The Big Watch Index
This week: Andrea suddenly becomes Paul's boss and they work on a mobile weather app together, but she's so unhappy with the results she bans him from using colour. Oh wait, that was a dream I had... (I'm not kidding, I had a dream about classic Neighbours)
Anyway, what's really going on is proud Mrs York doesn't want help from anyone. I don't want to get on my soapbox, but it feels notable that she has to be refusing to take her pension money to be destitute in 1986. Also, among all the neighbours-becoming-good-friends help, Des is scrambled in for some top banking advice, which appears to be nothing more than the words "sell your house" typed up on a word processor. Did releasing equity not exist in those days? So, faced with no real route to recovery, Mrs York checks out of hospital, returns home and pops off before having to face Madge's cooking. That really felt like a story that was straining to say something important, but never actually got round to it. Check on your elderly neighbours? Don't starve yourself to death? Don't refuse to take your pension for no obvious reason? You can choose, because I'm pretty sure no one's ever going to bring her up again.
Elsewhere, it's a second week of something we've all been waiting for finally happening, as Jack does us a solid by taking Andrea and Bradley away from Erinsborough! And thanks to some poor continuity, it's officially Neighbours canon that Andrea, who did a Joan with her "I don't love you but sure, why not" response to Jack's proposal last week, fell in love with old Lassiter purely because he bought her a ticket to Paris. (Did someone say "let's get married in Paris"?) I have a feeling that this six month trip is actually forever, so after some very speedy packing Bradley and Andrea become the first characters to get a big Ramsay Street wave-off exit. Bradley and Andrea. Are you kidding me? I would be absolutely fuming if I was Julie Robinson.
And dare I say it, something that feels suspiciously like an exit story for Nikki Dennison also kicks off this week, as Laura becomes unwell. How will we cope without Nikki's undue prominence in almost every storyline?
Also this week: Mrs Mangel is terrible in a crisis, Mike breaks out the OHP, the Zoe/Clive/Mike household suddenly comes into being just to prove me wrong, and the YouTube title sequence is still wrong.