Are the current producers ruining Home and Away?

[c120701]

I agree with Red. I've been watching Home and Away since it began - I was only two (and a few months) when it started airing in the UK, but I used to watch it with my Mum from then & I have a vague visual memory of Frank & Roo's wedding, but the earliest stories I can remember are Pippa & the shark hunter and then Tom's stroke (I didn't understand what it was at the time though), but this was the kind of show a parent could watch with their young kids because it set a good example of right & wrong. It's not that show anymore.

I honestly think that Sally by the time she left had become the moral compass of the show, largely due to her very black & white view of the world at times. Sally rarely saw that people could sometimes do the wrong thing for the right reasons, which was often to her detriment as there are times she could've pretended to see another point of view. I think the only other character I'd say had those same clear cut morals was Marilyn, so when Sally left I knew the way the show was going to go, because it had already gone there but had Sally there to condemn the actions of the person, I only kept watching for Alf, Irene, Leah & because of Sally, Miles.

The true downfall of the show for me came with the Braxtons, because you expected them to be driven out of town my the locals as with every other group of trouble makers, but they never did. Casey was the only redeemable one with Brax wanting him to do better than he did, but they ruined that by sending him to jail. Instead they then decided to redeem Heath and they did a good job, he didn't forget his past (although unpunished) but he knew he'd got another chance & wanted to do better, then they killed Casey and in one scene at the graveside they destroyed two years of character development and further worsened that in the spin off. 

I think what gets to me most is characters I've known for 10-20+ years brushing aside the crimes going on in their town. Did any of you believe that Alf would sit back & let the Braxtons consistently break the law with their vigilante justice & crime or willingly put up with Andy walking the streets after causing death & destruction at the Caravan Park?

I can believe Irene giving the Braxtons & Andy a fair go - but even she would have her limits. Same with Leah (other than Andy because he hurt her family & that is the ultimate no-no for Leah). 

Then you have Marilyn willingly live next door to the Braxtons, who she'd truly have described as bad people a while ago. John was the only character who believably reacted to the Braxtons, although he'd willingly accept free meals from Brax and let Jett hang around with Casey (but only because Gina saw the good in him).

There is no way that Alf, Irene, Marilyn, John, Leah or even Roo would have stepped foot in Angelo's, but they did because it's unworkable having half the bay stay out of the biggest social gathering point.

There's a visible divide in the bay these days, so much so that I'm starting to think that's what Home and Away means now - you have the Home team - SBH, The Beach House & The Palmer house and then the Away team - the Farmhouse & the Braxton house. I'm yet to place the Morgans, but I think they'll sit in the Away team.

[Light of the Bay]

22 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

 

An excellent post, RR1! I think you should forward it to TPTB; if they have any sense they will perhaps realise a change of direction is in order! 

[Red Ranger 1]

11 minutes ago, Light of the Bay said:

An excellent post, RR1! I think you should forward it to TPTB; if they have any sense they will perhaps realise a change of direction is in order! 

To be honest, I wouldn't know where to start. (Well, I suppose I'd start by finding their e-mail address and posting them a link...and if there's an easy contact address for the show on this site, then I've just looked like a dill.) If anyone out there with more social media savvy than me wants to point the powers that be in the direction of my musings, please feel free, it's what they're there for.

[Light of the Bay]

7 minutes ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

To be honest, I wouldn't know where to start. (Well, I suppose I'd start by finding their e-mail address and posting them a link...and if there's an easy contact address for the show on this site, then I've just looked like a dill.) If anyone out there with more social media savvy than me wants to point the powers that be in the direction of my musings, please feel free, it's what they're there for.

In all honesty I wouldn't know either! 

I am sure there are various individuals on here who will be able to help. :-) I just really want our show to have a heart again. That is what it's really lacking. 

[atrus]

23 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

Andy’s casual murder of Jake was, for me, a high water mark for the show, a real sense of a moral line that had been intact for over 25 years being suddenly crossed.

I felt this very strongly too. We normally talk about turning off life support machines as a merciful thing; and obviously there's a debate to be had about the ethics of that. But in allowing Andy to do it out of cold-blooded revenge and get away with it, it turned it into something really grotesque for me. It's the lack of remorse that I especially had a problem with; and moreover, the sense that as viewers we were supposed to be onboard with it because of what Pirovic had done. That for me was a real sea-change in the H&A ethos - which has always been pretty keen on forgiveness and redemption, provided there's a recognition of wrongdoing, and a desire to atone. Barrett/Pirovic is not the only example of this change over recent years, but it's probably the most striking one.

1 hour ago, c120701 said:

There's a visible divide in the bay these days, so much so that I'm starting to think that's what Home and Away means now - you have the Home team - SBH, The Beach House & The Palmer house and then the Away team - the Farmhouse & the Braxton house. I'm yet to place the Morgans, but I think they'll sit in the Away team.

Yes, this is something I've felt for a long, long time. My terminology for the 'Away' side has been the Braxtons Plus, which doesn't really apply so much now, but the principle remains; unless the acting and setup are exceptionally engaging (and sometimes they are) I have a frequent tendency just to tune out of the violent, macho, vengeful Away content, and then tune back in for the more traditionally H&A Home stuff. My instinct based on events so far is also that the Morgans will 'go Away', but there's at least the possibility for the opposite to happen - and so I'm going to sit it out and hope for the best. I've been toying with the idea of 'Blood' and 'Sand' as my metaphor for this phenomenon in the future ('Blood' being Away and 'Sand' being Home) - thus not directly referencing the Braxtons, but acknowledging that they very much kickstarted this ethos.

[Homeandawayfan.]

I hope we see Don Fisher again but with the current style of the show if that did happen, no doubt he will come back as some gun wielding OAP psycho with no explanation as to why the former fiery but fair headmaster actually turned killer. Lol.

 

[CaptainHulk]

^ He's not Bertram! 

[Matt]

8 hours ago, Homeandawayfan. said:

I think Bennett did say he had come back for a bit longer on the show, not permanently. It may take a while before we get notified of his replacement.

Dan Bennett did return for six months. His material should finishing airing at the end of this month. However, long-time Script Producer (to varying degrees) Hamilton Budd took over in the absence of a Series Script Executive, to bridge the gap between Dan's departure in January and return in February. Bearing in mind that there was a production break over Christmas, Dan's material should start airing again in October/November, and should last until next July/August 

[Homeandawayfan.]

It does seem that H&A has taken a completely new direction for no good reason and totally abandoned the old style H&A. H&A always did move with the times but in the last 7 or 8 years it took a totally different direction. Neighbours did start to adopt a radical change in style but reverted back, and H&A needs to do that as well, whether it will do is another story.

[dee123]

On 10/08/2016 at 6:26 AM, Homeandawayfan. said:

Maybe it shows that Dan Bennett was big on promise, short on delivery as script editor. A temporary improvement last year but the show soon returned to default. The show needs a new producer. But could it be better the devil you know?

H&A is practically a crime/thriller show now and that is everything I hate about the current episodes.

We are still all waiting for that diversity that he promised. I wonder if he got told no.