Are the current producers ruining Home and Away?

[DialMforMorag]

Interesting to see different views.

I actually enjoy the scenes with the 'older' cast in them: such as John, Marilyn, Irene, Roo, Leah and Alf. These scenes make Home and Away feel like Home and Away.

There is too many teenage dramas going on, or when that's not happening - it's all gang violence. I feel the past two years Home and Away has lost it's originality. It rarely leaves the viewer wanting more when the screen fades to black at the end of the episode... Normally the end of an episode leaves us 'hanging' (sarcasm) when a particular schoolgirl is unsure if the love of her dreams feels the same towards her... Or has been told to 'grow up'... Cringeworthy or what?

[gutterboy]

What a surprise what looks like one of the bigger storylines to end the year involves the Braxtons - Brax and his new best buddy going walkabouts to find his sister. I assume what is gonna happen here is they are gonna get the sister and bring her back to the bay so they can have yet another "Braxton girl" where all she does is hang around with that household all day.

[emmasi]

I'm about the same age as H&A is so I've been watching it off and on for most of my life. I would've been too young to remember the early years (although I was definitely traumatised by Bobby's death ), but I remember being very adamant about NOT watching it as a teenager because I thought it was all about stupid teenagers falling in and out of love with other stupid teenagers and I just didn't care because I didn't consider myself a stupid teenager and I couldn't relate to it at all. Then I went to university and quickly became a stupid adult so I was open to the idea of revisiting what I thought was a stupid show. However! What I saw was not all stupid. What I saw was Angie.

Oh. My. God. Angie. And the teens she was terrorising were not stupid teens, they were realistic teens caught up in a very sinister and captivating situation. There were characters I loved and characters I hated, and they were all consistently well written, so even when I hated someone I could say "UGH that is SO like them!! I HATE THEM SO MUCH!! :@" which was it's own kind of fun.

For me, 2004/2005 were the best seasons, but there was a definite decline towards the end of 2005. I still enjoyed the show but not as much. It was beginning to fall into the trap of life-and-death crisis after life-and-death crisis, inconsistent writing, and basic ratings-grabbing behaviour rather than focusing on well-rounded characters and well-thought-out storylines. Worst of all, characters I had loved for years were completely changed to suit random storylines, and the storylines themselves were forgotten within a few weeks, so it ultimately meant nothing. (I keep thinking of Ric becoming a meat-head underground fighter as an excuse for gratuitous shirtless violence - pretty to look at, sure, but ridiculously unbelievable!!)

The Summer Bay Stalker storyline was such a phenomenal success at the start of 2005 that the PTBs must have thought that we wanted that level of high-stakes edge-of-your-seat drama/chaos in every single episode. Well, we don't. That sort of thing works fine for once-a-week shows, because they happen, you know, once a week, and generally over a course of 12-24 episodes per year. Home and Away is (or was) on every weekday for ... um... let's say 45 weeks per year. That's somewhere in the region of 225 episodes per year. Dealing with crisis after crisis gets completely exhausting after a while. There's no time to digest one thing before you're already having the next one shoved down your throat the very next day, or even the same day.

The reason the Summer Bay Stalker storyline worked so well was that a) it was so unlike anything we'd seen before (unless you watched Days of Our Lives and saw the Salem Stalker the year before *cough*); b) we had months to digest it and speculate over it, with things gradually building up to a climax; and c) every single character in the bay was somehow affected by it! The crises of today are so constant and so specific to particular characters that there is no chance of the whole bay being affected by any one crisis, because chances are seven different characters are dealing with their very own Stalker at any given time!

Example: I remember when Aden kidnapped Geoff as a "joke" and it was pretty scary because Geoff was left in the boot of the car and it was a hot day. You could imagine some stupid kid doing that and thinking it was funny, and not really thinking it through to the conclusion that it could be deadly. Cut to this year where a similar thing happened, only it was more elaborate and therefore made less sense, and it included unrelated characters being dragged into mortal peril, and it was then all forgotten about within a couple of episodes with absolutely no consequences whatsoever for anyone involved, physically or emotionally. I had hoped that it would at least be the start of an unlikely friendship (as sort of happened with Aden and Geoff later down the line) but we didn't even get that. Everyone just went back to their corners, never to interact again until the next time the script randomly throws them together as "rivals" or "mates" or "family", and we're expected to believe that it all makes sense somehow.

Now, I'm hearing a lot of blame being placed on the Braxtons. I don't agree with that. I think "The River Boys" as a whole flood of criminals was a mistake, because that was overwhelming and annoying, but I think that Brax, Heath and Casey were a fine little family unit, very much like a criminal counterpoint to the police-presence the Holden family brought in. I thought that Kyle was an interesting addition to that family dynamic, but that the Barret's were (and are) overkill. They'd have been better off bringing Andy and Josh in on their own, although the current writers seem to struggle with the concept of people moving to new places just because they feel like it. I think the only people who have turned up of their own accord lately are Maddy and Spencer, who ran away from home and their parents were just like "whatevs" and let them both live with complete strangers... makes sense! ... and Nate who was outrunning his crazy wife or something. Summer Bay is a pretty nice place (geographically). It can't be that difficult to believe that people would choose to live there without having a long and complicated history with people who already live there.

You may well wonder why I have returned to this message board if I still have so many complaints about the show after all these years. Indeed, why watch the show at all? I watch out of habit, pure and simple. And because there's nothing better on. (The Project is on at the same time but it gets repeated late at night anyway). I returned to the message board because I thought that the aforementioned "example" storyline might mark a return to good story-telling, but it didn't. I'm still complaining because I'm still living in hope that someday, somehow, the show will return to the obsession inducing awesomeness it once was. I don't want to make anyone feel bad, I know people work hard on this show, but maybe people need to work hard TOGETHER to make sure things line up properly and make sense. I know there have been some exceptional actors on Home and Away in the past, and I'm sure there are some there now, but they aren't being given the opportunity to really shine, which is a shame. Maybe it's the demand for pointless sensationalism that has caused the writers/actors to seemingly lose interest in trying to realistically develop the characters and move their stories forward, rather than going around in confusing and frustrating circles.

Well I've been rambling for over two hours so I best go to bed... My main points were: avoid crisis-fatigue in a daily soap, write consistent and relatable characters, and don't rely on new characters having to have some SHOCKING connection to current characters. Have faith in the characters you create and don't throw them under the bus (perhaps literally!!) for a quick ratings grab, because newsflash: that tactic isn't rating anymore, if it ever was. Or, if you do throw a character under the bus, make sure there's some evidence of that having happened in the following episodes (like a band-aid or something) so that the betrayal actually meant something.

[CaptainHulk]

The way I see it, us UK fans prefer our Aussie Soaps lighter while the Aussies themselves prefer them when they're dark.

[Homeandawayfan.]

Well 1994 was a very light year and to me it seems over here in the UK H&A was one of the most popular TV shows that year. It was talked about in school and everywhere, people asked "Did you watch Home And Away last night". In 2014, people cannot say the same now, viewing figures have dropped in the UK.

We may have to accept that this style may be the style going forward for the show for some time to come unless there is a drastic turnaround. Get rid of the Barrett's, all of them especially Andy.

[cadyctslover]

The way I see it, us UK fans prefer our Aussie Soaps lighter while the Aussies themselves prefer them when they're dark.

Which is why it's sensible to write drama that combines lighter storylines and humour with serious themes. Neighbours have got this spot on currently IMO.

[alexx]

I was under the impression that H&A was at it's peak in popularity during the 1995-1996 era and again in 2000 when it won a soap award over there. Those years were dark and dramatic (bush fires, deaths, ghosts and robberies etc.) but also very warm and lighthearted. The 'Shane and Angel' years were also extremely popular in Australia too.

Also if you look at the success of shows like Packed to the Rafters and Winners and Losers, it seems evident that Australians also like to watch warmhearted and light storylines, as well as the darker stuff. So really I think the Australian and UK audience appreciate the same thing - just good quality character writing, strong drama and emotional storylines as well as a nice dose of lighthearted/feel good plots to balance it all out. Surely that's universal. I think a lot of people just take what they're given without really thinking about what could be done to improve the show to increase their enjoyment and that's fair enough, the majority of people don't think about it as much as us lot.

[jodlebirger]

I have the impression that the 2008 season in general was well appreciated all over, Australia, UK and other countries. That season was very dark, but it still had heart and a lot of character development and well written storylines!

I want drama, but I don't want shootings, enemies popping up with no real reason, and gangsters popping up without any reason. I want drama with everyday stuff, and also tragic and dramatic events that a lot of people can experience.

I prefer a mix, but not the mix we have now. I think the writers are trying too hard to be funny. But characters who are made to be there for the light scenes, are not funny at all. They are not better than the really dark ones. I wish the writers could go back and write the characters more like real humans with both darker and lighter sides. People with secrets but not secrets like which have no root in reality.

It is about how the storylines are written. I like long lost and secret relatives like Rick, but I don't like relative storylines like the one with Kyle. That was far too violent and without common sense!

[Homeandawayfan.]

Its not rocket science is it? I still live in hope there is a chance H&A can turn itself around. I like a good mix as even though 2005-2010 was dramatic, it had a good heart as well. Everything since 2011 has been all over the place. H&A is just 3 years away from reaching 30 years of age. I live in hope this period of the show will have died down by then. A good mix of drama, warmth, and some harsh music here and there is right. Neighbours plays harsh music from time to time and H&A should go back to things like that as now Neighbours is everything H&A used to be before 2011.

[RI4444]

Its not rocket science is it? I still live in hope there is a chance H&A can turn itself around. I like a good mix as even though 2005-2010 was dramatic, it had a good heart as well. Everything since 2011 has been all over the place. H&A is just 3 years away from reaching 30 years of age. I live in hope this period of the show will have died down by then. A good mix of drama, warmth, and some harsh music here and there is right. Neighbours plays harsh music from time to time and H&A should go back to things like that as now Neighbours is everything H&A used to be before 2011.

I live in hope too, but I don't think it's going to happen.