I'm sure Holby City wasn't always about how the doctors & nurses were related or having relationships with each other or treating a family member/estranged relative on the ward who's shown up again after so many years. It all feels a little incestuous and shuttered, even claustrophobic! What ever happened to the medicine and the intricate surgeries? It all seems a little OD'd on the relationships & perky Zosia seems to move swiftly along the male medical staff!

P.S. I have liked the addition of Nurse Cara to the wards (if a guy like Jed can cheat on a lady like her, he really doesn't deserve her!). Ever since MC left, I felt that Holby could have done with a bit more Irish in the hospital!

Quote:
Originally Posted by EVIL-MONKEY
OH FFS Adele! Just GO I really can't be arsed with her anymore. [The Effanga ladies are starting to fray my nerves too, but perhaps this is because they've been at the centre of so much lately? ]

Well said!

Am I the only one who can't see what Ollie has done wrong? zosia DID ask him to clear her diary which surely was presumptuous!
Incidentally, I noticed that Mo called Zosia Selfie. Can someone tell me why her last name is March and not Self when she is Guy's daughter? I presume it was explained before but I missed it.
I was actually beginning to like Guy, before they reverted him right back to type at the end.

Has Ric Griffin left?

I really liked that episode. I really liked that both Guy and Arthur's issues were focused on again.

She started using her mother's name after they fell out. I was expecting her to tell Mo to stop calling her that during their negotiations at the end. Otherwise, a nothing storyline which virtually ignored everything Mo's been through lately when I was expecting it to be relevant.

Similarly, not really bothered about Guy regaining his "self"-confidence. Henrik should have left him to it, and I thought it was leading up to him going...

Best bit was Arthur and I'm really glad he isn't going. I miss his glasses though, maybe hell think better of letting Dominic dress him. Serena was very harsh on him, so glad that seems to have been intended. Loved the last little scene between him and Morven, hopefully we can see them get on well now.

Completely agree regarding the complete lack of reference to what Mo has been through with William. It seemed like it was forgotten for one episode. I was just saying last week about how often that seems to happen in holby at the moment. A big storyline will be ongoing and then will be forgotten about for a week or two even though the central characters still appear. Then it's brought up again the next week.

No, you are not alone - for the life of me I could not see what Ollie did wrong, either. Mo got the wrong end of the stick, blew it up out of all proportion and then needed someone to blame at the end - as far as I can see.

I actually thought I was losing my mind there for a while because I was beginning to LIKE Selfie, but he reverted to type again at the end. Loved his little scene with Arthur, though. Selfie and Fran make a very creepy couple, I think.

Ollie looked rather lovely in his jeans and scrubs

Diggers needs his glasses back.

Jac's "imminent return" cannot come soon enough for me

I was quite worried all the way through that Digby was going to say he wanted to leave so I'm glad Hanssen talked him out of it. Was a good scene there with them both

Yes, I enjoyed that, too. So glad that Hanssen "gets" Digby

I think It was the difference between Zosia asking to clear her schedule so she'd be able to assist if asked rather than assuming she would be asked. It is a very subtle distinction though and Mo made too much of it. I think it was only there to build up the rapport between then prior to Jac coming back as of course Jac;s team always have to be a team against her.

We did see Mo looking a a photo of William on her phone didn't we but yes, pushed to the background. But then, as far as I'm concerned, that has been standard for the last 2 years - little or no continuity from one week to the next as to what is going on in characters lives and how they would logically be expected to behave.

Jac's iminent return. Yes, i want it but equally i'm also dreading it. Clearly she is expected to ne a player against Self and with him and zosia now getting on, Mo and Ollie liking Zosia and Fran being with Guy I rather dread what that means re her isolation.

I rather missed Arthur's glasses although I did like his suit. The AAU team are growing on me with Morven and Cara.

I still have to force myself to sit and watch it these days though, am always tempted to stick an episode from a few years ago instead as I know i'd enjoy it more.

Funnily enough, I have been watching episodes on Irish tv from series 15 - the ones with Amanda Layton and Malik. Even though there were more characters that annoyed me back then - Chrissie, Harry, doctor Honey - there were also brilliant ones such as Michael, Malik and Chantelle. Overall it was a better show - pacier, better continuity. Just watched the ep where Jac shaved Sacha's hair off so he could be bald while Rachel had her chemo. I miss their friendship and hope it is revisited on her return.

I share your concerns about Jac being isolated when she comes back to Darwin, though, kitkat. I don't want to see her in full bitch mode fighting against the whole team day in, day out.

I am also watching those episodes on RTE and agree, the show was much better then. It's odd that those episodes are from only just over 2 years ago, yet the cast has changed so much that it could be 5 years ago!

The continuity was definitely way better then. I don't know what is going on with that. You had Mo and Cara both in the middle of storylines which dominated last week's episode and both fairly life changing events, yet they were both almost completely carefree last night, save for a quick glance at Mo's phone and Cara looking concerned for 5 seconds when she heard that Raf was on annual leave. Those scenes actually looked like quickly slotted in after thoughts too!

I wonder are they filming out of sequence more than they used to?

I channel hopped last week and every time I popped in to Holby it was Effanga central. This week I didn't last 5 minutes. There don't seem to be any engaging characters involved in central storylines anymore, really missing Jac who is one of the last great and properly developed characters. Hansen and Serena could carry it but we hardly ever see them.

My partner watches this but she is utterly tired of the Mo & Adele show as she elegantly puts it, I watch it on occasion so maybe my opinion is less valid but the last few months has been rather dire with just a few stand out episodes.

As a casual viewer I like Jac, Elliot and Hanssen but the Oliver ,unprounceable name and her daddy issues are boring , Self is a sad charcuterie , as is the boring black guy with bald head ( only way I could describe him as I have zero interest in the character to find out the name).

I see a mess and it's going downhill faster than a terminal case in ED.

Yes, you are quite right, it's hard to believe that it was only 2 years ago, it feels a lot longer!! Where did the rot start?? Personally I think it was around the time Bonnie arrived and all that crap with Jac and Jonny started.

Was there always block story telling to this degree?? It seems far more obvious than ever before

Yes, i agree. Even though there were a lot of characters that annoyed me back then, it was still a much better show. Better plotted, better continuity and even the people i dodn't like I was interested in - for example How Chrissie reacted to Rachhel's Cancer and the idea of Daniel being a bone marrow donor for her.

I said it at the time, and i still stand by it - the show changed overnight - between episodes 51 and 52 of Season 15 ( the Malick, Hansenn, Digby, Chantelle car crash). Suddenly characters behaved out of character (Gemma just wanting the gosspit about the crash rather than being concerned about those hurt and Jonny turning into a douchebag 2 minutes after Bonnie arrived - not just to jac but Patients as 2 examples) and plots just not making sense or being picked up then dropped. I was quite frankly flummoxed after watching that episode, just couldn't understand how it could change so much re quality drop from one episode to the next and the feeling has never really gone away. Losing so many characters so soon afterwards and the replacements not really gelling (or at least not for a long time - Dom has now) didn't help either but i do think it was more the carelessness (for want of another word) with which they treated their characters motivations and thought processes that was the problem.

We just crossed and as far as I'm concerned it was exactly then, Bonnie's first episode. Not that i'm putting it all down to her, as mentioned Gemma suddenly started acting very oddly as well but I guess because Jonny was a favourite character and I'd actually liked the pregnancy plot till then I was more aware of the problems and inconsistencies in that strand than others - but it was across the board. I do remember saying how sorry i felt for the actors, especially Michael Thomson, as it must be virtually impossible to know what your character actually thinks and feels about anything when they are being written in such conflicting ways from one week to the next with ever appearance of the writers having NO idea of what happened the previous week which they should be including, even if just as background.

No, I don't remember the block storytelling being this bad until then.

The difference is quite startling, isn't it? In the past there were highs and lows, to be sure, but now we seem to get one or two great episodes followed by weeks of mediocrity. Inbetween the weeks when their stories are in the forefront characters just get on with things in the background - like Cara this week. I absolutely hate that.

Definitely don't remember the block storyline has being anywhere near as obvious until recently. It's as if they have individual writers come in who have not been briefed about what is going on in the character's personal lives.

I think you are right about the drop post the end of season 15. I do think it picked up again early last series and up until the mid point last April. I enjoyed the build up to Jac, Jonny, Harry and MC's exits and the build up to Guy's downfall as CEO, but since then it has been off par. They seem not to know what to do with various characters - Guy being a prime example. I think it appears that Michie has signed another contract, but the character has been wandering aimlessly IMO - developed slightly for an episode or two and then undeveloped again from the start to the end of one episode!

Incidentally, there are quite a lot of characters I like at the moment, Ollie, Zosia, Cara, morven, Digby, Dom, Serena, Sacha. So the actors are doing good jobs, it's just the general structure and story lining that seems to have gone awol.

Yes, i certainly became more interested in the show for the first half of this season which has just ended but was unsure whether the whole show had improved or if it was just that they'd stopped torturing Jac and Jonny once the knew Thomson was leaving and Marcel was going on maternity leave so built to that.

There was also the Adrienne story which might have been personally painful to watch as it was a bit close to home but I couldn't fault the writing or performances - except that Adrienne would have gone so downhill between appearances without Serena letting on but that is the nature of the illness and Serena is a private person that wouldn't broadcast it so that was forgivable, even though i do suspect it was also down to block storytelling.

I think there has been an issue of not knowing what to do with characters so just forgetting about them for weeks or even months on end for a couple of years now.

I

I liked that Zosia was made to do the grunt work to be allowed near theatre it reminds me of the older series of the juniors fighting to get in.

Guy was almost human for once. Hanson and Serina foreshadowing what's to come...

Re your spoiler - we sort of knew this was coming (even if we hoped it wouldn't!!).

Self's face when he was eating the popping candy was hilarious. I actually liked him at that moment But he didn't let me down - he returned to his old obnoxious self by the end of the episode

I think it went downhill when Kent took over. The man also has no interest in the opinions of people who actually watch the show. He actually blocked me on Twitter for askING a question about Jac. Apparently he does this a lot. Sadly I don't think there will be much improvement whilst he is in charge

If true it will be a case of an already weak performer being made to struggle even more with the abysmal quality of the scripts and storyline.