Are the current producers ruining Home and Away?

[Jacklost]

2 hours ago, Homeandawayfan. said:

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.

That's your opinion. Some people like the show the way it is now. I've never watched these other shows you mentioned so can't say anything about them 

[Homeandawayfan.]

The show has become some kind of psychological thriller show, everyone with their life in danger from natural causes, poisoning or scorned enemies/stalkers. So unlike the original Home And Away.

Jacklost can you offer an opinion on how you think the show is enjoyable to you?

[Gerard]

Exactly. Modern H&A is rather depressing, and becomes a bit exhausting to watch. It's a shame because it used to be such a bright and optimistic series which was a bit of escapism.

With lives on the line more or less every week, does anyone really get shocked by the next danger lurking around the corner? It's coming, whether we like it or not. Plus every newcomer to town is going to have some kind of "dark secret" which will probably involve either police or medical intervention (or both). It gets a bit repetative and tiresome. Of course there must be a fair portion of the audience who love all the high tension and drama, but how many bombs, explosions, stalkers and sieges can a small town really have? The audience is bound to get bored eventually. Then what?

ETA: Over the past few weeks at UK pace, I've lost track, but off the top of my head, we've had people confessing to murder, a stabbing, a kidnap, a rape, a heart attack, a stroke, blackmail, fraud... and probably a lot more I've forgotten...

[Homeandawayfan.]

36 minutes ago, Gerard said:

Exactly. Modern H&A is rather depressing, and becomes a bit exhausting to watch. It's a shame because it used to be such a bright and optimistic series which was a bit of escapism.

With lives on the line more or less every week, does anyone really get shocked by the next danger lurking around the corner? It's coming, whether we like it or not. Plus every newcomer to town is going to have some kind of "dark secret" which will probably involve either police or medical intervention (or both). It gets a bit repetative and tiresome. Of course there must be a fair portion of the audience who love all the high tension and drama, but how many bombs, explosions, stalkers and sieges can a small town really have? The audience is bound to get bored eventually. Then what?

ETA: Over the past few weeks at UK pace, I've lost track, but off the top of my head, we've had people confessing to murder, a stabbing, a kidnap, a rape, a heart attack, a stroke, blackmail, fraud... and probably a lot more I've forgotten...

It feels like a new show set in Summer Bay that just ties in with the old show. Corrie, EastEnders and Neighbours still are set in the street, square and cul de sac they always have been and follow the lives of those families. Barlow's, Beale's and Robinson's etc, plus many other families over time. They still feel like the same programmes they always were and that is a good thing. Updated versions of what they were.

H&A has very little of its originality left. Just as you say, Alf and SBH. It went from a show about foster teens being mentored by Tom and Pippa/Alf and Ailsa to a show about guns, kidnaps, explosions and bed hoping. How further from your roots can you get?

I wonder if you could really say the same about Emmerdale.

[CaptainHulk]

Emmerdale had to keep with the times but still kept to its roots. Farming, while lessened is still done (Bartons/Dingles), Pub's the centre hub. Emmerdale 2016 moves faster than say, Emmerdale 1986 (which is actually pretty damn good season, Birth of Robert, yes, that Robert, horrific  death of his biological mother Pat, etc), though I will admit after a great 2015, things have gone a bit sloppy (New producer still finding his feet).

 

[emmasi]

9 hours ago, Homeandawayfan. said:

The show has become some kind of psychological thriller show, everyone with their life in danger from natural causes, poisoning or scorned enemies/stalkers. 

Honestly I love that stuff, when it's done right. I get what you're saying about that not being the point of the show originally, and I agree it shouldn't be the point of the show now.  I do think the show needs those elements today to remain exciting. It's a very different world, and most people won't watch heartfelt conversations about family for half an hour every night, and if they do, they'll watch reality TV (I'm thinking documentary style ones, not the sensational/contest types). Reality TV didn't exist in the 80s, or if it did, there were not literally thousands of options for people who want to get a glimpse into the daily lives of ordinary people. So for H&A to remain relevant in these times, it has to play up to the fact that it IS a soap, and add in those melodramatic elements of murder and mayhem, when we know that's not really what would happen in a little coastal town. 

Now, let me get to the part where I agree with you. This kind of shocking, dramatic stuff onlyworks if it IS shocking and dramatic, which it can't be when it's happening every week or even every day. It loses all its impact and becomes completely pointless. I don't watch CSI but it's my understanding that they actually, you know, investigate crimes, one at a time, rather than just having random crimes and arresting/jailing whichever character seems the most dramatic at the time, and then dumping all interest in that particular crime before it's resolved because the next one - or two or three - is already unfolding. No crime drama could survive with that kind of format. No weekly viewer base would bother making the effort to tune in for such a mess. But as viewers of a daily soap, many of us are creatures of habit, stuck in a rut, with too many years of our lives invested in it to stop watching and let it go under. Which is exactly what would happen to any other show that was this poorly produced that didn't have 30 years of nostalgia and loyalty on it's side. 

 

 

[Homeandawayfan.]

12 hours ago, CaptainHulk said:

Emmerdale had to keep with the times but still kept to its roots. Farming, while lessened is still done (Bartons/Dingles), Pub's the centre hub. Emmerdale 2016 moves faster than say, Emmerdale 1986 (which is actually pretty damn good season, Birth of Robert, yes, that Robert, horrific  death of his biological mother Pat, etc), though I will admit after a great 2015, things have gone a bit sloppy (New producer still finding his feet).

 

Emmerdale is more truer to its roots than H&A I think. Yes, the Dingles and Bartons have many scenes in the farmhouse kitchen like the Sugdens did. H&A has done what Brookside did, went for a radical change in style. Even Alf is written as a parody of what he once was.

[Gerard]

17 hours ago, emmasi said:

No weekly viewer base would bother making the effort to tune in for such a mess. But as viewers of a daily soap, many of us are creatures of habit, stuck in a rut, with too many years of our lives invested in it to stop watching and let it go under. Which is exactly what would happen to any other show that was this poorly produced that didn't have 30 years of nostalgia and loyalty on it's side. 

I wonder how much of the audience is only watching out of loyalty and nostalgia. Count me in. I guess some of us live in hope that the series will wake up to itself some day and revert to a family drama. But there is probably more chance of seeing Alf Stewart land on the moon. 

I don't think I would touch H&A with a bargepole if I was coming at it as a new viewer. Then again, maybe as a new viewer if I wasn't too fussy about quality and I was in the market for a grim and gritty crime show with nice scenery, it might just be the ticket

[cadyctslover]

I'm not sure if this has already been mentioned and I missed it, but did anyone notice Dan Bennett announce that he has left the show again? (I know Matt did)

It was announced on the main site when he quit in December last year, and then we discussed it here when he announced he was returning in April.

I suspect Dan's material will now air up until the new year. I wonder who will replace him in this role?

[Homeandawayfan.]

19 hours ago, emmasi said:

Now, let me get to the part where I agree with you. This kind of shocking, dramatic stuff onlyworks if it IS shocking and dramatic, which it can't be when it's happening every week or even every day. It loses all its impact and becomes completely pointless. I don't watch CSI but it's my understanding that they actually, you know, investigate crimes, one at a time, rather than just having random crimes and arresting/jailing whichever character seems the most dramatic at the time, and then dumping all interest in that particular crime before it's resolved because the next one - or two or three - is already unfolding. No crime drama could survive with that kind of format. No weekly viewer base would bother making the effort to tune in for such a mess. But as viewers of a daily soap, many of us are creatures of habit, stuck in a rut, with too many years of our lives invested in it to stop watching and let it go under. Which is exactly what would happen to any other show that was this poorly produced that didn't have 30 years of nostalgia and loyalty on it's side. 

 

 

You see, Neighbours has the right balance of this. The stunts happen once every few months or even less, and the show has plenty of everyday scenes and has the right balance. It is still Neighbours. It has always been set in the same cul de sac. H&A has the odd everyday scene but these are casually dropped in among the endless disasters, crime and bed hopping storylines.

Dan Bennet leaving again, well not much loss, we had a bit of an improvement but for a short while.