, it feels like something she would do. Who knows, maybe it was Kylie's mum.

I actually could see them killing off Vinnie, after all he's settled down with Nicole now and that usually signals doom on Shortland Street. Yes, Boyd is another who could be dispatched. 

When's TK coming back I wonder. His tenth anniversary is coming up soon, a significant milestone that few have reached. Even Sarah fell short by just one month! Though I've never really been a fan of his as he takes his own first name far too seriously...(see what I did there? Might take some googling :P)

Well that's it until 18 January.