Home And Away - Better Than It Use To Be?

[ter06]

I don't agree that H&A is better than it used be, I think it is going through a really bad patch and needs to improve soon. The only reason I watch at the moment is because of Marilyn, and I sometimes I don't even bother to watch when I know she isn't in an episode. And even at that, I think they have handled her return badly. I thought the first thing she would have done would be to go around to Irene, she was her best friend and they did used to live together. This is now Marilyn's fourth week back and we still haven't seen them in a scene and I don't think it's good enough for them to expect us to assume they met up off screen - Marilyn only knew three people in the Bay when she returned, it wouldn't have killed for them to all have been in the one scene. Anyway, besides that I am loving her return.

There are some really useless characters at the moment - I mean Gina, John and Xavier are in my opinion some of the most pointless TV characters to ever grace my screen. Apart from his funeral, Gina has not grieved for her son at all, is never visting Brendan and threw her other son out of the house. What kind of mother is she? I have no made no secret of the fact I find Miles extremely irritating and I am a firm believer that he should have left Summer Bay with Sally. Liam is just like Martha's sex toy and don't see his point in the show. I used to really like Martha but now I can't stand her, she comes across as being a needy slut. However, I don't agree about Jodi being a terrible actress - five years ago I would have agreed but she has really improved.

H&A went from one extreme to another virtually overnight. It went from being a fast paced show full of stalkers, murderers, guns and drugs, to a show about romance and relationships. I think they just need to find the right balance - it's a soap so we do need the high drama but they just need to follow it through with the consequences these things have on people's lives. H&A won the Logie for Most Popular Drama for the three years 2006-2008 and achieved some of it's highest ratings during these years so the producers need to realise that that pace was what the viewers wanted. The Bay of Love might have worked in the eighties and nineties but this is two decades later and it needs to move with the times. I doubt Emmerdale would still be running if it was still about farming, so to have H&A revert too much to its former self seems a bit strange.

[Jamey-Maria]

I think Krystal's referring to the fact that you're saying HAA wouldn't rate as well on 10 at 6.30 as if it's a fact when you can't possibly know that.Maybe...

Pretty much.

I'm no saint and I have my occasional problems with the show but on the whole I enjoy watching it, it's why I bother commenting on it. And maybe it's a personal bug bear but to have to come on a fansite day in and day out and listen to THE SAME people constantly whinging about everything they hate, which appears to be the entire show, begins to grate.

[John]

This is a very difficult question to answer. Better than when? The show has been going 20 years and has gone through many ups and down. Better for who? The show has quite a wide demographic even if the majority of it lies at the younger end of the spectrum.

I can only comment as someone who started watching the show in the early 90's and remembers fondly Will and Gypsy, Chloe etc. I think the show is beginning to approach its highest quality at the moment with its renewed focus on the interractions and conversations between the cast members. Of course there will be the occasional bursts of action. After all the cast have got to have something to talk about. I love a good murder or bombing as much as the next person but I do believe that over the past couple of years the show tended to get locked into a quest for even louder bangs and more ferocious explosions ( figuratively speaking of course ). The people, their reactions and conversations tended to be almost a side issue only really to be discussed on the pages of TV Week with the never ending and ultimately very unsatisfying "who will survive? " storylines.

But then I'm part of the older demographic. And I'm a keen observer of people and their reactions to others they live and work with. Over the years I've tired of the constant wars, killings and assaults which make up most of our news broadcasts. I don't particularly want them to dominate my drama. To me less is more when it comes to those things.

I don't claim to represent the entire demographic of Home and Away so I tend to take the good with the bad in the understanding that what I don't like probably fills a need in another part of the demographic.

[j.laur5]

Seriously, I know Neighbours rates worse, but I don't know why, it's a million times better at the moment.

Ok, H&A is still not at its best but lets not go insane by saying that ferociously badly written & acted nearing death Neighbours is in a better state.

I don't see why you quote my observation with such disbelief. What makes you think that Home and Away is in a better state than Neighbours? Granted, there may be a teen overload in Neighbours, and some of the storylines on the show may not be the greatest at the moment, but I on't agree with anyone who says that the acting on Home and Away is better than it is on Neighbours. As I've previously said, David (Xavier) and Jodi (Martha) can barely pronounce their dialogue, let alone act. There are very few characters on Neighbours that I hate. Whereas I'd probably only axe Zeke on Neighours, there is a very longlist of characters I'd axe from Home and Away due to bad acting or just because they're bad characters.

Neighbours also has a larger sense of history. It has 8 residents who have lived in Ramsy Street for longer than ten years, in Home and Away there are only 5 now that they've brought Marilyn back, but Colleen and Irene can barely qualify in this category because they NEVER get storylines. I'm sick of people slagging off Neighbours when Home and Away is clearly far worse. You say it's 'nearing death' but the ratings for Neighbours beat Home and Away by a country mile in England. Home and Away is just lucky it airs on Channel 7 in Australia. Reverse timeslots and channels, and Neighbours would be in a much stronger state.

The main reason why Neighbours have got more mainstay characters is because it has been going longer and Neighbours has more characters in it.

Don't forget Lyn, Paul, and Libby have all left and come back.

But I think Home and Away does a much better job in keeping characters the same and not ruining them. Look how many characters have been ruined on Neighbours - They turned Paul into an evil murderer for a while, then they turned Steph into a vixen, they turned Lou into a waste of space and Susan into a health victim like Helen and Madge before her.

Home and Away has more respect for characters and fans.

[Dalby]

I don't agree that H&A is better than it used be, I think it is going through a really bad patch and needs to improve soon. The only reason I watch at the moment is because of Marilyn, and I sometimes I don't even bother to watch when I know she isn't in an episode. And even at that, I think they have handled her return badly. I thought the first thing she would have done would be to go around to Irene, she was her best friend and they did used to live together. This is now Marilyn's fourth week back and we still haven't seen them in a scene and I don't think it's good enough for them to expect us to assume they met up off screen - Marilyn only knew three people in the Bay when she returned, it wouldn't have killed for them to all have been in the one scene. Anyway, besides that I am loving her return.

There are some really useless characters at the moment - I mean Gina, John and Xavier are in my opinion some of the most pointless TV characters to ever grace my screen. Apart from his funeral, Gina has not grieved for her son at all, is never visting Brendan and threw her other son out of the house. What kind of mother is she? I have no made no secret of the fact I find Miles extremely irritating and I am a firm believer that he should have left Summer Bay with Sally. Liam is just like Martha's sex toy and don't see his point in the show. I used to really like Martha but now I can't stand her, she comes across as being a needy slut. However, I don't agree about Jodi being a terrible actress - five years ago I would have agreed but she has really improved.

H&A went from one extreme to another virtually overnight. It went from being a fast paced show full of stalkers, murderers, guns and drugs, to a show about romance and relationships. I think they just need to find the right balance - it's a soap so we do need the high drama but they just need to follow it through with the consequences these things have on people's lives. H&A won the Logie for Most Popular Drama for the three years 2006-2008 and achieved some of it's highest ratings during these years so the producers need to realise that that pace was what the viewers wanted. The Bay of Love might have worked in the eighties and nineties but this is two decades later and it needs to move with the times. I doubt Emmerdale would still be running if it was still about farming, so to have H&A revert too much to its former self seems a bit strange.

I couldn't of said it better!!!

[Ryan]

I think things have improved this year so far, somethings have stayed the same and some things have got worse.

Regarding Marilyn, first of, I think her return is mainly postive, but they have made a few errors in my eyes. First of, the fact that she only appears to be appearing in scenes with Alf and Miles and this the glaring omission of a scene with Irene occurs. Summer Bay House for years felt like a family house, even when the Nashes and the Sutherlands stayed there. At the moment it feels like a drop-in centre where random members of the cast happen to live.

I do agree that there is too many unpopular characters in the show at the moment and to move forward the show needs to work out what to do with them, and start introducing characters with a purpose and place in the show. That's why some of them feel so lost. Liam strikes me as the type of character, almost like Rob Storey and co, 20-something, no family, and essentailly a random with no purpose. Six months and he's had two deep-as-a-puddle relationships.

[Skylover]

I think Krystal's referring to the fact that you're saying HAA wouldn't rate as well on 10 at 6.30 as if it's a fact when you can't possibly know that.Maybe...

Pretty much.

I'm no saint and I have my occasional problems with the show but on the whole I enjoy watching it, it's why I bother commenting on it. And maybe it's a personal bug bear but to have to come on a fansite day in and day out and listen to THE SAME people constantly whinging about everything they hate, which appears to be the entire show, begins to grate.

Regarding the 'stating your opinion as if they are given fact' accusation, looking back at my previous posts, I can see where you're coming from but that's merely out of laziness as otherwise I would have to keep saying 'I think' after every opinion and I'm pretty sure every member on this board has enough intellect to realise that my opinion isn't fact, and that I don't think it is. Anyway, I haven't wanted to offend you or hinder youe njoyment on BTTB just because I've been negative in my posts. If I was enjoying the show, then of course I would say that and give praise where it's due, it just seems that two of my favourite soaps (Neighbours and H&A) are in a bad place at the moment, and the reason I hard on about their problems is mainly out of my love for both shows and a desire for both of them to be at the top of their game. Perhaps I sometimes am very negative because we are bound to pick up on the slightest of things as such devoted and dedicated fans of the show.

Another reason I constantly talk about certain characters who bring the show down is because I'm fairly certain there must be writers, storylines, and in general, people who work for the huge dynasty of Home and Away that come on these fan sites and I think it's very important to show them how we feel about characters and storylines, because if they see what we think the problems may be rectified.

I think the show is beginning to approach its highest quality at the moment with its renewed focus on the interractions and conversations between the cast members. Of course there will be the occasional bursts of action. After all the cast have got to have something to talk about. I love a good murder or bombing as much as the next person but I do believe that over the past couple of years the show tended to get locked into a quest for even louder bangs and more ferocious explosions

John003au, I think your post is a perfect reflection of how I feel about the quality of the show at the moment. The character-driven focus is something that the show has been crying out for for years. It was getting completely ridiculous having stalkers showing up every week, bombs going off so often, when it's a soap. Obviously highly dramatic things happen, but drama doesn't necessarily have to equal melodrama i.e. bombs and guns. Drama can come from human emotion, psychological problems. The story with Miles at the moment is a perfect example of this. Although some may feel it's been drawn out too long, I don't think it has been at all because now the story with Rabbit's been building a few months, we can empathise with Miles far more and really feel his pain and I think that makes excellent story-telling. Personally I've never seen why people have had a problem with Miles. I think Josh Quong-Tart is the most talented young actor in the show, and is a real asset.

I won't go on about it because I know that people have heard my opinions before, but I think the show is going in the right direction with its writing and storylining, it just needs to bring in some more interesting characters and better actors to work with that dialogue.

[Snapp]

And Home and Away is much the worse for it. I'd love to see Angelo become a borderline alcoholic who cheats on Charlie with an array of waitresses and bimbos. Maybe he could even do it with one of them on top of his police car. Maybe some of the women Hugo and Suzy were importing into the country were being imported for the purposes of enslaved prostitution and Angelo could have to go undercover at an illegal brothel with hilarious results. And then he could get frustrated at the police departments lack of funding and perpetrate a massive fraud for the sake of getting said funding. They'd also need to pair Angelo up with someone to be his version of Bunk Moreland, and maybe Watson could become H&A's Kima, since I'm pretty sure she's already a lesbian anyway. I know only one person in this forum is getting these comments, but I don't care.

LMAO. Best Post I've ever seen on here.

[stephen!]

I think Krystal's referring to the fact that you're saying HAA wouldn't rate as well on 10 at 6.30 as if it's a fact when you can't possibly know that.Maybe...

Pretty much.

I'm no saint and I have my occasional problems with the show but on the whole I enjoy watching it, it's why I bother commenting on it. And maybe it's a personal bug bear but to have to come on a fansite day in and day out and listen to THE SAME people constantly whinging about everything they hate, which appears to be the entire show, begins to grate.

Regarding the 'stating your opinion as if they are given fact' accusation, looking back at my previous posts, I can see where you're coming from but that's merely out of laziness as otherwise I would have to keep saying 'I think' after every opinion and I'm pretty sure every member on this board has enough intellect to realise that my opinion isn't fact, and that I don't think it is. Anyway, I haven't wanted to offend you or hinder youe njoyment on BTTB just because I've been negative in my posts. If I was enjoying the show, then of course I would say that and give praise where it's due, it just seems that two of my favourite soaps (Neighbours and H&A) are in a bad place at the moment, and the reason I hard on about their problems is mainly out of my love for both shows and a desire for both of them to be at the top of their game. Perhaps I sometimes am very negative because we are bound to pick up on the slightest of things as such devoted and dedicated fans of the show.

Another reason I constantly talk about certain characters who bring the show down is because I'm fairly certain there must be writers, storylines, and in general, people who work for the huge dynasty of Home and Away that come on these fan sites and I think it's very important to show them how we feel about characters and storylines, because if they see what we think the problems may be rectified.

I think the show is beginning to approach its highest quality at the moment with its renewed focus on the interractions and conversations between the cast members. Of course there will be the occasional bursts of action. After all the cast have got to have something to talk about. I love a good murder or bombing as much as the next person but I do believe that over the past couple of years the show tended to get locked into a quest for even louder bangs and more ferocious explosions

John003au, I think your post is a perfect reflection of how I feel about the quality of the show at the moment. The character-driven focus is something that the show has been crying out for for years. It was getting completely ridiculous having stalkers showing up every week, bombs going off so often, when it's a soap. Obviously highly dramatic things happen, but drama doesn't necessarily have to equal melodrama i.e. bombs and guns. Drama can come from human emotion, psychological problems. The story with Miles at the moment is a perfect example of this. Although some may feel it's been drawn out too long, I don't think it has been at all because now the story with Rabbit's been building a few months, we can empathise with Miles far more and really feel his pain and I think that makes excellent story-telling. Personally I've never seen why people have had a problem with Miles. I think Josh Quong-Tart is the most talented young actor in the show, and is a real asset.

I won't go on about it because I know that people have heard my opinions before, but I think the show is going in the right direction with its writing and storylining, it just needs to bring in some more interesting characters and better actors to work with that dialogue.

spot on!

[Oipoodle]

, it just needs to bring in some more interesting characters and better actors to work with that dialogue.

I agree. I also think neighbours is better at the mo as I like most of the characters and I think that the young cast are stronger than in H+A but that's only in the last couple of years. I'd love them to have a talented bunch of actors and an interesting group of characters like they did in the Mattie/Ric years. They were generally all nice characters but they had flaws and made mistakes, whereas now I feel like the characters are quite dull and unlikeable, I've never warmed to Nicole or Xavier and I don't like Ruby anymore, mostly there's a lot of characters I just don't care about. The characters also feel quite disjointed it made sense when Cassie and Mattie or Ric and Lucas hung out and talked about their problems as they were friends but Angelo asking anybody he can fo radvice or anybody asking Aden for advice feels forced. I'd also love to see parent/children relationships like Beth/Mattie or Irene/Tasha