Are the current producers ruining Home and Away?

[jodlebirger]

Will they heed Ray Meagher's words or just brush it under the carpet and just satisfy the target audience of viewers who are under 20 years old and carry on the endless tiresome crime stories and OTT pregnancy plots and love triangles. Lots of younger viewers like the direction of the show whereas us bunch of older fans who watched the show 20+ years ago find it is something they no longer recognise. Mischievous and fun teens of our day such as Damo and Shane replaced with violent hardened criminals like the Braxtons and Andy Barrett.

You're stereotyping mate! Sure some younger viewers like the current direction of the show because that's all they know with the plot-driven drama that is dished out these days but I think many younger viewers would be happy to see the show become what it used to be like pre-2000.

The show was popular with all ages in the 'good old days' so I can't see why it would be any different now. People of all ages will continue to watch if the show is consistently written well with good character-driven drama and an even spread of exposure for each character.

I suspect short-term characters get a lot more storylines purely because they only remain on the show for three years and the writers and producers want to add as much as they can with these characters before they're gone in a flash.

But the entertainment in general has changed a lot the last 20 years. Everything is more fast paced than it once was. Not only H&A has changed, everything from media, films, movies books, shows and so on. Things change and not always for the better... but you can't just bring back things like they once were and just expect them to be exactly the same.. Because we have changed, so most people will look at them with "different eyes".

But with that said, it is not an excuse for not writing consistent storylines, and characters with a good and more natural development. But I don't think bringing back H&A like it once was will be a success.

The show had to change with the times, but when you are developing something you still ned to evaluate it... and to take the most positive things about those things in the development and scrap those things that don't work anymore. You don't move a show or something else forward with scrapping everything about it both good and bad things, because then you are creating a new thing... and not developing the old one.

And sometimes I get the impression that everything new is exciting and then the producers are forgetting a bit too much about those things which actually are good and important about the show. It really felt like that when they started to change things in 2010.

[Jezz]

I agree about stereotyping. I was 16 when I started watching the early years and now i'm 21 so I can still be considered a new viewer.

My point exactly! Younger viewers also appreciate the Early Years as well.

But then using them too quickly can be just as detremental, as there is nowhere left to take them after a couple of years without being repetivie or the viewers getting sick of them. If they had more "down time", the actor might stay longer because the character is still a challenge and still getting interesting storylines. But I see your point - the longer they stay, the fewer storylines they get.

I completely agree but with a limited timeframe I just feel the writers and producers want them inundated with storylines consistently but the problem with this though is it erodes character-driven drama and it doesn't allow viewers to understand and get to know new characters who appear on the show for the first time.

Excuse me I am not stereotyping I can assure you.

I'm certain you didn't intentionally stereotype but by referring to people under 20 as being satisfied with the current format of Home and Away of 'endless love triangles and tireless crime stories' you're categorising everyone in that age group as being satisfied with these storylines when I'm sure there's many people in that age group who hold similar attitudes to you about the current state of the show and have their criticisms of it.

But the entertainment in general has changed a lot the last 20 years. Everything is more fast paced than it once was. Not only H&A has changed, everything from media, films, movies books, shows and so on. Things change and not always for the better... but you can't just bring back things like they once were and just expect them to be exactly the same.. Because we have changed, so most people will look at them with "different eyes".

But with that said, it is not an excuse for not writing consistent storylines, and characters with a good and more natural development. But I don't think bringing back H&A like it once was will be a success.

The show had to change with the times, but when you are developing something you still ned to evaluate it... and to take the most positive things about those things in the development and scrap those things that don't work anymore. You don't move a show or something else forward with scrapping everything about it both good and bad things, because then you are creating a new thing... and not developing the old one.

And sometimes I get the impression that everything new is exciting and then the producers are forgetting a bit too much about those things which actually are good and important about the show. It really felt like that when they started to change things in 2010.

I think every show that has lasted for many years needs to evolve for it to remain sustainable and fresh show to viewers.

However incorporating key elements and ingredients of the Early Years can still allow the show to evolve without it necessarily losing its roots and origins in the first place. That's the biggest challenge that the Home and Away crew confronts heading into the future.

I agree with your assessment that many things have changed in the past 20 years in the film and television industry.

[sindikatas]

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[Homeandawayfan.]

H&A has at least done well to be on our screens for over 27 years. I think all soaps go through peaks and troughs. I do take on board the thing about Dan Bennett, I think H&A will probably be a better show, still bold in storytelling like it has been since 2005 and carrying on some of the current direction but a better balance and better written stories. A cast cull would help and bring in a new family.

[cadyctslover]

Just yesterday I watched the final three episodes of the 2014 season with the bus crash. I have since made the decision to stop watching until the show makes a serious effort to improve creatively. 2014 has for me been the worst season of the show I have ever experienced, and for the first time last year I stopped watching regularly and didn't catch up on missed episodes.

I love the Palmers, Stewarts, Irene, and Leah, but I can't watch them be subjected to these torturous storylines, and read from such lacklustre scripts.

I'm done with boring characters - Chris, Denny, Hannah, Josh, Kyle, Nate, Oscar, Phoebe, Spencer, VJ - who add nothing to the show.

I'm tired of the focus on nasty, malicious characters - Andy, Brax, Maddy. So often we see these obnoxious characters behave in an unpleasant (or criminal) fashion without any underlying likeable traits. And for some reason we are meant to care when something unfortunate inevitably happens to them.

Sadly for Evelyn, as a character she falls into both these categories.

The 2014 season finale episodes were the epitome of what is wrong with the show currently. A group of unhappy, uninteresting people being subjected to some predictable, tragic events that have no consequence. I don't call this entertainment, and I haven't got enough spare time to watch just to see if it will improve.

[kmp1963]

Had hoped that things were changing with Brax leaving, a new cop in town, and a new script producer. But sadly no. After all his actual crimes,

Brax is going to jail for something he didn't do

, Kat is already being portrayed as the incompetent/uncaring meany picking on the poor little Braxtons and the system is useless and/or corrupt. No doubt one of the thugs that are the shows poster boys will save Phoebe when the cops fail. And as usual we are all supposed to feel oh so sorry for Brax and Ricky. Personally I would have loved Jake to kill Brax and I would love to see Brax and Andy do 20 years for Jakes murder. But it's the same old rubbish we've had for the last four years. So I will just have to keep voting with my remote, like the last 3 years.

[JamesC10]

I have actually stopped watching Home and Away now. It's a shame for me because I have been watching the show for many years. The current producers need to leave the show and I want a new passionate producer to join Home and Away and sort out the problems etc.

[alexx]

I tried to give it a go with a fresh perceptive at the start of 2015. I was pleasantly surprised to see Summer Bay House back and thought it could have been a hint at other changes but so far I've been bored and felt disconnected to most of the characters. Overall I still find it tedious and repetitive because there still isn't enough of a balance going on and many of the characters just blend into each other they're that similar. A lot of them look the same (dress the same way) they all talk the same way, kinda predictable which is very boring to watch.

Overall my views are that it is just so boring, it's not about 'crime' for me because those stories can be told in an engaging way (which they haven't been at all over the past few years Imo) - it's just the tone of the show, the direction, the characters, the scripts it's all so bland and boring to me and doesn't feel like H&A.

[Homeandawayfan.]

I keep hoping for an improvement in the show now SBH is back but I may just be hoping for an improvement that may never come.

[John]

I'm an optimist!!

I did find the introduction of the River Boys an interesting, new initiative to the show. I thought it did show something different about Australian society and provided a glimpse of a life away from the "sunny idealism"of Summer Bay.

That's not to say I think it was always very well handled. I did think that there was entirely too much focus on the criminal aspects of life on the "other side of the tracks" and not nearly enough emphasis on the human side of what brings about the social disadvantages these people face. I would have liked to see much more of Sheryl. I would like to have seen the introduction of the Braxton patriarch much earlier so that we could have understood more of the conditions the brothers faced. More exploration of the struggles that Brax faced in trying to be a substitute father would have helped as well.

I guess I'm agreeing with some others in saying that the whole period would have been much more interesting if the characters had been explored and developed in much more detail. Still I think the glimpse into the Surf Gang culture was a worthwhile excursion for Home and Away.

However I never thought that it was a permanent, radical change in the nature of the show but simply an era that would pass like other eras. Like the Josh West era and the cult with Tasha and Robbie etc.

I don't think the show has been permanently "ruined" although I understand that some may think so.

I agree with Ray Meagher that the balance has been wrong in recent times. As I've said above too much emphasis on the crime and not enough emphasis on the reasons for it.

I look forward to where the writers go from here. For me the River Boys era is over. The Band of Brothers no longer exists with Heath and Casey leaving. It was a worthwhile era but it's gone.

There is already a move toward much more involvement of the whole cast or large sections of it across the age groups which I really like.

I'm saddened by the fact that some members are no longer watching the show. If the show moves on to another era then they will miss out.