Are the current producers ruining Home and Away?

[Homeandawayfan.]

I am so glad that Neighbours has never got as far as H&A as to lose all of its originality. H&A has totally lost all of its originality now, whereas Neighbours is very much the same show at the core. I did watch last nights episode and it is just more shootings, people critically ill in hospital, cruelty and lives in danger. So yes I feel the show has been totally ruined. They don't understand what Home And Away is supposed to be about.

[Wanderer101]

33 minutes ago, Homeandawayfan. said:

I am so glad that Neighbours has never got as far as H&A as to lose all of its originality. H&A has totally lost all of its originality now, whereas Neighbours is very much the same show at the core. I did watch last nights episode and it is just more shootings, people critically ill in hospital, cruelty and lives in danger. So yes I feel the show has been totally ruined. They don't understand what Home And Away is supposed to be about.

I know the crime is more than it was in the past, but I think "Just more shootings" is far too much of a simplification if that's meant to be a summation. And why should something necessarily be about what it was originally when it began to exist?

[Skylover]

1 hour ago, Wanderer101 said:

I know the crime is more than it was in the past, but I think "Just more shootings" is far too much of a simplification if that's meant to be a summation. And why should something necessarily be about what it was originally when it began to exist?

Maybe it doesn't have to be. But it's totally unrealistic and a joke how it is now. I actually find it shocking that some people think it's really good.

[samdanfan]

30 minutes ago, Edward Skylover said:

Maybe it doesn't have to be. But it's totally unrealistic and a joke how it is now. I actually find it shocking that some people think it's really good.

Your really want to talk crime read the Aussie media My God Melbourne  a bad place and people pick on Sydney. IF they wanted to be real they be more crime in Ramsey Street.

[Homeandawayfan.]

10 years ago in 2007 H&A was very respectful of its roots, and was more dramatic than 1997 but was fun and it evolved naturally, it took the show into its 20th anniversary. But that all started to tail off in 2009. I too get a bit sick of being told "Home And Away cannot live in the past" or "H&A has moved on" when we complain about the direction the show has taken since 2009. It can be quite patronising.

[Wanderer101]

I never commented on what the show /should/ be, since I'm not entirely convinced on what it should be. All I asked was why it should stay at its roots for the people who believe that's the case.

[Skylover]

20 minutes ago, Wanderer101 said:

I never commented on what the show /should/ be, since I'm not entirely convinced on what it should be. All I asked was why it should stay at its roots for the people who believe that's the case.

It doesn't have to care about it's roots, it just has to be good. And it isn't. I could write probably 40 episodes of current Home and Away in a week. It's not hard to  write an explosion, a stabbing, a shooting,  a car being stolden, and random members of the public living with other random members of the public. The whole show is lazy and written as if it's targeting people who are stupid. It doesn't try.

[samdanfan]

Bad writing is everywhere. There is nothing wrong for wanting the show to create good Characters and stories for them to work with. I know its going to be hard to get a Logie star like Lisa McCune yet others could have. Edward your so right. I know what its like to follow a franchise here In America out of devotion  yet sometimes things has to end.

[c120701]

 

5 hours ago, Edward Skylover said:

The whole show is lazy and written as if it's targeting people who are stupid. It doesn't try.

I have to disagree that it's the whole show, there are some wonderful character moments, albeit I'm not up to Oz pace, but the Morgans looking forward to freedom and a real future, VJ's mature attitude towards finding out he isn't the biological father of Billie's baby & standing by her - this being a young man who's wanted a stable father figure in his life himself, but never quite got it. We've also had Alf reconnecting with Duncan as was said previously and some really touching scenes between Justin & Raffy over Decker. The show can be written well and is at times, it's when it tries to be something other than a show about human nature and life, about the story rather than the characters, that's when it doesn't work. There have been times where it has gone that way, but I'd say there's been about two or three years now where there has always been a human element to cling onto, even if there are stories that just don't appeal to long term fans running alongside that.

[Dan F]

7 hours ago, Homeandawayfan. said:

I did watch last nights episode and it is just more shootings, people critically ill in hospital, cruelty and lives in danger. So yes I feel the show has been totally ruined.

To be fair, on reading the UK thread, you said you chose to watch an episode in full for the first time in however long it's been. Whether deliberate or not, you happened to choose an ep in a week where the Morgan storyline is coming to a climax. To then conclude that the whole show revolves around the same thing is a bit of a leap.

 

Anyway, Dan Bennett has been reading the thread (yes, TPTB do read the comments on here) and would like to offer up the following response:

What's wonderful is everyone's entitled to an opinion. No one would have it any other way. But comments such as: "The whole show is lazy and written as if it's targeting people who are stupid. It doesn't try" is as insulting as it is incorrect. The people who work on Home and Away (and sweat their butts off - 14 hours a day - week in, week out) do so to deliver the highest ratings possible. Because that's the job. Their careers literally depend on it. So there's never a minute they're lazy or not trying.

This is the reality: the television landscape has changed. As I've said before: if the show was made exclusively for the die-hard fans, it would be different. But the die-hard fans alone don't make up the audience base. In fact, the die-hards are an incredibly small portion of the nightly audience. The demographics are changing as viewing habits change, and the show must (as it is) evolve accordingly. It's utterly necessary. AND proving to be the right course of action. In the show's 30th year, it's still a dominant force in its time slot. That's unprecedented in Australia, in any genre.

So, yes, please disagree and offer opinions - but don't moan about the show not trying, or any of the people who work on it. Lucy Addario is one of the best producers I have ever worked with. The comments are verging on bullying.

Per above: opinions on storylines are wonderful. Please continue to deliver them. But character assassinations of the people who make the show are unacceptable.