This is worse than when Michael Owen got those two late goals in the 2001 F.A Cup final. My favourite TV show of all faded to black forever ever last night and I feel like my dog died in front of me again. What am I to do? I'm crying over Karl & Susan Kennedy and I'm feelin' blue. Other than Rap music and football, Neighbours has been an only constant in my life since 1988. Why couldn't God have taken Eastenders or Home & Away instead?
Neighbours was famed for being the Aussie soap opera which was bigger in Britain than its homeland, and for introducing the world to Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kylie Minogue, Ben Mendelsohn, Alan Dale, Natalie Imbruglia, Holly Valance, Margot Robbie, Jesse Spencer, the Hemsworth brothers, and that bird who played Annalise (but not Iggy Azalea!) And every last one of them should all be thankful for Neighbours because without the show they'd probably be shearing sheep or advertising Vegemite for a living instead. But for me, Neighbours was deeper than that: Australian ex-pats who live in Britain are the W.O.A.T, but Australians in Australia are an entirely different proposition - the temperature is Californian, but their temperament is British, and so this weird cultural identity crisis with its own unique customs and slanguage has been best expressed in music like Bon Scott-era AC/DC and The Chats, movies like Wake In Fright and Idiot Box, and TV shows like Round The Twist and Underbelly. Neighbours was a more wholesome expression of this dicthomy, and in its teatime TV slot acted as chewing gum for my eyes and comfort food for my soul AT THE SAME DAMN TIME!
Any old prestige HBO TV show can be engaging, entertaining, and emotionally-involving for five or so series. To be all that & a bag of Macadamia nuts five days a week for 37 years? David's Chase and Simon could never. And that is why Neighbours was proper ritualistic Transcendental Television™. It's the end of an avvo for Paul Robinson's neighbourhood. Pour out a little Aussie beer of your choosing for the show I loved so much I could even forgive it giving cameos to Lily Allen and Russell Brand.
End of an era. That was a more emotionally satisfying final episode than some other big time series from the past.
ReplyDeleteProps to everyone who came back for the finale. Margot Robbie can make time for the show, but Kimberely Davies can't?
Holly Valance paying homage because she'd never have married a British billionaire without Neighbours making her famous. Her & Natalie Imbruglia were big surprises.
ReplyDeleteKylie Minogue was the only person who let the side down. She barely had any dialogue either because she was charging by the word or because her bad botox job meant she couldn't move her face.
Had no idea who the old big bald bloke letting the balloon off at the end was. Just realised it was Philip Martin.
ReplyDeleteHoly shit! You're right.
ReplyDeleteLiked the bit when Madge Bishop's ghost made an appearance.
+ the ghosts of Doug Willis, Sonya Rebecchi, Hendrix, and the ultimate Ramsey Street villain Finn Kelly.
ReplyDeleteAlas, no ghosts of Bouncer or the Kennedy's parrot.
Good finale. Karl Kennedy has really aged hasn't he?
ReplyDeleteHe's got that same thyroid condition as Shaun Ryder which causes alopecia from head to toe.
ReplyDeletePrisoner Cell Block H has the best TV show coda/finale. Neighbours limped to the barn with an anticlimactic clipshow and skype call compilation. Neighbours never learnt that invaluable life skill about knowing to leave the party before it ends. Or maybe you were on the edge of your seat waiting to find out whether Chloe and Ellie would get back together and if Jane would reconcile with her gigolo son.
ReplyDeleteShut up, Dino.
ReplyDeleteActually, I was waiting to see if Mike and Jane would climb over Vera Punt's fence to look around her house, and if we'd finally get to see the contents of Karl & Susan's little blue box.
Sidenote: the Neighbours Made Me A Star documentary C5 showed after the finale was great.
ReplyDeleteNeighbours pioneered and perfected the art of slow television. I could miss a year of episodes, pick it up again and they were still only part way through a story arc.
ReplyDeleteNeighbours coming back on Amazon, blud.
ReplyDeletehttps://amp.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/nov/17/neighbours-soap-opera-australia-to-return-on-amazon
My phone and Instagram been dinging off for the past hour with people telling me this most glorious news 😄 I love that I'm synonymous with Neighbours ❤ 👍
ReplyDeleteThe first fifty episodes of Neighbours are up on Freevee, blud.
ReplyDeleteNever mind, it’s fifty selected episodes from the series.
ReplyDeleteStill gotta work out how to use Amazon FreeVee 😄 I think most of the ones which went up today are from 2012 plus a smattering of random classic episodes.
ReplyDeleteIf you’ve got a smart tv or a firestick plugged in, you should be able to find and download the FreeVee app in the Apps menu. Might be available on Roku box as well, probably.
ReplyDeleteYeah, got a smart TV. Annoying that I can't watch it on a proper TV channel at 6 PM as Neighbours is best experienced, but beggars can't be choosers.
ReplyDeleteFrom Ramsey Street to Street Trash, stumbled upon a nice YouTube rip of Body Melt 1993, or as I like to call it Harold Bishop: The Lost Years.
ReplyDeleteBunch of other recognisable Aussie soap star faces in it; including Melanie Pearson, Toby Mangel and a few others.
Whoa! Embarrassed to admit I've never heard if this before. Cheers 🍻
ReplyDeleteLooking through the cast, there's also the Aussie legend Gerard Kennedy, the woman who played Toadie's mum, and the bloke who played Matthew the ghost in series 2 of Round The Twist.
Guessing you've already seen the Neighbours web spin-off series, Neighbours Vs. Zombies 2014)?
ReplyDeleteNatch. It was pretty good, but not an outright classic spin-off like Neighbours: End Game.
ReplyDelete