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Hollyoaks - has it always been quite dark?


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Old 16-09-2014, 00:22
Firegazer
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So we've had the whole Blake storyline, I've also just watched the bus crash from back along. I'm not talking depressing, but has it always been quite a dark soap? Maddie's death was actually quite vile, like something out of a horror/thriller. And with all the fuss of the current storylines, twincest and how messed up it is, it got me thinking about who Hollyoaks is aimed at.

I've been watching EastEnders since way back when Ricky and Bianca were the "thing" in 2002-ish. I also watched Coronation Street for a period of time (stopped watching after the tram crash, but was hooked on the Tyrone abuse storyline. I wasn't nearly in my teens then, and didn't really have a problem with it, I thought it was interesting and enjoyable, even the baby swap kept me hooked.

Hollyoaks however. Some of the stuff they've done is actually quite disturbing and even now watching back at the wedding episode I shuddered countless times and I'm almost 19.
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Old 16-09-2014, 00:28
Sez_babe
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No. It's had it's moments of dark storylines, but I do remember a time, probably around 2003, where it had mainly comedy storylines, like montages of characters trying to find mice in a shop.

Oh the memories!!!
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Old 16-09-2014, 00:28
jojo07x
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Watch hollyoaks later where sarah barnes dies, and where rae was killed by silas, that is like a horror film, i had nightmares lol... Its not always dark, has its comedy and daft storylines but they do the dark storylines so well
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Old 16-09-2014, 00:30
Sez_babe
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Watch hollyoaks later where sarah barnes dies, and where rae was killed by silas, that is like a horror film, i had nightmares lol... Its not always dark, has its comedy and daft storylines but they do the dark storylines so well
Yeh Hollyoaks Later is a different ball game! Like when Walker had sex with Brendan because he was undercover, but afterwards you could see how shaken he was because he didn't want to do it but had to to keep his cover.

Sarah dying was also horrific!
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Old 16-09-2014, 00:33
jojo07x
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Yeah that walker/brendan scene was very uncomfortable to watch!! Think sarah was the most horrific death ever, that thud gave me shivers
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Old 16-09-2014, 00:36
Sez_babe
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Yeah that walker/brendan scene was very uncomfortable to watch!! Think sarah was the most horrific death ever, that thud gave me shivers
Definitely, not much will top that death.

Walker/Brendan was shocking. I've just watched the scene again on youtube and it is so disturbing, but I remember being shocked and also intrigued by Walker even more. That was my favourite HL.
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Old 16-09-2014, 00:37
ChelseaEllie
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Yeah that walker/brendan scene was very uncomfortable to watch!! Think sarah was the most horrific death ever, that thud gave me shivers
The walker thing was horrid, made Brendan appear even nastier than normal,
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Old 16-09-2014, 09:20
_elly001
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The walker thing was horrid, made Brendan appear even nastier than normal,
To be fair, Brendan didn't know that Walker didn't want it. Walker could have (excuse the pun) walked away at any time but he didn't want to because he was obsessed with bringing Brendan down. But that HO Later certainly showed us the darkness of Brendan's complexity, I'll agree with that.

As for whether HO has always been dark, it's always been a bit of a strange soap in that it has mixed extremely dark, almost macabre scenarios with ridiculously light-hearted ones for years. Who can forget Bombhead, Lee's friend back in sixth form, who was brought in primarily as a comedy double act for Lee until we discovered he had been keeping his dead mum at home and pretended that she was still alive? Or the whole Andy Holt and Sam Owen storyline with Andy trying to convince Sam that date raping girls was just a bit of fun? And it was of course the first soap to cover male rape, way back years ago with Luke, and remains the only soap that has tackled it explicitly and not just make reference to it.

The problem these days is that BK is mixing up dark with just plain ridiculous. You have to care about characters if they're going to be involved in these types of storylines, and the primary issue at the moment is that none of the characters are written well enough for anyone to truly care about them.
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Old 16-09-2014, 09:22
vkmax
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I prefer the tone now that it's kind of exagerrated drama and darkness with some dark comedy in there too.

They used to have it awfully balanced and have someting dark paired with slapstrick comedy. The comedy used to be so blatant and in your face I prefer now that it's delivered more in the way of a characters one liners or mannerisms rather than a string of silly mishaps.
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Old 16-09-2014, 09:26
Francy
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The walker thing was horrid, made Brendan appear even nastier than normal,
Why?? Walker had been coming on to Brendan for months, trying to get his trust, and sleeping with him was part of that. How was Brendan to know that it was all pretend on Walker's part?? As far as Brendan was concerned, it was a consensual sex encounter between two people who wanted it.

I could understand if you had been disgusted by Brendan dismembering a corpse, but the Walker thing?? Not Brendan's fault, none of it.
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Old 16-09-2014, 10:08
Sez_babe
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If you didn't know the storyline, Walker's reaction makes you think Brendan had done something wrong, but he didn't know - he thought Walker liked him and they had sex. Walker didn't say no as it was to gain Brendan's trust.

It was the scene where Walker was on the phone, shaken, and talking to his boss while we saw flash backs and Walker trying to process what happened that is so vivid, but Brendan did nothing wrong.
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Old 16-09-2014, 10:23
lady_xanax
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Hollyoaks does have a dark sense of humour at times and likes to make fun of itself, which is why all these angsty families are so dull.
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Old 16-09-2014, 10:30
ChelseaEllie
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The Niall McQueen story was very dark, him getting into the McQueen family, and trying to destroy it. Pushing a pregnant Tina down the stairs, spiking Kieron's drink and making it look like a suicide, trying to drug and kill his brother, then realising that JP swapped drinks and he had drunk the pills, injecting Michaela with drugs, making her family doubt her and making he worried about HIV. Can't remember if he did anything to jacqui, Carmel or mercy.

Then kidnapping them and making Myra decide who should live and die, she was allowed to save 2. JP and mercy both offered to be sacrificed, which is rather dark, mercy cos she's generally selfish and mean, and JP cos he believed Kieron killed himself because of him, then she still had to pick so she picked the youngest (no idea why she was the most selfish and annoying) and Tina who was a mother (but her montherhood was meant to be carrying a child for jacqui but she had and affair and got pregnant from that And kept the baby)
Jacqui was cross she was chosen to die,
Then the church exploded, Myra was trapped and forgave Niall as he was her so , he realised that was all he wanted after all, saved her and was appeared to be killed when a statue came down, Tina also died
Given what a tight group the McQueens are it ripped them apart, JP left for good (til he came back recently) jacqui was cross her mum didn't pick her
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Old 16-09-2014, 10:45
lady_xanax
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Definitely, not much will top that death.

Walker/Brendan was shocking. I've just watched the scene again on youtube and it is so disturbing, but I remember being shocked and also intrigued by Walker even more. That was my favourite HL.
Was that the one where they strip off and lie down together? Really nicely shot. Could they not get away with something like that in ordinary Hollyoaks?
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Old 16-09-2014, 10:54
Sez_babe
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Was that the one where they strip off and lie down together? Really nicely shot. Could they not get away with something like that in ordinary Hollyoaks?
It was in Hollyoaks Later where they had a huge fight and then they slept together. Afterwards we saw Walker after he had a shower - he looked really shaken and we saw flashbacks from him sleeping with Brendan.
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Old 16-09-2014, 11:46
lady_xanax
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It was in Hollyoaks Later where they had a huge fight and then they slept together. Afterwards we saw Walker after he had a shower - he looked really shaken and we saw flashbacks from him sleeping with Brendan.
Just watched it. Very powerful; it was really horrible.

I don't know if it would have occured to Brendan that Walker didn't really want it; maybe he just likes it rough and Walker clearly didn't anticipate that.
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Old 16-09-2014, 11:51
Sez_babe
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Just watched it. Very powerful; it was really horrible.

I don't know if it would have occured to Brendan that Walker didn't really want it; maybe he just likes it rough and Walker clearly didn't anticipate that.
Yeh it was. I remember there was a lot of talk on the episode discussion thread whether he had been raped because just from Walker's reaction it looked like he had, but then putting it in context, he felt that he had to go through with it to not let Brendan know he was lying.
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Old 16-09-2014, 12:06
lady_xanax
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Yeh it was. I remember there was a lot of talk on the episode discussion thread whether he had been raped because just from Walker's reaction it looked like he had, but then putting it in context, he felt that he had to go through with it to not let Brendan know he was lying.
Well, it's a grey area; he consented because he was forced to in order to back up his plan. Whilst it's not rape in the sense that Brendan couldn't be charged for it, Walker's clearly not having a good time. Maybe the fact that Brendan jerks back Walker's face fits in with that; after all, they'd just been fighting so there's still anger there. Brendan's more concerned about getting what he wants and he wouldn't let Walker's obvious discomfort get in the way.
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Old 16-09-2014, 12:08
Sez_babe
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Well, it's a grey area; he consented because he was forced to in order to back up his plan. Whilst it's not rape in the sense that Brendan couldn't be charged for it, Walker's clearly not having a good time. Maybe the fact that Brendan jerks back Walker's face fits in with that; after all, they'd just been fighting so there's still anger there. Brendan's more concerned about getting what he wants and he wouldn't let Walker's obvious discomfort get in the way.
Yeh it's not straightforward and I remember this scene adding so much to the already complex plot that running throughout the whole of that Hollyoaks Later.
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Old 16-09-2014, 14:44
theiceman2014
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I think you need to learn how to change channels or at least stop complaining, you sound like one of those 'someone think of the children' sheep.
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Old 16-09-2014, 14:46
blue_cheese
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I think you need to learn how to change channels or at least stop complaining, you sound like one of those 'someone think of the children' sheep.
Cracked me up with that line. Hollyoaks has always had a bit of a dark streak.
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Old 16-09-2014, 15:39
lady_xanax
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Yeh it's not straightforward and I remember this scene adding so much to the already complex plot that running throughout the whole of that Hollyoaks Later.
Although I thought the annual debauching plot thread of each HO Later, which was just an excuse for sex, drugs and swearing, were always dull, the dramatic storylines were great.

Maybe the teatime episodes could do with a bit of moral ambiguity. We haven't really had that since Brendan. It's as if the writers are purposefully avoiding it. I suppose Nancy is morally ambiguous but at the moment it mainly reads like her being a cow. Rick is more sleazy than morally ambiguous and Patrick's moral ambiguity is being ignored for the fun of creepy evilness.

That HO Later worked so well with moral ambiguity because you genuinely couldn't simply like or dislike Walker or Brendan.
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Old 16-09-2014, 17:47
kitkat1971
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I'd say there have been very dark elements from quite early on - probably since the reboot about a year in when they killed Natasha.

You had Stan and Ollie being killed off in a car accident 2 years in - a plot Phil Redmond said he did (also Natasha) because he wanted to study how teenagers reacted to death. Lucy's heroin addiction was bery grim viewing at times, alongside that you had Mandy disappearing and the reveal that she had been sexually abused by her father. Rob's reign of terror so yes, always been Dark in places.
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Old 16-09-2014, 18:10
David Mills
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It's pointless comparing Hollyoaks to others soaps as no other soaps are aimed at teenagers and no other soaps are on channel 4 so it has a different target audience.

Channel 4 in a lot of it's programming does dark, edgy drama and always has done since it was launched. Like some of the dark storylines in Hollyoaks you see similar things in other channel 4 and e4 dramas but while BBC and ITV do darkish stuff they rarely show anything as graphic as channel 4 do...so Hollyoaks, while it's an evening show fits into channel 4's drama style perfectly. And I agree with others it has been like that for years.

Eastenders and Coronation Street are not on the edgy channel, so they can't get away with doing anything too dark because they upset 'people who are so vulnerable they don't know how to change a tv channel' and get complaints.
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Old 16-09-2014, 18:40
Hound of Love
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Big Bob has made the show really dark and disturbing at the moment.

I am shaking as I type.
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