Are the current producers ruining Home and Away?

[Slade]

Oh so we're back to trolling again?

Back to trolling 'again'. Really? I've made roughly three times as many posts as you. Please feel free to look through some of them and remind me the last time I actually trolled. I may not have posted in this thread before but I still read it. This section of the forum is supposed to be at UK pace. I get that people make mistakes from time to time but this has been pointed out before and numerous posts have been edited because they've contain spoilers. You gave away a major storyline when you shouldn't have. And I make no apologies for calling you out about it!

[Gerard]

I can understand why some people feel that the current show isn't Home And Away anymore and is a new show using an old shows name, and is just set in the same town and has Alf in it.

Would any of you class it as the same show (or at least basic programme) that has been on since 1988 or has it morphed into a separate show using the title Home And Away?

I guess the nature of soap is that it is always evolving. Characters, locations and storylines come and go, but it's a good question - at what point does the series evolve into something completely different? When does it reach "the point of no return"?

Summer Bay and Alf are still there. but Ray Meagher isn't going to be there forever. When he leaves, is that the point H&A ends as we know it? Or are we already at the point where the series can never return to its core values? I'm sure a lot of long term viewers feel like this isn't what we signed up for, and in the same way, we could give up watching, but equally we resent that someone has morphed our show into something we don't want. We can choose to stick with the show and hope it improves, or move on and lfe continues. How much of a say in the direction of the series should the fans have? We don't own the show, we just enjoy watching it.

For me, H&A certainly isn't what it once was, and there are plenty of moments where I would sigh in despair, but there are also some enjoyable moments and a few good characters around. Will H&A ever turn itself around into something closer to what it used be, or are we forever down the road of no going back? Without a doubt H&A could re-introduce a foster family and tone down the criminality, but is that what delivers ratings in current times?

[Red Ranger 1]

Well, this thread got a bit heated for more than one reason. Here’s my thoughts on what I’ve seen of 2014: It’s got good and bad points. It might be a bit extreme to write off an entire year and I think there have been previous ones equally bad, but I do think that this year has seen some of the worst Home and Away has had to offer.

I think the storyline surrounding Casey’s death pretty much sums up the show’s problems. Speaking purely personally, I found it hard to get too upset because of the melodrama, the unsympathetic view I took of many of the characters and the fact that a lot of characters had to clutch the Idiot Ball really hard in order for it to happen. The revenge storyline that followed and its outcome are quite possibly a contender for the worst thing Home and Away’s done and the nadir of the type of story the show should be moving on from. It managed to practically undo three years of character development for Brax, nearly did the same for Heath in the space of one scene, came close to ruining Kyle and made the Barretts practically irredeemable. I saw comments trying to explain away characters’ action by claiming the show has a “screwed moral code” but the point is it didn’t used to and it shouldn’t now. There are soaps with screwed moral codes and it gets to the point where it’s hard to care about anything as actions cease to have consequences. (We’re already at the point where the representatives of the law have to veer between super-competent and completely incompetent, with whether or not a character goes to jail depending entirely on whether they’re needed for future episodes rather than any sort of logic.) There’s a thin line between social commentary and just showing what happens without any real story point. If you try, you can see Casey’s death as a message that if you choose to be a part of that world you pay the price: Brax thought he could have it all, make money by illegal means and then become respectable, but made enemies who wouldn’t let go. But the message is muddled, and muddled still further by the actions that follow. In the end, it seems to come down to guns and car chases looking good in the publicity. The attempt to involve other characters just makes it even harder to believe that Alf Stewart and Darryl Braxton belong in the same show: The rest of the community basically indulge in wilful blindness as to what that nice boy next door and his family are really up to, and don’t ask too many questions when the bodies pile up. And there was absolutely no reason to involve Denny, the relationship was shallow and forced and she was left doing her grieving apart from the main storyline. It feels a bit like the wrong turn Neighbours took a decade ago, expecting the audience to enjoy Paul Robinson’s villainy and ignore the fact he’s a murderer because, hey, he only killed someone that no-one liked.

I actually think Maddy has been wildly inconsistent but that’s just a symptom of a wider problem that has seen pretty much all the teens character assassinated this year to create conflict (eg Sasha suddenly being up herself and hated by everyone during the school captain campaign, Oscar spending a week randomly punching people for no real reason). It was almost like Maddy and Evelyn swapped over to facilitate Josh arbitrarily switching girlfriends mid-season (and for me, Maddy’s still nowhere near as bad as Evelyn). Part of me wants a decent pay-off, part of me just wants the storyline over.

I’m cautiously optimistic about Maddy’s cancer storyline. I do worry it’ll be done and dusted too quickly but to be honest, unless they actually kill the character, cancer storylines are always stuck with the model of “Character gets ill, character has treatment, character gets better, character does something else.”

A few weeks into the new VJ and I think it’s been a disaster. I want to say I’ve got nothing against Matt Little and he’s entitled to work but hey, he didn’t have to take the role. Oh well, maybe they’d have cast a grown man as VJ whatever the case. But it’s just absurd expecting us to believe that he’s 15. You see him next to Matt and Sasha and he looks like what he is, whereas he should look like a younger teen hanging out with the older kids. It’s changed the dynamic irreparably and it just doesn’t feel right.

Positives, and I will try and be positive. I think Maddy is a good character when she’s done right and not treated like a designated villain, and there is potential in her relationship with Alf and Roo, it just needs to be written with consistency. I think Matt’s story arc has worked well, even though there are times I don’t like him, and he’s another character with potential. I think Oscar’s storyline has been handled well: Maybe some of the symptoms, like the eating disorder, have been a bit random, but the fact is that, rather than being dismissed easily, his anxiety issues continue to be there, bubbling under the surface. I liked John and Marilyn’s wedding, even if some aspects were puzzling, and they have potential if the show gives them meaty stuff to work with. The older characters (Alf, Irene, Leah, Zac, John, Marilyn, Roo) are basically likable. Chris has been a success and, after seeing her as a pointless character for much of the year, I’m starting to think Phoebe might have her uses as well. It’s not all doom and gloom.

As for the spoilers issue, I don’t want to seem like I’m laying down the law and I’d certainly never stop anyone from posting in here, but this section is meant to be at UK pace: I’ve come in here and seen things I’d rather I hadn’t and others have done the same. I realise it’s frustrating, especially since with the UK Christmas break coming up no-one will be able to mention the finale in this section until 11 weeks later, but if you really do need to discuss the specifics of a recent storyline and can’t do it in the weekly thread on Australian Discussion, that’s what spoilers tag are for.

[cadyctslover]

I guess the nature of soap is that it is always evolving. Characters, locations and storylines come and go, but it's a good question - at what point does the series evolve into something completely different? When does it reach "the point of no return"?

Summer Bay and Alf are still there. but Ray Meagher isn't going to be there forever. When he leaves, is that the point H&A ends as we know it? Or are we already at the point where the series can never return to its core values? I'm sure a lot of long term viewers feel like this isn't what we signed up for, and in the same way, we could give up watching, but equally we resent that someone has morphed our show into something we don't want. We can choose to stick with the show and hope it improves, or move on and lfe continues. How much of a say in the direction of the series should the fans have? We don't own the show, we just enjoy watching it.

That's an interesting one. I believe Home and Away in 2014 is in roughly the same place as Neighbours was in 2010.

There are a group of individuals in charge of the show who don't understand it. They had some initial success with a certain group of characters and storyline structure, and have chosen to rehash the same formula ever since. Fans are certainly divided but a growing cohort recognise the damage being inflicted on the show. Decisions that are made in the interests of attracting new viewers take their toll on long-term viewers. Inevitably these methods fail and when popular characters leave the 'conquest' viewers go too.

However I must say, even compared to Susan Bower I don't believe I've seen producers so actively display such contempt for their viewers.

[pembie]

I have mostly enjoyed this year up to the point of Casey's death Denny and Casey getting together was also super bad I think. Having Andy murder Jake was pretty bad also It should have been Brax who killed him. Jake's murder has now just been dropped, and we are suppose to see Andy as some kind of hero because of Jake being such a bad guy. The casting of VJ has been awful too. Oh and Brax's new story with Ash I haven't really liked that either. But other than that It's been pretty good

[Gerard]

I don't have much of an idea what's coming up, but I assume neither Andy nor Brax will go down for Jake's murder. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole issue is dropped within a week or two. I do think it's apalling that we are expected to side with Andy who murdered Jake, and Brax who didn't, (only because Andy got there first). And now Brax and Andy are best mates. "Home and Away" used to send out such a positive moral message about families caring for disadvantaged young people, and now it just seems to say that evil deeds are OK, especially if they are in revenge for an equally evil deed. No doubt Brax and/or Andy will do something heroic in weeks to come to redeem themselves, and Alf will pat them on the back and say "Summer Bay will be all the poorer if you were not in it"...

[pembie]

I have mostly enjoyed this year up to the point of Casey's death Denny and Casey getting together was also super bad I think. Having Andy murder Jake was pretty bad also It should have been Brax who killed him. Jake's murder has now just been dropped, and we are suppose to see Andy as some kind of hero because of Jake being such a bad guy. The casting of VJ has been awful too. Oh and Brax's new story with Ash I haven't really liked that either. But other than that It's been pretty good

Oh yeah I also don't like what a goodie two shoes Sasha has become but other than that the shows been good

[Red Ranger 1]

Aside from the fact that I’m disappointed the show would even suggest that murdering someone is okay, the main dramatic problem with Andy killing Jake isn’t that Brax should have done it but that it doesn’t actually mean anything. If Andy had killed Jake to stop Brax doing it and gone to jail in Brax’s place, that would have meant something, it might even qualify as a redemptive act in a way. But if Andy kills Jake so Brax doesn’t (even though Brax probably wouldn’t have done it anyway at that point) and nothing happens to him or Brax as a result and neither of them’s at all bothered by it…so what? It’s such a meaningless, empty act that Jake might as well have been killed by a faulty light fitting falling on his bed.

[Sup]

I have watched H&A on and off for a long time and I don't remember it ever being this boring and predictable.

I think the problem is that almost all the characters are extremely poor and predictable. No one has any depth or any real issues. And if someone has a real problem, it goes away in a few weeks to never be spoken of again. It would be much better if these problems got developed over a longer time, so people got to care about the characters a little bit. Same with the love stories. How do they expect anyone to care when characters fall in love and become a couple within a few weeks worth of episodes?

I'm also really sick of the "bad boy turned good" theme. Bring in a truly evil character instead. Or maybe try a "good guy turned bad" storyline.

[Blaxland 89]

Does anyone know how Sally's liilte girl is getting on with the treatment?

There never seems to be any proper follow up from stories anymore.

I know its all about opinions, but surely no one can argue the writing is so poor in comparison to the early years.