New Characters

[Skylover]

Hi there, this subject has been bugging me for a while now so I thought I'd open a thread about it to see what fellow Home and Away fans think. Basically, I think Home and Away needs to establish its core cast better, and stop or atleast reduce the number of new cast members and characters that flock in every year. Last year, I thought the departure of several characters was handled pretty well; Sally, Drew, Ric, Mattie, Lucas etc. A lot of cast left and were replaced with the likes of Nicole, Roman, Miles, Jai etc. With the exception of Jai I thought TPTB dealt with the huge cast turnover very well, and IMO bringing back Morag for 6 months and finishing the KK story worked wonders. However now it seems like new characters are coming into the show far too often for my liking, and guest characters are used far too much when the permanent residents should interact more. When Xavier came into the show for one week at the end of 2008, I thought he was just the 1,000th guest cast member to come in to cause some trouble for Tony, and when he left I was certain he wasn't going to be a permanent resident (due to the poor acting etc.) but when he returned with family members I was seriously shocked. Xavier, Hugo, Gina and Brendan haven't worked on any level for me and I haven't rated any of the acting.

By the time Charlie came into the show I was starting to think that too many new cast were joining, but I could accept Charlie and Ruby because Rebecca Breeds was a very good actress and played a likeable character, while Esther IMO wasn't a brilliant actress but has recently come into her own and has a very well-defined personality. Plus they were linked to Morag so I could accept them because Morag's a legend. However, when Angelo came along, I was strarting to get sick of the new characters. I didn't think he would last very long at all and he wasn't very likeable, but he's stayed and since him there's been Xavier, Gina, Hugo, Brendan, Claudia (yawn!), Trey and John Palmer, Lou, Joey; it just seems like either no-one stays long enough or the new characters are just rubbish. Out of the ones I've listed I don't think I can say that I like a single one of them, they're all either unlikeable characters or just played by bad actors.

It seems really strange, I just think we have the weakest cast that Home and Away has probably ever had; it's odd because in 2008 everything seemed great, but now loads of horrible characters are coming in that we don't need.

Does anyone else agree that the new characters since Ruby and Charlie have been surplus to requirements?! I don't even know how some of them even got an audition, I mean seriously!

[oscartg]

post removed due to editing by moderator

[Corey]

Some bright spark makes this kind of post at least twice a year.

We get new characters in Home and Away every year, haven't you noticed this before? And to say Sonia Todd and Bernard Curry who are two of the countrys most repected actors can't act is just plain daft. Sonia Todd has some fine film and TV credits to her name and Bernard Curry has clocked up a few as well. Although I do agree about Xavier and I think he got the part on looks, like so many before him. I don't mind if the shark gets him

Every year we get instant reactions. When Nicole and Charlie arrived they were slated and there were posts by the dozen saying what terrible characters they were and what rotten actors they were, now they are very popular. Jodi was an awful actress when she first arrived, now as far as the majority of fans are concerned she can do no wrong. You get attached to some characters and when they go you don't much like it when someone else comes along. But thats the reality, the cast will move on, and new ones will come along and at first you will resent them, then you will like them and then when they leave you will resent the next lot who come on after them. It's the same very year. If I had a dollar for every time I have seen a post like yours I could buy some new jimmy choos every week

[j.laur5]

Well I do agree that the cast in 2006 was probably the best cast we ever had and it will take long time until we get cast like it.

But I do love few new characters such as Hugo, Angelo, Ruby and Charlie. I’ll explain each character below. Warning it will be a long read.

Hugo - Hugo is great character as he is very good looking, cool and is very nice but even though he is my favourite character he does have some black marks against him, but I think it’s because he’s suppose to been mysterious character and that’s why one minute he’s clear and not the next. I feel that his treatment towards Xavier was partly because of his girlfriend’s death in which he had trouble babysitting Brendan but once it was explained why he was like that towards him, he showed us how much he does love Brendan, how he felt guilty that he left home when they needed him and ever since Hugo has been the big brother that Xavier needs. And we learn why he left home and why hasn’t been able to move on from the one night stand but he's starting to move on.

Angelo - My 2nd favourite character - So glad he’s back however he’s done stuff that has made fans angry to the point of hating him and the stuff he’s done has been in the past like breaking up a popular couple or killing a favourite character or

quite recently putting a Mother in jail

. But at end of day deep down Angelo is the most sweetest, caring, brave and strongest guy in Bay especially if he finds love again. He

may of put my favourite character in jail

or was blamed for shooting my past favourite male character Jack but I still love him.

Ruby - My favourite teen. Most people say she’s mini Cassie and they are right but I love Ruby more that most of the teens because she got most personality. I think it would have been great to have seen Ruby in a past teenage group as I think she would have gotten on well with them.

Charlie - Charlie was a spoilt, nasty, judgemental cow at beginning but she soon softened and you could see a strong person with kind heart. She is definitely a great character in progress.

Other New Characters

Nicole - I hated her until last week when I start to realise how much I relate to her.

Jai is an okay character but I don’t think he will stay on the show long anyway.

Xavier - I do like him but he can be a pig at times.

Gina - We need her as a regular character as we need more older characters

especially to help out new mothers

, she has great worth to her and I really think she’d be great person at sort out teens.

Claudia - I can not stand her and I hope to God she does not become a regular, at least when Nicole and Charlie arrived in the Bay they were fun to hate.

That’s all of the new characters that I could think of and hopefully the good ones will stay and bad ones will leave.

[devon]

Xavier has to be the worst actor I've ever seen in the show and I can't see him getting any better, like Esther did with Charlie. I like the guy that plays Hugo as an actor, but his character is cr@p compared to the one he played in Neighbours. Angelo Drossetta and the rest - apart from Joey and Brendan? Meh.

As for the glut of new characters who never last long, I suppose 7 can't afford to hire actors permanently, what with these so dire economic times we live in.

[Skylover]

I think you make an interesting point, but I don't think it's just because they're new characters that I don't like them. At the beginning of 2008 I was worried that I wouldn't like the new cast because so many characters were leaving, but Roman, Miles, Nicole and Ruby were excellent as fas I'm concerned. Nicole for me seems to have lost her spark, and Charlie took some time to come into her own, but every character since Charlie I haven't liked. Angelo doesn't really seem to have a purpose, and IMO he never has. He only seems to be there when someone's single so they have someone to hook up with.

I think Bernard Curry is a good actor, but all the actors of the Austin family really lack chemistry as a family which is why they fail. Plus it's completely ludicrous that Sonia Todd is playing Hugo's mother considering she only looks in her 40's, and Bernard is what, 36?! I know that everyone in Summer Bay seems to have children between the age bracket of 10-20 but that just seems to take things to another level. Plus Hugo is a really unlikeable character (whether that's on purpose I don't know, but it's not unlikeable in a good way), and Gina just seems like a carbon copy of many women of that age bracket before her (Beth for instance!).

Joey was a great character but she's gone, Lou was ok but he's gone, and we're left with the Austins who IMO are the most unlikeable characters in the whole history of Home and Away. Probably rivalling the Sutherlands early years (mind you I love Kirsty on her own!)

There are quite a few untalented actors on the show now coming in, whicxh is bad because there's already a few who aren't that great (Martha, Claudia, Xavier, Gina, Geoff, Annie, Jai).

IMO it's like things for the teen group have completely reversed, when Melody was in the show they were fantastic, she was fresh and diverse, and she was replaed by Xavier. I don't buy the story that Celeste Dodwell wanted to go to uni, I think she was probably axed!)

[oscartg]

The current teen groups is awful, there are no close friendships between the guys and the girls. Annie/Ruby were supposed to be friends but Annie is such a narrow minded immature little shrew and Ruby seems much more mature and open minded about people that having them as friends seems ridiclous.

Having Nicole/Ruby becoming friends seems like the best idea in terms of the teen group in a long while

. Annie and Jai are lame beyond belief and act more like 12 year olds than 16 year old kids. Compare their relationship to Ruby/Xavier and you'll see how bizzare it is.

Hugo is vile, from the moment he arrived on the scene I could not stand him. He seemed utterly slimy and devious. He's a nasty, self-interested, manipulative liar. Plus the fact that he never looks clean annoys me, damn it boy shave yourself properly for once and wash your hair. He's clearly up to no good, we the viewers know this but we get to see the rest of the characters fooled by his crap and at the same time the writers are trying to make us feel sympathy for him over his treatment of Brendan and Xavier. The final straw with Hugo for me is that whole plot of him having feelings for Martha. Why must we have yet another plot about some guy who is crazy in love with Martha but is involved with Charlie, give it a break. Martha ain't all that.

[Skylover]

Yes, Hugo is vile. I don't know if they've aimed for him to be a love-to-hate type character, but it's turned out to be a loathe-to-hate character for me.

Liam is the most interesting new arrival post-Charlie.

[oscartg]

Hugo isn't even fun or smart in his devious activities, he is boring as hell with it. I think he's supposed to be a "difficult" character with "issues" like Charlie was when she first arrived, we see him being an ass but we are supposed to sympathise with him due to confessions of having difficulties with Brendan but at the same time as they are doing this they are making him act in a suspicious way. So overall the message is confused. I don't think they know what they are doing with him. Don't like the guy one bit.

[devon]

Home and Away need to look to Coranation Street, to see how a likeable or convincing baddy is really done. Tony at the moment is brilliant so too was Gails ex hubby Richard Hillman.