Reviews: 7de Laan (12 July - 31 July)
At this point, baby Aubrey is alive and suffering through his illness and as the storyline climaxes, tensions runs high in the Beukes household. Every cloud has a silver lining, and though I would say Aubrey’s sickness may have the key to bringing Neville and Charmaine closer, it seems quite apparent when Neville is worried about poor Charmaine. However the devil who wears a red dress, too much make up and a sweet and sour perfume- just like her personality; the women we love to hate, Daleen Meinjties blows back like a hurricane into Hillside for Xander’s special ceremony and though her stay on the Laan was a few days and a very brief visit (Denise Newman can be seen on SABC 3 soap Isidingo), she still managed to cause some havoc, butt heads with Felicity, be the bitch that she’s destined to be and come between Neville and Charmaine, even though there was nothing to come between. Aubrey’s illness starts become dramatic and the reality that nothing can save him soon sets in, a sad but very scary reality.
Dezi continues to feel isolated and growing further and further away from Jan-Hendrik, which I personally feel doesn’t deserve a loving and beautiful wife such as Jan-Hendrik.
Marko and Aggie continue working head to head trying to expand their business- Aggies Cleaning Service and make it more effective whilst Paula is busy trying to win Altus back, however he doesn’t, from appearances seem like he wants her back, but we know deep down these two yearn for each other.
Sadness reaches high points in the Beukes household when Aubrey’s discharge is continuously delayed due to complications and while Vanessa and Charmaine put on brave faces, they are most certainly approaching their darkest hour.
One of the pleasant things about 7de Laan is the ability to have a diverse range of characters and storylines. A light and comic storyline that is emerging is the feud between Matron (Netta Nortjie) vs. Hilda (Juffrow De Kock) to win the prestigious title of the Dazzling Dame Competition. And as witty and as devious as she is, she sure plays bad with a comic twist; Matron manages to twist Mandla’s arm for some pro-publicity towards her that will count in her favour, but Hilda takes notice and it war.
Back to the Beukes household, an important day beholds them when neither Charmaine and Vanessa can be reached. Felicity then gets some tragic news from the clinic and before she can utter a word, the ending credits roll on Friday the 14 July.
Come Monday (July 17), we pick up in the same place we left off on Friday. Felicity breaks the news about Aubrey’s death to Charmaine and Vanessa. And though I must admit that their initial reactions where not as I expected. I expected dramatic acting, intense crying and some emotional exaggerated behaviour. Well I guess the lack of emotion may be related to the shock of Aubrey’s death or the shock that (they will soon find out) that one of them murdered Aubrey, well at least switched the machines off for 5 minutes!
The diversity continues, as while the rest of the Laan and Charmaine and Vanessa mourn baby Aubrey’s death, Paula has Aggie slaving away to help her get her job, while Aggie does all the hard manual labour, Paula feels that her presence and looks there contribute equally—someone please hit this girl with a nail file.
Dezi realises that the decision to undergo the operation will be a decision she will make alone as she is on her own. However the hope that the operation will be a success motivates Dezi to undergoing it. I for one am ABSOLUTLY GLAD that Dezi did this Op and can finally see again. I was getting worried about her and her blindness.
While in 7de Laan the cast is woven between each other and everybody knows everybodys business, they are so close and all, please will someone tell me how on earth did Neville only find out about Aubrey’s death hours before his funeral? Does this man not have friends or family? Is he such a loner? I was a bit worried about that, but luckily he went to see Charmaine, explained it all and said his condolences. I would have loved to see Neville properly comforting Charmaine and getting close to her. Even if he sat next to her during the funeral and held her next to him as she cried her sorrows and pain of loosing Aubrey (and possibly murdering Aubrey!). A few days after Aubrey’s death the nurse whose name is Nurse Bettie (don’t laugh, because I for one did when I heard this) decided to clean ‘Aubrey’s ward’ and comes across some information which tells her that the machines where switched off for 5 minutes and that Aubrey was killed. This leads her to speaking to the police and the next thing you know a Detective played by Isidingo and eTV’s S.O.S Morne Visser investigates Charmaine as the prime suspect in Aubrey’s death.
Things don’t feel right and add up when shortly a day after Aubrey’s funeral Grandpa Stefan (played by Cedwyn Joel who will be famously known for as Sonny on SABC 1’s Generations) packs his backs and heads back to Seattle. Bear in mind that he does this two or three days after Aubrey’s announced dead. Did he just on the spur of the moment book a ticket or was this planned. I am hinting at the fact that he too is a suspect for all slow readers. No one of course questions this and says Goodbye and Thanks. Come back again. Well at least the man had a heart and sorted out the hospital bills. How kind of him. I can imagine Cedwyn will be filming the third series of Known Gods (wait, did M-Net renew this show!?)
Karien is asked by Aggie and Marko to design some T-Shirts for Aggie’s Cleaning Services that will be used as publicity. However Karien feels like the third wheel in emerging fights between Marko and Aggie. I love the chemistry (acting wise) between Marko and Aggie. You will see many disagreements and arguments between the two, but they soon come around it and it’s quite funny.
Feeling left out of the storyline, the writers decided to make Madel have an interest in Dezi and her son’s marriage and thus let her show concern about their relationship. Why doesn’t she just worry when is Sandra coming back to claim revenge on her.
Charmaine is held overnight for questioning and being the passive and loving person, she agrees without even a word trying to stand up for herself. She isolates Neville further, I can imagine this is because of this Daleen thing, when he offers help and assistance. Now don’t be stupid Charmaine, Notegal or whatever the ‘to be spoken about and never seen’ lawyer’s name is, is apparently ‘one of the best in South Africa’ and yet he resides and operates business in Hillside! So definitely he is going to charge an arm, a leg and half of Oppiekoffie for the lawyer’s fee- get Neville to help out! But this isn’t in Charmaine’s personality. Remember when she insisted on paying for the cottage?
Matron’s devious exercise program makes the Hillside Time’s Front Page. So obviously nothing interesting and newsworthy is happening in Hillside?! Get with the times journalists! And in an attempt to fire a lethal weapon right back, innocently but very funnily, however with the best intentions, Hilda decides to cook for a Soup Kitchen and being Hilda goes the extra mile and does something’s funky with her recipe and it goes wrong. The poor even reject her soup and it gets wasted- Arme Hilda!
The night before her eye operation Dezi warms up to Madel and Madel finally says something good and nice to Dezi and shows the human side of her (that is Madel). Dezi expresses her fear and doubts in the operation, but Madel gently tells her that she has her support and blessing and Dezi know, more than ever believes in it again. Finally she has the eye operation and just as their removing the bandages to see whether or not it’s successful, that so called “husband” of hers phone rings and her leaves to room to take the call. What a slap in the face to Dezi and it just shows how much his marriage means to him. The doctors remove the bandages and we hold breath hoping that poor Dezi will once again see, she has gone through so much, she deserves it! We hold our breathe and the Dezi smiles and tells the doctor she can see and as her vision clears up from the blur it is, Dezi thinks she sees Theuns (an ex flame) but it turns out to be a doctor. This is not a good sign for Jan Hendrik and Dezi’s marriage, infact a bad omen!
Charmaine’s arrest puts a strain on her relationship with Vanessa and she becomes worried about her. While Altus looses faith in love and doubts he’ll get a dream girl, Paula gets some bad news.
Xander doing the good thing, realises that he still has feelings towards Felicity and decides it is unfair of him to string Shandré along just to show off with, so gently ends things with her. Matron’s exercise demonstration goes haywire in a hilarious and embarrassing was when Vince derails it claiming that the ‘supposed to be safe that even Old people use it’, it deadly as it causes Vince pain and Mandla’s right there snapping away the horror on Matron’s face as she sees this!
Carlos, not warped up in his problems, hears that Dezi has gone away without Jan Hendrik and realises that the two have some problems. After the whole Sandra drama, Inge expresses her concerns about the Boutique’s finance to Carlos.
As in any small town and community there will be conflicts of interests, but in 7de Laan, people start speculating about Charmaine’s innocence.
Xander’s feelings towards Felicity grow strong again as he shows real love for her as he aches to be there and comfort her when she needs comforting. Paula decides to move past her “Alus Phase” and find another boyfriend- but this is harder than she thinks. First all the guys on her phonebook don’t remember her (which is ludicrous, because who can forget Paula van der Leuq?!)
Because Carlos cannot make a Boutique Finance meeting, which is more like a date, Jan Hendrik decides to do the meeting alone with Inge and the two, whom I’ve never seen together actually before, enjoy each other’s company- and this spells trouble for Jan Hendrik and Dezi’s marriage and Dezi and Inge’s friendship. While Inge and Jan Hendrik enjoy each other’s company up the road, or so I would like to think, the opposite is happening in the Beukes household as Charmaine and Vanessa argue.
Altus makes a plan of his own to find himself a girlfriend and Aggie has big plans for Aggie’s Cleaning Services but forgets to notify Marko of them. The war for the Vonkelvrou Competition worsens as Hilda, armed with Paula as her manager has some tricks up her sleeve which upset’s Matron. Karien set’s Paula on a blind date which doesn’t go all as expected to go when the man cannot get over his ex and this makes Paula further believe that she has a non-existent love life!
It’s already starting. Jan Hendrik was supposed to join Dezi for the weekend at the Guest House, but the Boutique’s finances come in the way of that. This would have not have happened is Jan Hendrik and Inge hadn’t put the work off on the first night in the first place.
Charmaine discovers some shocking information about Vanessa that could result in her being a suspect too, but being a mother she feels the need to protect her child from anything- even if it means Pleading Guilty to the Murder of Aubrey Beukes!