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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 383534" data-attributes="member: 23">Well, today I finished the entire run of small screen On The Buses.It truly was a trudge to get through Series Seven, and the fare for that last mile was paid entirely with goodwill that came from any remaining familiarity. Recycled plots, scenarios and lines only served to remind the viewer of the series as it was during peak hour.The absences needn't have so detrimentally affected the series, but there was nothing to fill the void left by them.There wasn't really a point in the last half a dozen episodes where I actually missed Reg Varney and his regular glances to the audience and camera (both of which betrayed his music hall background, I'd say). But I still quickly grew to resent the remaining cast being simultaneously stretched too thin and overused. By which I mean that their deficiencies and limitations were very quickly exposed. I realise this is repeating what I'd already said in an earlier Series Seven post, but it really was taken to the limits when we were stuck with just four characters for each of the 25 minutes.Blakey's gurning and moaning (and Stephen Lewis's overacting) were already testing me, but I ended up feeling relieved whenever he wasn't on-screen (which wasn't often considering he became the series' new lead and featured in almost all the scenes both at the depot and the Butler home into which he'd moved as a lodger before Stan had even departed.While ways were found to keep the depot and the occasional bus in the picture, the dynamics changed there, and most were for the worse. Without the peer pressure and enabling of Stan, Jack felt like even more of a wide boy and none too likeable for it. By series' end his underhanded stuff was so blatant it didn't make any sense even for this world.Olive's daftness was borderline endearing in earlier series. With Arthur gone she became even more of a caricature while also giving her significantly more screen time and it was no longer endearing. At all. Olive as a clippie simply didn't work for me, and at home she became ridiculously brainless and clumsy while grinning cheekily. While there were one or two smiles raised, overall I grew to find her a pain.This leaves Mabel as perhaps the most consistently watchable in this final run. But watching her fuss and cluck round Blakey had very little appeal. And the less said about the episode where she and Olive fought over Blakey, each believing the tea leaves told them he was Mr Right, the better.The bottom line for me is that while the series might have been buried with Stan's departure, it had actually died when Arthur left (having flatlined some while before that... probably when the writing duties changed hands). Admittedly, he was a favourite character for me almost from the start, but his absence really proved how important his cynicism and conflict was for the series. There were attempts at keeping both these elements with other characters, but it ultimately felt too manufactured and unnatural.The final episode was an example of this. It was the old sitcom standard where feuding neighbours battle to get the best garden to win a competition, resorting to sabotaging the other's efforts. Hilarity ensues. But the "neighbours" in this case were Jack and Blakey. Technically this was fine, since Jack was established as renting a room very close by the Butlers' house well before Blakey got anywhere near it. Problem is, it has very little to do with the series' premise. It could easily have been an episode of Terry & June or Never The Twain or something. Shoehorning in the "bus" theme by having the general manager judging the competition doesn't really fly. As a one-off this would have been fine earlier in the run, but here the series has lost enough of what makes it On The Buses for it to feel lazy and generic.There are saving graces in these latter episodes. The aforementioned general manager is played by Michael Sheard, best remembered by me (and many, I would think) as Grange Hill's scary Mr Bronson (he also played Hitler five times, including that brief face-to-face moment in one of the Indiana Jones films).  Given the material here, there's no danger of him setting the screen alight, but he's a welcome addition all the same. Likewise, it's lovely to see Yootha Joyce, almost immediately before going on to national treasure status as Mildred Roper.</blockquote>

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