Are the current producers ruining Home and Away?

[jodlebirger]

6 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

There were no witnesses to Stu slapping Sasha.If there had been, Sid wouldn't have been able to get as far as he did: When other people turned up, after Sasha ran to get help, they pulled him off him straightaway.Yes, what Sid did was wrong.But I'm not willing to write him off because of it.I don't like this idea that if a teen does something wrong then we should all feel sorry for them and make excuses for them but if adult does something wrong then they deserve to die.It was an immediate reaction, a moment of madness, that Sid regretted immediately.Others did as bad or worse (*cough*Aden to Axel*) with far less consequences but people just make excuses for them.

Hunter is a psycho and the fact that the show's trying to pretend he isn't and having everyone in favour of him shagging an abuse victim is one of the things that is destroying it for me.There is no way that prior to 2008 an ill-meaning character like him would have been written at all sympathetically.

You do too, RR1... just with different characters... ;-) Excuse them for their actions when you complain about far less... Seen it all the years I have been on this site! 

And no matter what, a responsible father doesn't do what Sid did... And everyone excused him, just because he was a father and loved his children... But that doesn't make the crime less serious, but worse. 

2 hours ago, dee123 said:

This thread stopped being about what it's title is like 10 pages ago.

The discussion that has been going on belongs to the tread. It is about things that we think ruins the show and how the writers are ruining storylines and characters. 

[j.laur5]

I know I am not mod but maybe its time we closed the thread.

 

 

[Red Ranger 1]

Well, yes, I guess we all do that.Possibly it's subjective but I think what happened with Sid is how to show a character doing something that most people would consider wrong without character assassination and without making them irredeemable or impossible to sympathise with.Possibly it helped that Robert Mammone was a better actor than some of the cast, possibly it's because what he did wasn't that bad (comparatively speaking), possibly it's because it was a situation that was essentially grounded in the real world with a character who inhabits a world that the audience recognise.Most of us are unlikely to have the person who kidnapped our brother and killed his brother lying on life support after a car crash and have to decide whether or not to sneak in and turn the machines off.Most of us are unlikely to have our father shot dead by the brother we've never met and wonder if we should kidnap him and stake him out in the desert to die.Most of us are unlikely to respond to our father not wanting to see us by going "Hey, I'll burn his house down, that'll teach him." But a father witnessing his daughter being assaulted by her boyfriend and learning she's been a victim of sustained abuse at his hands? That is something that could happen to "normal" people.And I'm sure we'd all like to think that we'd calmly lead our daughter away from the situation and notify the police at the earliest convenience.But, and I'm not for one second saying that it's right or that it excuses him, do any of us know for sure that we wouldn't react how Sid did if we were in that situation?

Sure, it's not responsible behaviour.But even back in the show's first year Tom Fletcher beat up Sam Barlow for making comments about Carly being raped, with no thought to the fact that he could have been charged with assault and be taken away from his family.So...I guess the show got ruined before the middle of 1988?

[Homeandawayfan.]

Also Tom threatened to tan one of the foster kids back sides as well. He was quite handy with his fists when he wanted to be. I think Bobby set fire to that car to rid the spirits of Floss's premonition and she went unpunished.

 

[Ludub]

52 minutes ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

Most of us are unlikely to have our father shot dead by the brother we've never met and wonder if we should kidnap him and stake him out in the desert to die.

This happened to me!  lol!

Seriously, that made me laugh! Thanks Red 

In some ways couldn't you argue though, that the extreme lives that these other 'abnormal' characters have led could excuse their actions more, rather than less?

If you take Josh as an example; He lost his father when he was very young, he's been kidnapped on a number of occasions (I think, definitely held hostage anyway), he was shot by his own mother and nearly died, he found out that the father that did a runner on him when he was little had actually been murdered, he discovered that he had a brother that he didn't know about only to have him murdered too, he developed a drug habit because he was struggling so much with his studies (understandably perhaps given everything he's been through), and to top it all off he's had a very serious (near fatal) head injury and an (albeit temporary, although he didn't know that at the time) life changing disability to come to terms with! Someone who's been through all that would most likely be suffering some form of PTSD, and even if that wasn't the case, I would have thought that self-preservation behaviours would be an incredibly normal response. I also think that it's highly unlikely that Josh could have had a head injury as serious as his was and not have some lasting effects. His behaviour since the head injury was a little different (more moody, more aggressive, a bit irrational) so I would argue that he may not have been the most sane person at the time of killing Charlotte (In self defense. Just want to point that out again). Not owning up to it and showing no remorse (was obviously because the show hadn't decided who the killer was yet, so Jackson (and Josh) didn't know that they should be feeling bad... but that's another matter) could be an understandable response from someone who has essentially been in 'fight or flight' mode his whole life. He hasn't exactly had it easy. 

Sid on the other hand was a 'relatively' respectable doctor and family man, not known for violence, and yes, I can understand his fury over seeing his daughter hurt, but in some ways he should have been better equipped emotionally to deal with the situation than say an 'Andy' or a 'Kyle' who were somewhat damaged individuals.

Just a different point of view 

[cadyctslover]

4 hours ago, j.laur5 said:

I know I am not mod but maybe its time we closed the thread.

Why? I completely disagree.

As long as the topic of the thread is still relevant and people still have views to express relating to the topic, then there should be a forum for that discussion.

All threads veer off-topic to a certain degree at times, but this isn't one of them. Mis-management of sensitive storylines by the current producers is being discussed, and compared with examples from previous years.

[Angelica]

On 7/28/2016 at 8:04 PM, jodlebirger said:

Yes she accepted the consequences. And in a way that was good, but in an another way it wasn't enough for me, because the situation was more complex than Ruby suddenly cutting the brakes of that car.

Ruby was out of control several times before Charlie died, because of what happened to her; loosing mother, finding out that she was a result of a rape and her sister was her real mother, her sister/mother killing her real father, loosing her father/granddad... And the people around didn't support her. We were made to believe that it was ok to betray Ruby because she was "desperate for love" and was easy to hurt. And that is wrong. Leah, Brax, Romeo and Indi's actions led to Ruby falling apart, they pushed her over the edge. And the writers made them look innocent because they were so right for each other, and it was totally ok for Leah to fancy Brax and not care about Ruby's feelings after Charlie's death, because Brax was so sexy... The storyline about Charlie's death was more about Brax, a guy that she just had seen for a few months than her daughter/sister who had lost her whole family..We should at least have seen some remorse from the involved, but Ruby was just sent away like she was a ruthless criminal. 

The storyline about Stu and Sasha and the Walkers was also like that. Yes, Stu abused Sasha a few times and that is terribly wrong, but what Sid did to Stu was far worse.  And the writers wanted us to believe that they were the victims in all that stuff and Stu deserved to be beaten half to death and later die... but they weren't the victims. Stu was. There were a lot of witness that saw Stu slap Sasha (just slapped her...), and he could have easily gone to the police. And then Stu could have gone to jail instead and probably also get some help to get away from his much more abusive father. 

Such things have destroyed H&A over and over again for me, and that isn't something new.

And I feel that I am going to feel about the same about the explosion and Tank/Andy/caravan park/Roo when it finally airs here. 

Agreed. I feel that part of the issue with H&A has been oversimplifying characters - half the characters are treated as cartoon villains, the other half performed bad deeds that quickly get glossed over. I agree with everything you said about Ruby - even to this day, I can't bring myself to dislike the girl. It helps that Rebecca Breed brought a charm to Ruby, and was amazing at getting across her vulnerability. Ruby was significantly messed up, and lost her family in the space of a year. Her support network consisted of Brax who was too busy dealing with his own grief. And at her most vulnerable, Romeo cheats on his wife, and leads Ruby on. And yet ultimately, rather than showing the complexity of her character and how messed up she had become, she got shipped off as cold-hearted villain, and Romeo ended up taking little responsibility for his involvement. This is not to excuse her behaviour. But rather I feel that some characters get an easy ride while others don't get the empathy that they deserve. 

[Homeandawayfan.]

H&A may tweak bits of its history but they are quite subtle whereas Neighbours virtually vomits on its history. For her legion of faults, one small consolation is that Lucy Addario does not seem to disrespect the shows history. I'd hate it if there was a storyline where Tom Fletcher turned out to be a love child of Bert King and Floss McPhee. That would be as bad as The Ramsay Retcon.

[Red Ranger 1]

5 hours ago, Ludub said:

In some ways couldn't you argue though, that the extreme lives that these other 'abnormal' characters have led could excuse their actions more, rather than less?

If you take Josh as an example; He lost his father when he was very young, he's been kidnapped on a number of occasions (I think, definitely held hostage anyway), he was shot by his own mother and nearly died, he found out that the father that did a runner on him when he was little had actually been murdered, he discovered that he had a brother that he didn't know about only to have him murdered too, he developed a drug habit because he was struggling so much with his studies (understandably perhaps given everything he's been through), and to top it all off he's had a very serious (near fatal) head injury and an (albeit temporary, although he didn't know that at the time) life changing disability to come to terms with! Someone who's been through all that would most likely be suffering some form of PTSD, and even if that wasn't the case, I would have thought that self-preservation behaviours would be an incredibly normal response. I also think that it's highly unlikely that Josh could have had a head injury as serious as his was and not have some lasting effects. His behaviour since the head injury was a little different (more moody, more aggressive, a bit irrational) so I would argue that he may not have been the most sane person at the time of killing Charlotte (In self defense. Just want to point that out again). Not owning up to it and showing no remorse (was obviously because the show hadn't decided who the killer was yet, so Jackson (and Josh) didn't know that they should be feeling bad... but that's another matter) could be an understandable response from someone who has essentially been in 'fight or flight' mode his whole life. He hasn't exactly had it easy. 

Sid on the other hand was a 'relatively' respectable doctor and family man, not known for violence, and yes, I can understand his fury over seeing his daughter hurt, but in some ways he should have been better equipped emotionally to deal with the situation than say an 'Andy' or a 'Kyle' who were somewhat damaged individuals.

I take your point but let's be honest, anyone who lives in Summer Bay would need a lot of therapy in real life.Sid's family life wasn't actually that conventional.He had a distant relationship with his children until his wife suddenly walked out on him leaving him struggling with an unfamiliar parental role.Then his daughter's best friend stalks and tries to seduce him, and his children refuse to believe he had nothing to do with it and cut all ties with him, right after his daughter's suffered a serious injury and won't let him support her.Then his children equally abruptly re-enter his life after falling out with their mother.His girlfriend presents him as a fait accompli with an attempt to adopt the child of the teenage girl who once stalked him and was impregnated by a psychopath who stalked everyone, leaving him watching on helplessly as his family get hurt.His daughter elopes at 18 with a boy who just cheated on her and who he doesn't really like.Then he's presented with a daughter he didn't know about, who's grieving for her mother, missing her brother and constantly getting into trouble and rejecting him as he tries to bond with her.(And that's just the first half of his stint, before his youngest daughter gets tried for murder, his son suffers a brain injury in a car accident, his eldest daughter gets widowed at a very young age and won't accept his support because she blames his for breaking patient confidentiality, and his family get stalked by the violent ex of his new girlfriend.)Knowing that he's not been the best father to his children and that they've all been through a lot would seem to give him a reason for being over-protective and overreacting to a threat to one of them.So maybe we could argue that credit is due to those who live abnormal lives but still manage to stay relatively respectable fathers, rather than those who let go of their morals and treat violence and murder as the first resort?

We disagree a lot about Josh but I didn't see any difference in his behaviour post-head injury.Being moody and aggressive was always part of his character.He often used Maddy as a verbal punchbag when they were together, especially in the early days (eg hurling Andy's propaganda about her seeing him as a charity case at her when she tried to convince him to stay at school).Evelyn had a somewhat calming effect on him but he tended to be very on edge when they were apart.He had a go at the art tutor she was getting on with for no real reason.He was arguably proved right about Tank but he got under his skin right from the start, to the point of trying to attack him over a misunderstanding.He punched Andy for drugging Maddy (okay, we can forgive that one).He punched Spencer without knowing the full story (and, as it turned out, Spencer hadn't done anything and once Josh calmed down he realised that even if he had reported Andy that wouldn't excuse punching him).He pretty much exploded at Matt when he found out he kissed Evie and seemed oddly contemptible of him throughout that whole storyline.Conversely, when things were going well for him and Evie this year, like at schoolies and when they went to the posh hotel in the city, he seemed as relaxed as ever.

[dee123]

16 hours ago, Wanderer101 said:

Idk about that, because sometimes this thread goes into specific discussions (right now about teenagers behaviour) which has to do with what some view as what could be ruining the show.

 

14 hours ago, jodlebirger said:

The discussion that has been going on belongs to the tread. It is about things that we think ruins the show and how the writers are ruining storylines and characters. 

  I wasn't that serious. It good to see this place busy with healthy discussion and not a ghost town which it can be sometimes.