GOOL Theater: No Kissing For Chris and Aiden on "Neighbours"

Forbidden Love

Am I the only one who is really annoyed at Charlie’s attitude towards Olli? It bothers me that she is giving Olli a hard time about going on vacation to forget his woes and get away from his cheating husband. She seems to have forgotten that Christian repeatedly cheated on Olli, and he was doing it in her apartment. But suddenly Olli is a bad guy for not accepting Christian's phone calls? I’m sorry, but someone isn’t thinking clearly on this issue, and it’s not Olli. And given that I don’t really care for Olli that much, that’s saying something.

I chuckled at the scene where Christian was going at it with his latest squeeze of the day, and she killed the mood by mentioning his and Olli’s sex life. While it's nice that Christian is finally starting to feel bad about his multiple infidelities, he’s a little late in my opinion. I’m sure Olli will forgive him at some point and all will be well… until the next time Christian cheats, that is. As for Olli’s tryst with Rafael, I’m glad Olli got his groove on (and with an 18 year old no less), but don’t they both have places to stay on the island? Maybe it’s just me, but for lovemaking I prefer a nice hotel room to a public beach.

*THANKS TO MERCURYMAY02 FOR THE CLIPS!

Emmerdale

I’ve said from the start that the best thing about this storyline was Pauline Quirke’s mesmerizing performance as Hazel. Each week, she gives me more reason to believe that. I loved her variety of scenes this past week, from her quiet resignation that she had to put away Jackson’s things, to depictions of the growing bond that she and Aaron share and her panic attacks over the upcoming trail, she was wonderful in each and every scene.

Lucy Pargeter was good as Chas as well, worried about Aaron and demanding that Hazel do her part to help him. The animosity between Chas and Hazel over Aaron is good soapy drama. These women have never really liked each other, and that delicious tension is always there, even when they are forced to be nice to or supportive of one another.

I also like that Steve is there for Aaron. I think he, maybe more than anyone, can understand why Jackson would take his own life because he no doubt has had those thoughts himself.

The only problem with Steve’s presence is that it reminds the viewer that Jackson never talked to anyone outside of Aaron or Hazel about his depression, nor did Hazel and Aaron insist that he do so, which has always been a big flaw in this storyline.

Still, I’m looking forward to the trial next week. Knowing Emmerdale as I do, I'm certain the show will be at the top of its game for such an important plot arc.

Holby City

Commenters on this show fell into two different camps over this past week. One set of people loved the drama and the character development of Malick and enjoyed seeing some heart and warmth from this prickly character as he chose his patient's needs over his career advancement.

The other contingency of commenters could care less about Malick's job problems. They were upset by the limited interaction between Malick and Dan and were wondering when the show was going to advance their dysfunctional relationship.

I fall on the side of the first set of comments.

Holby City is first and foremost a medical drama. Yes, they certainly do focus on the private lives of the doctors and nurses on the show, but most of the stories revolve around the patients and the inner workings of the hospital. It’s really not about the romance between Dan and Malick, assuming there will be one. But more importantly, at least in my view, a story doesn’t have to be about a gay characters' sexuality in order for it to be a "gay" story.

As I’ve said many times before, my entire life is not about being gay, and I like it when gay soap characters reflect that reality.

I really did enjoy the story between Malick and his patient, though I felt the guy came off as a creepy stalker who could be very dangerous if he became fixated on someone. He may have harmed himself this time, but I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen to a person who rejected his advances. I think the show kind of missed that aspect in their effort to make the character more sympathetic than he should have been.