Are the current producers ruining Home and Away?

[Bobby Forever Missed]

But Heath is not a villain

You...are...kidding... Heath is a criminal and drug dealer it is disgraceful to show this behavior at 7pm!!!!

[Jezz]

But Heath is not a villain

You...are...kidding... Heath is a criminal and drug dealer it is disgraceful to show this behavior at 7pm!!!!

If that's the case so is Zac for example!

[Light of the Bay]

But Heath is not a villain

You...are...kidding... Heath is a criminal and drug dealer it is disgraceful to show this behavior at 7pm!!!! If that's the case so is Zac for example!

Does Zac sell drugs to children?

[jodlebirger]

But Heath is not a villain

You...are...kidding... Heath is a criminal and drug dealer it is disgraceful to show this behavior at 7pm!!!! If that's the case so is Zac for example!

Does Zac sell drugs to children?

It has been mentioned that he has a past as drug dealer.. when he was a young. But he has done time in jail, and he has changed. Heath is the Braxton brother who has changed the most, but he still turn back to his bully ways (not drug dealing) when life gets tough. He was never the biggest thug when he was introduced though. It was Brax who gave the orders about dodgy deals and criminal actions (and also the one who wanted Angelo out of the way) but Heath got the blame.

But criminal actions did which got unpunished did not start with the Braxtons… Kane never got punished for what he did to Dani legally, but in a way he did… the Bay punished him in their way.

I think it was with Angelo this serious crimes and let the criminal be the hero-thing started. When he came back to the Bay after killing Jack and doing dogdy deals with the development site (and others got killed in the prosess to) and we were meant to just look at him as a hero. But Angelo did change more than the Braxton in general. And he was only one character, there are now four Braxtons. And I honestly think that is to much because the show become unbalanced with four very identical characters of that kind… But I don't think it is so serious so we can say that the show is destroyed.

But it is different to have criminals in the show who don't get punished, instead of having these villains who always get hurts or catched when they are taking revenge for something (Penn, the stalker, Sarah and so on).

I don't mind criminals on the show or stalkers if the storylines just pop up now and then. But when it shows up dogdy people who want to hurts someone or criminals after Braxtons (or others) all the time and then suddenly disappear then I think it gets to repetitive and without any real purpose. And if it continues it may ruins the show.

I still think the change the show has done is because of harder competition between shows and channels, and the writers get more pressure from the head office of the tv channels. and the viewers have now more power to raise opinions because of internet… It must be hard to think good storylines when everybody are shouting their opinions. I think it limits the writers freedom to create good storylines.

[Red Ranger 1]

I think 2008 was the year when the regulars-can-do-whatever-they-like thing got out of hand.You had Kane committing an armed robbery and putting a security guard in hospital and the audience were apparently supposed to think him being let out of jail after just a few months for no good reason was a good thing.You had Aden putting a boy in hospital, keeping Rachel tied up in a shed for days and trying to murder his father and the audience were expected to feel sorry for him because of his abuse and think it was okay for him to get away with it, which wasn't helped by him still being a jerk with no respect for the law throughout the rest of his time on the show.And in both cases none of the other characters seemed to have much of a problem with what they did and just accepted them back without a word.Angelo was written a lot more sympathetically than either of them and, while he wasn't exactly innocent and had made some dubious decisions, at least Jack's death was an accident but still had to go through a heck of a lot of hatred from the town when he came back so, at least in soap turns, did pretty much earn his forgiveness.

I do agree though that Heath isn't a villain.He was written as a villain when he first appeared but hey, so was Irene, and John to a lesser extent.The show has a long history of reforming its villains, starting with Donald Fisher and I suppose Roo right at the start and it does reach the point where, if they've proved themselves enough times, the other characters accept them.

[Blaxland 89]

And then there was what Hugo did. And we're meant to think that it was all nice and romantic that Martha ruined her life and ran off with him.

And regarding the Kane thing. I hated the way Morag still supported him despite running of making her lose her bail money, then coming back t hold her great nephew at gun point putting him through an albeit rather unrealistic and short anxiety disorder.

Now really, Morag would have seen to it that Kane would pay but thats not where they wanted the story to go. I know she has mellowed a bit but come on.

[jodlebirger]

I think that this discussion has got out of hand. The discussions about Aden (and also partly Kane) have we had before… and you can't compare a mental state with usual drug habits and dodgy people popping up and then disappear. Actions of Aden and Kane had concequeces. They were punished, but you can argue if the punishment was strong enough. But I think you have ignored the storyline and the serious side of it when you constantly compare Adens breakdown to the Braxtons action.

What I did not like is that we were suppose to think that Angelo was a nice hardworking cop, when he obviously wasn't… And I think that this trend started there. When the characters were suppose to be something that they weren't. Just like Brax is meant to be the brother of the year and all he do is bossing his brothers around and manipulate them.

I think this started with Angelo, a corrupt cop who killed people and also used his badge to seduce young girls. And then it went on with Hugo. How on earth could they make Alf's grand daughter run away with a people smuggler? To be honest, I think they ruined Alf's character there. Alf has never been the same after the storylines about Martha and Hugo and also the Penn storyline. It is when they treat such as huge crimes the same way as they use mental breakdown like Adens, or smaller crimes as the same the show is falling apart.

[Red Ranger 1]

I'm not comparing Aden's actions to the Braxtons' exactly but in a sense they're the end result of what he and Kane started.The audience accepted the excuses given for Aden's behaviour, whether you want to call it a breakdown or whatever, and the fact that he was given a wholly inadequate punishment(community service for kidnapping, nothing whatsoever for attempted murder and grevious bodily harm)and had no lasting personal consequences, being accepted back into the community immediately.So once you've made a character like that sympathetic and the audience have fallen for it, then it's a next logical step to introduce a criminal family, say that their background justifies their breaking the law to escape from a poverty situation and the stigma of a criminal father, and have the audience sympathise with them and the community accept them.

And if you're going to demonise Angelo when Aden was far far worse and consistently so, then you need to look at where this habit of treating violent thugs like romantic heroes really began.I'll accept Angelo was a corrupt cop although not consistently so and certainly no more than Jack was so he hardly started that.Killed people?He killed precisely one person and that was an accident, which he was punished for(not enough for some people and I can understand that view if I don't entirely share it)and which, unlike Aden and the Braxtons, had clear personal consequences rather than being forgotten about straightaway.Used his badge to seduce young girls?What young girls?Are we talking about Belle, who was an adult by any meaningful definition?If anything it was the other way round, she stayed with him when she didn't love him and was cheating on him because she liked having a police officer on speed dial.

Similarly, people exaggerate Heath because the reality isn't bad enough for them.Not for the first time, I'm forced to ask if anyone can give me an example of him selling drugs to kids(as opposed to refusing to sell drugs to kids, which he's done at least twice).Or are they just making it up because they think selling drugs to adults doesn't sound bad enough?

[John]

Once again we are focussing almost entirely on perceived criminal behaviour and the need for it to be punished by law.

I look at the whole issue differently. I see Heath and to an extent Brax as showing the struggle to escape from criminal behaviour and redeem themselves. Naturally there will be relapses from time to time.

That's been a recurring theme of the show with characters as long as I can remember. Sure the scenarios change but the theme doesn't.

It's almost like some people won't allow redemption of characters and have attitudes like Javier in Les Miserables that people can never change. Or even shouldn't be given the opportunity to.

[alexx]

Once again we are focussing almost entirely on perceived criminal behaviour and the need for it to be punished by law.

I look at the whole issue differently. I see Heath and to an extent Brax as showing the struggle to escape from criminal behaviour and redeem themselves. Naturally there will be relapses from time to time.

That's been a recurring theme of the show with characters as long as I can remember. Sure the scenarios change but the theme doesn't.

I think the major problem I had with Brax, when I watched regularly, was that they didn't seem to be writing it that way. I'm all for leaving things up to the audiences own interpretation, but if they really are trying to make it out like Brax is truly struggling to escape and redeem himself, they're not doing a good job of it. It isn't emotionally engaging enough and too predictable and random (Brax giving money to Sally etc.)

I probably would have enjoyed watching a character driven story as you describe, but that's not how it's come across on screen Imo. And that's the problem with the entire show at the moment and the reason I tuned out. I think it's lost that engaging quality it used to have - whether that be high drama, emotional storylines or comedy and it's become dull & repetitive.