Have You Been Watching...? Neighbours: The Finale (2022)

 

I clearly remember watching Neighbours in the late 1980’s on BBC1, the tales of everyday folk living together in Ramsay Street, a cul-de-sac in Melbourne, Australia. My recollections go right back to the earliest of episodes (I must’ve been off school ill).  I can’t have been the only one. Legend has it, when the BBC began showing the Australian soap opera in the daytime schedules of 1986, kids bunked off school to watch it, resulting in an extra showing in the evenings! This pattern of broadcast (one in the afternoon and another at tea-time) served the series all the way from those teen-lovers Scott and Charlene days, through to it’s departure from BBC1 to its new home on Channel 5 in 2007 right through to the date of its final episode.

I wasn’t the most dedicated Neighbours fan, after they heydays of Scott, Charlene, Joe and Kerry, I dipped in and out over the years. It was like an old friend that you didn’t have to keep in touch with, they were always around and when you did make contact again, it was like no time had passed between you. It was like a comfortable old cardigan or blanket. However, in late 2021/early 2022 Channel 5, who by now were the soap’s biggest financial backers, said they would stop showing the series from the summer. The race was on to find another home for the series, but to no avail. Production ceased in June 2022 and the final episode aired on Friday 29th June 2022 (in the UK).

So, how does a studio end a show that has run, pretty much, every weekday for 37 years totalling close to 9000 instalments? Think about that dear reader, Neighbours launched the same year as Eastenders, how on earth do you write an ending that both celebrates the achievement and satisfies both avid watcher and lapsed fan? Well, the Neighbours producers do it in the way they know so well, with heaps of nostalgia and positivity.

Storyline-wise, as we enter the final three episodes (8901, 8902 & 8903, fact fans), there’s a mass exodus of residents leaving Ramsay Street for a variety of reasons and seeing the houses up for sale is causing Street stalwart Susan Kennedy to feel very much adrift. Not only are the neighbours leaving, but her nemesis Izzy Hoyland is back, trying to worm her way into the family through her eldest son, Malcolm. Izzy isn’t the only face back. Over the extended episode, we see many faces from the series’ past, including Scott and Charlene, Madge and Harold, Mike and Jane, Clive, Des, Shane, Phil, Lauren, Beth, Flick, Donna, Tad and so many more. Eagle eyed viewers will also note secret (or not) nods to other cast members, for example a letter addressed to T. Oliver. Tom Oliver played Lou Carpenter on the show for many years.

What could bring all these people together at once? It’s a wedding of course, that of Jared “Toadfish” Rebecchi and Melanie Pearson (previously married to Street legend Joe Mangel). They are another couple planning to up sticks and move on from the iconic cul-de-sac. It’s not just a wedding either, the finale is full of the storylines of the type that kept the viewers flocking to the series for years. Schemes come undone, lovers fall apart, lovers find each other and the whole thing is just loaded with hope and positivity. There’s even a nod to the legendary fisticuffs of old. This was one of the things that set Neighbours apart from it’s soap rivals. Even when Neighbours tried to be hard, with hostage takings, killings etc, it just didn’t sit right. It was out of the norm for the show. Neighbours was at its best when being sunny and bright and happy. It did silly storylines aplenty (gorillagram, anyone?) alongside the drama (storm of the century, psychopathic teachers et al).

The finale is an hour-long fun filled nostalgia-fest yet sowing the seeds for a potential return if another network picks it up (it wouldn’t be the first time – the series was axed after 170 episodes on Network 7 before Channel 10 picked it up in 1986). If you are feeling a bit low, this is absolutely ‘chicken soup’ for the soul. Thank you, Neighbours, for all the entertainment over the last 37 years. If you’ve followed the show on and off for decades, you will enjoy gasping as some of the faces appear on screen and might get confused when you don’t recognise them at all at first, just like our own good friends. I enjoyed it immensely and will miss it when it’s gone. Well, I have all my DVDs of the early episodes lined up and ready to go! Only 8,903 to go…

Episode count: 8903

Season count: 37

Availability: DVDs of early episodes are available, current episodes streaming on My5. Heads up, the English DVDs are long out of print, and the Australian ones are even rarer. Check out “Nachbarn”, the German releases, they have the original English soundtracks too. Readily available at the moment.

 

Have You Been Watching...? Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

 

Back in the late 1970s/early 80s, family friendly film provider Disney experimented with what some people refer to as the “Dark Disney” era. This is a series of films made by the producer that err on a slighty-more-scarier and frightening side than most previous Disney movies. Examples of these include The Watcher in the Woods (if you ever get to see the alternative ending, watch it! It’s even scarier that the theatrically released one), The Black Hole (seeing Anthony Perkins get eviscerated by a robots propeller), and the Black Cauldron. For some reason, the 1983 released Something Wicked This Way Comes frequently gets left off this list. It’s not readily available outside the US and is missing off Disney+ etc. Personally, I think the main reason for this is, even though the other movies are clearly scary kids movies, SWTWC is 100% a decent horror film, just not gory. Well, hold that thought.

Something Wicked This Way Comes is based on a story by renowned sci-fi author Ray Bradbury (Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man and so much more). What makes the film special, is that he also wrote the screenplay for it. Most people will say a book is nothing like the film or vice versa, and while the movie changes from the book, it is absolutely in line with the thoughts and unsettling style of the story.

The movie sets the story in what appears to be default Disney world, circa 1920s/30s(?) small town America. Two young boys, born on the same night to different families, but a few minutes apart, have grown up together and are best friends. They are Will Halloway, a quiet studious young boy, and more free-spirited Jim Nightshade. Will lives with his mum and (clearly a lot older) Dad, while Jim lives with his Mum, his father is not on the scene. On their way home from school one day, Jim buys a “lightning rod” from an apparent vagrant called Mr Fury. While fitting the lightning rod, Jim and Will find a pamphlet advertising a travelling carnival coming to town.

Seeing the train arrive, the boys set off excitedly to the location to find the carnival all set up and running. The next day, the townsfolk attend the carnival, which appears to supernaturally fulfil their desires. A bartender missing an arm and a leg sees himself in a mirror with his missing limbs back. The local barber, who is very into his women, attends a show with exotic dancers, where he is transformed into a bearded lady, Mr Tetley who is obsessed with money and gambling gets turned into a wooden statue and Ms Foley, the elderly teacher wishes for her to be young and beautiful again, and becomes young and beautiful, but loses her sight to see herself.

All this happens under the watchful gaze of Mr Dark, who runs the carnival, and may or may not be the actual devil. Dark is played by the Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce, looking dashingly handsome in this! As the story progresses our two young heroes find a carousel capable of turning people older or younger, incurring the wrath of Dark who sets out to get them. Using a parade trough town to hunt the boys, we see the townsfolk transformed by the carnival are now part of the carnies. The boys enlist the help of Will’s dad to help evade capture. Mr Dark even uses his tattoos to show images of the boys in order to help catch them. Mr Halloway, who is the towns librarian, discovers the carnival had visited the town previously and his own father had fought them.

This all leads to a confrontation with Dark, the disclosure of Mr Halloway’s own dark secrets and the power the love of a son for his dad can have. It also results in one of the most visually gruesome death scenes in a Disney movie!

There are so many unsettling and disturbing moments in this film, from the prices paid by the townsfolk for having their desires (and we DON’T see them revert back to normal, so assume they are lost for good), to one horrific moment when Will sees an image of himself being decapitated and the film SHOWS the head in a basket. If you suffer from arachnophobia, there’s another scene that will give you nightmares for weeks.

I absolutely LOVE this movie. I love Bradbury’s work in general and this is one of the best adaptations of his work EVER. Jonathan Pryce (Dr Who: Curse of fatal Death, 007 The World is Not Enough) is enthralling as Mr Dark, creepy, eerie and downright scary. The young boys are good but the next best performance is Jason Robards (All the President’s Men, The Day After) as Charles Halloway, conveying the anguish of failing to protect his son, and wishing he could be the more active dad for his boy while being the older man he actually is, medical problems and all.

Maybe “Horror” is too strong a term for this, but it’s certainly nightmare fuel. It’s very Bradbury, and certainly stays with you long after the end credits roll.

Year: 1983

Availability: US – DVD and Blu Ray, Europe – DVD, UK – not commercially available

HWBW rating: 8/10 

Have You Been Watching...? The Terror: Infamy

 

Have You Been Watching…? The Terror: Infamy

The Terror is an American anthology series, where each season is a self-contained tale. Each has it’s own cast, storyline, beginning, middle and end with no threads run through tying them all together. “Infamy” is the second series of The Terror. I was not enticed by the plot of series 1, two ships stuck in the ice between 1845-1848, based on the true story of Captain Sir John Franklin’s “lost expedition” to the Arctic. This second series appealed much more, due to its Japanese horror influence (The original Ring movie is one of my all time favourites).

Infamy is historical again, but this time set in the second world war, days before the Pearl Harbour attack. The historical side of the series shows a side of American history I was previously not aware of but makes it all the more horrific and not just in the supernatural way.

The cast of the 10 part epic includes scifi stalwarts such as George Takei (Star Trek), Hiro Kanagawa (Star Trek Discovery, iZombie, Man in the High Castle), C Thomas Howell (with a strong of genre credits to his name!) and Naoko Mori (Torchwood & Dr Who) and relates the story of the Nakayama family, just prior to and immediately after the Pearl Harbour attack in 1941. Following the attack, the American authorities round-up any Japanese person, families, children and all, and intern them in prison camps. Our main protagonist is budding photo-journalist Chester Nakayama, an American born to Japanese parents. It IS important to recognise that given what happens to the family as the series progresses. In the midst of these human rights tragedies comes a spectre from Japanese folklore, terrorising the Japanese community and taking a particular interest in Chester. Our protagonist is played by Derek Mio, whose credits include the movie GBF, Gay Best Friend. He is great as Chester, conveying the despair, devotion, helplessness and heroism. He is very much the backbone of the series and he carries it well.

The series begins with a suicide and continues in a slow build up from there as events overtake the family. As the story progresses, the gore does increase, so be warned! It might be slow paced, but believe me, every second is watchable, both for the antics of the spirit, and the behaviours of the authorities toward innocent people who have done nothing wrong, other than be from, or born to, a different race. “Any drop of Japanese blood” is a phrase used within the series. Historically, some 120,000 people of Japanese descent were imprisoned in these camps with about two thirds of them being actual American citizens. You will have to forgive my accuracy with these facts as I said previously, this phase of American history is new to me, and I gleaned this info from the world wide web, so it’s open to debate. Either way, it happened, and it is still horrific.

The series is very much a jigsaw puzzle and as the pieces start to fall into place, it all begins to make sense. This is one of those series that the ending doesn’t disappoint. In fact, there’s very little about The Terror: Infamy that disappointed at all. We begin to see everything come together the same time Chester does, so we don’t skip ahead, and the series works better because of this. Also, stay with the end credits, you won’t regret it.

Fans of The Terror will no doubt already know that it is executively produced by none other than Ridley Scott and it shows. The cinematography and settings are wonderfully realised, be it the grit of a prison camp or a period fishing village. I won’t say too much more as I don’t want to spoil things, but it is as great to look at as it is horrific.

You might not want to watch this in a dark room on your own, but if you do have the time, you might want to consider investing it in The Terror: Infamy, especially if you are as fan of Japanese horror.

Year: 2019

Episode count: 10

Season count: 1

Availability: Currently free to stream on BBCiplayer (as of July 2022).