Clocked up another thirty or so episodes this week, but I'm still lagging behind in the early sixties ...
Take Patricia being wolf whistled at by an employee and sacking him on the spot. From a 2019 perspective, the responses of witnesses and people hearing the news - including John, Rosie and David - seem very unusual indeed. Without exception, they've seen her as overreacting to admittedly inappropriate behaviour. Some would seem to go further and view her as just plain hard.
The writing, up to a point, is simply showing Patricia's behaviour to be part of who she is. With the arc taken suggesting her response to the wolf whistle was partly informed by a form of sexual frustration over David's presence. Even Patricia herself admitted to John that she'd overreacted.
Needless to say, this would be unthinkable today. Rosie would not be allowed to say that "you couldn't meet a nicer young bloke" than the culprit. Not unless it was a way to show denial (which it doesn't appear to be). John would not be allowed to tell Patricia that he thought she was wrong. Not unless it was part of a journey to his wokedom. And Patricia would most certainly not be permitted to admit that she'd overreacted.
The characters in Sons And Daughters may be a little too relaxed about things. But there's also a sanity to the situation. The freedom to learn from a bad judgement. And the freedom to move on without further overreaction. And from where I sit it's refreshing.
That's such an interesting scene, or scenes, in retrospect, isn't it? It still doesn't feel like an entirely black and white situation. I guess for Patricia, it's the first time she's had to assert herself, at least on screen, outside of her own domestic or social circle, the first time she has to prove herself as an "independent woman of the 80s", no longer just a brittle society queen of the 70s. And, unfair or not, sacking the whistler works. It puts the men in their place. As far as we're aware, she receives no more hassle from them.
I love the ripple effect of David and Patricia's affair, all the scheming to keep it a secret from The Twins.
John & Angela may not be the show's romantic couple but they are some kind of wholesome, almost divine entity - and it's very important that nothing's going to upset them (or the Sons & Daughters universe may cease to exist).
Stevie's death looks massively underplayed compared to that.
Nick (a few hours after Stevie had died): "he was the only good thing that's ever happened to me".
Angela: "Oh come on!"
Of course, the death of one's child is universally considered the #1 worst thing that could happen to someone, it would be very hard if not impossible to do it right without upstaging everything else that's going on.
The story was never really about them, I guess that's the purpose of these "interim" characters.
the most boring storyline to date.
I didn't mind Sick Kid Stevie's story this time around, probably cos I knew it wasn't going to last forever. It is an oddity though -- the first storyline that isn't directly connected to the central Hamilton/Palmer saga. I'm wondering what overall purpose it served -- perhaps to show Angela in a more mature, selfless light for a little while, or to give dead-eyed Susan the chance to think about somebody other than herself for five seconds. But killing off a toddler does seem to be quite a drastic way to do it. And then it's funny how quickly Mick is meant to get over it. Five minutes after the kid's died, Susan seems surprised he hasn't given any thought to funeral arrangements, while Beryl reckons he just needs a good cry to "get it out of his system".
There's an exciting arm-wrestling scene between him and John, and the kid supports his father.
"Come on, dad. Come on. Come on, dad. Come on. Come on, dad. Come on. Come on, dad. Come on". I think that was very scripted.
I thought that line would go on forever!
The Patricia/David affair is full of surprises -- how cautious Patricia is about getting involved in the first place, how she waits until Gordon has asked her for a divorce, how she resists and resists until the sight of David drenched in his red speedos pushes her over the edge ... It's the opposite of Abby pursuing Gary, even though Beryl has the same sense of foreboding beforehand as Val did. And then when Beryl finally sees them together, it's so underplayed next to Val walking in on Gary and Abby. It doesn't even warrant an End of Part 1 cliffhanger, let alone a season finale one. And when Beryl confronts Patricia about what she has seen, it's she who has the upper hand in the scene. There's no "I could have him anytime I want him" style gloating from Patricia. And proximity plays a part: Gary, Abby and Val were all living on top of each other in the cul-de-sac goldfish bowl, while there's all that distance -- Sydney, Melbourne, Woombai -- between the characters on S&D. It's funny to think that the two country mouse/blonde vixen/hapless bloke triangles would have been going on at more or less the same time back in '82.