Are the current producers ruining Home and Away?

[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.

[Jacklost]

I thought the show had gotten bad by the horrible year that was 2010. The last years the show has been on its best. I love the show now! Not many shows manage to stay that good after almost 30 years Ps. I love the Braxton's

[630si]

Jack lost there won't be many who share your views!

Love them or hate them the Braxton's are now etched in the shows history. Just like the Stewart's, Roberts, Fletchers etc. It's just a shame it went on for so long. A lot of us fans were over it by 2012. I'm optimistic the writing will improve given recent behind the scenes hanged and I still do love the show. I'm also saddened people on here are tuning off. This is the nature of soap, bad periods are followed by good ones etc.

Theres a lot of cast changes happening too. Let's see where it goes.

[Jacklost]

Why won't there? I will be surprised if there's anyone who actually liked 2010 in Home and Away o.O

[Homeandawayfan.]

I still remain optimistic, it will not happen overnight and I was probably just looking on the worse side when I said it may never come, this improvement. But in all honesty I am practically a regular viewer again, and if improvements seem to be on the way I may be a full time viewer again like Neighbours.

At the mo H&A is more like EastEnders and Neighbours is like Corrie but in the past, esp in the 1990s H&A was the warm and fuzzy one like Corrie and Neighbours was more political like EastEnders.

As I said, rewatching 1988 H&A while it felt like The Carly Morris Show at times, it was much more modern and vibrant than Neighbours which was set in a cul de sac and was a bit behind the times.