Are the current producers ruining Home and Away?

[Luke39]

Yes,loved the Walkers. Still miss indi lol. I thunk the show needs a new family. Sutherlands etc. Thats my opinion. Miss April too. 

[Red Ranger 1]

I agree that actors cast for their looks is nothing new.I also agree that crimes and violence are nothing new.The problem is that, as Lynd indicated above, once upon a time the violent criminals were visitors and the storyline would end with them being dead or locked up.Nowadays, they're the main characters and their actions are portrayed as having no consequences.It's getting to the point where the "ordinary" people are outnumbered and also have to develop wilful blindness and dodgy moral compasses in order to accept people that ten or twenty years earlier they'd have driven out of town as part of the community.Attempted murder gets a slap on the wrist, murder gets nothing at all.Someone like Hunter is treated the same as Shane, Jack or Ric, someone who's a bit naughty and in need of guidance, when he should be like Dodge, the person they took into their home and family only to discover that he's a criminal who's destroyed lives.

At the risk of being a broken record re Olivia, I've always said that if you bring a character back you should bring the character back, not bring in some generic boy-obsessed teen who happens to have the same name, and in this case is played by a new actress so you haven't even got a connection to them on that level.I'm well aware that people who weren't watching in 2005, and maybe some who were, don't care if it's faithful to the storyline then, but that just underlines that it's a pointless exercise.I never wanted Olivia to come back because her storyline was over and bringing her back would just mess it up, as it has.Those who were in favour of it dreamed of another showdown between Irene and Diana but that's obviously not going to happen: Unless it's happened at Oz pace, Diana hasn't been mentioned once, when you'd expect her to be straight in there at the news her granddaughter is living nearby with a woman she hates.(Guess no-one's told her.)There's no point bringing in a character with history if you're not actually going to do anything with that history.

[Blaxland 89]

Yes. Actors cast for looks is nothing new. But way back when that look wasn't always necessarily the model look. Rather looks that would fit the character. And rather more interesting and individual looks. 

 

And I don't mean Ric Maddie Lucas etc era. They just remind me of some American teen show. 

[Pierced Musie]

I don't understand the hate for Ash to be honest. This is just my opinion but he is what Brax should/could have been. A character with a criminal past who knows he did wrong and did time for it. He has his dumbass moments when he reverts to his old ways but seriously... is he really that bad?

[~Lynd~]

15 minutes ago, Pierced Musie said:

I don't understand the hate for Ash to be honest. This is just my opinion but he is what Brax should/could have been. A character with a criminal past who knows he did wrong and did time for it. He has his dumbass moments when he reverts to his old ways but seriously... is he really that bad?

This.He's not that bad.He's just an easy scape goat.Brax can't take responsibility for any of his actions so it must all be Ash's fault.

[Pierced Musie]

And because Ash was introduced as Brax 's friend... he was always going to be hated by some fans.

Do you think he would be a liked character if he had been introduced as Jesse's ex cellmate who needed help? 

[TelephotoMarigold]

This thread makes me laugh. 

The show is constantly being compared to other soaps and even though Brax et al has left there are still lots of references to him and besides that most of the commentators go round in circles.  The original question (are the current producers.....) is easy to answer if any of  the following can be answered with a yes: 

• Do you put off watching the show? 
• Do you dislike most/some of the characters to the point that you fast forward or don't watch their scenes?
• Do you miss episodes and find you don't care?  
• When characters leave do you find you don't miss them? 
• Do you easily get bored with the plotlines? 

At some point you need to ask yourselves is it even worth watching.  The show is never going to return to the good old days of when you first liked it and even though you think you want that you don't because you may just as well re-watch the old episodes again and again.  Shows have to move on, they have to grow and usually the audience grows with them.  For those that hark back to golden eras in the soap's history miss the point that there were the same problems back then that they have now, poor writing, sloppy characterisation, plot holes etc but looking back at it is like viewing the show wearing rose tinted glasses, you see only what you want to see. 

I decided it wasn't worth my time anymore and the occasional 2 minutes I've watched since then has only confirmed that. 

RR1 Re: Olivia.   When I've raised my concerns about other characters returning and how their characters seem off to me you've been one of the first to disagree.  I'm not watching the show so I only get information about it from spoilers but it seems to be another case of introducing someone just for the sake of it. 

 

 

[Red Ranger 1]

24 minutes ago, TelephotoMarigold said:

RR1 Re: Olivia.   When I've raised my concerns about other characters returning and how their characters seem off to me you've been one of the first to disagree.  I'm not watching the show so I only get information about it from spoilers but it seems to be another case of introducing someone just for the sake of it. 

I remember us disagreeing about Roo, who I think you admitted you'd never actually seen before and just knew by reputation? As I mentioned some posts back, while Georgie Parker played the role differently, I accepted her as Roo because they wrote the character properly and I could imagine the old actress saying and doing everything, and we're now at the point where I've stopped thinking of her as the new one.I know a few people thought Celia was off in her last stint, I can't remember if you were one of them.There, I think the changes were smoothed by the fact they used the same actress and that we'd actually caught up with her on occasions over the years, so while she was a world away from how she'd been when the show started it felt like a natural progression.

[Matt]

32 minutes ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

I remember us disagreeing about Roo, who I think you admitted you'd never actually seen before and just knew by reputation? As I mentioned some posts back, while Georgie Parker played the role differently, I accepted her as Roo because they wrote the character properly and I could imagine the old actress saying and doing everything, and we're now at the point where I've stopped thinking of her as the new one.I know a few people thought Celia was off in her last stint, I can't remember if you were one of them.There, I think the changes were smoothed by the fact they used the same actress and that we'd actually caught up with her on occasions over the years, so while she was a world away from how she'd been when the show started it felt like a natural progression.

I agree very much with what your saying. H&A has always had a track record of bringing in characters from the past, with I presume, all good intentions, and it ends up either for no reason or its nothing short of a character assassination... Gypsy, Will, Kirsty, Kane, Adam, Matt... One thing that Neighbours does extremely well is bringing in characters from the past and staying true to who they are, and I think that should be the intention with H&A. That's not to say all characters are ruined - Morag softened, but is back to her fiery self, Celia is an example, Roo, Marilyn, Sarah, Blake, Sophie (in fact, she's less annoying during her returns)... I guess it's one of those things that it depends on how much background knowledge people know and what they choose to incorporate in their decision...

[TelephotoMarigold]

1 hour ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

I remember us disagreeing about Roo, who I think you admitted you'd never actually seen before and just knew by reputation? As I mentioned some posts back, while Georgie Parker played the role differently, I accepted her as Roo because they wrote the character properly and I could imagine the old actress saying and doing everything, and we're now at the point where I've stopped thinking of her as the new one.I know a few people thought Celia was off in her last stint, I can't remember if you were one of them.There, I think the changes were smoothed by the fact they used the same actress and that we'd actually caught up with her on occasions over the years, so while she was a world away from how she'd been when the show started it felt like a natural progression.

Since I watched the show from the beginning how exactly did I not notice Roo in the early episodes?     

"Were one of them"  makes it sound as though there is still and "us and them" when it comes to viewers.