Every Soapie Needs New Neighbours

I don’t mind some new blood every once in a while. And it was good to see four new characters being introduced on Neighbours this past week. I’ve given them a bit of time to settle in before writing this, and I must say that I’m feeling a little mixed about their arrival and introduction. Each was billed as having a ‘secret’.

Let’s go through them one at a time, shall we?

“Yes, let’s!”

Okay, no need to shout.


New Neighbours, left to right:
Rosita light on Will-power,
while Frazer passes the Pepper.

I’ll start with Rosita Cammeniti, elder sister to Carmella. Fresh from her stint on All Saints, actress Natalie Saleeba doesn’t look too similar to actress Natalie Blair (Carmella), although after watching them on screen for a few minutes, it was easy to see a slight family resemblance in their appearance … and their interaction seemed genuinely sisterly.* A credit to the actresses and the casting department. It must be confusing that both girls are Natalies. Probably a good thing that Natalie Bassingthwaighte (Izzy Hoyland) has left the show, then.**

Rosita’s backstory is that the two sisters never got along and Carmella was always seen as 'the bad sister'. Rosita apparently harbours a secret grudge against 'the family business' and became a lawyer to keep her head above water on the 'moral' front. She resents people presuming that her jailed father is secretly pulling strings for her. Most tragically, an arranged marriage to “Johnny Brown” (possibly the worst and most unimaginative unseen-character’s name the show has ever utilised), was being forced upon her by her mother. Always having been considered the favourite child by her mother, Rosita had never spoken out against her parents and apparently always did what she was told. Until moving into Ramsay Street and discovering the following series of remarkable coincidences:

- Carmella once lived in the same house
- Toadie knew Rosita (but has never mentioned her) because they’re fellow lawyers – and all lawyers know each other, donchaknow
- Carmella just happened to be living a few doors away at the time
- Toadie had apparently promised a room to Rosita while he was in Sydney, but failed to mention this to housemate Ned. Remarkably, Rosita turned up to claim her room precisely as the other new housemates were moving in

As a long-time friend of Toadie’s (*cough*retcon*cough*), Rosita immediately took up the case for Max’s manslaughter charges / disappearance, and knew all the details of the case that very night, despite having had no time to read the case files because she was too busy advising her sister (with whom she suddenly has a deep and lasting relationship) to drop her nun habit and write Ned a juicy letter of seduction.

But I think she has promise and will be a good addition to the show. Plus, the actress is quite a bit more attractive on Neighbours than she was ever made to look on All Saints. And that’s the important thing.

Next we have Frazer Yeats, played by Ben Lawson, elder brother to TGYH’s brilliant Josh. Frazer shares a secret with ‘Pepper’ Steiger (they’re pretending to be engaged on some kind of joint-beneficial ruse), however Frazer has additional skeletons in his closet, as recent episodes have implied. First, it appears that ‘Frazer Yeats’ is not his real name, although the writers don’t intend to divulge his real name to us anytime soon. (Why is this? Will it shock us? Will we recognise the name or surname somehow?) Frazer also has a bizarre form of income; he calls himself a professional gambler, and keeps three different mobile phones going at once to contact his bookies and no doubt other nefarious dealings. He doesn't seem to think much of the Will, but has clear feelings for Rosita (something that the others are unaware of due to his fake engagement to Pepper clouding their eyes to his very obvious attraction). Oh, what fun times lay in store with that particular storyline!

His brother Ringo (also ‘Yeats’, which implies that the surname might be genuine, or perhaps that his brother has adopted the same alias for one reason or another) will be joining the show presently as well (played by Sam Clark, the kid who won the male role on offer in the Dolly magazine competition they were running a while ago, to win a guest role on Neighbours - with the option for it to become a full-time gig if all parties are happy). He’ll be joined by the female winner of the same competition, Adelaide Kane, who will be picking up the role of Lolly (Louise) Carpenter, the daughter of Lou who we last saw some years ago leaving to live with her biological father, after Lou discovered that he wasn’t Lolly’s real father.

But back to the current new cast members:

Attractive blonde Nicky Whelan plays Heidi ‘Pepper’ Steiger. She’s okay to look at and all that, but her ‘beauty’ has been used as an angle on more than one occasion already. Daughter of local ‘stop or I’ll point’ policeman Senior Sergeant Allan Steiger and Janae’s gruff mechanic boss Christine Steiger, she has a brother called Rick and some reason to pretend to be engaged to Frazer. As yet. we have no idea what that reason might be. Despite embarrassing herself in front of Susan at her job interview by calling Karl “an old fuddy-duddy”, she was successful at getting the job and is now the new PE teacher at Erinsborough High. (What kind of school interviews potential candidates for teaching positions ‘one-on-one’ style and in the vice principal’s home?!) There have been at least three examples of the randy little high school students victimising Pepper for her physical appearance; they (particularly Zeke) were gawking at her as she stripped out of her tracksuit for the cross-country run (which, in my experience, is always held on a new PE teacher’s first day), the itching powder in her top (not strictly speaking relating to her appearance, but the twisting, scratching and one-thing-leads-to-another highly necessary removal of her clothing seemed like the actions of a randy group of teenagers to me), and of course the underwear incident. What is this show? Neighbours or Porky’s?! And while we’re off-topic, how many free hits is pervy pervert Zeke Kinski going to get before he gets dragged before the principal on sexual misconduct charges? Where'd he grow up? Werribee?! First it was the porno mags in the attic (his sister appearing in one seems to have been enough poetic justice because the harshest criticism stepmum Susan gave him was, “It’s perfectly natural, just understand that it’s not reality”), and now he gets busted having stolen his neighbour/teacher’s underwear from her home and handing it around the school like a trophy. Talk about a violation of privacy! Surely Pepper would be feeling sexually humiliated and violated and want to do more than simply get Zeke to clean their house once a week until the end of the term without payment? Isn't that a form of prostituting herself? I don’t buy the line that “he’s cute”, because all they’ve seen of him so far has been an awkward and weird-looking dweeb who can’t pronounce his words properly and has been speaking like a homo … sorry … homie. Nothing ‘cute’ or endearing about him. Anyway, actress Nicky Whelan was last seen playing the fictitious ‘starlet’ on the Russell Coight’s Celebrity Challenge telemovie, and her character Pepper’s mysterious past hasn’t turned out to be too mysterious so far. Maybe her penchant for waking up in the night screaming has something to do with it. (Actually, it probably does, but I bet that’s going to be a while off, yet.) Oh, and she sneezes when she's stressed or embarrassed. Yeah, I can't see that getting annoying!

Finally, we come to drifter Will Griggs, played by newcomer Christian Clark. A backpacker with the definitive laid-back attitude to life, Will seems to have the darkest and most mysterious past of any of the newcomers. While appearing at first to be the most ‘boring’ of the four new characters, it could well turn out that his backstory is the most interesting. We’ve already seen him set fire to an envelope packed full of hundred-dollar bills (it really hurt to watch that scene), and we’ve watched him yell at an extra’s extended hand as someone in a car wordlessly held out a house key, with the words, “Yours for the taking” engraved on the keyring. When he finally visited the spacious apartment, Will found a cupboard full of condensed milk cans (which appeared to mean something to him), a closet full of suits (which he ignored), and a bunch of jewellery. After briefly looking at a framed photo of a woman, Will took one gold ring, one can of condensed milk, and left the apartment – presumably never to return. He clearly doesn’t want anything to do with whoever his unseen benefactor is, and as the actor has already finished his stint on the show (after just twelve weeks of filming), we may never see this storyline brought to a satisfactory conclusion. I mean, who in their right mind turns away such free stuff and all that money? There must be a serious history between Will and whoever it is, for him to so adamantly refuse any of these offerings. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Will’s actuall stinking rich and is the elusive owner of the remaining 2% of Lassiter’s.

According to rumours (and you can always believe rumours, ... or so people say), actor Christian Clark decided not to renew his contract with the show. That’s what Network Ten is rumoured to be reporting. I wonder what went wrong …

Speaking of which, the opening titles still haven’t been updated to include Carmella or to remove Izzy … and now that we’ve seen four new faces arrive (with one of those set to leave again quite soon, and two more regulars arriving shortly), maybe they’ll just stick with the current credit sequence until the end of the year. (And then they’ll have to amend it again when Lyn and Katya leave in the new year. Their departures will be roughly one month apart.)

In short, it’s great to see new characters appearing on the show. And it’s sometimes (but not always) great to see old characters leave. I’m glad Lyn and Katya are going. I think it’s strange that Will’s on his way out before he’s even put his backpack down. And it’s interesting to note that Dylan and Stingray will both be written out of the show early next year (apparently in an “explosive storyline”, which probably means that one or both of them will die). With all this commotion going on, I hear what you’re all thinking: “When will Connor and Dee return??”

I wish I knew, gentle reader. I wish I knew.


* In much the same way that Dylan and Stingray don’t appear to be obvious brother-types, although after watching them for a bit, you start to see it.

** But not for good. She’ll be back in a guest spot around April of next year. I wonder what twists and turns she’ll introduce to the show then!***

*** Karl’s kid, no doubt.


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