Does the show need an injection of life, if so, then what?

[c120701]

I agree it’s be good to have more teens and the school again, not inundated, but so the show had a good mix of age groups. Even with the extras it doesn’t look like there’s anyone below 20 in Summer Bay and the only people who are recently are Cohen & Archie.

I really loved the brief period where we had the three ‘Mums’ of kids the same age/school year - Ailsa, Irene & Shelley - and they made a deal out of them being connected by Nick, Jade & Kirsty (Mitch/Hayley/Dani/Will too).

[cymbaline]

The problem now is that if a young character shows up, they have nobody of their own age to hang around with. It's a shame for the show itself, and for young actors who might like the experience. I'd much rather see them bring in a few young people than have them draw from the River Boys well. 

[adam436]

Good point - characters like Eliza and Cohen primarily interact with Roo, Alf, Marilyn and a few others.

Even when the fostering element had been pretty much reduced to guest characters, someone like Ty at least had the likes of Ryder, Raffy and Coco to work with.

A few newcomers can be added in the current cast? Does Leah have any more nieces and nephews? Do any of the twentysomethings have a teenage siblings they can take under their wing? Has Shandi been away long enough to have teenage grandchildren for John? I'm not saying saturate the cast in teens like we had in the 90s and 2000s, but one or two to flesh out the guest foster stories would be great.

[CaptainHulk]

On 04/09/2025 at 00:44, c120701 said:

I’m not sure what the show gained from splitting John & Marilyn up other than the much more recent John & Irene friendship. The two of them could’ve been great foster parents long term. 

I think the problem is bringing someone new into Summer Bay House and have them foster seems forced, but with Roo, Leah & Marilyn it seems/would seem natural as it’d be more about them giving up children or for Leah not being able to have more. I’d much rather one of them than shoehorning it in.

Think it was a case of "Look, this is the 3rd time we've done Maz x Older Bloke and sooner or later they'd grow apart". 

I wasn't against them at the start but the strain was clearly visible  over their last 18mths together.

Edited 19 hours ago by CaptainHulk

[adam436]

10 hours ago, CaptainHulk said:

Think it was a case of "Look, this is the 3rd time we've done Maz x Older Bloke and sooner or later they'd grow apart". 

On the other side of the argument, what has been gained though? Neither have developed as characters or had a permanent love interest since, and probably made them feel more isolated. I know John had Irene  and Marilyn has the Stewarts though. 

It's a shame though with both long-term characters, it would have been great to have a stable marriage for continuity. I guess Leah and Justin have been together since 2018(?) though, but if they had stayed together, they'd be close to rivaling Alf and Ailsa as H&A's longest onscreen marriage. 

[cymbaline]

On 08/09/2025 at 02:30, adam436 said:

Good point - characters like Eliza and Cohen primarily interact with Roo, Alf, Marilyn and a few others.

Even when the fostering element had been pretty much reduced to guest characters, someone like Ty at least had the likes of Ryder, Raffy and Coco to work with.

A few newcomers can be added in the current cast? Does Leah have any more nieces and nephews? Do any of the twentysomethings have a teenage siblings they can take under their wing? Has Shandi been away long enough to have teenage grandchildren for John? I'm not saying saturate the cast in teens like we had in the 90s and 2000s, but one or two to flesh out the guest foster stories would be great.

It also makes these young characters feel somewhat disposable. You don't have to be a genius to work out that they're simply passing through. I don't see the logic of sending foster kids Roo's way, only to have them move on again. It's as if they're trying to shake things up a little bit, but don't want to disrupt the well-oiled production machine by having teenagers around permanently.