Hollyoaks: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''You have emotional problems and a below-average IQ. I'm prescribing Hollyoaks.''|'Hollyoaks''Frankie Boyle''.', "[[Mock the Week|Bad Things to hear at the Psychiatrist's]]" }}

''[[Hollyoaks]]'' is a British soap that began in 1995, centered on the residents of Hollyoaks, a fictional area in Chester. The show is primarily aimed at young people, the cast being on average teenaged to mid-20s.

''Hollyoaks'' has always been something of a joke amongstamong critics and viewers; it was mocked for the practice of casting attractive yet unconvincing actors, as well as some of its more outlandish storylines, or feeble dialogue. However, recently{{when}} ''Hollyoaks'' has shown a notable rise in quality, producing several satisfying story arcs and interesting characters. It has even garnered critical attention in papers such as ''The Guardian'', and at several award shows, and was praised for its portrayal of the gay relationship between John Paul and Craig.

Many viewers love ''Hollyoaks'' not despite its faults, but ''because'' of them. See [[So Bad It's Good]].

Another amusing thing is that Channel 4 gogoes down the "if you've been affected by the issues in the program call our hot-line" route. Given the plots of the series manning that hot-line must be the easiest job in the world. After all how many teenage-schoolgirls-being-blackmailed-by-their-birth-mother-into-stealing-their-own-baby-that-is-being-passed-off-as-your-sister's-child-over-the-fact-that-you-shot-the-baby's-father,-also-your-sister's-husband-at-their-wedding are there out there just waiting to phone in.

** Mercedes treated her husband like scum and repeatedly cheated on him, only to reconcile briefly before he performs a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to save her from an explosion. She is genuinely distraught over his senseless death, but fast-fowardforward a month later, she is now doing the vertical tango with both a father and son, has gotten engaged again... and doesn't seem to remember he ''even existed''.

* [[Alpha Bitch]]: Several over the years:

** Ruby Button is becoming this.

** Sinead O'Conner.

** Maddie Morrison.

* [[The Baby Trap]]: Mercedes pretends to be pregnant in order to get her footballer boyfriend to marry her.

** [[But I Can't Be Pregnant]]: And after a series of mishaps in which she almost gets found out, Mercedes learns that she is actually pregnant.

** [[Who's Your Daddy?]]: ... and she doesn't know whether the baby is Riley's, or if it's his father's.

* [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]]: Warren was supposedly killed in [[Running Gag|yet another fire]] at The Loft, but after he returned, an episode showed just how he managed to escape. [[Idiot Plot|Despite the body found was clearly identified as being Warren]].

** [[Narm]] [[Narm]] [[Narm|Naaaaarm]]!

* [[Big Eater]]: Brendan Brady is seen eating in so many of his appearances, it's reaching [[Running Gag]] status.

* [[Big Screwed-Up Family]]: The McQueens ''are'' this trope.

* [[Brainless Beauty]]: Carmel in ''spades''.

* [[British Accents]]: Hilariously, ''Hollyoaks'' tends to feature families who have different accents from one another.

** Jasmine/Jason Costello has a Cockney accent, but his twin brother Seth has a strong Yorkshire accent.

*** Possibly [[Justified Trope|justified]] because until recently, Jason was at a posh all girls school, away from the family. He could have picked the accent up there.

** Cheryl and Brendan both have Irish accents, but Brendan is from ROI, and Cheryl is from Northern Ireland.

*** Explained in show by the fact they had different mothers.

** This is actually fairly common for ''[[Holly OaksHollyoaks]]''. A character will receive a lot of focus for a week or so, then suddenly disappear while other storylines take over, with little to no explanation.

* [[Cassandra Truth]]: No-one will believe Lindsay about Silas being a murderer.

* [[Citizenship Marriage]]: Jacqui and Alek.

* [[Clingy Jealous Girl]]: Surprisingly, Ruby Button has had shades of this towards [[Les Yay|Sinead O'Conner]]. She gets spiteful when Sinead and [[Extreme Doormat|Esther]] are having fun together, and gets the latter into trouble over something that Ruby herself made her do.

** Leanne takes this to the extreme.

** Sinead herself is becoming this towards Bart and his friendship with Jason.

** Lee is perhaps a male version of this towards Amy.

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]] -: Carmel, the female version of Hiro Nakamura from ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' (well, in personality terms anyway, according to [[Fan Site|Fan Sites]]s).

* [[Crapsack World]]: Not as bad as [[Eastenders|other]] [[Coronation Street|soaps.]] But still fairly nasty. The death rate in Hollyoaks village alone would put people off moving there, especially since it seems to be young adults most of the time.

* [[Cruel and Unusual Death]]: Poor Sarah Barnes dies after her parachute failed to open. She's screaming as she plummets to the ground, and the camera only pulls away at the last minute. Makes matters worse by the fact it was her ex-girlfriend [[Psycho Lesbian|Lydia]] who tampered with it, even if it wasn't intended for Sarah. The circle of blood on the cornfield at the end just says it all.

** Alistair Longford, India and Texas' elderly grandfather, dies after falling off a mountain. Though given he was on holiday with his young wife [[Gold Digger|Cindy]] at the time, it's unsure of whether he just 'fell'..

** Tina McQueen dies in an explosion set off by her psychotic half brother Niall. Not only is she the lone member of the family to die, she was one of the two Myra reluctantly asked to be spared (Niall demanded she could only save two).

** Appears to be tragically true as Rae is murdered by Silas not long after her nineteenth birthday.

** Especially in universe; Josh and Rhys Ashworth are both attracted to Hayley, and Ruby has a crush on her Headmaster Pete.

* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: After a short lived relationship that she wasn't really into, Ruby Button decides to punish Ricky for dumping her by text by planting cannabis in his school bag. She goes one step further by getting Sinead to tell the Headmaster she had seen a knife at school, thus making sure everyone's bags were searched.

** Ruby strikes again when Nancy interrupts her study session with Pete; the headmaster she has an obvious crush on. Nancy was relying on a good reference from Pete to obtain her dream job, so Ruby steals his phone, and when the call comes, gives her a bad reference instead.

** Oh,The andtables are now Gilly,turned awith fatherSte figurebeing ofbeaten sortsby Brendan, though Amy is beingquite chargedsympathetic withtowards rapehim, and could potentially gotries to jailhelp.

** Silas shows shades of this when he's about to strangle Theresa. It's revealed that her baby daughter Angel is there, and Silas backs off, despite being able to easily overpower the child.

* [[Face Heel Turn]]: Over the course of a year, Sam Owen went from a withdrawn law student previously falsely imprisoned on charges of arson, to a serial date rapist, before coming full circle & setting [[My Local|The Dog In The Pond]] on fire; killing himself &and four others in the process.

* [[Faking the Dead]]: Jack, aided by Darren, as a desperate last measure to get out of the debt he was in.

* [[Funny Schizophrenia]]: Another criticism levelledleveled at the show.

** Esther Bloom is the only blond out of her trio of "friends", and she's a far kinder and sweeter person than the dark haired Ruby Button and Sinead O'Connor.

** Nicely averted with Hannah's friend Melissa, who was a long suffering anorexia sufferer. She didn't get better.

** The Costello family are massive culprits of this. To date Jason was hit by a car, Seth overdosed on steroids, and Heidi burned herself with scalding hot water, and they were all home within a couple of days.

* [[Hospital Hottie]]: Lynsey Nolan. Lampshaded when she was asked to appear on a student radio show as an agony aunt, and later on a live webcast in a 'hot' nurse outfit.

* [[It's All About Me]]: Mercedes McQueen in spades. Because we are supposed to feel sorry for her, despite the fact she learntlearned her lesson on how her actions affect others, when despite being unfaithful to him and treating him badly, Malachy still willingly sacrificed himself to save her from an explosion. Mercedes then promptly seemed to forget him, got engaged a month later and then cheated on her fiancee, Riley with his ''dad''. This is never indicated either to be a result of losing Malachy either, she seemingly just forgets him. When she has the baby and the truth of her infidelity to Riley comes out, she promptly complains that Riley is later wrong to show attraction to other women, despite the fact that ''she'' cheated on him and it was clearly ''her'' fault.

* [[It's a Wonderful Plot]]: The 2011 Christmas episode with [[The Woobie|Doug]] and [[Our Ghosts Are Different|Steph]].

* [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]: Jacqui McQueen comes across as a [[Alpha Bitch|total bitch]] most of the time, but she does have her moments of kindness. She's the only one to take in Lindsay when the rest of the village had turned against her, she also took in a stray dog, and she attempted to help the homeless Phoebe despite the girl stealing off her. Jacqui also stands up for her family and friends if they need it.

*** He goes one step further by making [[The Woobie|Seth]] think that he had murdered a prostitute, which made him try to commit suicide. All to get a single piece of information out of him.

** Gaz. He bullied Anita because of the colourcolor of her skin and threw paint over her and filmed it on his mobile to send around the school. He and Lauren drove her to the point of ''bleaching her skin'' so she could look like everyone else. He then continued to threaten her, along with chasing her into the woods to potentially hurt her more seriously. And now, he's back and apparently forgiven since Anita has [[Put on a Bus|left]].

** Lauren Valentine. She ruthlessly turned against Anita, her own best friend, because she dared to be friends with her boyfriend at the time, Newt. She not only teamed up with Gaz to bully her, she also made out that Anita was bulling ''her'', getting her into trouble, and turning Newt against her. Lauren finally comes clean, Newt clearly wants her to suffer for what she did, only for Anita to say that [[What an Idiot!|it's okay.]]

** Of the very worst (and arguably tasteless kind), it has emerged that Silas won't be tried let alone imprisoned for the murders he committed, merely institutionalisedinstitutionalized after being deemed clinically insane by the authorities.

* [[Kill Me Now or Forever Stay Your Hand]]: After Warren finds out that [[Woman Scorned|his fiancee Louise]] is planning to kill him, he hands her the intended murder weapon and tells her to go ahead if she ''really'' wants to. Louise actually ''does'' pull the trigger... only to find that Warren took the bullets out first. Naturally, he responds by killing her.

** Also Lydia Hart, who ended up killing Sarah Barnes. Lydia's obsession with her spiralledspiraled out of control when she realisedrealized she and Zoe had a spark between them still, even if the latter didn't want to follow it through, and an attempt to kill Zoe by tampering with her parachute, led to her actually killing Sarah when their parachutes were mixed up.

* [[Love Triangle]]: Several over the years:

** Lauren, Newt and Anita.

** Riley, Mercedes, Carl.

** Ethan, Theresa, Rae and Liberty.

* [[May-December Romance]]: Maddie seems to think that this is the case when it comes to Jono dating Ruby. ''They're only a year apart in age'', Ruby just happens to be in school still, and Jono is in the first year of Sixth Form.

** While it has been rectified since, The Food Commission complained in 2007 that, on average, 18% of the scenes in ''Hollyoaks'' showed a character drinking alcohol. The worry was that it would send the message to the younger viewers that it was normal to drink so much alcohol. In more recent times, it's rare to see someone even finishing a drink.

** There was a lot of fuss kicked up over Newt's attempted suicide storyline because the airing of it happened to coincide with the real life story of two teenage girls killing themselves in a very similar manner. Channel 4 defended themselves by stating that they couldn't pluck an episode directly out of a long running series, especially because the events leading up to and surrounding Newt's suicide attempt had been heavily promoted for weeks. They also mentioned that ''Hollyoaks'' has dealt with sensitive topics for a long time, and included a number at the end of the program for anyone who had been affected by the storyline.

** Loretta was supposed to have a dark secret about her killing a girl when she was younger, along with a friend, who's appearance in the village brings her dark history to light. Despite LorrettaLoretta, her friend, and the deceased girl being around twelve at the time, and all the same age, [[wikipedia:Jamie Bulger|Jamie Bulger's]] mother kicked up a fuss about it. While it's understandable that she would be upset, ''Hollyoaks'' is known for bringing such topics to light, and wouldn't have 'glamourised'"glamorized" what Loretta and her friend had done in the slightest. The storyline was poorly chopped out of the show, and [[Put on a Bus|Loretta left soon afterwards]].

** The 2012 Valentines trailer also counts; it implies Darren will have to choose between Nancy and Cindy. This never happens.

** Unfortunately played straight (pun not intended) with Ste - the moment he got with Brendan the show started calling him gay, despite his previous relationship with Amy.

** Becomes amusingly hypocritical considering at the end of every episode, the announcer offers the Channel 4 website to help people with their sexuality. One wonders if the ''Hollyoaks'' writers should perhaps consider ''reading'' it as well?

* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: Before she joined the show as [[Spell My Name with an "S"|Mitzeee]], Rachel Shenton was noted in various articles for her resemblance to Cheryl Cole. A recent episode lampshaded this by having Brendan disguising her as Cheryl to make ''Heat'' magazine think that Chez Chez was a hot spot for celebrities.

** Subverted with Warren Fox. Ash Roy tricked Warren's mentally handicapped foster brother Spencer into believing that Warren was still alive by texting him from Warren's mobile phone. Ash tried to convince Spencer that 'Warren' wanted him to sell The Loft to him.

*** Later played straight as Warren actually does return. He manages to survive the fire, and uses a random passer by to take the place of his body.

** Sinead and Finn O'Connor were abandoned by their birth mother Morag because she had extreme postnatal depression with Finn.

** Newt's version of Rae.

* [[Pimped-Out Dress]] / [[Fairytale Wedding Dress]]: Mercedes' gothic wedding dress that was used in the promotional trailers for her and Riley's wedding.

* [[Plucky Comic Relief]]: Several:

** Max and OB.

** Darren Osbourne.

** Duncan Button.

** Melody Langford turned up after her youngest daughter's body was found, causing [[Mood Whiplash|a severe moodwhiplashmood whiplash]] when she was played for comic relief in such a sombresomber storyline.

** Now that [[Product Placement]] is allowed on British Television, ''Hollyoaks'' has jumped on board. So far we've seen;:

*** Adidas .

*** Heat Magazine.

** '''Washed Up''', a laundrettelaunderette owned by Tony Hutchinson.

** '''Tan and Tumble''', Ash Roy bought Washed Up from Tony, and added the option to have a spray tan while you waited.

** '''Cincerity''', a clothing boutique ran by Cindy, that was previously Tan and Tumble.

** '''Il Gnosh''', an Italian restaurant owned (again) by Tony until it got burned down.

** '''Look Sharpe''', a day spa made from a renovated Il Gnosh. Also named for Tony's girlfriend at the time, Gabby Sharpe.

** '''Cinergy''', the above day spa was taken over by Cindy, and renamed.

** '''MOBS''' is a juice bar in the centre of the village that was originally ran by '''M'''ax and '''OB'''. While it was inherited by Steph Cunningham after Max died, she didn't change the name.

** '''Got It Taped''' was a video store that was owned by... Tony Hutchinson.

* [[Put on a Bus]]: Several. Literally, for some characters. Basically if they don't get killed off, they end up leaving the village for some reason or another.

** [[The Bus Came Back]]: This also happens a fair bit.

'''Darren''': They're mine. *[[Record Needle Scratch]]* }}

* [[Recurring Riff]]: ''Hollyoaks'' has a short guitar riff at the start and the end of an episode.

* [[Recycled Plot]]: The Loft has been set on fire so many times, it's approaching [[Running Gag]] status; The Dog In The Pond, Il Gnosh and Hollyoaks Community College have all been set on fire aswellas well. At some point, insurance companies are just going to stop providing the residents of Hollyoaks with insurance in the event of fire.

* [[Redemption Equals Death]]: Niall, realizing all he's done to hurt Steph, the woman he supposedly loves, steps off a cliff. (Unlike previous cliff drops on ''Hollyoaks'', this did actually kill him.)

* [[Revenge by Proxy]]: To get back at Myra for abandoning him as a child, Niall takes his rage out on various members of the McQueen family; including injecting Michaela with heroin, pushing a pregnant Tina down the stairs, attacking Nana, trying to break Carmel and Calvin up, and attempting to drug and kill John Paul. Eventually, he kidnaps the entire McQueen family and forces Myra to choose which two of her six children will be allowed to live.

** Which lead to John Paul &and Mercedes ''immediately'' [[Heroic Sacrifice|volunteering to die to save their siblings]]. However Jacqui (The eldest daughter) doesn't, which leads to her holding a grudge over her mother choosing Michaela (The youngest) & Tina (Who had a son of her own) to live, [[Completely Missing the Point]] that Myra had to choose, or they all would die, crying "[[It's All About Me|How could you pick me, I'm your baby!]]"

* [[Riding Into the Sunset]]: John Paul and Craig get a "Sunset Ending.".

* [[Rule of Three]]: Most ''Hollyoaks'' episodes start with three short scenarios, set to music, of three characters following a similar scenario. For example, it might show three of them waking up in different ways.

* [[Shipper on Deck]]: Poor Rae was [[Tear Jerker|a very tragic example of this]]. She had a [[Matchmaker Crush]] on Will, but wanted to be a good friend to Theresa. [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy|Knowing they both had feelings for one another but weren't getting anywhere]], she kept telling Theresa to give Will another chance, and gave Will a makeover to try and impress Theresa. She eventually succeeded in getting them together, but as noted above, it indirectly led to her murder, and Will and Theresa kissing is the last thing she sees before she dies.

* [[Soapland Christmas]]: Well, it ''is'' ''Hollyoaks'', after all.

* [[Spin-Off]]: There's been a series of late night spinoffsspin-offs that tend to contain more mature material than the regular series due to being aired post-watershed.

** ''Hollyoaks: Movin' On''.

** ''Hollyoaks: Let Loose''.

** ''Hollyoaks: In the City'' .

** ''Hollyoaks Later'' has had three mini series so far, each spanning five hour long episodes over a week.

* [[Split Personality]]: Newt/Eli.

** Newt also had a third 'personality' in the form of Rae. After not taking his medication and running away from home, Newt mugged an old lady, and saw a picture of her granddaughter in her handbag, who was Rae. Newt then 'saw' her as a goth, like him, and spent a couple of days with her. It ended up with Newt attempting suicide with her, only to be saved at the last minute. After being told Rae was a figment of his imagination, it was a shock for poor Newt when he met the real Rae, who was very different from how he had imagined.

* [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad]]: The McQueen family. One of their members is usually mixed up in one of the main storylines, and that tends to drag in the entire family.

* [[Standardized Sitcom Housing]]: While most characters' homes/accomodationaccommodation appears appropriately-sized, the McQueens' house presumably has a variable number of bedrooms/sleeping areas, apparently dependent upon which family members are forced to return to the nest.

** YMMV on this one. It's shown that several of the McQueens' girls are shown to share a room when they're back at home, up to three at a time.

** Also Theresa McQueen.

*** However, Amber has now [[Put on a Bus|left the show]] and there's been no word from her since.

** While not shown on screen, Myra McQueen was only fourteen when she gave birth to Niall. A year later she gave birth to Jacqui, and a only a year after that she gave birth to Mercedes.

** Tilly ends up trapped inside a cupboard while the college is on fire. She calls Maddie for help on her phone, but she's not picking up. So instead of calling the emergency services when smoke starts to come in under the door, Tilly instead decides to try and climb out of the very high window, and ends up knocking herself out. Take note that Tilly's supposed to be pretty intelligent.

* [[Victim of the Week]]: So far, every series of the spinoffspin-off ''Hollyoaks Later'' has had a member of the cast die.

** Series one had Niall Rafferty dying after falling off a cliff.

** Series two had Sarah Barnes dying after her on and off [[Psycho Lesbian|girlfriend Lydia]] tampered with her parachute.

** Series four had spoiler: Rae being strangled by Silas.

* [[Wholesome Crossdresser]]: Kris.

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[[Category:PagesSoap needing more categoriesOpera]]