Shortland Street

[DRW50]

I  can only assume both characters were always meant to be short-term as the actors have worked a lot elsewhere, and that's what the actors wanted to sign up for. I still think that Tom was originally meant to be a much uglier character until the actors who played Prince and Tess quit and the show also knew that the Rico story was a bust with viewers. 

Now we have Jack with his brother's killer, which is just more misery. They never seem to want to let some of these characters develop.

I'm in early December, the conclusion of the story with Vivian, Liam and Chris. The whole thing was very well-acted (especially Chris' fears he had  Parkinson's), but I have no idea what to say about Liam attempting suicide and then blowing himself up in the space of about three episodes. 

The story with Tess is hard to watch, knowing how it ends. Probably one of the most depressing stories I can remember on a soap - an abuser murdering his partner and her daughter on said daughter's wedding day. It's well-acted, but I do wonder if this was the way to go.

I find Jojo to be so unpleasant...and with Desi back, doing the same old things (how many times do we need to see her carrying about her wedding?), it's a stereo of entitled  child-women. 

[DRW50]

Near the end of December, finally .

@vetsoapfan, I know you don't watch this show, but as a fan of the Slesar shows, I thought the end of this clip might interest you -  it reminds me a bit of (admittedly not as well written) the Clown  Puppet Murders or the Jingles the Clown story. 

(just to warn anyone  who hasn't seen it, it's some genuinely frightening clown makeup) 

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[vetsoapfan]

I'd love to be able to sample this show--and so many others--but alas, foreign soaps are geo-blocked, and I can't even get Emmerdale any more.

This was indeed a creepy scene. On American soaps, Henrey Slesar was the only writer who knew how to scare the living daylights out of the audience. His best suspense tales were truly terrifying, not unrealistic and ridiculous, low-brow camp nonsense like so many other "writers" dished out.

I miss the days of when the mysteries on soaps were well-written and well-produced enough to make viewers cringe in terror, LOL.

[DRW50]

I can watch through Dailymotion (there's a channel called Shortland Street that posts each episode per day) - if you ever want to try that may be the best way. 

I'll always be disappointed I never got to see most of Slesar's writing, especially the Jingles the Clown story. 

[vetsoapfan]

I had not even thought about trying to find soaps on dailymotion, which is probably strange because I've searched (and found) rare movies and bootlegs of Broadway shows and concerts there. I'll check it out. Thanks.

I'd love to see the Jingles story again, for sure, but my number one choice would be Slesar's absolutely terrifying Jonah Lockwood storyline from The Edge of Night. It was a masterpiece; filled with endless twists and turns, involving most of the cast, and acted extremely well. That and the Stephanie Martin saga, also from TEON, were probably Slesar's best stories, IMHO.

I more often write about TGL and AW, but I sure do miss the glory days of TEON too! And even though Somerset had its ups and down, it was still better than any of the soaps being produced today, and I miss that soap too.

[Bright Eyes]

That Tom guy is hot, but that clip made me so enraged at him and Tess was it? They both deserved a slap.

Good to know Dawn is still annoying.

Sally Martin has always been excellent at facial expressions. I still remember her reaction when she was sitting next to Kylie when the doctor told her she (Kylie) had chlamydia ... absolutely hilarious and relatable. 

Edited February 12, 2022 by Bright Eyes

[DRW50]

@vetsoapfanI've heard of the Jonah story and listened to an audio clip, but yes, the actual viewing must have been so special. Slesar's run had such strong day-to-day writing compared to some other lauded headwriters. 

If you ever do watch and have any questions about the show then this is a good place to ask. 

@Bright EyesTom is/was such a heavily propped character, partially because his start on the show was botched so badly. The actor is gorgeous, and not that bad thespian-wise, but he feels (or felt, as he's gone now) like someone dropped in from an American medical show. 

[FrenchBug82]

I thought the first few weeks of this year actually got him in an interesting place without totally retconning his darker side: while the mourning was a tad overdone and the mom stuff plotted too fast, that scene in the hospital corridor before her exit was chilling and compelling and put a lot of things in perspective. And he was appropriately self-aware.
I was looking forward to where the character went from there and... then he is immediately written out.
Although I find it weird they would set him up to overhear Hamish's phone call if they are going to do so little with it.
What am I saying? Shorty does that all the time.

No knock on the actress who is likeable but I still can't believe that of all the younger actresses they have introduced over the past five or six years, she is the one who is still there.
Also, while I can appreciate the show lampshading the fact she has been, hum, with a lot of the hospital staff, it doesn't make it less groan-worthy when they then immediately throw her in the direction of the last age-appropriate male character left that she hasn't hooked up with yet.

And there is apparently a rule that every woman under 30 who gets hired at Shortland Street inevitably ends up either bisexual or dead.

[DRW50]

My guess is that the actor only ever signed up for a limited stint (as so many do with this show, it seems - I  notice Francesca is also on her way out) and the original plans for him were going to be more nefarious - beyond his truly vile treatment of Rico and Jack,  there was also the toxic bond with Maeve, and the way he treated Tess early on. Tess and Maeve were both involved in the Carla story...if the  plans were to  have him in Vincent's role (as it's not like that character ever had any depth beyond plot device) on his way out, I wouldn't be too shocked. Then the actors who played Prince and Tess left, with the latter presumably agreeing to stay to finish out Tess' story. So we had more of a traditional love story and tragic wedding. 

I thought it was kind of clever that Tom, who started out as a liar and schemer, now reformed, sees through the incoming liar  and schemer in Jack's life, but yes, it did give an unintended false impression about how long Tom would be there. 

Regarding Dawn, I assume she is still there mostly because the actress is happy to stay put, but I do feel like she has been showing her age (not physically) of late. The filler story with the vet she used for sex after accidentally pushing him down the stairs ( @Bright Eyes I'm sure you would have loved that one...) was just plain bad, and made her look really bad. And now she is with  Louis, which just seems  like they don't know what to do with either character (and I'm not even sure how long he will be around as the actor has mentioned wanting to leave for law school), unless she is actually into women,  like, as you mention, seemingly every other woman on the show now? 

I  know women are generally more sexually diverse than men, but at this point it just feels like what they do when they run out of story. Look at Leanne - we see her partner, what, six times a year,  even though as Maeve's  mother she should have more involvement? 

Why don't they ever have a surprise and have Marty or Louis into guys? Marty/Jack would be more believable than many of the current relationships...

[vetsoapfan]

The extraordinary aspect of Slesar's writing was his versatility. Mystery/suspense stories were his claim to fame, but he was also wonderfully adept at romance, family drama and characterization. He could do it all. (And his scripts had characters speaking like intelligent, real-life people actually speak!)

[FrenchBug82]

I imagine there is a factor about the actors' wishes but the difference to me is that Sarah Wiseman's stint was announced to be a limited-time stint from the get-go because she is very busy outside the show.
A lot of these younger actors have nothing going on that could justify demanding only a one-year tenure.
I am very sceptical that of the two dozen leading characters they have cycled through the past three years, several would not have loved to have a steady gig (during a pandemic!) for a few more years than the year-to-18-months characters cycle through these days.

Worth noting that the official SS Facebook page had a "Do you think Tom will be back?" post the day after his exit.

Maybe I am reading too much into it but that would seem a strange thing to tease if they were not fully leaving the door open with the actor.

While that particular note worked, I actually hated the insta-reconciliation between Tom and Jack. It rang so false.
When they were briefly pushing the Amelie custody issue, Maeve of all people asked Jack of all people to talk Tom out of it saying: "If you can't, then no one else can". How in the hell do they figure? They had been reconciled for a hot minute by that point. The Jack fluffing makes me dislike the character more than he deserves.
But I did like Tom spotting Hamish for what he is.
Funnily enough just yesterday I was rewatching old Shorty episodes on YouTube and they had a similar line during the Jai-cheating-on-Maia affair where Mark responds to Jai scoffing that he doesn't know whether she slept with Dylan or not: "Never kid a kidder, Jai".

That's exactly the problem. I don't mind a character that starts off as immature and irritatingly goofy lasting - the actress is good and Dawn is likeable enough. It is just that she has not grown up. They are writing her exactly the same despite all the tragic stuff that has happened to her that could easily have allowed them to take her down a few notches.

On one hand they do indeed not seem to know where to take Louis. On the other hand, they need whitebread leading men and after taking out Tom, taking out Louis would only leave Viliami whose entire purpose on the show is the Madonna connection.
So I imagine we are due for new characters to be introduced soon if they are writing out Louis. Probably a family 

Or, and it won't happen, I wish they would explore returning some old characters. Feel there is a huge bank of past characters and at least some of these actors would welcome a chance for a job. The NZ acting scene can't be that big.

[Forever8]

Who some of the old characters would you bring back if you had the chance? 

[DRW50]

I'm still not sure why they wrote Boyd out, unless it was the actor's choice, or a salary issue. The lack of interviews just makes it all confusing when people leave. 

I do agree that a lot of the people who  are only on  for a brief time were not leaving by choice  (like Wai, Marty's girlfriend for about two months,  Karl, Tess' boyfriend for a few months, etc.) but I think Tom was showcased enough and relatively popular enough to where they would have kept him if he didn't want to go.

I felt like the whole drug story and Louis dropping out of nursing was a surefire setup for an exit - maybe the actor changed his mind. I guess we'll never know...

[FrenchBug82]

Oh my. 
Looking at the list of the past few years I realize how many of them had exits that were definitive. And the characters whose nostalgia prompts my comment are probably too "old" now to be part of the younger set.

I would bring back Eddie actually. Not the best-written character in the world but I feel he has enough ties to the canvas AND with Curtis gone they might do better things with him.
I'd definitely bring back the Warner triplets - I was so sure Tess' death was the setup to return Sass because they look alike to me and Sass/Tom would have made some sense.
I'd love for them to go Hail Mary and return a character we saw grow up on screen: Hunter, Sophie, Daniel, Ulla (although if that means bringing back awful Vasa, probably not Ulla), etc. The characters are established and there'd be a small bonus for nostalgia purpose, like when they randomly brought Vinnie back and it really worked.

Rewatching the old episodes also reminded me how similar the Maia/Mark relationship was to Maeve/Tom and it figures that another potential thread not picked up would have involved the good ol' lesbians-want-a-baby storyline with Tom as a donor.
Original? Maybe not. But I feel they should have found ways to make the Tom dynamic more of a problem for Nicole/Maeve.

[DRW50]

An oral history of the "please tell me that is not your penis" phenom:

https://thespinoff.co.nz/tv/13-02-2022/the-oral-history-of-please-tell-me-that-is-not-your-penis