Mine is Sarah or Nicole.

Since we're almost at the end of a pretty good but very uneven and still deeply flawed 2026, I decided to talk about (in no particular order) things I'd like to see from next year, especially given more money being pumped into the show:

• More consistent character behaviour.
  

I'm sick and tired of how characters' personalities and behaviour changes depending on how the writers want to write a story, as opposed to telling a story around consistent character behaviour. Want to keep beating us over the head with "we love polyamory?" Maeve is suddenly OK being with someone in an open relationship despite previously not being cool with it. Need Dawn banging Vili for drama? Vili is suddenly selfish and doesn't care that his best friend still has feelings for the walking gloryhole. Need manufactured drama between Chris and Emmett? Emmett suddenly has feelings for Kate to a point of assaulting his best friend within three weeks. Nazar, the stern professional and dude who always behaves well? Suddenly gets drunk and fucks up his best friend's meeting over adopting Etta even though that's totally out of character. Anyone being attracted to Arlo when... Arlo. Characters change on a whim whether it makes sense or not which leads me to my next point...

*More coherent storylines

This is why I say this year has been uneven. We've had fucking gold this year. Cody's DID has been good but definitely should have had more time invested into it. Tyler's storyline once it got rolling was great. This bomber stuff has been excellent. Everything involving Emmett has been solid. But for God's sake. Paul as CEO makes as much sense as a fish rising a bicycle. The gastro bug storyline was immature and low-brow as hell. Libby still behaves like she's in her mid-20s and seems to have regressed intelligence-wise and should have had her history between 2012-2025 filled in and hasn't. Logan showing back up to get his leg cut off was pointless. Selina's entire existence this year has been "I want to be an incubator." Nearly everything involving Poppy has been bad. Tyler and Marianne? Gross. Almost every relationship this year seems to be the result of spinning a wheel. Nazar and Poppy actually had chemistry, but we noped out of that one quick. Phil and Paul? Why? There's potential for another golden era, but Oliver Driver needs to start filtering things better. And stop saying "shit" all the time. Just because it's permissible at 7pm now doesn't mean it needs to be said more than every other swear. Which brings me now to my NEXT point...

*Leave the fetishes in the writing room and keep them there.

The writers are sex-deprived and you can tell from the writing. Sage and his Cody fantasies. Poppy and her horny sequences over Tyler. Tyler and Marianne. Izzy showing up in a nurse's outfit I'm surprised got OKed for a 7pm timeslot. Some of Sage's dialogue in regards to his colleagues, particularly talking about wanting to be in a "sandwich" with Marty and Nazar. Some of Sage's conversations with Phil. Lesbian overload. Half of BJ's dialogue. Dalton being a pervert and whatever the fuck is going on with him and Poppy. Whatever that storyline was with Selina trying to get some dick so she could get pregnant. Paul and Phil. Again. There's a lot of horny in 2026 and it's been pretty forced and uncomfortable. I get the show has always been pretty envelope-pushy when it comes to sex at times, but Jesus Christ. It's gotten ridiculous. I'm not saying get rid of it, but good lord. Dial it back.

*Invest in sets. Finally, a point which isn't me complaining about writing. The show having more time means hopefully a mix between work and downtime. To this end, it'd be nice to spend more time at home with our faves. And it would be nice if most of that downtime wasn't in the boring, generic Doctor's flats or that scummy warehouse flat. Tania and Mark Weston have a lot to answer for buying that first doctor's flat. Look at the hospital. Just by adding the Staffhub and ARCC, you've got two interesting new sets you can run different stories from. Give us a new bar. Hell, reopen the IV. Recycle old sets we haven't seen in years. Either way, invest in some new sets. It makes Ferndale feel bigger. And speaking of making things bigger...

*Finally cast a new receptionist.
Hell, bring Gerard back full-time if you have to. But watching older episodes really makes me appreciate how key your reception desk was. Look how many storylines were kicked off or carried on just by having someone to talk to at the front desk. We've been deprived of someone at the front desk for years at this point and it's a damn shame. We need another Marj, or Kirsty, or Moira, or Yvonne, hell, even Leanne helped with the action. It also helps things flow when you see staff show up, then kick off a plot by getting to work. If you have more time, you can have more characters. If we can have 90 ED staff, we can cut it down to 89 and cast someone on the front desk. It'll help things flow, give characters more people to bounce off and most importantly, add some classic Shorty back to the show.

Anyway, that's my (far too long) ramble. Your thoughts?

So what do you think about these two getting together?

I think Naz has feelings for Esther and that’s why he reacted to her and Finn the way he did.

After the end of tonight's episode and the box for the bomb that says ''for Libby'' on it, I'm getting flashbacks to a similar storyline Home and Away did a couple of years ago that culminated in a bomb explosion.

Because of that, why do I get the feeling that even though the box says ''for Libby'' on it that Libby, the intended target won't be the one that gets caught in the crossfire? At this point I'm suspecting Crane, Maeve, Paul, Phil maybe even BJ might get caught in the crossfire and get hurt/in critical condition from the bomb.

They're shit. The editing is almost universally terrible and inconsistent. That shot over Cindy's shoulder made it obvious Tia wasn't talking when Cindy was meant to be telling Dalton off. We can follow a conversation between two characters without it. So why are they even a thing? Surely you'd save money just going old school and doing the "characters stand side to side like normal people and talk" angle?

Seriously. Your homework assignment: look at the sets from around 2004-05. I don't know whether it's my ADHD or what, but everything is such a clutter! Somebody had a major problem with blank space because every set had a whole lot of crap cluttering the walls. The staffroom? Paper everywhere. Houses? Everybody had a crapton of decorations and wall hangings everywhere to a degree it's completely distracting. Thankfully by the time Joey showed up and got his inner Wayne Brady on, they modernised the show and the clusterfucking on walls stopped.

I know it's a strange thing to complain about, but it's just something I noticed upon rewatch.

I know the CEOs have always played a role in the show but it didn't feel like there was as much of an impact on the storyline in recent years until the whole Esther/Julian thing and then of course Rachel's inevitable return and departure leading to the mess that is currently Paul as CEO. I wanna know, who do guys think was/is the most memorable SS CEO for the right or wrong reasons?? who do you guys think was the most iconic CEO?? Who should've stayed in position for longer? And who should've never been CEO? Is there a current character who hasn't been CEO yet that you guys could see stepping into the role if something happened to Paul?

Man I hate when they ruin a good character out of the blue, the way she grieved Cleo was bad enough but seeing the trajectory this cop storyline is heading is so cringe, wish she left and Tyler stayed lol (I know irl why he didn't) but ugh it's so unnecessary lol

Have the ratings gotten better in 2026 compared to 2025?

Avoid talking about your own political beliefs to avoid drama.

Hi folks! Saw a few clips of this show and was wondering where I could watch it from Europe. I tried using a VPN to access tvnz+, but it only seems to have the 2026 episodes. Does anyone know where I could watch it from season 1 onwards? Thanks!

Great actress and complex villian.

With how much everyone is telling her to be careful and her not listening, the whole situationship with Finn is bound to blow up in her face. Even tonight, Poppy said that she swore Hendrix had changed and how it blew up in her face because she thought the second time would be different. I'm thinking it's going in the same direction as Poppy and Hendrix (not as bad as how Finn/Esther ended last time hopefully) and mirroring the ending, not death but not having it end badly (could be a part of the cliffhanger). I'm betting that it does end badly and even though people like Naz and Poppy have told her to be careful that they'll still be there for her if it does go sour.

Even though we don't see them together very much, I love seeing scenes of Phil and Crane together as friends. It's nice to see Crane outside of her relationship with Maeve and having friends. It's also nice to see Phil finally having a friend at the hospital that she hasn't previously had a relationship with or is at times judgemental of things she did in the past.

with the announcement that Thaddeus and Madonna are coming back for Chris’s wedding, you just know it’s going to be absolutely awkward and chaotic for Vili and you know Selina will have a comment or two about it. Especially with how Vili and Madonna ended and how quickly Thad and Madonna left and had the baby afterwards. I don’t think it’ll be a big storyline but definitely will have a couple of awkward moments in there for drama’s sake. I know Madonna was a nurse and Thaddeus was a pharmacist at SS but I do think their return for Chris’s wedding is a little random. especially since I get the feeling that the show will just ignore the history between Madonna and Vili and make it seem like he’ll be happy to see her, even if it’s not totally awkward and uncomfortable for him deep down. I know they’ve both moved on but still…

What are some of examples of cultural shift between then and now are you noticing and finding kind of amusing? Like, different moral values and whatever. Stuff it seems weird for characters to be shocked or offended by.

For me it's a toss-up between any of the "Stuart is going off the rails by having pre-marital sex and wanting to leave school!" Stuff from 92-93 and Mike's enjoyment of weed being treated like the bro is addicted to cocaine or something.

For me it started because my now-wife watched it. I was watching it and it was her daily wind-down from her extremely stressful job. Now i find myself laughing along at the bad plots and cheeseball but lovable characters. Its been 7yrs now..where did that time go. Why do you watch it?

I was watching the 2013 finale and seeing how it was peak aggro HULK SMASH TK, I got to thinking how different TK became. He was originally really laidback and then turned into an angry, aggro douche. And I also got to thinking, how many other characters changed completely in the time they were on the show? I'm not talking about characters who were revealed to be baddies since they were already planned to be villains or characters who became villains down the track, but characters whose personalities changed into something completely different the longer they were on the show?

Where Chris was thinking to out Rebecca and Maeve to stop Rebecca' reign of terror, but the Hospital self righteous hypocrite aka Jack was like, u can't do that to a gay person.

Amh hello he outted Raj to a room full of people and work colleagues and included his wife, a few months back.

So on SS's instagram they've released a video of all of the Chris Warner proposals over the years. How many of these proposals actually resulted in a wedding? Does anybody actually know how many legit marriages Chris Warner has had over the years? In the same vein, which ones didn't actually result in a wedding?

So Gia (TK's long lost presumed dead trans daughter) has just left.

It seemed like she was going to be a regular and boom, off she goes to Chicago.

Was she axed after TK actor decided to quit?

I think now that it’s all but confirmed after last nights episode with Cody being able to identify that the patient had DID that something similar is occurring with him.

my only issue with this is that there is one plot hole that exists if “Toby” is an alter of Cody’s and not an actual twin of his. Earlier in the year Chris himself stated to Cody that he remembers treating Toby when he died and how sorry he was for what happened but that it seemed like Cody and Chris never properly met during that time until Cody started working at Shortland Street as a nurse.

Maybe, Toby did exist, he died just as Chris said he did as he was Chris’s patient. As a result of the trauma of losing his twin, Cody developed DID and the Cody that we saw fronting in last nights episode with the patient was a part of that.

This could be totally farfetched and not at all where they're going with the storyline and pretty close to the end of the year, but, I was thinking, what if Marty ended up fostering Etta and/or her other siblings as a result of her reporting what happened at the hospital? There's no way they'd bring Etta back into the fold after all this time if it wasn't leading to something with the kids and/or Marty. Maybe this could lead Marty down a more hopeful road after everything that's happened with Esther this year and last