New posts

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 444100" data-attributes="member: 23">I Know Where She’s GoneFor Sons and Daughters viewers, some surreal imagery comes from seeing Paul Sheppard hanging out with Roger Carlyle in the bar and helping him pick up girls. What’s more, Roger is blind, and Paul - who has learning difficulties - thinks he’s got a girl pregnant because he kissed her. Only it turns out she is pregnant and plans to get an abortion before she is murdered, putting him in the frame due to a protective outburst. I mean, it’s tailor made for Season Four or Five of S&D, particularly when it’s considered that Kevin Ferguson - who would be on screen as Paul within six months - is here playing a character named Phil Sheppard. Long lost brother?Anyway, this being ACP, the story feels typically relaxed despite the pacing. All the above takes place in the first two thirds of Part I, along with other stories like Molly chaining herself to a fence to stop trees being cut down (only to discover that the process has been stayed and she’s lost her key). And with all this, that first episode ends with a cliffhanger about… two visiting policeman deciding how they take their coffee. I have to applaud the way this series steers away from sensationalism.While the series has previously had at least one death under mysterious circumstances (the woman fleeing her marriage back in the second story of Season One), I believe this is ACP’s first murder mystery (dog poisonings notwithstanding). Admittedly, suspects are relatively few due to the fact that we only meet a handful of non-regulars and it seems no regular would do this.Young Phil is the police’s prime suspect, having motive and demonstrating temperamental behaviour. Blind Freddie is the one that screamed out to me, due to him being a little mysterious, providing Phil with an alibi that was clearly untrue (thereby giving himself an alibi) and the fact that he’s played by an actor I associate with a villainous role. Then in the second episode, Phil’s father acts strangely when he learns that Linda has been killed.There are some fairly frank references to sexual assault. Linda’s skirt is either missing or hoiked up and the police - a murder team brought in from Sydney - ask Simon if he has examined her for assault. His behaviour, too, is a little mysterious. He hasn’t and is clearly resistant to doing to - saying he’s going to wait for Terence - but there are little looks suggesting it goes deeper for him. While he was never a suspect for me (as would have been a natural conclusion for a non-regular viewer) I have found myself wondering if it’s paving the way to learn more about his background in the near future.Part II also features what I think is the series’ first post mortem scene. I don’t know if it’s realistic of a small town, or just a televisual thing that the people involved are regulars: Terence, Simon and even Brendan. I think Marta was there as well. It takes the Jaws approach of describing what they are seeing rather than showing us, and it’s strangely transfixing as they all take turns to peek at this organ or that, puzzled by certain anomalies. And - along with characteristics of the area where the body was found - it allows Terence to deduce how Linda died.As far as the reveal goes, there is a twist that could be viewed as a cop out, but is done in such a carefully plotted way that makes it more unique and memorable than if it had been a typical murder mystery resolution. Home and Away and Knots Landing would have murder-mysteries-that-turned-out-not-to-be-murders-after-all with Gary Samuels and Jill Bennett, but they would be  towards the end of the decade (1988 and 1989 respectively). Not only is ACP laying the groundwork for that kind of twist in early 1982, it really gets the mind working. When it’s found that the area where Linda died is somehow magnetised (with metals behaving strangely) and has mysterious scorch marks, someone even concludes with some disdain that locals believe the death was a result of an alien attack.The truth is much simpler, though still fantastical in its own way: [ISPOILER]Linda was struck by lightning, sending her flying head first onto the small, sharp rock that is initially treated as the “murder weapon”, and blowing her skirt off in the process. [/ISPOILER]It’s a bold move that, because characters continue to react with the usual ACP combo of phlegmatic conviction, is completely sold as something quite prosaic. Even this rather outlandish sequence of events feels small and accessible and almost forgettable (there’s every likelihood it will be forgotten by the next episode and perhaps never mentioned again).The police being in town is triggering for Marta who wants to bow out of the tree-saving protest due to her understandable distrust of authorities based on experiences back in Hungary. She is convinced by Molly and Brenda to overcome her fears by doing it, and she does. Everyone learns a valuable lesson and in the next scene Marta has teleported back to the ward and donned her uniform and is smiling again.There’s another “comical” storyline where Frank is trying to impress his superiors by being tougher, and puts all the locals offside by booking them for the most trivial of things that he has been turning a blind eye to for years. It’s… OK, I suppose, but it already feels like a retread of a b-story we’ve seen at least once before.Shirley has been great fun in Season Two. I had my frustrations with her in Season One, but it seems her niche with more lighthearted storylines that tap into both her outspoken nature and her comical little looks. There’s been a nice thread this year with her struggling to stop smoking and, now that she has stopped, an oral fixation that has led to a sweet tooth and weight gain. Frank is putting his foot in it left, right and centre talking about her curves, and Lorrae Desmond looking longingly at Frank and Vicky eating while she tucks into two lettuce leaves are spot on. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next.</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?