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Are the current producers ruining Home and Away?


JamesC10

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Happy Birthday Home And Away. 27 years is a great achievement. I've no doubt you'll make 30. It will be interesting to see how you celebrate that milestone (maybe Zoe the stalker will come back from the dead and kidnap Brax and the town will lament over what a pillar of the community he is - on the other hand, a reunion of the Fletchers would be awesome, but would it be true to the current ethos of the series?).

Anyway, I agree with some posts above that it seems like a show of two halves, we have - to keep it simple - the "Braxtons & Braxton-hangers-on" vs "everyone else". Episodes where "everyone else" are dominant in the storylines, such as the Palmers or Alf are probably as good as your average H&A episode from years gone by. I could quite happily watch all those characters - there are some great long-running characters, although under-utilised. They could improve things by giving Irene a couple of foster kids, instead of random lodgers. Give Roo a couple more foster children and we could have the H&A of old.

Regarding Adam's question - I'm not the Braxtons' biggest fan - they are OK as long as they don't dominate. I also don't mind some crime/violence, as long as it's very sparingly used, rather than the norm. Do we actually know what the current H&A audience wants these days? I'm sure the series has lost some fans of the "fostering era" and gained some new River Boy fans. Do the producers do research to find out what the fans want, or do they just see the viewing figures (for some reason) are holding up OK, so keep delivering the same formula? By sticking to the current formula, they are playing it safe and keeping the current audience interested. Changing direction back to something more like "traditional H&A" would be a risk and require some creative thinking and hard work.

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Happy 27th birthday H&A today. 17 Jan 2015.

Give me scenes with Palmer, Maz, Jett, VJ, Alf and Roo and Leah and Irene any day, and Kyle seeing as he is the most mature Braxton.

Not so much VJ (This new guy ain't workin'!) but I agree with the rest. As said before, I'm burned out on stalkers, gangs and guns and all that tosh. I just want that country town community-based feeling the show had up until about 2009 back!

I want to see The Palmers Version 2.0 work.

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While the viewing figures have generally held up in Australia over the years, and fallen dramatically in the UK, it's impossible to tell how much of the current audience was watching 10 or 20 years ago.

Undoubtedly there will be a turnover of fans, mainly in teens and 20's, who "grow out of" or "grow into" the series, and there will be fans, like myself, who began watching over 25 years ago as teens. But I'm sure many people have given up on the series when it shifted away from family values, but at the same time, new viewers who enjoy all the OTT dramatics will have started watching.

So possibly H&A has alienated some of its audience and yet replaced it with a new audience. If that's the case, then chances are the majority of current viewers like the direction of the series.

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I would agree with that. I stopped watching Home and Away in 2005 when they had the never-ending Scott/Hayley/Kim baby saga, the OTT Summer Bay stalker storyline and Chloe being killed unnecessarily. From what I read, things got more OTT the following year with the Summer Bay Stalker returning, another plane crash, the murder of Josh West, Beth's dad marrying Amanda and Tasha getting pregnant at a cult. I was also not liking the newer characters who were coming through and starting to dominate the show (in particular Matilda, Martha, Amanda, Kim, Cassie and Rick

Despite me and probably others switching off, that was when the show's popularity started to rise in Australia again are quite a few years of average ratings and Logie Award ceremonies, which proves the point that if viewing figures don't change or they improve, the audience does change.

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2005 was still a show which had good scripts and many character driven stories as well as crimes.

The current direction started around 2009. At least it is a show of 2 halves in 2015 rather than a complete thriller/crime drama. You get Home And Away then The Braxton/Barrett EastEnders/Underbelly style. OK the current direction will probably be around for a while but at least write a decent script for the crime stories. But at least we still have the old school half of H&A with Palmer and Maz, Alf, Roo, Leah etc.

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The current direction started around 2009. At least it is a show of 2 halves in 2015 rather than a complete thriller/crime drama. You get Home And Away then The Braxton/Barrett EastEnders/Underbelly style.

I've been getting back into Eastenders recently (after about 10-15 years away from it) and actually you would be surprised. There is far more depth and warmth (and history) to the majority of the characters. The storylines can be dramatic and hard-hitting, but also very light-hearted and comedic. It also feels far more like a community than Summer Bay does. For me it's taken over from H&A as must-see.

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At least it is a show of 2 halves in 2015 rather than a complete thriller/crime drama. You get Home And Away then The Braxton/Barrett EastEnders/Underbelly style. OK the current direction will probably be around for a while but at least write a decent script for the crime stories. But at least we still have the old school half of H&A with Palmer and Maz, Alf, Roo, Leah etc.

Having just got back into Home and Away, I find myself recording it and watching it later so I can skip scenes/stories involving Brax, Ricki, Ash, Kyle, Phoebe, Nate and Sophie. In doing this, I actually find that it is having absolutely no impact as to what it is going on with the rest of the cast (apart from Nate or Ricki occasionally interacting with the others), so in many ways it is like they are two completely different shows. I find this much more enjoyable, although at times it means I only watch 4 or 5 scenes in a whole episode..

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