Are the current producers ruining Home and Away?

[Gerard]

I do occasionally dip in to a scene and find nothing has changed, the show is very cold and heartless. One dimensional characters like Maddie, Phoebe, Billie and Ash dominating the show. I tend to switch over after a minute.

I agree, that's exactly how it feels at the moment, cold and heartless. H&A looks great at a superficial level. The interior sets are well lit, and the exterior shots are saturated as far as they'd dare. Likewise some of the storylines are hyped up as exciting - "The Bay will never be the same again" etc. but you don't have to dig very deep to find there isn't much substance below.

Apart from maybe John and Marilyn, I don't think there is a relationship you can really believe in, maybe Leah and Zac, but that's it. Many of the new characters feel like carbon copies of each other, and they are just thrown into random relationships as soon as they unpack their suitcase. We never really learn about their backstory, until inevitably some family member or ex-partner arrives with some hidden agenda of revenge for something that has never been mentioned before, then they disappear after their 2 week guest stint, then it's all forgotten within a week.

H&A used to ooze romance, charm, sentimentality and nostalgia. Hopefully some day, it will again.

[TelephotoMarigold]

Marilyn and John is one of the reasons I don't watch.    To me it feels as though they killed of Gina just to hook up this pairing.  

[dee123]

Marilyn and John is one of the reasons I don't watch.    To me it feels as though they killed of Gina just to hook up this pairing.  

Sonia Todd wanted to leave.

[TelephotoMarigold]

Marilyn and John is one of the reasons I don't watch.    To me it feels as though they killed of Gina just to hook up this pairing.  

Sonia Todd wanted to leave.

Didn't say she didn't want to leave. I just expressed what the pairing of John and Marilyn felt like to me. 

[emmasi]

They seriously need to overhaul the actor contracts so that character interactions can be consistent and make SENSE. It's painfully obvious that the actors have a quota of episodes per week they are contracted to appear in, no more, no less, and it completely cripples any chance for realistic continuity. One day we have a chaotic overcrowded house and the next day its a ghost town because "everyone must still be in bed"... Seriously?? I don't know when this started but it's been irritating me since 2005. Surely it's time to overhaul the system so that I don't constantly forget who is supposed to be related/best friends/living in the same house because the actors' contracted episodes don't happen to line up for weeks at a time.

[dee123]

Marilyn and John is one of the reasons I don't watch.    To me it feels as though they killed of Gina just to hook up this pairing.  

Sonia Todd wanted to leave.

Didn't say she didn't want to leave. I just expressed what the pairing of John and Marilyn felt like to me. 

Ah. Understood.

[joany208121]

They seriously need to overhaul the actor contracts so that character interactions can be consistent and make SENSE. It's painfully obvious that the actors have a quota of episodes per week they are contracted to appear in, no more, no less, and it completely cripples any chance for realistic continuity. One day we have a chaotic overcrowded house and the next day its a ghost town because "everyone must still be in bed"... Seriously?? I don't know when this started but it's been irritating me since 2005. Surely it's time to overhaul the system so that I don't constantly forget who is supposed to be related/best friends/living in the same house because the actors' contracted episodes don't happen to line up for weeks at a time.

So true!!! We also so desperately need a sense of connectedness, where everyone knew everyone and not everyone was a ring-in. 

 

Look at any previous year and almost everyone knew everyone within the first week of a new character, the whole bay knew them. Now nobody knows anyone and its really awkward when you have events with characters interacting for the first time, when they have never seen each other before (take the hospital bomb finale, and ricky/irene)

[cadyctslover]

I actually thought it was quite realistic when Denny had been living in the bay for just a few weeks and Casey had never run into her. Someone mentioned her name and he said, 'Denny? Who's Denny?' or something along those lines. Then their relationship went into overdrive, and after what seemed to be a few more weeks they were engaged . That wasn't realistic.

However, Summer Bay should be written as a place which is so small that you can't help but run into new residents shortly after their arrival.

[Red Ranger 1]

As I recall, Denny had actually been living in the Bay several months, so I found the fact that she and Casey had never met very unlikely.(And then she says she never met Tamara, even though we saw them in the same room...)Even more unlikely was Brax not knowing Matt, even though when Matt first appeared he was already familiar with Heath and Casey from Mangrove River.There are times when the characters not knowing each other thing works but there are other times when it stretches credibility to breaking point.

[Homeandawayfan.]

Neighbours is not innocent of moving away from its original basis though, the show is more about Lassiters and Penthouse Du Paul than Ramsay Street and the show relies on guest characters who are criminals. It retains the warm feel that H&A used to have though. I do remain positive about H&A and while it has a long way to go I feel I could be a regular viewer again by 2016. I stick by H&A's side. Just bring in a few more LGBT characters and a Asian character.