Are the current producers ruining Home and Away?

[Luke39]

I guess with Home and Away I See a show making subtle changes to its history. But I feel like I am watching a show in 2016. With Neighbors, they have seemed to assasinate its history. And I Feel like the Set Designs are stuck in the 90's. I enjoy Neighbors, but it is true. I have always prefered Home and Away as it is. I just think H and A needs a balance, a balance they have yet to find. 

[dee123]

5 hours ago, Angelica said:

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. 

That Romeo exit is still one of the dumbest things ever. Like how that actually could escape the writer's room and actually be filmed is beyond me.

[Luke39]

To be fair Liam got the same treatment when he slept with Indi, Romeo's wife, ex wife what ever. And felt little to no responsiblity. Where as from what I Recall, Indi got slaughterd for it. I really loved Romeo. But I Felt Romeo and Maddy would of been perfect together. Both very Selfish Characters . As much as I loved Maddy too. But yeah the Romeo Exit Story was IMO the worst thing the show ever did. IT was just careless and reckless. And I am not talking about the actual storyline and exit story. But the people who came up with the idea in the writers room. And anyone in that room that was like OMG that is amazing. The fact that even left the room, let alone made it to tv, is quite honestly incredible. Not surprised Robert and Luke tried to re write it. I Do feel the problem is over simplying things in this show since like 2010. With the characters and the storylines. Like with Oscar and Maddy, they showed a natural decay in the relationship. Then they threw in the whole Oscar cheating. That was not neccessary. Oscar was NOT the bad guy, nor was Matt or Maddy. But then Oscar became the bad guy. Same with Matt and Maddy's relationship. Instead of letting it grow naturally, and building depth. They slept together, then moved in together, then were already in love . Over Simplifying things. Not since Aden and Belle has their been a Teen Couple that has been truley great, maybe April and Dex. 

[emmasi]

I for one am sick of every single thread being an excuse for someone to aggressively attack or aggressively defend the Braxtons/people who like the Braxtons/people who don't like the Braxtons. I propose a new thread called "The Braxtons: Us vs. Them" and everytime intelligent conversation devolves into name calling and groundless assumptions about people based on which characters they do or don't like, the mods can immediately move all the posts into that one thread so the incessant squabbling doesn't take over the entire board. Maybe after a few "hey where did my hateful post towards another forum member go?" incidents, people will get the idea.

PS this is not a direct response to any of the above posts, just a board-wide observation that for me personally has been "ruining Home and Away" lately. 

 

[Angelica]

16 hours ago, emmasi said:

I for one am sick of every single thread being an excuse for someone to aggressively attack or aggressively defend the Braxtons/people who like the Braxtons/people who don't like the Braxtons. I propose a new thread called "The Braxtons: Us vs. Them" and everytime intelligent conversation devolves into name calling and groundless assumptions about people based on which characters they do or don't like, the mods can immediately move all the posts into that one thread so the incessant squabbling doesn't take over the entire board. Maybe after a few "hey where did my hateful post towards another forum member go?" incidents, people will get the idea.

PS this is not a direct response to any of the above posts, just a board-wide observation that for me personally has been "ruining Home and Away" lately. 

 

But surely this is probably one of the biggest problems with the show - that for most people. the arrival of Braxtons was either the ruin of the show or what made people interested in the show again. They became such a big part of the show in the past 5 years, dominating many storylines. So I think it is hard not to feel strongly either way about them. And this has caused a massive divisive opinions among the current viewing population in a way that no other character seems to have done. Which means that no matter what - half your viewing population are going to be dissatisfied. (It's kinda like TV shows create a love triangle where both sides of the triangle are hugely popular to the point that no matter who the person in the middle chooses, half the viewing population will be disappointed). 

[Luke39]

Braxtons love or hate them. Were hugely popular. No character on Neighbors was so wildly popular they had a spinoff special based on it. I thought they brought interest back into the show. But at the same time was a departure for the show. At least in Home and Away it does feel like its attempting to stick to its roots, yet be modern in 2016. Neighbors throws it out the window, and the 90's sets. I said before lack of balance. Like most of the drama with the Braxtons was very in your face. Most of the appeal for me with H and A, was Aussie culture and lifestyle. You can create Drama with words. And I Think when you saw that sense of danger every week. It is less effective. When it is just normal people feeling drama. Not to mention the over simplified storylines and characterizations. The writing is not as good. So I Think why their is the Braxtons debate on this thread. Is they are the root of all which is Home and Away currently. 

[Gerard]

Given the new news article on this site which says H&A is a major success with 1.3 million viewers (is it really getting that many viewers on average? Last time I checked a while ago, I thought it was coming in as short of 1 million), and then a comment from someone "joking" that they should consider production two versions of it - that's idea has popped up in this discussion before. But it would be an interesting experiment/risk to take.

They could create a regular spin-off series which would centre around H&A's core values of family, fostering and warm drama, then the other version of the show could focus the more adult, crime and violence oriented storylines, which have been proven to bring in the viewing figures. Some H&A characters could appear in both, or migrate over to the "family" series. I would certainly be interested to see how the audience would react to both series, and what sort of viewing figures they would get then. It might be the perfect solution for an audience which seems divided over H&A's recent past, and a network which could have potentially two successful series out of one.

 

[Matt]

1 hour ago, Gerard said:

Given the new news article on this site which says H&A is a major success with 1.3 million viewers (is it really getting that many viewers on average? Last time I checked a while ago, I thought it was coming in as short of 1 million), and then a comment from someone "joking" that they should consider production two versions of it - that's idea has popped up in this discussion before. But it would be an interesting experiment/risk to take.

You'd be looking at the Overnight Metropolitan Ratings. The Consolidated Metro+Regional Ratings add up to 1.3 million roughly

[Gerard]

5 hours ago, Matt said:

You'd be looking at the Overnight Metropolitan Ratings. The Consolidated Metro+Regional Ratings add up to 1.3 million roughly

I thought I'd read a while ago that figures were lower, but perhaps that was summer vs winter, and of course the show could have increased ratings too, as it has generally improved over the past year.

That's about as many viewers, if not more, than it gets in the UK, I think. I checked the UK ratings charts and H&A just scraped into the top 30 on Channel 5 with 0.6 million for an evening showing. But then with timeshift channels, online catch-up etc. it's nearly impossible to tell what the ratings are these days.

[emmasi]

20 hours ago, Angelica said:

But surely this is probably one of the biggest problems with the show - that for most people. the arrival of Braxtons was either the ruin of the show or what made people interested in the show again. They became such a big part of the show in the past 5 years, dominating many storylines. So I think it is hard not to feel strongly either way about them. And this has caused a massive divisive opinions among the current viewing population in a way that no other character seems to have done. Which means that no matter what - half your viewing population are going to be dissatisfied. (It's kinda like TV shows create a love triangle where both sides of the triangle are hugely popular to the point that no matter who the person in the middle chooses, half the viewing population will be disappointed). 

That's why I posted it in here, where talk like that is legitimate. Just a suggestion/tantrum to try and spare the rest of the board from being pounced on by one side or the other whenever they dare to mention the Braxtons. I was triggered by someone in the spoiler forum copping abuse just for having a Braxton AVATAR, which of course made anything they had to say immediately biased and invalid. Their crime (besides the avatar)? Not liking the Morgans. So they were accused of the Morgans not being Braxton enough for them, while everyone else who hates the Braxtons seems to hate the Morgans because they're too much like the Braxtons. WTF??? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!!!