Shortland Street

[Dion]

Actually we haven't yet seen any of the COVID truncated storylines yet, production would've ceased on August 17 and if they were 8 weeks behind then it means that we won't see the effects for another three weeks or so. Ngahuia likely had her baby sometime after August 17 as well. I expect that in roughly three weeks time we'll see Esther leave abruptly.

Anyway, the good news is that production of the show will most likely resume Wednesday

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[DRW50]

Ah, thanks. So I guess they were planning to do a Marty/Esther pairing and then they had to rapidly change course with Esther's pregnancy. That might also explain why Monique is back.

[Dion]

I don't know if that's the case but actually yeah that would make sense; i.e they were planning a Marty/Esther pairing then Ngahuia got pregnant so they wrote it in and made it Curtis' for all the longtime fans of that very popular pairing with Monique being brought back to keep Marty occupied while Esther's pregnancy plays out.

[AMCOLTLLover]

i catched up a bit and i am really upset... Boyd left the show! One of the longest running cast member left the show. He was funny and brought in something to the table and now he is gone with Zara. Now this show will be boring

[Dion]

https://thespinoff.co.nz/tv/28-09-2021/shortland-street-is-in-a-race-against-time/

Definitely cutting it a bit fine this time; during the last level 4 lockdown (March - April 2020) - when production was also suspended - the show was trimmed down to three episodes a week. The other Auckland lockdowns (August 2020, February 2020 and March 2020) were all only Level three so production was able to continue.

[DRW50]

Great find! I had no idea production was so down to the wire, or that they were still taking such massive precautions. I guess they eased up for a while as we saw characters kissing so what is coming up is probably going to be more severe?

Boyd was also one of my favorite characters. Fascinating, very handsome and charismatic, and I really liked his friendship with Drew. 

It's frustrating because most people who leave this show don't seem to do exit interviews. I would like to know what he (or the guy who plays Prince) had to say. 

[DRW50]

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The  scenes in this where Chris unknowingly sent a smutty e-mail to various department heads instead of his girlfriend are some of the biggest (intentional) laughs I've had from a soap in a long time.

[DRW50]

The actress who plays Harper recently revealed that she is pregnant - due in December - and that her pregnancy was written into the script in a hurry.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/126581909/from-heartache-to-baby-joy-for-shortland-street-actor-ria-vandervis

I wonder if this may be one of the reasons Tom was moved out of her story, even though that had been built up for some weeks, and put into the unpleasant stuff with Rico that really made him look completely wretched.

[Dion]

Esther just up and disappeared and now we learn she's gone to stay with TK, Tilly and Aunty Kuini. So we definitely into level 3 (post Sep 21) episodes now.

The location episodes last week would have been filmed just before lockdown.

 

 

[DRW50]

I guess that explains why Jack and Louis have such hair changes. 

A few of us were wondering about Michelle. Is she gone for good? I can never tell with this show. 

[Dion]

You know at this point I'm not even sure if TK is coming back. TK going back home to practice medicine has basically always been the endgame that has subtly been baked in to his character arc.

As for Michelle, I don;t know either. She's still on the Characters list over on the official website, but so are Boyd, Zara and Prince!

[FrenchBug82]

Re: the turnover

Many years ago I was watching the show religiously. It was my fave; someone was posting episodes on YouTube everyday and in the aftermath of mourning the death of many US soaps I was very excited to thoroughly enjoy SS. So many old storylines were also on YT.
So followed SS for many years and then it became harder to find new episodes on YT. I kind of tried to keep up through recaps but obviously that's not the same thing.
Finally a year later someone posted new episodes again and I literally did not know two-thirds of these people on my screen. 
And don't get me started on now three years later. Even having tried to catch pieces here and there, it is almost akin to starting from scratch.

And I agree with what someone said above: the habit of writing characters out abruptly without warning or exit interviews is frustrating.

[DRW50]

An interesting look at how the show is handling kissing scenes: 

https://thespinoff.co.nz/tv/05-11-2021/why-chris-warner-is-pashing-a-piece-of-perspex/

[DRW50]

The story with TK reconnecting with his Maori heritage through Tillie doing the kapa haka was very lovely, and very brave of them to have such long passages of scenes in Maori. 

[Dion]

Yeah, although the usage of Te Reo Maori on NZ TV has increased markedly in the past decade or so.

That being said it's only recently that Te Reo Maori ceased being grounds of complaint to the BSA.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/437991/bsa-signals-end-to-te-reo-maori-complaints