So I've spoken fairly regularly about how my viewing patterns when it comes to Neighbours and Home & Away are fairly sporadic.

That is, after all, the beauty of soap operas - you can tune in once in a week, month, year, or even decade, and still have a reasonably good idea of what's going on.

And, generally, I've always known that it's wiser to switch to Seven than Ten if I want a soap fix: there's always something happening in Summer Bay - AIDS-afflicted love rats, cancer-stricken cops, murderers and con-artists on the loose - whereas Erinsborough might as well put in to be the host city of the next International Paint Drying Games.

However, it seems my stance is out of date.

This past few weeks I've happened to catch snippets of Neighbours while waiting for MasterChef and had to do a double take.

Since when did Neighbours get all arty 'n' shit?

It all started when we stumbled upon Steph and Toadie's sham wedding during a bout of channel surfing. (Steph's having Dan's baby and Toadie's still in love with Sonya, OMG.)

As Steph was walking down the aisle, suddenly flashes of black-and-white, groovy-angled "memories" started to flood the screen.



"Oh my god!" I yelled, "She's going to die at her wedding!"

Not so, as it turned out - it's just part of the newfangled Ramsay Street.

Remember the days when people on Neighbours used to use a home phone to call each other? Or a hilariously fake SMS?

Well, this week, in the episode where shady business partner Diana "forced" Paul Robinson to root her at Lassiters because... I don't know, really - anyway, in that episode, she was using an internet video conferencing client to talk to her boss/partner/something overseas.

Check out the technology!



And check out the blue screen in the background!!



Remind you of anything? Yes, me too:



Anyway, the portal to Zuul wasn't the only wacky thing about the episode; there were "interesting" angles and shots all over the place.

What about the moment when Paul looked at his sorry reflection in the mirror to ponder what he'd become? And then Diana started to make it clear she was blackmailing him?

Well, why use a plain old 'two people talking to each other' shot when you can shoot it from over his shoulder into the mirror!



EDGY.

I for one applaud Neighbours for getting a bit crazy with the Cheez Wiz - after all, soaps are traditionally the realm of the dull two-shot and pedestrian transition.

Once upon a time just a simple close-up would have been enough to have editors shouting "Slow down there, egghead!"; now it seems anything goes.

If someone at Ramsay Street HQ can ensure a few star wipes and some Super-8 film effects, I'd be ever so pleased. From here, all we need is for Paul Robinson to take a trip into the Lassiters gardens for a bout of midnight self-exploration only to run into this dude:



Think about it. It's got Logies written all over it. You can thank me in your speeches.