Are the current producers ruining Home and Away?

[CaptainHulk]

1 hour ago, Homeandawayfan. said:

Our fanfics seem to be better written and more consistent than the writing of the show itself.

Normally, I'd say "Ego much?" but I wholeheartedly agree here. 

[jodlebirger]

17 hours ago, Homeandawayfan. said:

1988-2004 was sublime. 2005-2009 saw a dip and 2011 saw another dip. 2015 did see a lift again but 2016 saw another dip. H&A has been like a huge rollercoaster since Sarah Lewis.

 

I don't think the viewers agree quite with you. Because the real dip was the 2010 season, the ratings were low all over. 2008 had good ratings and is widely praised by viewers and most fans. 2009 was destroyed by wrong advertising about the year mystery storyline and created too high expectations. The ratings weren't that bad. 

I agree that the show has been a huge rollercoaster since Sarah Lewis, and such storylines give good ratings for a short time, but it's not good enough in the long run. 

I am not so sure that I saw huge improvement last year either. Yep, most of the Braxtons were gone, and some other characters got more attention, and some storylines were good in the mid season. But we still had some OTT storylines like Charlotte and Hunter, bad from day one when Charlotte started to flirt with Matt. I think that the show had such promising shorter periods also in the 2011-15 period, for example in early 2013. I think Rosie and also the introduction of Zac was good - before he started to flirt with Bianca and he became pointless. 

I guess we all have our favourite periods. Mine is 1998-2005, with the exception of Angie, Josie and Sarah Lewis storylines. But there was a period in the 90's when all storylines were so slow that you could skip watching for several months and then tune in again without any problems because nothing had happened, the same storylines was still going on. I really don't want to go back to that style either. 

[Red Ranger 1]

I think the dip this year came when they suddenly reverted to making the criminals the protagonists rather than the villains, something I was hoping we'd seen the last of.The sudden U-turn over Hunter, from dangerous psychopath to "good kid" (whilst still essentially behaving the same, it's just the other characters all suddenly like him), sums up the problems under the new producers perfectly.

[jodlebirger]

47 minutes ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

I think the dip this year came when they suddenly reverted to making the criminals the protagonists rather than the villains, something I was hoping we'd seen the last of.The sudden U-turn over Hunter, from dangerous psychopath to "good kid" (whilst still essentially behaving the same, it's just the other characters all suddenly like him), sums up the problems under the new producers perfectly.

The change didn't feel natural.... There must be a process from being bad to becoming good... And with that extreme behaviour like Hunter had, I think they need to use a lot of energy to create a realistic background storyline for the behaviour and then use a lot of time and energy in the process of making the character change behaviour and attitude. Such things doesn't change overnight, and what made it worse is that they seem to make us forget how serious things Hunter did. The fire was treated like it was a small offence, like stealing 10 dollars... and the electrocution of Marilyn and knocking Josh down the stairs have totally been forgotten about.

What Hunter did to Josh isn't anything different from what Tank did. As the matter of fact it was more serious, pushing someone down the stairs than one little punch... And then add Marilyn and the fire to it.... 

I am some months behind but I think the Dylan storyline is equally bad. Why bring in someone that bad as a lawyer without finding out more about him. I don't like when someone is brought in just to be mean. I know they probably think that people might find it intriguing, but I think it's only irritating. 

I miss the explanations for the characters behaviour and some solved storylines. For example it seems to me that we never is going to know how Morag and Dylan knew each other and what Morag really knew about him. It feels like Morag should have come up with something that would have brought Dylan down. I think that 10-15 years ago she actually would have. 

[pembie]

5 hours ago, emmasi said:

Why is no-one cashing in on the rabid Chris Hemsworth fans who would pay any price for that?? All these Marvel movies can't keep being popular forever. The window of opportunity is closing!!

There are too many comic book movies and shows to keep up with now isn't there?

Have you seen the movie Cash with Sean Bean and Chris Hemsworth? It was low budget was pretty good I thought.  It was made in 2010 and here I was thinking his first movie role was Thor

[CaptainHulk]

Everybody's gotta start somewhere!

[emmasi]

6 hours ago, pembie said:

There are too many comic book movies and shows to keep up with now isn't there?

Have you seen the movie Cash with Sean Bean and Chris Hemsworth? It was low budget was pretty good I thought.  It was made in 2010 and here I was thinking his first movie role was Thor

Yes and yes  I have it on DVD but have only watched it once. I've been meaning to watch it again because I did enjoy it  I do want my Kimmy on DVD though. 

[Luke39]

2015 was not perfect, but I liked it better then this year tbh. The balance was better. You had a Women like Charlotte, one of the best villans in years. She was just a Mother who kinda became psycho due to her son screwing up. So you kinda had some sympathy for her. I like that in villan characters. You had the sense of danger in the show. Without feeling like it was just around the corner. Then climaxed with Ed Sherran, felt like the Summerbay kids all over again. 

Spoiler

But this year Psycho Teenagers. Hunter and Tabitha, they would be perfect together . Then you got unplanned Preganacys, Criminals. The Morgans have basically brought in more crime and danger into the show. Just as things were settling down. 

, 

[Gerard]

On 09/08/2016 at 9:07 PM, cadyctslover said:

I have to say I agree with you for the most part. I hate to see show's that I once really enjoyed be mucked around with and ruined to such a degree that I stop caring about the characters. Sometimes I would much rather see them axe it now and end the torture already.

I think the "Home and Away" brand is much more valuable to the TV station and the producers than the content. Sure they could rename it "CSI: Summer Bay" which would be more aligned to what it has been the past few years, but that would damage the brand. All soaps are basically tried to a location, whether it is a street or town. In H&A's case it is very flexible in that there is a whole town in scope. The Caravan Park is the only constant since day one, but they could easily axe that location and Summer Bay House completely if they wanted.Even the "fostering element" has all but disappeared. I'm glad it's still there in the background, but it used to be much more prominent.

Very little of the original H&A exists, apart from Alf and the Caravan Park, and the beach location. It is effectively a completely different show than it was in the 80's. They could get rid of all three elements and keep going under the "Home and Away" banner if they wanted. They could probably even relocate to Yabbie Creek. Sometimes it feels like we get more Yabbie Creek than Summer Bay as a good part of the action seems to take place in the Police Station or the Hospital (is the hospital actually in Yabbie Creek or where is it? "The City"?).

Anyway, my point is that no matter how far removed from "classic H&A" it gets, the name of the programme is their most valuable asset. They can completely change everything else about the series, and the only comeback the viewers really have is whether to switch off or keep watching.

[Homeandawayfan.]

Neighbours has more originality than H&A. Ramsay Street has remained constant throughout, since 1985. I know Emmerdale started off focusing around a farm but the village always featured, and (even though they built a set in 1997, in the show it is the same village) the current pub and street has featured since 1976. The original pub was written out in 1976 as they relocated to a village nearer the studios. H&A and EastEnders have become the most depressing soaps on TV, and that is no lie. Seems they think that is what the viewers want.