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decency, compassion. Neighbours resembles the down-home, wholesome populism of a Frank Capra comedy except that its suburban protagonists are saved the trouble of traveling to and from a big city to discover their true values. 8 Differences are resolved, dissolved, or repressed The characters are “almost compulsively articulate about problems and feelings” (Tyrer 1987). Crises are solved quickly, usually amicably. Conflict is thus managed almost psychotherapeutically by and within the inner circle of family, and the outer circle of Ramsay Street. Witness the episode broadcast on April 23, 1992 in Australia: after fire destroys much of Gaby’s clothes boutique, three female neighbors remake the lost stock, while three male neighbors clear up the debris from the shop. As the theme song has it: “Neighbours should be there for one another.” Incursions of conflict from the social world beyond these charmed circles are treated tokenistically or spirited away. The program blurs or represses differences of gender politics, sexual preference, age, and ethnicity. Domestic violence and homosexuality, male or female, are unknown. Age differences are subsumed within family love and tolerance. Aboriginal characters manage a two-episode plot line at most (Craven 1989: 18), and Greeks, despite the real Melbourne being the third largest Greek city in the world, figure rarely. Neighbours-watchers could likewise be forgiven for not knowing that Melbourne has the largest Jewish community in Australia. The program elides questions of disability, alcoholism, or religious difference. It displaces drug addiction on to a friend outside immediate family circles (Cousin 1992). Unemployment as a social issue is subordinated to the humanist characterization of Brad, for instance, as dopey, happy-go-lucky surfie. Neighbours counterposes suburban escapism to the high-gloss escapism of Santa Barbara. 9 Depoliticized middle-class citizenship These “cosy parish pump narratives,” as Ian Craven calls them, depoliticize the everyday (Craven 1989: 21). Such good middle-class suburban citizenship is roundly condemned by no less than Germaine Greer: The world of Neighbours is the world of the detergent commercial; everything from the kitchen worktops to the S-bend is squeaky clean. Everyone’s hair and underwear is freshly laundered. No one is shabby or eccentric; no one is poor or any colour but white. Neighbours is the Australian version of the American dream, owner-occupied, White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant paradise. (Greer 1989) In this blithely comfortable middle-class ethos, the characters seem never to have problems with mortgage repayments. Commenting on the opening episodes of Neighbours, a British critic underlines its property-owning values:
DOI link for decency, compassion. Neighbours resembles the down-home, wholesome populism of a Frank Capra comedy except that its suburban protagonists are saved the trouble of traveling to and from a big city to discover their true values. 8 Differences are resolved, dissolved, or repressed The characters are “almost compulsively articulate about problems and feelings” (Tyrer 1987). Crises are solved quickly, usually amicably. Conflict is thus managed almost psychotherapeutically by and within the inner circle of family, and the outer circle of Ramsay Street. Witness the episode broadcast on April 23, 1992 in Australia: after fire destroys much of Gaby’s clothes boutique, three female neighbors remake the lost stock, while three male neighbors clear up the debris from the shop. As the theme song has it: “Neighbours should be there for one another.” Incursions of conflict from the social world beyond these charmed circles are treated tokenistically or spirited away. The program blurs or represses differences of gender politics, sexual preference, age, and ethnicity. Domestic violence and homosexuality, male or female, are unknown. Age differences are subsumed within family love and tolerance. Aboriginal characters manage a two-episode plot line at most (Craven 1989: 18), and Greeks, despite the real Melbourne being the third largest Greek city in the world, figure rarely. Neighbours-watchers could likewise be forgiven for not knowing that Melbourne has the largest Jewish community in Australia. The program elides questions of disability, alcoholism, or religious difference. It displaces drug addiction on to a friend outside immediate family circles (Cousin 1992). Unemployment as a social issue is subordinated to the humanist characterization of Brad, for instance, as dopey, happy-go-lucky surfie. Neighbours counterposes suburban escapism to the high-gloss escapism of Santa Barbara. 9 Depoliticized middle-class citizenship These “cosy parish pump narratives,” as Ian Craven calls them, depoliticize the everyday (Craven 1989: 21). Such good middle-class suburban citizenship is roundly condemned by no less than Germaine Greer: The world of Neighbours is the world of the detergent commercial; everything from the kitchen worktops to the S-bend is squeaky clean. Everyone’s hair and underwear is freshly laundered. No one is shabby or eccentric; no one is poor or any colour but white. Neighbours is the Australian version of the American dream, owner-occupied, White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant paradise. (Greer 1989) In this blithely comfortable middle-class ethos, the characters seem never to have problems with mortgage repayments. Commenting on the opening episodes of Neighbours, a British critic underlines its property-owning values:
decency, compassion. Neighbours resembles the down-home, wholesome populism of a Frank Capra comedy except that its suburban protagonists are saved the trouble of traveling to and from a big city to discover their true values. 8 Differences are resolved, dissolved, or repressed The characters are “almost compulsively articulate about problems and feelings” (Tyrer 1987). Crises are solved quickly, usually amicably. Conflict is thus managed almost psychotherapeutically by and within the inner circle of family, and the outer circle of Ramsay Street. Witness the episode broadcast on April 23, 1992 in Australia: after fire destroys much of Gaby’s clothes boutique, three female neighbors remake the lost stock, while three male neighbors clear up the debris from the shop. As the theme song has it: “Neighbours should be there for one another.” Incursions of conflict from the social world beyond these charmed circles are treated tokenistically or spirited away. The program blurs or represses differences of gender politics, sexual preference, age, and ethnicity. Domestic violence and homosexuality, male or female, are unknown. Age differences are subsumed within family love and tolerance. Aboriginal characters manage a two-episode plot line at most (Craven 1989: 18), and Greeks, despite the real Melbourne being the third largest Greek city in the world, figure rarely. Neighbours-watchers could likewise be forgiven for not knowing that Melbourne has the largest Jewish community in Australia. The program elides questions of disability, alcoholism, or religious difference. It displaces drug addiction on to a friend outside immediate family circles (Cousin 1992). Unemployment as a social issue is subordinated to the humanist characterization of Brad, for instance, as dopey, happy-go-lucky surfie. Neighbours counterposes suburban escapism to the high-gloss escapism of Santa Barbara. 9 Depoliticized middle-class citizenship These “cosy parish pump narratives,” as Ian Craven calls them, depoliticize the everyday (Craven 1989: 21). Such good middle-class suburban citizenship is roundly condemned by no less than Germaine Greer: The world of Neighbours is the world of the detergent commercial; everything from the kitchen worktops to the S-bend is squeaky clean. Everyone’s hair and underwear is freshly laundered. No one is shabby or eccentric; no one is poor or any colour but white. Neighbours is the Australian version of the American dream, owner-occupied, White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant paradise. (Greer 1989) In this blithely comfortable middle-class ethos, the characters seem never to have problems with mortgage repayments. Commenting on the opening episodes of Neighbours, a British critic underlines its property-owning values:
ABSTRACT
GLOBAL NEIGHBOURS?