Hollyoaks: Discussion Thread

[Bright Eyes]

James Sutton's going to be on Emmerdale starting in June? OMG

[Y&RWorldTurner]

tvmogel08 on YouTube has put up tons of Clare episodes, if anyone is interested.

[DRW50]

I can't wait to see Clare again, but I hope she isn't going to be killed. I don't want this to be like that Mad May return on Eastenders, big hype and then a fizzle. It was her relationships with Louise, Max, and OB which fascinated me, not Justin or Warren, so I'd like to see her outlive them. What a great story if Clare outlives all her enemies (except OB).

The show is very directionless now, although I don't think this is because of Kirkwood's departure, the show has been aimless for quite some time (I'd say since late 2007). Directionless isn't always bad, as there can be some moments of strength. I think Anita's bullying story is very well done, from what I've seen, and the core families are still there if HO ever wants to focus on them.

[Sylph]

So now half of his tenure sucked?

[DRW50]

I thought 2008 was very uneven. I wouldn't say sucked, but some key stories (specifically, Niall's time in town, JP/Kieron, Craig's return and JP's exit) were very plot-driven and short-sighted. Kieron's death had barely any impact. Kieron could have served more use if he'd lived, especially since the show has struggled at bringing in solid new characters for the past few years. Craig and JP barely talked about their issues before they left, and it seemed more like reuniting them only because of what fans wanted, more than any passion from the writing. The McQueens only found out about Niall being Myra's son right before he died, and he became such a nutjob that the years of potential storylines to be spun about his place in the family were all squandered. Even Myra choosing which of her children should die had little payoff. This was all big moment after big moment with no real substance.

The custody battle over Charlie was inexplicably dropped and Nancy spent most of the year in a bad storyline with Ravi, while Justin barely appeared, aside from a going nowhere relationship with Leila.

Fletch and Sasha spent half a year getting addicted to heroin, then Fletch is suddenly written out, never to return, and Sasha starts vamping Warren.

Why did Hannah have so little to do during 2008?

A secret kept for almost a year about Mercedes sleeping with Tony and aborting his child -- used only for a short-lived vendetta story between Tony and Jacqui. They've wasted Jacqui for ages, it's always baby, baby, baby. Remember how fun and sexy she was early on, and her moments of vulnerability with her family?

A secret kept for almost a year about Tina carrying Russ' child -- barely tapped into before Tina was killed off.

Rhys -- barely a factor after Beth died, even though Andrew Moss proved he could carry major story. Sarah, flitting from point to point for most of the year. I still don't know what the point of the story with her and Elliott was, or Hannah and Elliott.

Why did they bring Mandy back just for the affair with Warren which did nothing for her character? Was that the only exit they could come up with to get rid of Louise?

Why did Carmel and Calvin become nothing more than this joyless couple with Calvin always judging her? Then they built up a story for Calvin and Valerie, but she left (for maternity leave, I guess) never to be mentioned again.

The pacing was horrible last year, and I thought the only consistently good and relatively well-paced stories involved Steph's struggles and the money problems with Jack and Darren. I liked other stories, like Mercedes, Malachy and the HIV, but they were short term.

Once the "big" stories ended, nothing was left, and most of the new characters brought in haven't picked up the slack. Kirkwood knew how to do big moments, but with nothing in between. Now people seem to have deserted the show because it was all short term stunt and long term emptiness.

Edited May 3, 2009 by CarlD2

[Y&RWorldTurner]

http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/a154690/ho...wards-noms.html

British Soap Awards 2009: Full Panel Shortlist: http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/a154686/br...-shortlist.html

[Toups]

Just finished the week of April 24......Poor Anita, putting bleach on her skin. She's so insecure. But I love Saira Choudhry portrayal of Anita. And I love Anita/Theresa's friendship.

[Toups]

The Warren/Calvin 2.5 minute fight was awesome!! In started the bar and ended in the streets. That kind of fight between them was coming for a long time.

I had to laugh at Darren though.

Steph: Darren, do something!

Darren: Are you mad?

I thought Jamie Lomas did a great job during the confession scene.

[DRW50]

Roxanne McKee has said she was originally asked to return, and said no. I guess that makes sense, but I still prefer Clare returning. I just hope Clare doesn't die.

Here's a promo for the big exit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmz8L04_uug...feature=channel

Wouldn't be Warren/Justin without at least one shot where they look like they're going to make out.

I hope they don't rebuild the Loft, I think that place has had its day, and they can use the money to make other new sets. I don't even know who'd buy it anyway. Probably Neville Ashworth.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Clare

What's with Warren manhandling Hannah? What an ass, you go Clare, kill his ass.

And yes, Justin and Warren have inappropriate chemistry.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

And yeah, I'd rather Clare than Louise too, plus, Clare still has unfinished business with Warren and Justin, and she is of course better than watching Louise...

[DRW50]

What I never understood about Louise is why she had so many different personalities. She was Darren's holiday girl up for a good time, she was obsessed with Ben, she was the evil college supervisor, she was madly in love with the husband she'd never mentioned (Sean), then she was supposed to have feelings for Warren, then she fell for Calvin, on and on. I probably most liked her with Sean. Calvin was the worst, as he broke her spirit, as he does to all his love interests. Then she just became Warren's moll, and her story became about Warren's pain, which is just zzzzzz.

I think Roxanne was right not to return, although I would have loved seeing her team up with Clare to destroy Warren.

I wonder if this is the end of Spencer. I can't imagine who he would live with. He just seems to be taking up space.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

You don't think there's too much bad blood between those two to team up? I know they both hate Warren, but would Louise ever forgive Clare for advising her to take that abortion and then spilling it to everyone?

Edited May 14, 2009 by Y&RWorldTurner

[DRW50]

I just thought she'd want to even the score with Warren even more than Clare, since Warren wanted to kill her as well as his child (if he knew she was pregnant). Plus she went completely crazy.

I also wonder if they would have paid a visit to their old friend Mandy, and pay her back for the affair with Warren. Did you ever see the late night episode where they were supposed to go on holiday, then they ended up breaking down, they went to a trashy honky tonk bar, they broke into the wrong house and got arrested, then went to the right house and ran into Sean, the husband Louise had never mentioned. Someone was also hit in the head with a frying pan. This was with the first Clare, the one who was supposed to be nice.

This is an interesting article about the show, although it seems kind of out of date, and Kirkwood isn't entirely accurate (Justin was at the center of stories for years and years before Kirkwood showed up).

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_an...icle6260211.ece

Edited May 14, 2009 by CarlD2

[Sylph]

Hollyoaks: it’s OK, we love it too


How has Channel 4’s teen soap become a rival to Corrie and EastEnders? Tim Teeman on a soapy trailblazer

Tim Teeman


It wuz robbed. Its stars did what was expected and turned up, spray-tanned and taped into barely-there dresses. But it wasn’t enough. Nominated in every category yet winner of not one, Hollyoaks was the Cinderella of the British Soap Awards on Saturday night. The big beasts, EastEnders and Coronation Street, emerged triumphant. The Chester-based teen soap, garlanded many times last year, was left — unfairly — gongless. Loudly and brashly, but mostly ignored because of its scheduling, Hollyoaks has been rewriting the rules of soap opera.

The crazy dream sequence, or warp-speed pastiche, that opens every episode of Hollyoaks serves as a warning, or invitation, that you are about to enter unfamiliar soap territory. The sequence will typically feature that episode’s main characters dreaming or imagining whatever plight they are facing — about to be dumped or accused of some heinous act — razzed up with a ridiculous pop song. After two minutes of this high-voltage surrealism, the episode begins: a maelstrom of romance, blackmail and adultery (and that’s just a quiet day in Hollyoaks village), spiced with a surfeit of teenage hormones.

In its trailblazing guise, Hollyoaks — made by Phil Redmond’s Lime Pictures — is continuing the tradition set by its older cousin, Brookside, which in the 1980s radicalised soaps by breaking on-screen taboos such as homosexuality, incest and rape, and featuring sensationalist plots such as the body-under-the-patio storyline and a helicopter crashing into the local petrol station. Like Brookie, Hollyoaks is filmed at Redmond’s HQ, with Lime’s offices doubling as college corridors.

From its birth in 1995 to fairly recently, Hollyoaks suffered by comparison: Coronation Street, EastEnders and Emmerdale were better resourced, better acted and better produced. The Channel 4 show, conceived as a British Neighbours or Home and Away, was a bratty upstart, suitable only for sneering at. Graham Norton joked about it at the Baftas and James Corden, who was in the show, said that he’d “rather die than go back. I can’t tell you the sheer disdain I have for the place and people”.

Parents may live in fear of hearing its demented opening theme (sure to usher in another half-hour of sexual and moral indiscretion) but Hollyoaks has arguably become one of our most daring, and under-rated, popular dramas. Those parents are probably enjoying the show over their children’s shoulders — just like the many twenty and thirtysomethings who find it compelling hangover TV when it’s repeated as an omnibus on Sunday mornings. Hollyoaks, as the awards nominations and growing critical recognition signals, has migrated from its teen moorings.

On June 1, the first episode under the regime of new series producer Lucy Allan goes out, which she promises will be heralded by a “small but noticeable” tweak to Hollyoaks’s distinctive opening titles sequence featuring the lead characters cavorting, gurning and pouting to an insane riff similar to the Roobarb theme.

Bryan Kirkwood, the outgoing series producer and the man responsible for the resuscitation of this once-dire show, is leaving with a suitably dramatic swansong. The return of the soap’s superbitch Claire to set fire to The Loft nightclub and possibly murder Warren, the chief male baddie, or Justin, the bad boy turned good, or Russ, the well-spoken teacher who fulfils little narrative function, or maybe someone else entirely, will play out to its explosive climax on May 29.

It will be good to have Claire back, even if her reign of terror this time is to be brief. As played by Gemma Bissix, she is one of Kirkwood’s favourite creations, responsible for drugging and attempting to defraud and murder her ex-husband Max Cunningham, menace his little brother Tom and, finally, kill Warren’s sister Katy (who was, admittedly, very annoying) by driving over a cliff. We saw Claire sink into the murky depths of the lake but, as in all the best soaps, she wasn’t dead and was last seen in killer red heels about to ensnare a businessman at an airport, not a trace of algae in her hair.

When Kirkwood took on the show three years ago, it was a dying embarrassment. He says that it had been left to drift. The eye-candy-with-no-discernible-talent quotient was high. The storylines — “people playing jokes in chicken outfits” — were inane. He began a ruthless cull of bad actors and sharpened the scripts and storylines with a new roster of writers. Now, each episode is a tightly packed firecracker of bitching, backchat and unpredictable plot. The beautiful people, acting quality improved, are still present: one actor recalls a Hollyoaks casting to be a riot of hair straighteners, barely-there tops and lipgloss.

“People want to lose themselves in someone else’s dramas,” says Kirkwood. “When I joined it, the show was in desperate need of being worked over. I found actors like Emma Rigby and Chris Fountain who were being criminally underused. Emma oozed star quality. There were a couple of mates, Max and OB, whose friendship I knew could become the heart of the show. I brought in families like the McQueens and the Valentines.”

Rigby, who plays teenager Hannah, went through a harrowing and explicit eating-disorders storyline, which — like everything on Hollyoaks — was incredibly melodramatic but still rang true, especially when she acquired a friend who starved herself to death. Now, to tie in with Kirkwood’s farewell, the writers have bought her and Fountain’s character together, although star-crossed lovers in Hollyoaks are usually accorded about five minutes of happiness before a passing psychopath or freak hurricane tears them apart.

Kirkwood’s tenure also saw a brilliant gay love story between teenagers John-Paul and Craig (“McDean” as they were known to fans), with kisses, bedroom scenes and all the emotional depth and insane complications of the straight relationships developing alongside it.

Kirkwood is proud that other shows are now aping Hollyoaks: EastEnders and Coronation Street are not only younger; the recent salty irreverence, glamour and pace of both bigger beasts are now closer to the Hollyoaks template.

“You hear incidental music creeping into the shows,” says Kirkwood. “In a recent episode of EastEnders, one character had a life-after-death fantasy sequence. It’s undeniable that we have had an impact on the bigger shows. People who slag off Hollyoaks haven’t seen the show for the past couple of years.”

But can Hollyoaks still shock us? “It’s harder to break taboos — there are none left,” admits Allan. “It has been such an intense year that I want to have some light, fun stories this summer, before we get darker into the autumn. I’m most excited by a week-long whodunnit plot in September. We have to keep on our toes. Our audience knows to stay on its toes. The stories we tell might be familiar and they might have a known end — the couple get together — but getting them there is the trick, and keeping all those twists fresh.”

This year, Hollyoaks excelled itself with a drawn-out plot featuring a psychopath called Niall, who, at the climax of his devious plan to destroy a family, blew them all up in a church before committing suicide on a Scottish mountain.

One of the stranger, but still transfixing, plots saw emo kid Newt stalked by a sinister character called Eli, who would mysteriously appear and disappear in a flash. In one episode it was revealed that Eli wasn’t real but a manifestation of Newt’s schizophrenia. It’s rare that soaps still shock, but that conceit did. The Hollyoaks problem, if it has one, is that it can be so action-packed and dramatic that its quieter times feel a bit dull. There are some great younger actors, such as Hollie-Jay Bowes, who plays Michaela McQueen, nominated for best comedy performance at the British Soap Awards.

Next Kirkwood will produce Hollyoaks Later, which goes out after the watershed. He hedges his bets, meaningfully, when asked if he wants to produce another soap. “I love soaps, they’re the bread and butter of TV,” he says. Kirkwood’s pride and passion saved Hollyoaks; lucky the next show that benefits from his golden touch. If his legacy proves strong and the supplies of spray tan remain consistent, there is no reason for Hollyoaks not to sweep the board at the British Soap Awards next year.

Hollyoaks, Channel 4, Mon-Fri, 6.30pm

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article6260211.ece

Edited May 15, 2009 by Sylph