Are the current producers ruining Home and Away?

[c120701]

The thing is, I believe Matt Little as an older version of Felix Dean's VJ, they don't look too dissimilar, and Matt has got better at playing down, but I agree we seem to have skipped too much of his life.   There's a point where SORAS helps give a parent more story, but there's also a point where it reduces the years of story they have. Leah needed VJ to be older when they brought in Felix Dean, but now rather than Leah having a good 5/6 years of being a mother to a high school student, it's been cut down to about 3 or 4. Where does VJ go after high school? Ok, really I think he should follow in Vinnie's footsteps and become a lifeguard, but how many years will Matt Little stick around? I'm surprised he's stayed this long though.

[j.laur5]

I think H&A is way more exciting to watch than Neighbours which is a dull fest since it returned!

[~Lynd~]

It depends on why you watch a show.I personally prefer Neighbours these days.The characters have personalities and you get to actually invest in them.I don't think the shape of HAA is any one person's fault.I've learned to accept that it'll  never be the show I've loved almost my entire life though I still don't see any reason why it can't be.I still like it enough to watch it but I'm not obsessed anymore and that'll have to be enough.

[samdanfan]

2 hours ago, ~Lynd~ said:

It depends on why you watch a show.I personally prefer Neighbours these days.The characters have personalities and you get to actually invest in them.I don't think the shape of HAA is any one person's fault.I've learned to accept that it'll  never be the show I've loved almost my entire life though I still don't see any reason why it can't be.I still like it enough to watch it but I'm not obsessed anymore and that'll have to be enough.

Both have their good and bad and your so right It never be as we would like and as a friend here in America said be glad you were able to enjoy the era,

I feel the same.

[Luke39]

The format for h and a is performing. So that's it really. Neighbors has better balance and pacing. The characters have mostly better stories. Enjoying Dee right now. Although they are doing a Paige Pregnency storyline ATM. Not as good as The Billie one imo.

Shows changed too much. I agree it's not one persons fault. Mixture of things. You could say shift to a more crime focused show since 2010. Writing, producer decisions etc. 2008 was the last great year imo. But I still enjoy it mostly. Recently it's improved. 

[Skylover]

1 minute ago, Luke39 said:

Shows changed too much. I agree it's not one persons fault. Mixture of things.

After reading Dan Bennett's interview it's quite clear to me that there seems to be a view that ratings = OTT drama. Which I don't think is necessarily true. Character-led drama can also lead to big moments and draw in ratings.

[Homeandawayfan.]

Dan Bennett agrees that the crime element has got too prolific now but he says they have to satisfy the shows financiers. So maybe Channel 5 has a lot of say as well as 7, seeing as 5 help fund the production costs of H&A.

[Dan F]

Despite what was reported at the time, Channel 5 have never had any creative input into the show. That comes direct from past Script Producers who would have been the first to know if they had.

And whilst there's three different threads this could go into, I'm going to post it here and hope it's taken into account everywhere....

On the topic of who is (or in this case isn't) working against diversity being introduced into the show:

For those not aware, that is of course Lucy Addario he's talking about.

[Skylover]

Thanks Dan.

I definitely think it's high up executives at Channel 7 who are blocking diversity.

They won't be able to do that forever. Channel 5 is H&A's main investor and I imagine probably a much larger channel than Network 7, so I think eventually they'll have to intervene and the producers will finally have freedom to do what they want. It just depends how long the blatant homophobia goes under the radar.

[Luke39]

I always thought the shows backers, or financers, you could argue even sponsors. Restricted freedom. I don't think their is blatant homophobia on the show though. Simply because of a lack of diversity. I think that maybe a bit too harsh.