Are the current producers ruining Home and Away?

[Homeandawayfan.]

H&A is the EastEnders of Australia. The most depressing soap, nothing happy happens at all. Just endless doom and gloom. Both shows are guilty of that equally.

[Luke39]

TBH though for the first time ever, and I have been watching H and A since 2001. I would rather watch Neighbores lol. While I prefer H and A overall, just the lifestyle and the dramatic edge. I find myself enjoying Neighbores, for I don't know the characters smile. I know shocking. Nothing positive happens in H and A anymore. Miss the Summerbay kids. The adults interacting with the summerbay kids. The drama influenced through actions, not screaming matches, and car chases. Guess what I am saying, I miss Home and Away. Some where along the line, they lost the balance. 

[Skylover]

There's a few things I've noticed after watching 5 or so recent episodes of modern Home and Away.

1. Home and Away's problem is storylining. Whereas Neighbours has a big problem with how a lot of the actual episodes are written, lacking any humour or well-written drama, H&A is written quite well scene by scene, but the overall storylines are a problem.

2. H&A ignores its history. We never see Irene's children.

3. Current Neighbours is far better than current H&A, even in its current state.

4. Old H&A (from the early years repeats) is better than old Neighbours. It hasn't dated as much.

5. I really don't like how any actor who seems to stick around a number of years ends up lumped in Summer Bay House with all the other long-termers.

6. The decent part of the show is ALWAYS the older characters, the younger characters fall flat on every occasion and have since the Walkers (the Morgans seem to have potential). The scenes featuring Alf, Irene, Leah, Marilyn, John and Roo are great most of the time.

7. As a result of this, it feels like watching 2 separate shows that have merged. A calm seaside resort mixed with the ridiculous unbelievable stories the younger cast have.

10 hours ago, Homeandawayfan. said:

H&A is the EastEnders of Australia. The most depressing soap, nothing happy happens at all. Just endless doom and gloom. Both shows are guilty of that equally.

EE is much better overall though and is better at examining/using its history, whereas H&A chooses to ignore it. I know EE has made mistakes and changed history sometimes, but they do bring back more past characters (i.e. Steven, Grant, Courtney, Ben, Louise, Stacey, Ronnie, Martin, Mark Junior etc).

[emmasi]

I think Neighbours is the best it's ever been. It has been a bit over the top lately with some things, but I feel like that is an intentional bit of fun. The show likes to parody itself as a soap from time to time. That's obvious from the extras we get here after the show, behind the scenes interviews, and staged videos and photos they put on Facebook. I'm not sure if other countries get the extra content, but it's awesome. Last Halloween they did a zombie special online, and I have my fingers crossed to breaking point that they'll do another one this year with werewolves (they've been dropping so many hints! Tyler was wearing a wolf T-shirt and staring up at a full moon a couple of weeks ago!)

I can see how some people would be concerned if they are taking everything Neighbours does seriously. Half the time Neighbours is a comedy, which is brilliant. Australian comedy is, or was, one of my favourite things in the world, but Neighbours seems to be the only place I can find the exact style I like, which is firmly rooted in 80s/90s sensibilities of not taking anything too seriously, and not being afraid to poke fun at anything, including yourself. 

There's been a storyline lately about someone releasing poisonous snakes on the street, and they've made the actual instances of the snake encounters so melodramatic, as a wink to the audience that it's such a silly premise, and so obviously fake when being filmed (we know the actors aren't getting bitten!). However. They have actually used this seemingly silly story to build up a lot of legitimate drama, to progress about 10 different existing plots, to create new tensions between characters, and even to bring in more animals onto the show. 

Neighbours knows exactly what it is doing. It is an absolute joy to watch. Home and Away, on the other hand, attempts humour so rarely that it is usually so out of place in any given scene that it fails completely. That's probably why the only characters I really laugh at (with) are Chris, John, Matt and Roo.

Chris exists in his own impenetrable bubble of social isolation, and just says his lines without any need for anyone to respond or interact with him. Therefore his jokes just float on the surface of scenes without being ruined by any attempt to make them relevant to the overwhelming seriousness of every episode. John lives in a similar isolation bubble. He shares a lot of his scenes with Marilyn, sure, but the quirky dialogue in those scenes is almost all one-sided. Marilyn is just kind of there to sigh and fret until John's next amusing, out-of-left-field line. Chris and John are both portrayed as outsiders with odd perspectives that people rarely listen to, so putting them together is comedy gold, but even that doesn't happen much anymore.

Roo and Matt, individually, have a very straight forward way of speaking, and tend to deliver their lines with a fair amount of casual sarcasm, which I respond to. (I feel like "straight forward" and "sarcasm" are a contradiction in terms, but I hope you know what I mean.) Even so, they usually only get a smile or a chuckle out of me unless they're together, alone, without anyone or anything else to interfere with them. I'm actually wondering right at this moment if some of their stuff isn't ad-libbed. Their one-on-one scenes are of such a different, higher quality that I have suspected for a while that they have a specific writer with all the talent for snappy dialogue that they keep in reserve, only to ever be use for Matt and Roo scenes, lest he/she use up all their magic. If the actors are coming up with these lines themselves that would make a lot more sense! 

[Skylover]

I agree with you about Neighbours poking fun at itself. The snake plot is so ridiculous but in an intriguing, original way, that it gets away with it. The younger (teen) characters in particular are also better on Neighbours.

However, I think its precise problem at the moment is its lack of humour. It's lighthearted but it's never actively funny anymore. On the other hand, H&A might not tackle 'funny' storylines, but the dialogue and scriptwriting generally seems stronger, and the one-liners seem funnier somehow.

[Luke39]

2 hours ago, emmasi said:

Roo and Matt, individually, have a very straight forward way of speaking, and tend to deliver their lines with a fair amount of casual sarcasm, which I respond to. (I feel like "straight forward" and "sarcasm" are a contradiction in terms, but I hope you know what I mean.) Even so, they usually only get a smile or a chuckle out of me unless they're together, alone, without anyone or anything else to interfere with them. I'm actually wondering right at this moment if some of their stuff isn't ad-libbed. Their one-on-one scenes are of such a different, higher quality that I have suspected for a while that they have a specific writer with all the talent for snappy dialogue that they keep in reserve, only to ever be use for Matt and Roo scenes, lest he/she use up all their magic. If the actors are coming up with these lines themselves that would make a lot more sense! 

Not ashamed to say, Matt and Roo are my fav pair ups on this show atm hahaha. Hell woulden't mind if they know get together heh. That would be a scandal :D. I think difference with Neigborsf from what I have observed. It feels more well rounded, in storytelling and the casting, the characterization. It feels like a community. I cannot say I have felt that watching Home and Away in a long time. 

[dee123]

3 hours ago, Luke39 said:

Not ashamed to say, Matt and Roo are my fav pair ups on this show atm hahaha. Hell woulden't mind if they know get together heh. That would be a scandal :D. I think difference with Neigborsf from what I have observed. It feels more well rounded, in storytelling and the casting, the characterization. It feels like a community. I cannot say I have felt that watching Home and Away in a long time. 

It's been going on for years but this is the NUMBER ONE problem, and while it was happening before The Braxtons it became more apparent with their introduction of certain groups of characters being in their own bubbles with some characters not interacting with each other much at all.

[Homeandawayfan.]

Does anyone think that H&A is like Emmerdale when it comes to ignoring its history and straying from its roots? Emmerdale seems to ignore its history. Virtually no storylines or characters from before the mid 1990s are mentioned or referred to in Emmerdale.

Neighbours is a fantastic programme and has always kept true to itself. Corrie is still Corrie despite the stunts, EastEnders is still EastEnders, always kept to the same format since 1985.

Apart from Alf and SBH, H&A feels like a completely new show. That is not a good thing, to neglect the past and lose any originality.

[dee123]

1 hour ago, Homeandawayfan. said:

Does anyone think that H&A is like Emmerdale when it comes to ignoring its history and straying from its roots? Emmerdale seems to ignore its history. Virtually no storylines or characters from before the mid 1990s are mentioned or referred to in Emmerdale.

Neighbours is a fantastic programme and has always kept true to itself. Corrie is still Corrie despite the stunts, EastEnders is still EastEnders, always kept to the same format since 1985.

Apart from Alf and SBH, H&A feels like a completely new show. That is not a good thing, to neglect the past and lose any originality.

I agree though to play devil's advocate i'd rather they ignore than blatantly revise history like Neighbours has recently with a few things.

[Luke39]

tbf, IT IS NOT like the current characters are even aware of past characters lol. I mean I don't see Hunter walking into the diner, and saying "I heard about this Shane bloke" . I know that is not what some mean lol, just being silly. Same I guess for 2005 lot, talking or referencing 2001 crowd. I don't see a new lot of characters talking about characters last decade. That is the problem for me interchangable storylines. I mean clearly I was in the minority with Matt and Maddy. Sorry I loved them LOL. But in the end it was pointless. They are just throwing characters in pointless storylines. And throwing characters under a bus, Ahem Oscar Ahem. Theirs just no real value to the storylines, it is like they give up at the first hurdle, and move on. I do like the photos of Aden, Belle, and Annie on Irene's fridge. I like that little continuity. Yeah sure be nice they reference past characters. And I agree they need to integrate the past into present more. But it does not ruin the show for me. I don't like it when they stomp over their history. Like for instance, I did not have much problem with a new actress playing Olivia. But changing history to suit storyline, is a no no for me. But that is just me. I Think we call all agree, the show lacks balance atm.