Shortland Street returns for 2023: New cameras, old faces, and no hospital?

When Shortland Street was last on our screens, you could have easily thought they were gearing the show up for the end. A wildfire, innocuously started by former receptionist Waverley, was in the middle of consuming Ferndale, and the hour long finale in 2022 saw Shortland Street Hospital engulfed in flames as most of the cast watched on in horror.

It was a truly epic moment, and one of the boldest things the long-running soap has done in its 30 year history. Yet, soap-opera convention dictates that the summer finale rarely has long-lasting consequences. Sure, bodies may need to be buried, and killers may still need to be caught, but the impact of the finale is usually felt only briefly before new storylines and characters take over.

Not this time. For anyone who thought Shortland Street would return with a shining new hospital and some new problems to deal with, you are going to have to wait. Five weeks may have passed since the wildfire left its mark, but the aftermath is here to stay.

The opening shot of the episode makes that abundantly clear. A grim warning caption of “Five weeks later”, which has very Avengers: Endgame vibes, cuts to Dr Chris Warner, the last remaining original character, surveying a still boarded-up Shortland Street. As Antonia Prebble’s mysterious millionaire televangelist Rebekah Anderson delivers a sermon on the fires, we see that many of our surviving characters are now scattered across Ferndale’s remaining hospitals - “poor people’s hospital” Central, and the glossy private hospital that looks remarkably like one of AUT’s building, St Catherines.

These oft-mentioned but never seen locations highlight the gaping hole Shortland Street has left in Ferndale. Central is understaffed and overworked, with Jack, Dawn and Esther under the pump, while St Catherines, where Cece, Madonna, Marty and Gia have ended up, is running out of “goodwill” for the wildfire victims and looking to get back to its priorities.

Antonia Prebble is back as the mysterious Brightshine leader, Rebekah Anderson. Photo / Shortland Street

The new locations allows for a handful of cameos from old favourites - Kate Hannah is back at Central, while Brooke Freeman returns in her semi-villain role at St Catherines (as a Brooke stan and defender from back in the day, this was easily the highlight for me). Chris’ daughter Sass is also there to help her dad, as Chris and Monique battle to get Shortland Street reopened - it may have only been five weeks, but in the alternate reality Ferndale clearly exists it, that’s more than enough time to entirely rebuild a hospital.

It’s a job that has seemingly fallen on Chris to sort, despite no longer being CEO, as TK has been suspended for keeping the hospital open rather than evacuating during the fires. He’s also battling cancer still, and has more worries after daughter Tillie is injured in a car crash after fleeing a ram raid in a belatedly topical storyline.

The cameos are a welcome sight, something that was rather absent during the 30th-anniversary celebrations last year, and adds to the episode’s reboot feel. There’s a different look to this episode, in keeping with the dramatic feel of last week’s finale, which looks less Neighbours-like with its missing fourth wall, and leans more towards the more polished Home and Away style. This episode feels like a completely different show, and it’s a testament to the work of Oliver Driver and his fellow producers, writers and directors for finding a way to make Shortland Street feel fresh again after 30 years.

Michael Galvin returns as Dr Chris Warner. Photo / Supplied

What’s more reassuring is that they seem committed to these changes for the foreseeable future. Chris remains convinced during the episode that a reopening will be right around the corner, but David Kearney tells him at the end that the funds to rebuild the hospital are going to the remaining hospitals. The position of the officials is clear: Shortland Street is done for.

Even a Zoom-cameo from Craig Parker as Guy Warner doesn’t change things, reluctant to let Chris use their trust fund to rebuild the hospital. It falls on Rebekah Anderson - who we see during the episode holds some trauma after murdering youth pastor Scott in the finale last year - to come in as the hospital’s potential saviour, telling Chris it will reopen if he agrees to work with her.

“You just have to trust me,” she says, before the episode cuts to show Maeve sitting in a prison cell in a shock development since the finale. Her crime is not immediately clear, but given she did attack Scott, perhaps she has coped the blame for his death while Rebekah walks free?

It’s one of several questions left unanswered here, and I am more than thankful for that. We don’t yet know what happened to Harper after she fled during the fire, and we see Nicole and Rahu working at a hastily repaired IV Bar rather than at either of the hospitals. Plus, Madonna is dealing with her alive but horribly burned ex Mark, who doesn’t remember the crimes he committed or the revenge Madonna unintentionally enacted upon him. Not all the storylines have a neat little bow to them, an incredible rarity that raises interest in where exactly the show is going to go next.

For now, all we know is that the potentially dodgy Brightshine will be the likely saviour of Shortland Street, but it could be a deal with the devil given the unanswered questions around the group, but it’s just one point of interest from this welcome return from our long-running soap. Now in its 31st year, the changes left behind by the fire feel bigger than the blaze itself, and it will be fascinating to see what new show fully emerges from the ashes over the next few weeks.