‘Neighbours’: is Karl Kennedy’s poop storyline genius or just bizarre?

‘Neighbours’ has had its fair share of bizarre storylines over the years but its latest, involving Karl Kennedy (Alan Fletcher), is just totally bonkers.

In recent weeks viewers have seen Karl on a fitness kick as he prepares to be the face of Terese’s (Rebekah Elmaloglou) new retirement community Eirini Rising. Regularly seen drinking kale smoothies, which even Holly (Lucinda Armstrong Hall) passed on when offered one, Karl has been struggling with his guts.

During a bike ride with Melanie (Lucinda Cowden), Karl had to jump off his bike and void his bowels in someone’s garden. Episodes later, Karl told Melanie to carry on without him after claiming he was having bike trouble. Viewers saw him once again dash into some bushes, seemingly voiding his bowels once again.

As if the storyline wasn’t already completely bizarre, things took a turn when Melanie was chatting to Wendy (Candice Leask). The two friends were innocently chatting when Wendy asked Melanie if she’d heard about the neighbourhood pooper (apparently there’s a map of all the places people have found poop!). As the conversation went on, it dawned on Melanie that maybe Karl was the mystery pooper.

A preview for this week shows Karl and Melanie arguing about the pooper, just as Susan (Jackie Woodburne) finally returns home. Is Karl really the serial neighbourhood pooper or is there something else going on?

Well, the storyline has fans completely divided. Some are saying that the writers have totally lost the plot, while others are enjoying the light relief (no pun intended) of the storyline at a time when there is a lot of heavy stuff going on.

Where do we stand? Honestly, we’ve been enjoying the random silliness of the whole thing. It’s allowing Alan Fletcher to flex his comedy muscles as Karl and it’s reminding us why we all love Lucinda Cowden’s Melanie, who’s had a rough ride since the show returned.

While there are plenty of storylines right now that we’d be more than happy for the show to resolve, this is one we’re actually hoping continues for a bit.

‘Neighbours’ airs Monday to Thursday on Amazon Freevee.