Are the current producers ruining Home and Away?

[greg098]

I tried to give the show another chance after this season started back up but I found it boring. I wasn't interested in tuning in. However Neighbours has gotten me hooked again. With their 30 year anniversary episodes and the excitement of old cast members returning, it has made me want to watch the show again. At the moment, Home and Away is offering nothing for me so I'm not watching it. If the writing becomes better, they remove most of the cast and replace them with new characters who aren't plain and boring and they move away from the crime drama then I will tune in again. Until that happens, I can't see the point in watching it.

[Light of the Bay]

Neighbours has really turned around and I find myself wanting to catch the next episode as they have interesting stories going on and many of the characters are well developed and interesting to watch. There needs to be a cast cull and some major changes behind the scenes. Lucy Addario should step down and someone who knows the show or a person who has a passion for character led drama and the 'spirit of the show' should take over. Once

Brax goes (his exit storyline is boring, yet more poor writing)

the ratings will dive and Lucy may be pushed out rather than leaving of her own accord.

This show needs to find that balance it once possessed and portray interesting characters living their life in the quiet town of Summer Bay. Ditch the themes (remember the 2009 Mystery or the sickening 2010 Bay of Love?) and focus on the characters and their lives.

[Gerard]

I can't say I'm really enjoying H&A (UK pace) at the moment. I suppose it's natural after the "dramatic" end of year cliffhanger that there will be weeks of hospital scenes and angst in the fallout. But as usual, the long term cast are sidelined while we're meant to care about those who are injured. I can't say I'm really invested enough in any of the "younger" cast to care who lives and who dies. They are all pretty much interchangeable these days.

I have also no idea who's supposed to be going out with who any more. Chances are they'll be going out with someone else in a month or two anyway. It's nice to see Summer Bay House exterior back, but that alone is not enough to turn the show around. H&A used to be quite good at the emotional stuff and tugging at the heart strings, but at times I find it hard to get drawn in to all that. On the other hand, I'm finding that Neighbours is everything H&A is not at the moment, warm, engaging, humorous, and I'm excited to watch it. Hopefully some time soon I'll feel that way about H&A again, but I agree, there needs to be a cast cull and also a refocusing on distinctive characters we actually want to care about, and can understand why they do they things they do, for who they are, rather than what life-changing issue they're dealing with today and will have forgotten tomorrow.

[630si]

Any changes that are made will take around 6 months to filter out on screen. More like 7 for us in the UK. It won't happen overnight we just need to trust Bevan Lee again. He knows the shows history. Didn't he write the first episode or something? So I'm confident the depth to the characters and storyline will return.

[Dan F]

Any changes that are made will take around 6 months to filter out on screen. More like 7 for us in the UK. It won't happen overnight we just need to trust Bevan Lee again. He knows the shows history. Didn't he write the first episode or something? So I'm confident the depth to the characters and storyline will return.

It's Dan Bennett that's taken over as Series Script Exec, not Bevan.

Though still credited on current eps as the Network Script Executive, Bevan actually hasn't had anything to do with H&A for over 4 years (and has taken leave from Seven in recent months to explore other opportunities in LA anyway).

[630si]

Ahhhhhhh!!!! Thanks for putting me straight.

[cadyctslover]

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

In my view the 2010 season was streets ahead of 2013/14. Although it didn't really hit the mark overall, at least they tried to make the show distinctive again.

Right now Home and Away could be any lazy, characterless soap opera.

[Jezz]

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.

Great post John!

I think the introduction of the Braxtons was a unique move for the show to explore a more darker culture in Australia which is prevalent in certain areas. After all the River Boys are loosely based on the surfer beach gang known as the Bra Boys in New South Wales.

There's no doubt that the balance hasn't always been right over the years. The Braxtons have been the forefront of the show for a number of years but it was never going to last forever

and with Brax's departure coming up soon I sense that will be the end of the Braxtons as we knew them even if Kyle sticks around for a while yet.

I've enjoyed the Braxtons and I'm eager to see how the show evolves and the direction it takes

after Brax's inevitable departure.

[Bobby Forever Missed]

I tried tuning in yesterday and tonight (Australia pace) but ended up switching off after 5 minutes as the teens got all the screentime sorry but i'm NOT interested in who's going out with who or who's going to die it's safe to say the current show is dead to me

[Dan F]

Another reminder to please keep spoilers out of here please, this is the General Discussion area so no talk of anything that hasn't yet aired in the UK, or is yet to air in Australia.