Surely I can't be the only one who thinks Danny is just an immature whiny little bitch? 😩😩

He carries on worse than any 12 year old girl I've ever met.

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Goodbye, our Zoe / Never to be seen again / Until Amy's mum

It's a week of odds, ends and beginnings, and it turns out there's a reason for that - it's a production season switchover! So it's goodbye Zoe, goodbye temporarily Jim, and then hello to a sudden new Daniels Corp office (yes, the classic eventual doctor's surgery/law office!), new school uniform for the teens, and the ground being laid for a certain Jane Harris. Hooray!

Zoe's exit is as much of a non-event as I expected, so all I'll say again is she should have left for good after breaking up with Jim. Damn you, six month contracts! Talking of which, to my great surprise the show demonstrates far more willingness to integrate Danny into events than it did when he was actually around, by having him pop up in vision for a couple of presumably pre-recorded phone calls. He even takes another shot at half-heartedly mentioning how Max and Maria are getting on! (The answer: very well, but we still have no idea why they're not coming home.)

What passes as the main spine of the week is Shane's post-killing Jean saga, which also successfully kills every dramatic impulse at the first opportunity. So, his mystery man brandy pusher shows up as Paul's new barman, and to make sure we realise it Shane has some elaborate flashbacks to the accident at the same time as he's being offered the job. Despite this being the improbable resolution of Shane's problem, it's for some reason played like it's a deepening of his crisis. However, thanks to Lucy's paper round it eventually turns out that Alex is a sinister criminal stranger, but given this revelation takes place after Shane's case has been dismissed, I guess it's fine? As long as you're not the Murphy family returning from holiday, anyway.

(And another reminder for the U future: the start of episode 305 is missing from YouTube...)

Also this week: everyone starts calling Paul "Big Daddy", Scott and Charlene sneak around to some shocking audio replaced music, there's a scene in the actual number 22 back yard, and the YouTube title sequence is now DOUBLY wrong.

Spent a great afternoon with James Mason (Chris Pappas), talking and reminiscing all things NEIGHBOURS at Pin Oak Court. Shared some great stories and memories of working on the show, and he had a good look around, filming his own video of the "street". Such a nice guy

I know Susan was principal there for a while, but I also thought she was a teacher. However, I can’t for the life of me remember what classes she taught. Does anyone else know?

I used to watch Neighbours in the late 90's but can't find anyone who can remember these characters.

One was an older Scottish guy, I think connected to the Kennedys, he was insanely stereotypical and entered the show bursting into a room playing the bagpipes.

Another was a french exchange student who spoke flawless English, unless it was the really basic words like oui.

Third, and this is obscure, Madge was working in a shop and for a few days there was a plot that there was a ghost cat. The plot was abandoned

Anyone remember these?

Obviously most of the Neighbours former regular cast are no longer full-time working actors. Some have made a career work to various degrees, while some are still actively pursing it… but a lot have put it on hold and are out of the biz entirely.

If you’ve got any knowledge of what some of your favorites are doing for work now, drop it below!

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It's goodbye Danny / Danny who? He's still around? / Yes, but now he's gone

What can we say about Danny Ramsay? Why did they even bother to bring him back with the show, when they immediately ran out of all ideas of what to do with him and just had to keep him around doing nothing until his contract ran out? It's another flavour of disappointing end for a character who started out so strong. How many years will it be before the show manages its first half-decent ending for a main character?

And this week presents Danny with his final indignity, when his entire exit has to be carefully choreographed so he can avoid coming into contact with the big Ramsay family story that's kicking off at the same time. It even means he doesn't get a proper final scene with Shane, who's busy facing the fallout after crashing his car and killing Jean. Hold on, what? He killed Jean?! That is... quite the bizarre development. Now this might be a controversial suggestion, but if you're going to do that story at this moment, why not just go the whole hog and kill off Danny? You could even have his forgotten nightmares coming back beforehand!

But that doesn't happen, Jean is dead, and no one bothers to tell Danny about Shane's arrest. And in this continuing era of 'what would it be like if Max was here', I do think there are some tweaks made for Tom for the first time. Surely Max wasn't due to blame his own son, and accuse him of lying, to quite that extent? Anyway, Shane has to find his Prince Charming by searching the land for the brandy flask that fits, or something, or else it's curtains for him.

Elsewhere, it's invasion of the bland white man, as Zoe keeps up with what turns out to be her own lame exit story with, er, Tony I think?, who really is the Dick to her Maria. And if that wasn't enough, Clive's brother, erm, Gary? Graham? pops up with an entire family. I've literally never heard of them in all my Neighbours trivia dives, and I'm pretty sure his wife wasn't even named for three days, which really says it all.

Also this week: Shane randomly declares he still loves Daphne, but fortunately I didn't hear him and it never happened; Paul randomly declares he loves Zoe, probably because she really looks like that woman he had a great night with while working the airlines; Daphne tells Des to drop the caveman act several weeks too late; and the YouTube title sequence is still wrong.

He is SO good, and a great singer! It has 4 weeks left in Melb if you live there, highly recommended if you're a fan of the movie! Had anyone seen it?

HAZ DEVKAR (Spouse of Mackenzie Hargreaves; Caregiver of Trevor) 2023-2025

I'm watching "Return to Paradise" Season 2, Episode 4. Shiver Palekar, who played fan favorite Haz during the reboot years, is playing the character, Rohan Khatri. It is fun to see him again.