j.laur5 Posted February 12, 2015 Report Posted February 12, 2015 Was that other than family no one else seemed upset beside seeing them crying at funeral!. There was no Irene saying Ailsa is my best frined and always believed in me. And No Sally or Leah saying she has been a second mum to me!. Thoughts ?.
rachel1990 Posted February 12, 2015 Report Posted February 12, 2015 Fair enough. Alisa was the first death of an original character since 1993. She WAS summer bay and there should have been a mass turn out at her furenal. For example no Roxy no Blake no Curtis and no Karen. Emma didn't send a message for her Aunt's death (I Will give the producers a break for that one!) and neither of her siblings came either who we had met. Also Pippa was a close friend and so should have come with Sally!! A message from Roo would have been good as well! To be fair Madge from Neighbours was killed off a couple on months after Alisa and the producers were just as bad over there with her funeral so it wasn't just Home and Away getting it wrong. But my god they got it wrong with the context of the funeral as well. Only 5 minutes!!! It should have been a whole episode with SOME flashback clips. Maybe Judy had annoyed them in some way. Many people I know who watched the show years ago are stunned when I tell them Alisa is dead because they had no idea. Thats how little impact her death had on the show and in peoples minds!!
beau_t Posted February 12, 2015 Report Posted February 12, 2015 Yeah absolutely!! I hate the fact that none of the characters outside of the family seemed to care Ailsa had died. This was because of the stupid time-jump they did. It works for some kind of finales but really failed for this one. We needed to see Ailsa being rushed to hospital, the drama it created, and we really needed to see characters like Donald, Sally and Irene finding out and saying goodbye to Ailsa. I'd especially have liked to see Shauna finding out as well - I could imagine that would have been really dramatic and emotional considering she'd only just found Ailsa after all these years. That would have been a classic scene. I remember seeing an interview with Judy Nunn where she said she felt hurt by the writing of Ailsa's death storyline and I don't blame her, it's really disrespectful. I will give credit where it's due, the actual writing of the funeral itself is quite good especially Donald's eulogy. But none of the right people are there, and once the funeral's over the storyline is pretty much over for everyone apart from Alf and Duncan. All the good stuff was missed. I don't really understand how a group of writers could think that was a good way of doing it.
alexx Posted February 12, 2015 Report Posted February 12, 2015 I agree with you Beau. That's how I would have liked Ailsa's death to be written (we see the immediate aftermath and her in hospital/trying to save her). It really started 2001 off on a very bad note and the rest of the year was quite the same really, very slow but bland. Totally different to 2000, Ken's death and immediate aftermath was so much more engaging and emotional.
Trudy Heine Posted February 13, 2015 Report Posted February 13, 2015 I didn't see the whole episode but I think they should've done the scenes in hospital saying goodbye to Ailsa, instead of the car crash story when Duncan dropped the tape. No offence, however would've made it more emotional.
adam436 Posted February 13, 2015 Report Posted February 13, 2015 For an original character who had been with the show for 13 years, she deserved better. It was more that she just dropped dead and that was it. The writers even escaped the immideate aftermath by skipping to her funeral in the 2001 opening. We should have seen Fisher, Irene and Sally react to the news of her death and the producers should have least tried to bring back some of the old cast (eg. Pippa, Morag, Celia, Blake and Karen, Aaron, Curtis.. even Carly, Steven and Lance who was making frequent visits to his mum) but I suspect no one was even approached. There was no build up to it either and she didn't have a pre-exisiting condition. For example, if Alf or Irene died of a heart attack, it would be more believeable because they have survived heart attacks in the past, just like we were aware of Tom's health condition when he died in 1990. I think they should have had more of an event (eg. a major accident, followed by life support) or a slow death (like Flynn's) to give her family and close friends a chance to say goodbye at the hospital. Maybe the producers were annoyed with her because she quit after the writers put so much time into the Ailsa/Shauna storyline so they gave her a cheap exit.I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason Judy quit was because she was fed up with the storylines Ailsa had in her final few years, such as the car accident (marking the second time Ailsa has gone crazy) and the Ailsa/Shauna stuff. Ailsa's death was the final nail in the coffin of the Golden Era of Home and Away (1988-2000). A new family were living in Summer Bay House, two of the most recongisable sets were destroyed within weeks of each other (the Stewart Home since the first episode and the Bayside Diner since 1989) and a number of high profile characters (Sam, Marilyn, Chloe, Justine, Travis and Rebecca, the Nashes) had all departed within the last 18 months. I really don't the show really recovered from all these changes happening so close together.
beau_t Posted February 13, 2015 Report Posted February 13, 2015 such as the car accident (marking the second time Ailsa has gone crazy) More like the 4th time!
adam436 Posted February 14, 2015 Report Posted February 14, 2015 I thought it was the second, after seeing Bobby in 1995? Or are you including when she tried to smother Duncan? Have I missed any others?
beau_t Posted February 14, 2015 Report Posted February 14, 2015 I thought it was the second, after seeing Bobby in 1995? Or are you including when she tried to smother Duncan? Have I missed any others? She also had a breakdown after the 1998 diner siege, which resulted in her trying to shoot Alf when he walked into the house.
Jezz Posted February 15, 2015 Report Posted February 15, 2015 Beau_T's post is spot on! I don't think killing off Ailsa was necessarily a bad idea as I couldn't have imagined her and Alf separating and then eventually divorcing after everything they'd been through in the past 12 years but the execution of this storyline was poor. Seeing the reactions of certain characters as Beau mentioned in his post would have been brilliant but none of that was shown and like the deaths of Helen and Madge in Neighbours returnees were severely lacking. Also I didn't like the way most characters moved on quickly from her death apart from Alf and Duncan. I actually believe Duncan was the only character that was severely affected by his mother's death for a number of years as we saw with his demeanour changing in 2001 and getting worse when he returned in 2004 completely off the rails. I don't think he truly started moving on from his mother's death until about 2004/2005 when he went to the US and lived with Roo and then came back a different and more mature person in 2005 for Alf's 60th Birthday. Interesting that some people call this event the end of the golden era as we know it for Home and Away. Some would argue that era was over in 1993 with Bobby's death whereas others would say it was over around 2003-2004 when we had a noticeable shift towards plot-driven storylines under Dan Bennett and some would argue Sally's departure in 2008 was the end of the show as we truly remember it. I guess people have different interpretations of this and opinions vary significantly.
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