Sons & Daughters Watching/rewatching/discussing The Aussie Hit Show

My, but there's been a whole lot of action in this thread in the last 24 hours!

I enjoy how Patricia can be sneaky and scheming while being nice to people, then blow up and become overtly rude and then go back to acting nice. It's a credit to the writers and actors that I can understand how she gets away with it and people keep forgiving and forgetting. But it's also not that much of a stretch. There's something underneath it all about people having hope that change can happen and this time it's for real.

Yes indeed. But I was still furious when David covered for Patricia by saying Beryl was ill. While Beryl stood there with him perfectly fine.

It's quite a luxury to see this kind of awkwardness. And reactions to reactions. I'd imagine it's not easy to write and can understand the temptation to cut away from it. And I suppose on the other hand you have the US daytime soaps where scenes seem to get dragged out for two weeks. Thank goodness S&D strikes the balance.

I'm enjoying some of the more blokey interactions like this. Particularly with soaps being very emotional, it's great to see scenes like this where people seem authentically uncomfortable with it.

That moment was a standout for me as well. I've found interactions between Lynn and Patricia quite watchable. There's a servility to Lynn and it's clear she wants to be in good with Patricia even if she doesn't understand why. In their very first scene (just before the shelves comment), she's already apologising for Kevin's behaviour and there was just a hint of duplicity to it. She probably wouldn't have made the apology had Kevin not left the room.

Well, it's early days.

The location work has a charm to it, I think. But the atmosphere is noticeably different.

I remember the Return To Eden mini-series used a lot of locations, like Tara's apartment with a view of Sydney Opera House. And it just felt very Australian. The sound and lighting was probably better than S&D due to the budget and time allowance (although I do remember a cramped kitchen and wicker-heavy furniture), but I just enjoy these little tastes of the real environment.

It's the birds and crickets that seem most intrusive to me in the outdoor scenes. Sometimes the dialogue gets lost in there.

Ha. Yes. And who can begrudge her an escape from that.

 

I confess to still being confused by Patricia's motive here. It's so ambiguous. Maybe I'm overthinking it because it's Patricia, but it still feels like there's behind it.

Any time these two roll up their sleeves is full of promise.

There was almost a pantomime element to this. Patricia has never been so boo-able and hiss-able. It's the most twisted she's been since a previous revenge plot which I won't mention because I think James is just about to reach it.

This weekend I've been watching scenes which have done much the same thing.

Maybe he could hear the soundtrack.

How had I managed not to notice this?!

Poor Terry. With the start he had it was just doomed not to have a happy ending.

This warning scene reminds me very much of a scene between Jenna and Pam in Dallas. A scene I've referenced just this week in the Recasts thread.

 

Yep. She's great at this outlook, isn't she?

I've really enjoyed Angela's selfishness this time round. It's given some great drama as you're seeing now.

You've every reason to look forward to it, RC. It's good now, but it gets even better!!

 

Yes indeed. Another thirty episodes or so and I'll be into the last half. It's mind boggling.

 

Either way, that line gets you a sepia freeze frame...

Oh yes, absolutely. The previous sick thing I was thinking of happened before the letter and it involved Martin's daughter.

You'll be glad to know I'm just loving Beryl at the moment.

 

#457

The wrap-up of Terry’s storyline was just great. In fact Terry’s arc would rate as one of the most fascinating on the series in my eyes. I’m not sure about Bevan Lee’s “rapist to hero” edict. In fact I think it would do the writers and the character a huge disservice to describe his journey as such. Actually he turned out to be a unique character in that we saw his ugliness first and then got to learn about the other facets of his personality. It’s also worth noting that in the end he stepped up to own his mistakes and faults. And I can’t think of anyone else on this series who has done so at such risk. I’m not sure what a “hero” is exactly, but his actions have a nobility and an honour them. His speech in the courtroom to the sad instrumental of the theme was unexpectedly touching.

Beryl’s “new” suite is uncannily similar to the one Margaret had in her flat. I did appreciate that the old one was given an exit storyline, with Jim sitting down too heavily and going through it. It was a powerful piece of social commentary. Or a nice light moment for Leila Hayes. Take your pick.

Kevin returned from the Middle East on a plane filled exclusively with caucasian faces (including future Neighbours stripper/homebody Daphne as a flight attendant) Unfortunately he sat next to somebody whose British accent was so terrible it caused deafness.

There are two bright spots though. The first, of course, is that Kevin is back. I hadn’t realised I was missing him until there he was. The second is that I’ve found a Lynn mode I thoroughly enjoy as she tries to communicate to her husband by smiling while raising her voice, speaking slowly and half miming - her hands flapping nineteen to the dozen. The touching little notes passed from Lynn and David to Kevin during their one-to-one “conversations” are rather poignant. They might even make it into a Top Ten “props from the series I’d want to own”. And the tears sparkling in Beryl’s eyes on finding out Kevin was alive and well were a thing of beauty. More and more I think Leila Hayes is one of the more consistently watchable aspects of the show.

Who would have thought a character named Liz Smith could be so intriguing*? When Wayne hired another escort I thought the storyline may end up a bit of a yawn. Turns out this is another character I’ve almost forgotten who is more enjoyable than I’d given her credit for. So far the storyline is like a more convoluted version of Dallas’s Survival and Julie’s Return episodes, with Beth Newman thrown in for good measure.

Like hiding the affair from the twins (or indeed, hiding the Ewing boys’ disappearance from Jock) the current “keep-it-from-them-at-all-costs” issue is the Hamiltons’ financial status. The reasons for them being poorer are hidden in the small print of the financial pages, so it’s not for the likes of me - people who don’t have a private stream and only read the occasional Guardian - to understand. But it’s important to Barbara and Wayne that Gordon doesn’t find out owing to his recent heart problems. They’ve had to let the gardener go, and Barbara has taken a top secret club at the golf club, so we know it’s serious. Actually, Barbara working in front of all her social acquaintances saying she can “rely on their discretion” despite how they previously gossiped about her and Gordon is another thing I don’t understand. But she’s a sensible woman so I have to assume she knows what she’s doing.

Anyway, now Liz has fallen for Gordon over games of Scrabble, which grew deeper after he introduced her to his Dickens. Now she’s working gratis after Wayne almost had to let her go because of the financial situation. It’s all very promising because Barbara holds her in such contempt to start with so we know it’s going to get ugly. Already there have been a number of classic Barb acid drops and put downs. Irene has rumbled Liz’s real feelings and immediately confronted her (that’s a score to Irene for not going into a dramatic, Fiona-esque “I know something you don’t know” angst for half a dozen episodes first).

Gordon now knows about the financial crisis. Barbara and Wayne know that he knows. But none of them know how Liz feels. I’m curious about where this one will go.

Jeff has cheated at running by taking steroids, been found out, become a borderline alcoholic, walked into the road mid-argument and got hit by a car, found out he can never run again, been physically abused by his father and left home. Which all sounds quite interesting but actually isn’t greatly so. It’s struck me that the O’Briens’ ties to pre-series - namely Heather knowing David and Patricia since childhood - hasn’t really been exploited too much. Probably because there’s too much else going on to work it in properly.


*Incidentally, I looked up the actress playing Liz. I'm fairly sure this is her. Very accomplished.
I think this might also be her today...

 

I really liked Liz, funny to think I was watching prostitute storylines and rapists when I got home from school. I dont think I was even in secondary school. Sons and Daughters then flipping over to something like Rentaghost.

 

Oh God, yes! I remember the 4pm slot on ITV was usually aimed at younger kids with things like Rainbow or Alphabet Zoo.

From Beryl to Bungle in the space of 2 minutes. That's one weird watershed.

 

It was weird but wonderful. I think I learnt my morality and what not to do in life from watching soaps so young. It was also creatively inspiring, Barbie in my life would be blackmailing Cindy or cutting the breaks on her pink Caravan. My play was very much Sons and Daughters. I loved it. I need to do what you are doing and view it again.

 

#462

After quite some episodes with no Patricia, I've noticed that Fiona has also been absent for a number of episodes. The last couple of episodes have seen battle lines drawn on a new feud which evokes the spirit of our two absent friends.

Karen Fox is on the scene and has very quickly established herself as a controlling schemer. Already there has been a dinner party scene in which she hosts (well, gatecrashes really, but it was happening at her place) a dinner party and charmingly puts down her new enemy with a series of carefully crafted under the radar put downs ("the ultra-modern look's not everyone's cup of tea", "I didn't mean to be rude but you've been so quiet I almost forgot you were here", "Isn't it lovely to meet someone so down-to-earth for a change?"). It's so very Patricia, trying not to compare them would be an impossible task. There are some significant differences, though. So far she's less artful, complex and fascinating. But it has only been a couple of episodes and while she's no Pat she's certainly proved watchable and entertaining.

And how could she not be entertaining when Karen's prey - the target of her upper middle class landmines - is the one and only Irene Fisher. I'd forgotten what a charismatic, fun and skilled actress Judy Nunn is. With the arrival of her son Todd and his over-protective common law stepmother Karen she has some more meaty scenes and it's wonderful. As you would imagine, Irene hasn't taken Karen's acid drops sitting down. She's showing caution, but when they're alone there's no mistaking that Irene will not prove an easy win for Karen. Their first scene together, in which Karen attempted to talk Irene out of the aforementioned dinner with her son showed Irene at her fighting best:

Irene has an ally in Barbara. The friendship between these two is warm enjoyable and genuine and it's a little funny to think that Cornelia's Morag would be the character on the receiving end of similar fighting talk from Judy's Ailsa four years down the line on Home And Away. Foreshadowing Morag, Barbara - having had a conversation with Irene - was imperious, frosty and dismissive when Amanda introduced her to Karen. She managed to pull herself up to an imposing seven foot and glare down her nose, refusing Karen's proffered hand by keeping her arms firmly under the fur she was carrying. It was a marvellous sight to behold.

Some questions have been raised. Like why did Irene not confide in Amanda about Karen's pre-dinner visit. Todd I can understand, but she's bright enough to know that discussing it with Amanda when they were alone, the subject came up and the opportunity was there would have weakened Karen's threat. And why, within ten literal seconds of Karen's frosty encounter with Barbara, did Amanda start spilling all of her aunt's family secrets to this virtual stranger? Unprompted and without so much as a "may I take your coat":

She then went on to give Karen details of the company and Wayne's escort agency, conveniently saving Karen a whole lot of time. This undermined the character of Karen in my opinion. Finding out this information on her terms could have shown us how resourceful and determined she really is. Instead, she could not have been more passive. She was virtually handed a gold plated invitation to scheme so that her phone call to Wayne's agency could be read as curiosity if she wasn't so arch about it. In many ways it's the opposite of Patricia, who I associate with resourceful actions paired with an air of ambiguity even to the viewer. As I said though, Karen is at the very least entertaining and I look forward to more shallow scheming in the episodes to come.

Finally, I'm finding Amanda watchable. I cared not a jot for her marital sparring with Wayne. And even less for her girly chats with Lynn (if there's television in purgatory, I'm sure there must be a channel devoted exclusively to Lynn/Amanda, Lynn/Susan or Lynn/Andy scenes). But now that she's interacting with Irene and Todd she seems more interesting, more alive and more human. It's hard to pinpoint why, exactly. But gift horses and mouths.

With Jim being out of the picture for the time being and Luke doing little of any import, the O'Brien's continue to operate mostly in a vacuum with no real connection to the rest of the show. Actually it's worse than that. They do have connections to other characters but we're not seeing them. We just cut from the interesting stuff to the O'Briens. Now and then word will reach the Palmers of what's going on next door, but they don't seem to interact. The gap between the two modest neighbouring houses, it seems, is wider than the gap between Sydney and Melbourne.

Jeff is back home, now on the way to becoming a fully-fledged alcoholic. He also kind of killed the family dog when he left it alone at his hiding place with a box of snail bait. I must say there was some wonderful acting in those final scenes with the cute little dog. Unfortunately it was all from the dog who did a marvellous job of being hungry and then being dead (I didn't see him breath or move his eyelids, which are challenges for any actor I'd think).

The best thing about Jeff's runaway storyline was that he chose to ask Tony Parker to abet him. This meant a brief return for Tony and while most of his scenes were with Jeff, Tony managed to do what the O'Briens hadn't: he popped next door to see David and Beryl. It felt appropriate that his last scene was with Mr and Mrs P., albeit there was no sense of closure as he just kind of drifted off as though he'd be back in the next episode. Still, I suppose he's had a couple of previous exits, so I'll let them off.

Oh - and Kevin being back is wonderful. His delivery seems to have backtracked a little to that strange childlike kind of tone he used early in the series. But that's all the more nostalgically endearing. There's a balance being struck. It's interesting to see the boot on the other foot in terms of the extramaritals. Lynn is quite devastated, despite her own frequent wanders down the primrose path. The storyline of Kev-falling-for-a-colleague-who-then-got-blown-up-as-he-watched-leaving-him-with-PTSD-and-psychosomatic-selective-hearing-loss-only-to-fall-for-her-twin-sister-who-turns-up-on-his-doorstep-causing-him-to-lose-his-grasp-on-reality sounds absolutely ridiculous. But I'm believing it. Kev - a character I was almost glad to see the back of by the very end of his previous stint - is back to being the loveable and cheeky/sensitive young bloke we knew in Season One. No matter what the plot, if the character feels truthful I'll take it. The current state of play hints at yet more endings. But promising ones, perhaps.

 

It did seem to get particularly pacey around this point but I didn't find it off-puttingly so.

Here's what I had to say about some of that stuff:

David in particular seems to be the go-to in terms of characters whose brains are in their y-fronts. But because of that it feels right in character for him, as does the contrivance of the rows. My views on that at the time:

It has similarities to how absolutely Pat turned against Gordon as their relationship crumbled. Sure, the rot was there all the time with Gordon, but it felt in character for Pat to see attack as the best form of defence.

Great point. And another example of some of the poor writing for Wayne.

I've found some very satisfying character moments twixt thee and me, so I'm hopeful you won't be disappointed.

Oh - and I'm looking forward to seeing you here. The pav's baking as I write.

Agreed. After his exit to join the Air Force, I felt John never quite fitted in again.