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In this week’s Gays of Our Lives, things are heating up between Henry and James on A Place to Call Home. But a shocking return looks to turn their lives upside down. Also, Billy learns about Todd’s deception on Coronation Street. Is this the end of them. Plus, the latest on People of the Valley, Holby City, Days of Our Lives – and more!
And next week, a new gay-themed mini-series debuts called Deep Water. Deep Water is a fictionalized drama based on the investigation into a string of gay assaults and murders that took place in Sydney in the 80’s and 90’s, which remains unsolved to this day. The series starts Noah Taylor (above) as Nick Manning, one of the investigators on the case.
SBS, which is airing the 4 part series, also produced a documentary of the actual case, which included interviews with those involved with the investigation, including some of the victims. We’ll have clips (and a review) of the series once in airs.
Now, on with this week’s column…
PICKS AND PANS
A Place To Call Home (Australia)
This is really shaping up to be a terrific season. The return of Harry and the revival of the storyline of Sarah and Roy covering up Burt’s murder are adding some delicious drama to the show. I loved Harry and can’t wait to see how his return affects James.
The scenes of Henry and James on their double date with Henry’s lesbian friends were fun and it showed how gays and lesbians had to pretend back then. But I didn’t like James scolding Henry over being ‘feminine’ and I hated Henry apologizing for that. James clearly still has a lot of issues.
That ‘I love you’ scene was very telling though. Maybe James couldn’t say it because he doesn’t love Henry, not because he had trouble saying that to another man? He told Henry he’s never been tempted to say that to another man, but was he in love with Harry? And now with Harry being introduced into the story and staying at the hospital, and James going back to Ash Park (with Henry planning to visit), it’s going to get very interesting. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sarah asks Henry to be Harry’s secret doctor, adding more tension to the storyline.
I like Henry and James together and they have some nice chemistry. But I can’t wait to see Harry thrown into the mix.
I’m glad Carolyn finally told someone about her rape (besides Jack). Can’t wait to see what Elizabeth does. I still think this season is going to end with Richard being killed off.
I had forgotten how hot Olivia and Lloyd were. Thanks to the show for those steamy flashbacks.
Oh Todd. Not only does he try and manipulate Billy into leaving the church, he doesn’t actually see how wrong he was and justifies his behavior. That isn’t helpful. Some contrition, some regret would be in order. But I guess they are writing Todd in character. He’s always been one to justify his bad actions.
Interesting that despite everything Billy still has doubts about his future in the church and may not go back. Even though he’s angry about what Todd did, he still realizes Todd had a valid point. Interesting plot beat. But has Todd really gone to the dark side or is he just pretending to get the dirt on Phelan? I guess that remains to be seen.
Days of Our Lives (U.S.)
I guess I’d forgotten Sonny didn’t ‘t know that Clyde had shot him. Nice piece of history. Will the reveal that Clyde killed EJ as well. I guess with most of his family off canvas and Sami gone, it doesn’t really matter much anymore.
I think for a manhunt, there’s way too much standing around in living rooms and talking. And what’s with all the men in the Kiriakis family making plans about protection while the women go shopping? Misogynist, much?
So I guess besides Sonny’s snarky comments, people are mostly cool with Deimos now? I guess we’ll forget he killed Bo?
I’m still not sure if this is the way to raise ratings. I think the show should invest in some long term storytelling, but that doesn’t seem to be what they are interested in.
I thought Bob’s joke about Chrissie and Andy was funny, even though it was in totally bad taste.
It’s so funny how everytime someone has to do something, they just leave anybody in charge to run the bar. LOL…
While he nearly killed himself in his own trap, I’m enjoying Robert as the schemer again. He’s much more interesting that way. I really enjoy Robert when Aaron isn’t around nagging him or he has to play surrogate father to Liv.
I do like Victoria being involved. She needs more to do and the show doesn’t use her nearly enough. However, was Robert just trying to scare Chrissie or was he just trying to hurt her? And how would that lead to her confessing about Andy? His plan has a few flaws in it, I think.
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Quite frankly I think it was a mistake to have Todd go bad. It undercuts all the progress he has made the last 6 months or so as a character. It wasn’t even well done. In the blink of an eye he changed from the caring and unselfish to selfish and manipulative. I wish they’d shown this progression over time. I just don’t buy Todd going bad overnight, his motivations don’t make sense. I guess we are supposed to assume he has always been that guy deep down. But again.. it really looked like he had changed, so I find it hard to accept. Not only that, but I’m sick of the “evil gay” trope you sometimes see on soaps. It was bad enough with Robert on Emmerdale, don’t need Todd on Corrie too. I actually preferred good Todd. I prefer to see characters grow, evolve.. change into a better being. Having him revert back to his old self is boring and repetitive. It happens far too often. In this case he clearly just called the bishop so the producer would have a reason for him to go bad again. It was a means to an end, a plot point. I’d rather see good characterization and character development than stupid plot driven drama.
Don’t even get me started on Todd showing no remorse, I completely agree with you Anthony. Having him show no remorse for what he did doesn’t sit well with me. I truly believe, or at least hope, that Todd despite his flaws would be able to realize what he did was wrong, admit it, and apologize, but he didn’t. He will never admit to being wrong. He won’t even look at it from Billy’s point of view. Even if Billy now questions his place in the church, what he did was still wrong. What Billy decides to do with his life is Billy’s choice and his alone. I wish he would realize that, but I guess he never will. Would have been nice to see some growth from Todd though, but the producer obviously doesn’t think so, oh well.
The Ste/Harry relationship is not only unpleasant, it’s also relentlessly dull. I saw someone using them as an example of believable m/m couples on soaps and I wondered what I’ve been missing.
The main reason Robert gets more sympathetic writing now is because of Robron becoming popular and Ryan Hawley being so charismatic and handsome (and a decent actor). Last year the characters were more than happy to repeatedly call him abusive and a murderer. He never should have been written that way, given that he was born on the show and has spent 30 years on it, off and on.
Pierce is a plot device. I wish he was more, as Jonathan Wrather is very good and makes Pierce interesting, and Pierce and Rhona are far more believable and compelling than Rhona and Paddy have ever been, but he’s a plot device. Similar to the lovely Ronnie Hale (I’ll be shocked if he makes it out of the year alive), and Belle’s boyfriend Jermaine.
I love they brought Harry back in A Place to Call Home, but it would be a most interesting thing to bring Will, Olivia’s brother, into his life again. We never met him in the present time.
Harry is back in A place to call home. That’s great news indeed.
I consider it another one of Robert’s murder attempts. Maybe he would prefer that she merely be seriously injured, but he at the very least considered her death to be an acceptable risk. I’m annoyed that Robert isn’t treated like a proper villain. Compare the way the show treats him and Pierce. Robert has repeatedly tried to kill people (and did kill one person), verbally attacked Aaron in the most vicious way, and even kidnapped Aaron and held him at gunpoint. Despite all of this, he is treated like a good brother and boyfriend when he returns home from his schemes. Pierce has shown a few signs of dangerous anger issues, and the show treats his scenes with Rhona ominously.
Frankly, I’m surprised that Ste made it through his grand opening. His last two first days involved sending his boyfriend to fill in for him and getting sick because he was taking drugs. I agree that we shouldn’t be sympathetic to Ste’s custody demands. I could sympathize with him wanting to work something out with Amy to see them more regularly, but he has no right to make demands when Amy rightly should worry that the first time it’s his day to take them he’ll ask her to take them or dump them on Harry so that he can get high.
I’m also wondering a lot about what Harry gets out of the relationship. He’s constantly doing things for Ste, often at a personal cost, but I can’t remember the last time Ste did anything special for him or to help him out.
Hollyoaks would never do this, but the most realistic story for Ste would be him overdosing and dying in a gutter somewhere. The aftermath would be lots of characters expressing relief that he is gone and saying he is in a better place. I like saucy Leah telling him what’s what.
Emmerdale is giving Victoria something to do other than whinging on about how Robert and Andy hate each other, and I like that she’s in the know about what happened. She and Robert make a good team.
Even if Tyler and Iolo were not engaged, Iolo was sheltering his attacker in the house that he shares with Tyler – which completely justifies Tyler’s call to the police. Iolo is adorable but can be hard work, and I like that Tyler told him his patience had run out and walked away. But I also still hope they manage to reunite.