When have you felt the show was going through a low point

[j.laur5]

There have been times I have felt the show has gone through low points.  My times were. 
 

2009-Long year mystery was such a build up for it not to be all that exciting at the end.  You knew right from the beginning Hugo was the person  responsible. Also I did not like a lot of characters at the time, Geoff/Miles/Roman/Jai/Nicole I was never sure what was so great about Aden. He never got past having a huge chip on his shoulder and Belle became so overbearing and annoying in her final year with her drug problem and her thinking the world revolves around her.

I didn't buy Miles as a foster carer and I am glad he didn’t stay long term.

I didn't like Kristy's return and would have been more than happy if I never saw her or Kane again after they ran off in 2005.

I didn't like Irene's prison storyline as they just seemed to do it because they hadn’t given Lynne McGranger a big storyline in ages. I guess they felt they had to give Irene something dramatic and once storyline  was over she was back in the Diner making coffee like nothing ever happened.

 

The next time I felt the show was going through a low point was 2020-2022 as it just felt covid affected a few things and characters who stayed longer like Ryder/Jasmine/Dean/Ziggy were all so stale by time they finally left. I felt Ari/Tane/Nikau were too much like they were trying a new version of Braxtons. I didn't think characters like Chloe and Mia were very good characters and didn’t like them rewriting Marilyn's character history and having long lost daughter. Then there was the overkilled storyline of Colby's exit which dragged on for too long and added too much drama in distorting his character. Willow having to betray him as Colby was going to bring them all down. While people say Willow did the right thing I still felt it ruined her character Because she just stood there while people like Nikau and Ziggy were being accused of being witness x by Dean and Colby on separate occasions. 
 

I don’t know why they needed to bring Angleo back for  storyline as he stopped being a cop long before he left the show. How on earth was he ever allowed back in the police force after he let Hugo go on the run with Martha and ruined his happy ending and his character. 
 

Also we had pointless long term guest characters like Amber and Gemma as Gemma at first seemed like she was a devoted mum and sister in law to family and had potential of being a good character but she left her son and brothers in law behind never to return but who knows. Maybe Bree Peters was meant to return later on but Covid prevented it happening if Bree Peters was overseas and couldn’t return. As for Amber she was a character who stuck around as a plot device to make drama for Colby and Dean. Then she got together with Dean she left not long after. Jai made a couple of other appearances and then he was never seen again. The storyline of Jai being Dean son did not lead anywhere far in seeing Dean being father or any character development.

 

So when had show felt like low points to you ?. 

Edited September 7 by j.laur5

[CaptainHulk]

2022 was pretty annoying 

[James Martin]

After Ric & Maddie left in 2008 I really started to zone out.  I also don't think the audience really accepted Kirsty without Kane.

[adam436]

4 hours ago, James Martin said:

After Ric & Maddie left in 2008 I really started to zone out.  I also don't think the audience really accepted Kirsty without Kane.

I can't really comment on that period, but I assume the producers wanted Sam Atwell back full-time as well, which obviously would have changed things her entire 2008-2009 stint. I also assume Kirsty was brought back to fill the gap left by Sally and a number of other high-profile exits, so it makes me wonder if Kirsty and Kane were even their first choice, or whether they'd have preferred Gypsy (with or without Will) or Hayley. 

In terms of the original question, I found the early 1990s quite a low point. Sure, it had it's highlights in terms of memorable storylines (Sophie's pregnancy, Dale's cot death, the fallout from David's death, Bobby and Meg's deaths), but the day to day stuff is just so mundane and boring. Even many of the characters were just quite boring or forgettable too like Simon, Lucinda, Nick, Greg, Grant, Roxy, Luke, Sarah, Tug. Even Michael and Pippa 2.0 weren't that exciting, despite being the central parents in that era. I'd say it didn't pick up again until late 1994/early 1995, when newcomers like the teen gang, Donna and Rob found their feet and storylines took a darker tone.

I can't comment on late 2005 - 2013ish, but I did switch off during 2005, so I guess that's a low point for me. I just found the show had got progressivly melodramatic over 2004 and 2005. Chloe's pointless death/Jesse's exit was the final straw for me, but my interest had been waning for about a year or so before that. 2006-2008 definitely felt like a resurgance for the H&A fanbase as a whole with characters like Sally, Ric, Martha and Jack taking centre stage. So that period clearly had it's fans, but it just wasn't for me. 

[j.laur5]

On 08/09/2025 at 00:26, CaptainHulk said:

2022 was pretty annoying 

How was 2022 annoying to you ?. 
 

Just curious I found it annoying too with bad departures and I found Mia and Chloe both annoying characters from when they arrived. They let Ari take fall and was sorry Logan didn’t stay longer as he had good potential.

[pembie]

I think it’s going through a low point right now it’s very slow these days With lots of rubbish characters I think 

Edited September 11 by pembie

[j.laur5]

1 hour ago, pembie said:

I think it’s going through a low point right now it’s very slow these days With lots of rubbish characters I think 

I still think it’s better then 2020-2022 era. 
 

My favourite era was 2013-2019. 

Edited September 11 by j.laur5

[CaptainHulk]

8 hours ago, j.laur5 said:

How was 2022 annoying to you ?. 
 

Just curious I found it annoying too with bad departures and I found Mia and Chloe both annoying characters from when they arrived. They let Ari take fall and was sorry Logan didn’t stay longer as he had good potential.

'king Lyrik dominating the plots, Maz's backstory being crapped on, Bree's intro, Chloe perverting the course of justice (probably would have won if she got to court after telling the truth ), Ari dying and Martha Sr being shunted away. Ryder leaving though it was a wonder he stayed as long sd he did.

Didn't help C5 binned Neighbours around that period and it made me extra resentful.

[greg098]

i think the show has been going through a 'low point' since about 2009 when they changed the format of the show and moved away from fostering and went in a different direction. The original cast were treated very badly with horrible unbelievebale storylines and was made to feel irrelevant compared to the younger cast. I think the writers stuggled with ideas for the older cast and instead of embracing their history, they chose to ignore it or involve it in badly written and unresearched plotlines which very badly tarnished these characters and drove away a lot of the original viewers. An example of this is Marilyns child and Irenes child. Both similar storylines involving their children being crazy and taking people hostage. 
I firmly believe they should of finished the show in 2010 and made a new show involving crime, gangs, fights, drugs etc.

[adam436]

On 24/09/2025 at 17:25, greg098 said:

i think the show has been going through a 'low point' since about 2009 when they changed the format of the show and moved away from fostering and went in a different direction. The original cast were treated very badly with horrible unbelievebale storylines and was made to feel irrelevant compared to the younger cast.

I get what you mean abiut the stalwarts being treated badly, but the number of older characters was quite high in this point. Characters like Gina, John, Roo, Marilyn and Sid were introduced in 2009/2010, so older characters in general were not sidelined in the same way they were from the late 2010s onwards.