Is Martha given too much air time?

[ter06]

Yes, yes, yes!! It is ridiculous. I like Martha to an extent, but I love Leah and Irene. Where are they? This Jack and Martha will they wont they has gone on about a year longer than my hope might have cared for. In some way or another she is involved in every storyline. Even if it is not about her they'll still throw her into the background! What are they going to do when Jodi Gordon decides to leave?

[chatter box]

I don't think it has anything to do with who her boyfriend is, I think it's more a case of her being ridiculously attractive. It's always been the case that the current 'golden girl' and 'golden boy' (usually an on-screen couple) get the most airtime, because the show's primarily young audience will fancy the pants off them and it will bring in more viewers. It happened with Shane and Angel, Noah and Hayley, Tammin Sursok, Isabel Lucas, Chris Hemsworth etc etc. They also know that if they put Jodi on the front cover of magazines, they'll sell more copies and therefore get more promotion for the show. Personally I'm not a fan of Martha - yes, Jodi's a beautiful girl, but Martha is an extremely annoying, selfish character. I'd much rather see more of Leah.

Ridiculously attractive? I think thats a bit strong. Jodi is a very pretty girl, but no more so than many other girls her age. For example, Indiana is more classically beautiful than Jodi, and has a timeless beauty which will last a lot longer.

I take you point about the TV Week covers, but I think that the people who but TV Week, Girlfriend and other magazines because Jodi is on the cover would buy it whether she in one episode or five. I don't happen to think that she needs to be in as many scenes or episodes or on as many covers as she does, and occasionally it would be nice for some of the better actors to get a look in. The golden girl, boy and couple phenomenon is wearing a bit thin and they have taken it to extremes. . Angel and Shane were the golden couple in their day and got huge story lines, but they did not get nosed into every one else's story lines and other people did get magazine covers.

Some of Martha's story lines have been better than others, and funnily enough I liked her more when she first arrived than I do now. Now I tend to fast forward when she is on, although I am intrigued by what they may do with M and M. The FF button may get rested during that story line.

Of course, another reason for her over-use could be that Jodi needs more acting practice than the others...

You wicked girl! But I quite agree.

The bottom line is, we have been forcibly over dosed on Martha and they need to cut back.

[Mistified]

As a Jodi Gordon and Martha fan I can't say I've noticed. I wish there was more of her and Jack to be honest. They lead us up the garden path and give us lots of lovely scenes between them, and then it's dropped. It's been 5 weeks now since the "goodbye" episode and it really is as if they are not in the same show any more.

[slick_dude_5]

Martha's hot.

from a 19yo's opinion bring on more of martha! (at the beach swimming ) hahahha.... People forget there are guys who watch this show who are over the jack/drew/geoff/ric overdoses

[emmasi]

I was horrified when they made the Corey poisoning story about her. For weeks we saw Corey poisoning Irene, she fell apart slowly week by week, and was scheduled into a psychiatric unit by her family and friends. Martha has a few dates with him, and he chases her through the bushes for 10 minutes and wow its all about her. Poor Irene's trauma is forgotten.

Now now, let's not blame the Corey storyline. The Corey storyline was solid. I'll hear no more talk against the Corey storyline!! Yes, he came to town to crush Irene and tear her sanity to shreds, but his first scene was with Martha, and he was put in place fairly early on as an obstacle to her and Jack, so if you want to get technical, Lynn stole the sweet sweet Coreyness form Jodi. And who wouldn't? He was such a fine young man... That, or they were sharing the story equally. Corey has enough love and vengeance for two . The follow through of the trauma probably wasn't there, but it never is in this show. Unless Irene was planning to have a forbidden romance with Corey after he tried to kill her, she didn't really have much chance of staying in the limelight on that one. That would have been different though...

[Frankie]

I would not dream of blaming poor sweet Corey ....... I blame the writers. ......The Corey story line was one of the best I can remember in a long time... it was different from anything which they had done before, and it was brilliantly acted by Corey and Irene. But for me, Martha was a distraction, and like others I felt cheated when they made the ending of that story arc all about her and not about Irene.......or indeed about Corey... as I would also have liked to have seen what happened to him.. and maybe see him and Eve/Zoe...who was still alive then... and maybe Charlie...in the Ryfton Lakes psych unit.. plotting revenge on Summer Bay

I think we get too much Martha... I can see both points of view BUT...if you love her.. there is such a thing as "too much of a good thing"... I love chocolate... but too much makes me sick ... and if you don't love her... well then too much is annoying... and makes you sick as well.... they need to cut back a bit..... it really is about time that they got back to sharing things out more equitable. I do find myself wondering what the hell she is doing there in some scenes... where she is either there at the hospital, the diner, the beach, or the caravan park... but not saying any thing... or is putting out the rubbish..... or just sitting in the bar. Perhaps she is there for decoration.

[emmasi]

I would also have liked to have seen what happened to him.. and maybe see him and Eve/Zoe...who was still alive then... and maybe Charlie...in the Ryfton Lakes psych unit.. plotting revenge on Summer Bay

Corey went to jail. Martha visited him. He was still planning to kill people when he got out, and invited Martha along. Such a nice boy

As for Charlie, he'll have his revenge sooner or later. You'll see... You'll all see! ... Why did I never write that fic about them teaming up and killing everyone...

[Lesley Bee]

I kind of agree that Martha does get a lot of the big storylines, i don't hate her but i just think it leaves a lot of the other actresses in the show massively under used. Characters like Leah, Irene and Rachel should be given a lot more airtime, Ada, Lynne and Amy are fantastic and deserve more quality storylines.

[Eve Jacobson]

emmasi, I don't think it was a question of Corey being to blame. As Frankie said it was the way it was written. It just infuriated me the way they did it at the time. I just feel as if they want to make everything about her at the moment and it makes me resent her. By making everything about Martha they upset the whole equilibrium and risk alienating a lot of long term fans. It may keep a few short term fans happy but if we saw less of her I would like her a lot more than I do at the moment.

I look forward to reading you fan fic about Corey, Charlie and Zoe, it should be a blast.

[claire_louise]

I don't think it has anything to do with who her boyfriend is, I think it's more a case of her being ridiculously attractive. It's always been the case that the current 'golden girl' and 'golden boy' (usually an on-screen couple) get the most airtime, because the show's primarily young audience will fancy the pants off them and it will bring in more viewers. It happened with Shane and Angel, Noah and Hayley, Tammin Sursok, Isabel Lucas, Chris Hemsworth etc etc. They also know that if they put Jodi on the front cover of magazines, they'll sell more copies and therefore get more promotion for the show. Personally I'm not a fan of Martha - yes, Jodi's a beautiful girl, but Martha is an extremely annoying, selfish character. I'd much rather see more of Leah.

Ridiculously attractive? I think thats a bit strong. Jodi is a very pretty girl, but no more so than many other girls her age. For example, Indiana is more classically beautiful than Jodi, and has a timeless beauty which will last a lot longer.

I take you point about the TV Week covers, but I think that the people who but TV Week, Girlfriend and other magazines because Jodi is on the cover would buy it whether she in one episode or five. I don't happen to think that she needs to be in as many scenes or episodes or on as many covers as she does, and occasionally it would be nice for some of the better actors to get a look in.

Personally I agree with you about Indiana being more attractive, but I think the use Jodi for two reasons: one, she's an ex-model and obviously looks good on magazine covers, and two, she's that bit older. They can exploit Jodi's looks and not feel bad about it, whereas to have Indiana constantly parading around in a bikini and pole dancing wouldn't be quite as appropriate! I also agree with you that people would still buy the magazines if she were on screen less, but if she wasn't involved in the storylines there wouldn't be a reason to put her on the cover so often! Though I really don't see why they need to plaster her all over the media when the show has tons of beautiful girls that they're not making use of.