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The ‘Greatest Hits’ episode seems to divide fans between those who love it, and those who hate it. I have to say, I thought it made me feel like I'd been cheated. Writers were credited at the end, but it must have been the easiest day's work they'd ever done - other than the seemingly endless flashbacks, the actual drama relating to current events in Wentworth must have added up to a few minutes. Yes, it was nice to see clips of old episodes, but I don't think it had the desired effect on me. For a start, the chosen clips just seemed to highlight how different the 'style' was of the earlier episodes. I'm not going to rant on about earlier episodes being 'better' because I don't think that's the case - there were things I liked about the early ones, just as there were different things I liked about later ones, each period having a different set of strengths and weaknesses.
No, the clips reminded me how much the very early episodes made use of atmosphere - for example, with the flashback of Franky calling for Doreen during the night, and the marvellous scene with Karen teaching Franky how to read. Of course, the biggest pleasure I got from the flashbacks was a good snigger at how young Meg once looked, how thin Doreen and Judy once, and Bea Smith's selection of hairdos over the years. And wasn't it great to see that sadly-missed Irene Nagle in the storm drain, grabbing hold of a joist and appearing to pull it with all her strength, causing the ceiling to collapse and kill her. Apparently Lou helped dig that tunnel, which I guess means she was there some time before the last war, as I believe the tunnel was part of some storm drains that were built before Wentworth DC was there.
I wondered if this 'filler' episode was supposed to act as a sort of buffer between one period and the next. There has just been a huge clear-out of characters - Judy, Marlene, Matt, Frank, Geoff, Anita, and several lesser characters (Marlene's parents, etc), and we're about to receive a whole group of new characters in one go. So this episode could have been used to make the clean break. All it did was remind me of when I used to watch the Golden Girls, and every so often they'd have a "remember the time when.." episode, featuring a collection of recycled clips with a thin excuse for plot stringing them all together, as if the writers couldn't come up with any new material on that day, or were trying to pad out the series a bit.
Anyway, back to the bits that weren't recycled in the Prisoner episode. It started with another weird camera angle of Myra's cell, taken from above ceiling height, and another shot which revealed something just outside and above her cell door. Could have been a P.A. speaker, but as they don't use a P.A. system it would seem unlikely. It could have been a studio light, I wondered, especially when you look at the light/shadow on the corridor wall opposite. Hmm, strange.
Another interesting camera angle was when Myra was at her cell sink, as Lexie and Dennis talked in the background, and were reflected in the mirror.
Not sure where all the new background music was coming from. When Anita was in the laundry, we were subjected to some truly awful flute music, and when she talked to Myra in the corridor afterwards, the dialogue was bathed in some over-dramatic epic type music.
Nice touch of irony, when Anita went to visit Joan in hospital (strange how she got to know all the details of where Joan was, and why, and so on - surely confidential information that would not be given out to inmates?) when she said "Does your job really mean that much to you?" An interesting comment coming from her, after her devotion to the Church, it being her life, etc. A parallel with Joan I suppose.
More alarming than Meg phoning Joan from the staff room and getting no answer, was the enormous telephone receiver she used, which seemed to come half way down her chest as she put it to her ear. (Either that, or she had eaten some magic "Eat me" biscuits and shrunk a bit.) Perhaps that's why, when she was using it to ring Joan's phone, the ringing could be heard all round the room so loudly.
Thank god for Joycie this episode, bringing a bit of familiarity to this otherwise out-of-character episode, with her confusion over Norm/Merv. And especially for her classic 'gasp' face when Mervin grabbed her hand in the kitchen.
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