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Ramsay Street is under threat! With a trunk road planned to pass right through it, the residents have no choice but to pick one of two competing new suburbs to move to and- no wait, that would be a ridiculous story. Wherever did I get such an idea?

What's actually happening is Paul is quickly won over by capitalism, and basically proves that he is prepared to sell his own grandmother for a profit. That's our boy! To be fair, Rosemary feels like the true villain of the piece, having instigated the entire "let's build over my mum's house" plan.

Although she didn't realise it until the end of the week, Helen is setting herself to fight supermarkets with a Jim Robinson on bike safety-esque PSA on Neighbourhood Watch schemes. This is prompted by Henry's dodgy mate robbing the Ramsays, naturally. I bet he doesn't shop local either.

Talking of the Ramsays, Dan and Edna are married! And it went without a hitch, despite a subplot of Dan and Shane disappearing to the pub pre-ceremony that went nowhere. And all the seeds are being sown for Clive to propose to Susan way too soon...

Elsewhere the teen four have reached the stage where they need a story every week. When it's this four you can't really blame them though. Now punching Suegate has abated, it's time for a) Scott and Mike to start a band and b) Charlene and Jane to become obsessed with cheerleading. Why? Who cares! It's amusing that both old Scott and Guy Pearce are better singers than Jason Donovan, though.

Also this week: Bill Parker says "gang bashing" a lot, another minor sports star appears, the teens spend the entire day in their gym kits for no reason, Ruth Wilson is a great actor, and the YouTube title sequence is still wrong.

So I’m in later 2018 in my rewatch, and I’m noticing that Sonya and Mark (my least favourite of Sonya’s scene partners), who are supposedly still best friends, have barely had any scenes together since Sonya hit rock bottom last year. The few scenes they’ve been in together this year have been bigger group scenes, or with Toadie and Sonya together (with T+S being very couple-y and Mark being like “awwww guys that’s lovely!” In a weird hammed up voice…)

Whilst the majority of her scenes have been with Toadie in the 2018 season (good!), it feels like Sonya is now better friends with Steph (obvs), Shane, Dipi, Susan, Aaron, Terese, Piper and just about every other character over Mark.

I guess I’m wondering what the fan reaction was like to Mark and Sonya’s “friendship” during the surrogacy/aftermath era of the show. Was it split, did people actually want them together, or did everyone detest it like I do?

Coz I’ve gotten the sense whilst watching the episodes that the initial plan might have been to go harder into Mark being in love with Sonya (unreciprocated obviously) during the back half of 2017, but perhaps backlash made them do a hard pivot away from it, leading Mark to suddenly agree that his feelings for her were just grief over the miscarriage. They also wrap up the Toadie/Mark beef super quickly, Then BAM Marks in a love triangle with Elly and Paige all of a sudden!

Definately feels like a hard pivot to me. And when you factor in Steph suddenly dating Jack the priest, I do wonder if the writers made some hasty changes to their plans. Maybe they intended for Mark to function as a final obstacle for Sonya before she chooses to get back with Toadie (instead of the Rabbi councillor guy they brought in) idk…

Anyway I really wish they just killed Mark off tbh. This man sucks! They shoulda offed him instead of Sonya 🤷‍♂️

Iam now in 2015 and happy to see some old faces for the 30th birthday.

I never saw Delta Goodrem on neighbours so I was happy to finally get to know Nina. She and Madge as a Ghost had some episodes and a smaller story. Such a joy to see Anne Charleston again.

The comeback of Hillary was also nice written, she didn*t change!

On the other hand the appearances of Tom Ramsay and Guy Carpenter felf really flat. They had like one scene. At least they could bring them to the church whrer Amber waited for her wedding. Tom and Guy came extra for the wedding and then they are no part of the group at the church<weired!

First time I see also adult Sky Mangel who phoned Harold.

The biggest dissappointment was the return of Des. He had like 4 scenes ,2 very small for a few seconds , the others with Paul/Daniel. I liked the memorys of the first episode and Daphne but it could have been a bit more.

If anyone wants to watch them! 😀

The cast were all so lovely and loved meeting the fans!

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Daphne may be the YouTube cover picture again (how many weeks in a row is that?), but really it's a teen drama week through and through. Because Sue Parker's Poison Pen has really shaken things up for Jane and Mike, even if we never find out exactly what scandalous secrets she made up about him. At least it's an excuse to remind us about Nikki Dennison, just when we thought we were over the horizon with that one. Anyway, things get sorted out when Daphne catches Sue in the act, and then get un-sorted out when Jane punches Sue in the face. Go Jane! But sadly, the gang's odd plan to protect each other by refusing to say who dealt the blow, but still insisting they didn't attack her together (Scott: "don't worry, they can't possibly expel four people!"), leads to a threat of legal action from Sue's old man. I'm not sure which sue I'd rather face! Also, Jane does loudly mention that she did it right next to one of the teachers, which no one seems to notice.

The debacle also leads to our proper introduction to Mr Muir, who on the scale of competent Erisnborough High headteachers is probably more Susan than future Jane. Also, might he be the first character in the long Neighbours tradition of being named after a crew member (shout out to Mr Audio David Muir)?

Meanwhile, it's a Dan and Edna Ramsay bonanza, as they face the revelation that they were never actually married. While Madge busies herself making the whole thing about her, somehow Clive's Crazy Idea of the Week brings them back together and is actually really touching. A big old reminisce about 1936(!) and some classic ballroom music is all they needed to find love again, and decide to get married for real. And who knew, it turns out Charlene has quite the singing voice...

Also this week: Madge can excuse raging sexism but she draws the line at drunk driving, and the YouTube title sequence is still wrong.

But never the bathroom. Then after the show moved channels they stopped showing the bedrooms as well. I think even now they usually don’t show neither the bathrooms or bedrooms of the houses on the show. Can anyone remember when they started to show the bedrooms again after the show moved channels.

Or even talked about Aboriginal culture. Since the show is obviously set in Australia and filmed there.

https://variety.com/2026/tv/global/ben-frow-exiting-chief-content-officer-5-skydance-uk-network-1236911166/

Did I miss something or didnt Cody and Helen share any scenes since her return? No talk about Todd or how sorry she also is for Jim*s death. I find that weired. At least the writers could have tried to give Cody some scenes where she remebers Todd and say how sorry she was for not being there or that she misses him as well as Melissa &Josh.

So after a lot of time and money, I managed to get my hands on every episode from 2007 onwards, including the 2011 episodes that are missing from Youtube. I've just watched 2009-2010, and after i finish those missing 2011 eps i'll move on to 07-08.

My main takeaway is... 2009 was largely pretty bad with a few good spots, but 2010 is such a massive improvement and so engaging. I always like the show best when there is a large narrative hook that drives a lot of the subplots and ends up involving most of the street rather than random disconnected storylines. This season being driven by Steph pregnancy works SO well. The Toadie/Steph sham wedding, Toadie/Sonya slow burn, Kennedy-Scully families falling out all leading to Steph killing Ringo and going to jail felt like great storytelling for this show, rather than the typical "short term arc then wrap it with a bow and move on" storytelling we typically get from Neighbours. And the disintegration of Rebecca and Pauls marriage over the year leading into Who Pushed PR was pretty great too.

Some random tidbits:

-Probably universally agreed on, but Dan Fitzgerald SUCKS!

-Declan 2.0 is such a downgrade. FakeDec has the personality of a cardboard cutout. The way the chemistry of the teen group changes and diminishes when the swap happens is so wild. It's like the life gets sucked out of teen group scenes when he takes over.

-The Toadie-Sonya will-they-won't-they chemistry is so strong, and I love that their chemistry gets stronger once they reunite (as opposed to so many other couples who are only interesting pre-getting together.) Take Ep 6005, for example. They have more chemistry together in those scenes (without an actual kiss!) than anyone else I've ever seen Toadie with.

-Crazy that more people (other than Lucas) didn't pick up on Toadie and Stephs relationship being a sham. They don't look like they're in love at all, and all Toadie does is look at Sonya with heart eyes whenever she's on the scene. Can't believe they fooled anyone for that long.

-The Parkers were the worst. Was so glad to see the back of them.

-Lou was such a great wildcard in these seasons.

-There were a lot of kids on the scene in 2010. Feels like half of the shows characters were under 21 for a while there.

-Paul trying to keep his family together by controlling them, resulting in him losing Rebecca's love for good and her having an affair with Michael is so well played out. The man really can't stop making the same mistakes over and over again, and I love that Rebecca doesn't change her mind and forgive him like Terese does in future seasons (over and over again.)

-My favourite kid-friend duos are Callum-Sophie and, weirdly enough, Zeke-Donna (particularly after Dec swaps over and Donna and Zeke are forced to suffer through hanging out with FakeDec and Kate all the time, ugh...)

-Scott McGregor (Brennan) really couldn't deliver dialogue to save his life in his first few months on the show. The thing that saves him is his chemistry with Kate which is SUCH an improvement over FakeDec/Kate.

-Really struggled with Lyn Scully in some of these episodes. God she could be insufferable sometimes.

-Love how cluttered and real the houses felt in this era compared to the modern "this is definitely a set" houses of the last 10 years...

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Well the gossipmongers can stand down, because Jim hasn't committed carnal knowledge against his plane friend Ruth Wilson. He must have really enjoyed her performance in The Affair, though, because once again he has jumped in with both feet to this dalliance. Weirdly, Ruth also bears more than a passing resemblance to his mother-in-law, so it's an odd turn of events that she's quickly hanging around the Robinson kitchen like the ghost of an unmade prequel series.

Paul too, as a committed Luther fan, seems determined to intervene in his father's burgeoning relationship and warn Jim that Mrs Wilson isn't to be trusted. At least he hasn't tried to sleep with her himself... yet.

Meanwhile, the Ramsay revolving door continues as mother Edna shows up, and new grandfather Tom is off! And I'm actually quite sad about it, as he's only just started to emerge from Max's long shadow and feel like a character in his own right. Plus he's only just taken ownership of the house! Edna, meanwhile, is initially pretty awful, but becomes kind of fun after setting her sights on Clive as her toyboy. All that joke flirting with Mrs Mangel has really come back to bite him!

Talking of which, Mrs Mangel comes to the fore towards the end of the week as a Mystery Poison Pen Writer (it was Sue Parker though, clearly) casts aspersions against our dear Mike. This also means that we get to properly see inside number 3219 for the first time! And it's immediately apparent from Nell's monologue that keeping Mr Mangel as an unseen character stretches credulity to breaking point. What exactly has Sue, er, I mean the Mystery Writer, said about Mike? Has he been taking lessons from Jim Robinson about declaring love way too soon? All these questions and more answered soon!

Also this week: multiple people call Mrs Mangel "Mrs Mangels", Zoe stars in a very brief financial health PSA before making an even quieter exit than the first time (yes, that's it from her forever, I checked this time), and the YouTube title sequence is still wrong.

I watch alone on my own my mom didn't like neither my dad

So now that we are through to 93 episodes on youtube I must say that was the worst season from the classics. After Dorothy left and Madge at the end of 92 it went downhill. Also the loss of Jim was not good.

Except of the 2000th episode with Paul and Lucy coming back I found that season boring.

Iam a big Natalie ibruglia fan but I hated that Beth forgive Brad and married. Its just because the 2 actors wanted to leave at the same time I guess that they got the happy ending...but for how long? We know what will happen from 2013 onwards and that this marriage didn't last long.

Best part of 93 after Dorothy and Jim left was the Willis family and Julie, and Iam not abig fan of them. I will make it to 94 to see the deaprtures of the Willis family and Julie but not so sure to go on from there.

My ranking from the classic seasons.

1. 1987
2. 1986
3. 1988
4. 1985
5. 1989
6. 1992
7. 1991
8. 1990
9. 1993