Are the current producers ruining Home and Away?

[Skylover]

5 minutes ago, Gerard said:

Surely the crime and violence and OTT "event" storylines we've been subjected to in recent years are just a lazy way of engaging the viewers. All that matters at the end of the day to the network is those viewing figures, and if you can blow something up and attract a few 100 thousand extra viewers, then why not? How about they try to gain that number of viewers through character based drama alone? That would require a high performance, and hard work, at all levels of the production.

The thing I don't get is how it still attracts viewers doing events like that. It just has the opposite effect on me. I actually find the trailers for

the 2016 finale off-putting rather than enticing. 'Biggest Season Final ever'. Really.

[Matt]

Perhaps no-one should criticise and blame her for everything then. It takes a lot of skill and talent, as you say, to be able to plot, storyline, write, edit, direct, produce, post-produce and publicise 5750 minutes of high-rating Australian drama - a hell of a lot more than it does to sit behind a computer screen and have a bitch and a moan about a show no one is forcing you to watch, but at the end of the day, bygones will be bygones. I just think that it's a matter of trying to put oneself into another person's shoes.

And God forbid some of you ever start watching Hollyoaks... Home and Away's 2 big disasters per year (the same amount, mind you, as Neighbours) has nothing on that...

[Homeandawayfan.]

8 hours ago, Matt said:

I think it's very easy for people to sit back and put the boot into Lucy because they don't like the direction that the show has taken. It's quite simple - if you don't like it, don't watch it. Her job as Producer is to make sure that the production of the show runs smoothly. Without her, there'd be a whole lot of scripts just sitting around, waiting to be acted out. Perhaps, I add cautiously awaiting the barrage of criticism I'll receive, those who aren't a fan of certain aspects of the show, realise that they aren't the only fans out there to please. Personally, there have been stories I haven't like - the resolution to the Charlotte King shooting - but I don't go slagging off the Producer who has kept the show going for almost six years. I realise that certain things don't work out the way one may have hoped and I move on. Whether or not she chooses to give an interview doesn't really matter, really. She's there to do a job - she does her job extremely well.

Imagine that you were in her job and what people are saying about her is being said about you. I wonder how you would feel. Just a penny...

With all due respect, and I may get accused of ageism here but you were not born when I used to come home from high school to watch Tug and Jack get into a hilarious school fight or Shane and Angel were having their big romance. And Pippa ruled the roost at SBH. I have watched the show for 25 years and the reason why I hate the way it is going is because I care too much for the show.

[John]

3 minutes ago, Homeandawayfan. said:

With all due respect, and I may get accused of ageism here but you were not born when I used to come home from high school to watch Tug and Jack get into a hilarious school fight or Shane and Angel were having their big romance. And Pippa ruled the roost at SBH. I have watched the show for 25 years and the reason why I hate the way it is going is because I care too much for the show.

I certainly respect that but I also respect the new generation of viewers who are developing a love for the current show and will carry it into the future long after geriatrics like myself are long gone.

[Matt]

4 minutes ago, Homeandawayfan. said:

With all due respect, and I may get accused of ageism here but you were not born when I used to come home from high school to watch Tug and Jack get into a hilarious school fight or Shane and Angel were having their big romance. And Pippa ruled the roost at SBH. I have watched the show for 25 years and the reason why I hate the way it is going is because I care too much for the show.

And I have seen those episodes, and agree, they were great times in the show - but the reality is that times have changed and that doesn't interest the demographics that the show is aimed at now. Back when you were a teen, that may have interested your age group but the basic fact of the matter is that times have changed.

[Skylover]

38 minutes ago, Matt said:

And God forbid some of you ever start watching Hollyoaks... Home and Away's 2 big disasters per year (the same amount, mind you, as Neighbours) has nothing on that...

I'd never watch Hollyoaks on a regular basis. That is the epitome of trash TV and the worst soap IMO. Not something H&A should be aspiring to.

ETA: I am only in my 20s and don't agree with how the show is. Not all young viewers like the current incarnations of H&A. It's not only older viewers who complain.

8 minutes ago, Matt said:

And I have seen those episodes, and agree, they were great times in the show - but the reality is that times have changed and that doesn't interest the demographics that the show is aimed at now. Back when you were a teen, that may have interested your age group but the basic fact of the matter is that times have changed.

That is true, and I'm sure I, and many others, don't expect the show to be mundane, yes, it has to be slightly OTT and melodramatic these days, as that is what the audience wants to an extent, but are crime stories the only highly dramatic stories?

Since when were affairs, miscarriages, abortions, homophobia, closet gays, transsexuals, anxiety disorders, bipolar, sibling rivalry, breaking down marriages etc not as dramatic as murders and witness protection? Are those topical, also highly dramatic issues not as relevant??

ETA: The OTT state of the show also doesn't explain why they want to brush their past under the carpet...Why haven't we seen Fin, Damian, Nathan, Martha, Shandi, Pippa etc?? All these characters who are dying to return. Is it dramatic to ignore the past?

[Homeandawayfan.]

8 minutes ago, John said:

I certainly respect that but I also respect the new generation of viewers who are developing a love for the current show and will carry it into the future long after geriatrics like myself are long gone.

I feel the same about Emmerdale as you do about H&A. The new younger viewers will carry the 44 year old Emmerdale into the future. But Emmerdale gets the balance a lot better than H&A. During the Farm days Emmerdale was slower but it did have drama and intrigue and has had to move with the times.

[Slade]

1 hour ago, Matt said:

And God forbid some of you ever start watching Hollyoaks... Home and Away's 2 big disasters per year (the same amount, mind you, as Neighbours) has nothing on that...

I didn't realise you guys get Hollyoaks down there.  Never really thought much about Aussies watching British Soaps TBH.

 

51 minutes ago, Edward Skylover said:

I'd never watch Hollyoaks on a regular basis. That is the epitome of trash TV and the worst soap IMO. Not something H&A should be aspiring to.

Say what you like about Hollyoaks but it's a soap that openly embraces diversity.  It's been mentioned here numerous times about diversity or lack of with regards to H & A even a whole thread dedicated to it but that's the one thing you can't knock Hollyoaks for - People of different ethnicities, gays, lesbians, bis, they've even explored transgender storylines for both sexes.  Most of the time the person's race, gender or sexuality is very rarely mentioned so the individual in question is fully accepted.

[Skylover]

Embracing diversity doesn't make it good

But I take your point, H&A lags behind in this area. Still hoping for Ash's gay prison mate to arrive 

[cadyctslover]

Not knowing what Lucy's job entails, nor the ability to do that type of job doesn't mean one can't have an opinion on her performance in that role.

The same noises were made in defence of Susan Bower when she was busy making Neighbours so unwatchable that it had to be moved to a digital-only channel. I don't want to stand by and let that happen to Home and Away.