The Worst Period of Home and Away

[Jay Preston]

This thread is an opportunity for retrospective thinking, going into Home and Away's history to find something that you didn't like and talk about it. Perhaps so you can know that it will never happen again.

My period is the KK era/error. I know this will be controversial, but it's been a while since they left and I think it's time that these things were said for an opportunity to think more clearly about it.

This storyline made a rapist a hero and his victim the bitch. Whether this was intentional or just a result of performances I don't know. I just don't think that the way Dani (and Rhys for that matter) were portrayed was right. There was no balance, no fairness and no justice.

Kane had a terrible past. I wouldn't have minded seeing him rebuild his life, that might have even been a storyline that I would have loved. Instead they made it trash by taking an incredibly immature and selfish girl (the victim's sister) and making her his love interest.

Then to top it off, innocent viewers were misled about what Kane had actually done. This is what really did it for me. So many people became fans of KK, but because they didn't realise what had *actually* gone on, this meant people were loving a rapist. A criminal who commited a sex crime. Every opportunity, KK were pimped to the audience as people to root for because people were against them. Never once was the opposite point of view portrayed in an equal way.

In a truly appalling twist, the victim became the villain. And it's something I hope never happens again on Home and Away.

What would you rather forget?

[shahhnun]

For me the worst period was the mid-90's, around the time when the main "teen" characters were Casey, Liam, Joey & (can't remember the other girls name!). It was just soooo dull.

[Ashirr-Leigh]

I would agree with just about everything you said, Jay.. but I did warm to KK in the end, although forgetting what he had done wasn't something I could do.

What I hope never happens again was when the whole twin swap thing happened. I can't remember the other storylines around that time but if they had been phenomenal, I think I would.

[Pierced Musie]

Also agreeing with Jay on this one.

[zx50]

Maybe Kane getting Cancer/Lukemia was his punishment for what he had done in the past, as in the rape thing. I personally didn't see Kane rape Danni so I can't really hate him for that, maybe if I had of seen the rape, I might have been able to hate his character, who knows.

[Ashirr-Leigh]

Punishment and justice are two different things though. Justice was what should have happened, not punishment.

I don't believe that Kane getting cancer was his punishment for what he'd done to Dani, it was just cancer. Nothing more, nothing less.

[claire_louise]

I agree with Jay on a lot of his points. Even though I'm a huge KK fan, I thought it was wrong that Dani was portrayed like she was. I know they tried to show the audience that Dani was driven to breaking point by KK's relationship, hence her accidentally hitting him with her car, but they made it too ambiguous IMO. The didn't focus on the fact that it was a genuine accident but instead made Dani out to be a bitch, which made the viewers question whether she'd actually done it deliberately (even though we saw that she didn't!). I wish that they'd portrayed Dani in a better light, but apart from that I thought the whole KK story was fantastic.

To be honest, I'm not exactly enthralled with the storylines right now. The teen group isn't particularly strong, many of the couples are either mismatched (Hayley and Kim) or dull (Hayley and Scott, Dan and Leah), and good characters (eg. Josie) are being given rubbish storylines.

Also agree with Shahhnun about the Casey/Liam era.

[ste]

I enjoyed the original KK storyline but I didn't like it when they brought it up again, and I hated how they changed Dani into the villain (intentionally or not).

I also wasn't too keen on the Casey/Liam/Aaron etc period. They just didn't match up to their predecessors - Shannon/Selina/Jack etc and the show did seem boring in comparison. Looking back however, they weren't that bad. In particular Joey and Casey were pretty good characters. However their storylines were dull.

My worst period of the show was 2001. Never has the show felt so "Un-Home and away" as that year. The mood just seemed to totally change, there was practically no attempt at all to link the current characters and storylines to anything of past H&A, it could have pretty much been a totally different show.

[The Cure]

I am not too fond of what is happening at the moment, in the UK, either to be perfectly honest.

The Matilda storyline is so predictable and highly unoriginal. They do this highly cliched "rebellion" storyline with almost every teenage character that passes through the Bay. Falling in with a bad friend/boyfriend/girlfriend, having disasterous experiments with drugs and alcohol, sneaking off to a nightclub/party, dressing provocativley, rejecting friends and family.....they seem to just re-hash the exact same storylines.

It made me laugh when Hayley said to Henry the other day "I went through a phase just like this when I was her age". Yeah Hayley, you and every other character who has the misfortune to spend their teenage years in Summer Bay.

The whole Matilda thing is eerily simliar to what Kirsty, Hayley and Jade all went through in recent years. Could they even be recycling scripts?? I think I have heard the phrases "Lighten up, I'm just having fun.", "Get off my case", "I'm growing up, deal with it" and "i'm sneaking out, cover for me or else I'll hate you forever", just a few times before somewhere...

It is very trying.

I also agree with the twin-switch thing, It was probably the dafttest/least credible/badly written storyline they ever done. It was simply brought in as a tool to get Jdae out of the Bay, but come on, there are a million other ways they could have rid her. Jade could simply have decided to go the City to live with Shelley, or started uni a year early (she was a swot after all).....or something else remotely believeble instead of the nonsense that ensued.

When I fisrt heard about that storyline, I just didn't believe it, it seemed the most absurd concept fathomable, and I was not proved wrong. It was also done in such a rushed and patchy way that made it even worse that I ever could have imagined.

Definetly a black point.

That is all I can rake up from my memory at the mment, but I'm sure there are many, many more.

[Foxy]

I totally agree with you Jay. In theory, the story could've been one of the most interesting that any soap has ever done, ever - can a girl really fall in love with a rapist? The guy who raped her sister? Unfortunatly, the representations that they pinned on the characters were totally out of line, especially Dani. Personally, watching the episodes now, I still totally empathise with Dani, no matter what the producers (cough*CORAL*cough) wants me to think. It is totally wrong to portray a rape victim as a bitch for not accepting that her sister is love with the guy who raped her. Totally mad. And I think I'm babbling now, so I'll stop.