The Worst Period of Home and Away

[caitlin87]

The Jade and Kirsty not being twins swapped at birth storyline was a bit much for me. It was all over too quickly and to tell the truth was very silly. Having Christie Hayes playing her twin "Laura" was extremly tacky in my opinion.

[ste]

Considering she was an identical twin, it would have been far sillier to have anyone else play her in my opinion!

But as for the storyline, I agree as do I think most people, it was too rushed, didn't make a lot of sense, and was generally crap! Which is a shame as it had great potential but was used too much as a vehicle for Jade's exit rather than a storyline in itself.

[Natalia]

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.

Thank you. I said this non-stop through that era, and only about two people agreed with me. It was upsetting how many people (especially young girls) got caught up in the 'romance' of the storyline, and argued black and blue that, "Dani had it coming", or that nothing serious had happened.

I know Home and Away is just a television show, but it is watched by a lot of impressionable youngsters, and teaching them the kind of values that were shown through this period was incredibly irresponsible.

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.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

But how often do we see rapes occur?! Are you saying you won't dislike a rapist unless you saw them actually raping someone? I think that is a pretty dreadful attitude to take - coming from someone who has had two friends raped. I didn't see it happen, but that doesn't stop me disliking the people who raped them!

[caitlin87]

Considering she was an identical twin, it would have been far sillier to have anyone else play her in my opinion!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's a good point! Still a very badly done storyline though.

[Pierced Musie]

They gave the wrong message out. I see that now. They gave the message that the victim is wrong. The victim is never wrong.

I believe that a rapist, if truly is sorry, should be given a second chance at life. If the victim has the strength to forgive the rapist then that is great.

I was a KK fan for the romance when it was happening but now I have realized my mistake. I would have prefered it if the storyline had started out as Dani slowly forgiving Kane and them maybe forming a bond and then the romance. Before anyone says that would have been unrealistic I would like to say that it does happen. Over the years there have been articles in the newspapers about victims forgiving there rapists. Especially if the rapist had a bad background.

I feel that the romance came too soon and the way it was portrayed was all wrong.

Does that make sense?

[Ashirr-Leigh]

It makes perfect sense, Jess, and I would have much preferred the storyline to have taken that route too.

To me, it just seemed like there was always so much pressure on Dani (and Rhys) to accept their relationship and move on when, in reality, no victim of rape should ever be expected to forgive their rapist. It's inconceivable.

Sure, I believe in second chances, but not at the expense of the victim, not the way it was on Home and Away. I mean, yeah, the KK storyline was great, I'll admit that, eventually, I came to like them as a couple so that was very, very powerful writing and acting but I could never quite forget what Kane had done to Dani. I think the writers/producers.. whoever!!.. wanted us to forget once they realised that KK were a huge hit.

Natalia, I agree with everything you wrote in your post. Imagine one of those impressionable youngsters watching the show had been raped, what sort of message would that have sent out to them? That it was their fault and they should just get over it?

[ste]

While I was happy that Dani eventually managed to forgive Kane to an extent and move on with her life, I felt very much that she had been forced into it. It wasn't a natural forgiveness, and she probably wasn't really ready to move on. But she was basically told she had to get over it or lose her sister. Which really sucks. I think the mistake Home and Away made was that they didn't dwell on that enough. It was very much filmed from Kirsty and Kane's point of view.

[~Lynd~]

Yes it makes sense.

I had a problem with it the whole way through,i could see how it was wrong,but still couldn't help but like kane.Kirsty is a diffrent story.I still don't see how she could go out with her sisters rapist and just expect Dani to accept it & get over it.Even though Dani acting like a princess all the time annoyed me to.

There you go Jess,I take the cake in making no sence,i think that sounded bad,but hopefully you all get what i'm trying to say.

[Ashirr-Leigh]

I think you've hit the nail on the head there, Ste, when you said it was shot from Kirsty and Kane's point of view. They were made to appear hard done by when the whole town was against them when, in fact, that was inevitable and perfectly normal. They were the ones in the wrong. And yeah, Dani basically was given an ultimatum, it just wasn't necessarily presented in that way.

Spunky, I'm with you in that I reckon Kirsty came off worse in this storyline. Although Kane was the rapist, the bad guy.. at least we could sort of get a reason for why he'd done it. It was never justified, Dani didn't 'deserve' it like lots of others seem to think, but we could follow his behaviour back to his troubled childhood and sort of understand it.

Kirsty, though, I just didn't get. The Sutherlands were supposed to be this close knit family unit but then she goes off with the guy who raped her sister? I don't know anyone, anywhere, who would do that. Sure, the guy can change and become a totally reformed character but nothing could change what he had done.. so this was the most unbelievable factor of the storyline for me!

[Pierced Musie]

When it came to KK you liked Kane more than Kirsty. We have something in common then

Edit: So none of you guys ever saw the articles in the newspaper a couple of years ago? About reformed rapists. One story was about the sister of a victim falling for the rapist and they got married but only when the victim gave her blessing over it. If I remember rightly they waited over a year to get married.