Aussie Soap Round-Up (w/e 15th Feb 08)

It's not often you see people behaving rationally in soaps, so this week made for a nice change. Credit to Bridget on Neighbours for realising that being hit by a car and left for dead is no big deal, credit to Miranda for finally taking a step off her high horse; and credit, most of all, to Home and Away's Ric Dalby, who performed like a champ all week...

Having spurned the advances of Mrs. Robinson Anderson for weeks now (an eternity in soap time), he used the opportunity offered by one of Matilda's typically insane breakdowns in the only way he should - to finally sleep with Viv. Good for him. And then when Cassie tried to berate him for cheating the next morning, he completely shut her down by reminding her that he hadn't cheated since Matilda had broken up with him and that she was a hypocrite for getting involved anyway because she had cheated on him when they were together a while back. Brilliant. It's all too common in soaps for characters to develop Relevant Information Amnesia (RIA) when they're in an argument, so it was nice to see a remarkably lucid Ric slapping some sense into the Human Carrot. A rare victory for logic and good sense.

That being said, in all this praise for rationality let us not forget how much joy can be derived from soap characters' complete insanity. This week's prize moment was undoubtedly seeing Martha caught trying Sam's wedding dress on. You could see it coming from a mile off, it made absolutely no sense and yet it was completely perfect and hilarious. I mean, I hate Sam with a vengeance and it's hard for me to justify any of her persistent whining, but in this case Martha done fucked up, boy-eeeeeeeee. It was awesome.



And finally - also from Home and Away (it was quiet week on Ramsay Street, I guess) - Rachel got pregnant, I thought to myself, "oh God, I hope she loses it", and then she did. Woooo!! I mean, miscarriages don't exactly make for the best television, but they're a hell of a lot better than long, boring pregnancy storylines and women in soaps just don't have enough abortions for my liking. A big shout-out to Mother Nature for this one. I'm certain it was for the best anyway. No-one wants a baby Lewis.