Moral Yardstick vs Popular Culture.

[Frankie]

In an interview with the wonderful "Pippa"... aka..the fantastic Debra Lawrence.... on the main site... CLICK HERE Debra was asked about how the show has changed over the years. She comments that once Home And Away was a moral yardstick... but that this is perhaps no longer the case.. with popular culture.. whatever that is... now taking over.

For those of us who have watched the show since were knee high to a wombat ... ... this may ring true. So many of the early stories were about kids being rescued... about redemption... and about people actually being good to each other. They had their baddies of course... like Brad, and Saul and Robert.... The other thing which they did was to cast "ordinary" looking people in the main parts... not the ex models and the "hunks" which they do today.... which meant that they could all act for a start

So...is the quest for "ratings" leading to this earlier innocence ... and realism.. and warmth.. etc...being lost?

What do you think?

[penny lane]

I would agree that Home and Away is very sensationalized - but that has been the case for a long time. The furthest back storyline i can think of to illustrate this is when Selena was kidnapped, for instance. Furthermore, the show has had a long history of one natural disaster after another!

However, despite this, I still believe that Home and Away could potentially act as a 'moral yard stick' in that most of the permanent characters, while certainly flawed, are basically 'good' people and a strong sense of community prevails. Indeed, I think that Home and Away always seems to provide a much more uplifting message than many of the British soaps.

Of course, the show has had to move with the times and address issues facing young people today, but i think the show does this in a responsible way. None of the young characters are overtly sexual, illegal activities (i.e drinking or doing drugs) always have repercussions and most of the kids are pretty well motivated in terms of their future. All in all, i would say that - if anything - it's rather an idealistic portrait of teens, particularly in comparison to other dramas.

[Daisyap]

^I thought this thread was going to be about that last paragraph you wrote there. While I think the way the characters are portrayed is a good example I think it's pretty unrealistic. The teenagers always wait a long, long time to sleep together even when in serious relationships which is very uncommon in this day and age. They also have very deep complicated relationships well beyond their years! Threre's a lot of things I could say that are unrealisitc but this is a place to appreciate the show so I won't!

I agree there seems to be a lot more bad characters and evil plotting now but all the 'good' characters are still very helpful to others and want to be friends with everybody.

[claire_louise]

I agree with Daisyap, but at the same time I think there needs to be a balance between realism and idealism. Sometimes I do find it cringeworthy when the characters get on their moral high-horse - the extreme reaction to Martha's pole dancing, for example. At the same time as the Martha storyline there was a storyline on Coronation Street where one of the characters became a prostitute, and the reaction when people found out was about the same as the reaction on H&A! But then again, one of the reasons I prefer H&A to British soaps is that it isn't like real life. Sometimes it's nice to see people who are genuinely 'good', as opposed to the deeply flawed characters in Eastenders etc.

[alexx]

I just think they need to go back to being more unique, there wasn’t a show like H&A, and whilst it still is original, I do feel like it has leant towards the more American/OC type stuff, and the credits and just overall production.

Its not like the show used to be in la la land, it was a fictional portrayal of a small seaside town in Australia, that was true to life in the most part, but had the odd-ball stuff too, such as the near death experiences and reincarnation type stuff, which made it such an awesome show. I could never imagine the show doing stuff like this anymore, and that’s where its lost its spark...I just feel the show is so uninventive these days, and written so typically.

I do feel they still have that sense of good and bad morals though, maybe it isn’t focused on as much as it used to be, because the writers are so inconsistent with there characters.

[celtgirl]

I totally agree that Home and Away has lost a little bit of the magic that it had. I've been watching the show since the first episode. It seemed a lot more realistic and had more heart then. None of the recent teenage angst or love triangle storylines have a patch on the original Bobby, Frank and Roo storyline. You would never see character like Floss and Neville (two characters I absolutely loved even though I was only twelve when it started) on the show now. Alf and Colleen are what's classed as elderely now, even though they're only in their sixties (young enough by today's standards). The way characters, especially 15 or 16 year olds, fall madly in love and get into really serious relationships reminds me of Dawson's Creek, instead of having fun and enjoying being teenagers. It's for that reason I really like Drew and Belle. They seem a lot more realistic. Weddings and funerals had a lot more of a build-up in the older episodes as well. When major characters died back in the beginning (like Tom, Shane or Michael), they had a decent send off that lasted a couple of episodes and had lovely montages looking back at their time in the show. If you compare Tom's funeral to Beth's there's no comparison. I wish it would go back to some of the magic it used to have.

[Mistified]

I think it still acts very well as a moral yardstick, and does so in a way that reflects popular culture. All the mistakes people make are shown to have real consequences. I particularly liked how they showed Amanda battling with her demons after Belle found out about her affair with Drew. She was really questioning herself and trying to figure herself out as to why she keeps repeating the same mistakes. Morally the viewers learnt that messing with your loved ones' feelings means you may end up losing them. In the earlu years they wouldn't have had anything as risque as a young attractive mother getting it on with her teenage daughter's boyfriend, but the morals now are looser in popular culture so this storyline reflected that move. The fact that it showed the consequences of her actions to have been negative was as close to the show's roots as anything.

I too started watching the show at the very beginning and watched it religiously for about 10 years. I was then an on/off viewer until 2004 and have been hooked ever since. If anything I am probably more hooked now because the adult story lines I find are compelling. Tony's reaction to Beth's death. Martha's reaction to her abortion etc.

[alexx]

I think it still acts very well as a moral yardstick, and does so in a way that reflects popular culture. All the mistakes people make are shown to have real consequences. I particularly liked how they showed Amanda battling with her demons after Belle found out about her affair with Drew. She was really questioning herself and trying to figure herself out as to why she keeps repeating the same mistakes. Morally the viewers learnt that messing with your loved ones' feelings means you may end up losing them. In the earlu years they wouldn't have had anything as risque as a young attractive mother getting it on with her teenage daughter's boyfriend, but the morals now are looser in popular culture so this storyline reflected that move. The fact that it showed the consequences of her actions to have been negative was as close to the show's roots as anything.

I too started watching the show at the very beginning and watched it religiously for about 10 years. I was then an on/off viewer until 2004 and have been hooked ever since. If anything I am probably more hooked now because the adult story lines I find are compelling. Tony's reaction to Beth's death. Martha's reaction to her abortion etc.

What reactions? As far as I’m concerned they were pretty much non-existent.

[~Lynd~]

I think it depends on where you live as to their reactions so far...

[Ryan]

In a way I'm torn two ways between the current Matilda storyline at the moment, in Australia, as to whether it is a reaction to her mothers death or whether it is a "Matilda" storyline, totally unrelated to the events that have gone before.