The Covid era of Neighbours and What Could Have Been

So, last Tuesday marked five years since filming on Neighbours was suspended due to the covid-19 pandemic. Thankfully, unlike a lt of other soaps, they didn't reduce the number of episodes shown per week, though for a couple of weeks in the UK, Channel 5 reduced the number of episodes from 5 to 2 per week, meaning we were no longer in sync with Australia. Thankfully, filming resumed in May with safety restrictions that would be adopted for TV shows all over the world.

But sadly, a lot of stuff had to be changed or scrapped all together: Susan and Karl were meant to go to Northern Ireland; a mystery character was meant to return; MacKenzie and Jay were supposed to get into a romantic relationship before Shane and Dipi left, and of course most infamously, I think, the forced recasting of Pierce. This bit's just guess work, but going by the fact they nearly got to Christmas Day before taking a break, I'm assuming the multi-year deal to do the show all year round was screwed up.

Other effects were the loss of the Friday episode in 2021 due to them wanting to get back in sync with the UK and fun fact: it's been confirmed that there were meant to be more returning characters, but this couldn't be done due to Covid.

But what did you guys all think of the episodes during the Covid era? Do you feel the safety restrictions hindered the show and any storylines we did get outside of the Susan and Karl thing? And do you feel the pandemic has negatively effected the show and its budget.