The Sutherland/Hunter family

[adam436]

Having just seen some episodes from 2004 on 7Plus in which Rhys and Beth get married, it got me wondering whether the Sutherland/Hunter stepfamily were meant to last longer. Beth gave a whole speech about them all being "family whether they like it or not" or words to that effect, and the wedding itself had a very cheesy family feel about it. There wasn't any foreshadowing of Rhys pondering whether he's doing the right thing etc. like we had with other doomed short-lived marriages such as Chloe/James, Nate/Ricky, and the event had a very cheesy family feel about it like it was the start of a new era, much like Pippa and Michael's did who ended up being mainstays throughout the early 90s. 

It just seemed an odd move to have Rhys and Beth married off, then have it all fall apart within a few months. If the producers knew Rhys was going, it would have been less messy for Rhys and Beth to call it off before the wedding or for Rhys to be killed off in the Sarah Lewis siege (I think he left the following week?). 

It initially seems like the Hunter family were set up to prolong Rhys' time on the show. Shelley was gone, Kate Garven had been quite open about wanting to leave and get married as soon as she turned 18 and Tammin Sursok would have been off sooner or later. But then Rhys ended up bowing out around the same time as his three daughters, and the Hunters ended up staying on, only for Rhys to be essentially replaced by Tony Holden the following year. In hindsight, the producers were surely the producers had a long-term plan to instill Sally as the "mum" of Summer Bay House, so it didn't seem like great forward planning to create an "instant family" for Rhys and Max. 

Was anyone actually a fan of the Hunter/Sutherland stepfamily? From memory, the Sutherland kids didn't really interact with the younger Hunter siblings much, since Dani and Kirsty had moved out by the time Robbie, Matilda and Henry came along and Jade didn't really overlap long enough to have any memorable relationships with them. I also don't really remember Michael Beckley and Clarissa House having much chemistry either. It certainly wasn't as natural as Rhys and Shelley. I liked Kit and Robbie, but wasn't really a fan of Beth, Matilda or Scott, and Henry wasn't really around long enough to come into his own. I stopped watching for a long time around mid 2005 though, so I didn't see Matilda grow as a character (I only remember her as a petulant pre-teen), any of Beth's relationship with Tony Holden or any of Kit's final years.