Home and Away - Are We At Crisis Point?

1

I think the nadir was reached last Thursday evening when I ironed clothes for work the next day while only paying scant attention to Home and Away which I had on in the background.

It seems so terribly long ago that we marvelled at such storylines as the death of Dr Flynn Saunders, the murder of Mayor Josh West, Sally being stabbed along with of course the Summer Bay Stalker terrorising the locals in what was arguably the greatest spell of concerted TV drama in the history of the medium.

I’ll never forget watching the Stalker’s final moments (or so we believed at the time) being played out dramatically while sitting engrossed in the Board Room in the office of one of my previous employers at 1.50pm on 6 October 2005.

From those great and sublime heights we have somehow found oursleves in this current malaise.

I don’t ever recall Home and Away suffering from such an awful affliction. The storylines are poorly crafted and teased out while also being unwieldy and drawn out far, far, far too long. The show’s also losing out as all the main characters are currently playing backup to the problems of others. We have Alf, Sally and Jack constantly fretting over Martha, 'Ric trying to help Cassie launch her counselling service and Peter Baker disenchanted with Amanda’s erratic behaviour.

These mainstays are required to drive the show forward and need to be central to the majority of plots. Instead they’re all invariably restricted to the odd throw-away comment about Martha or Amanda while chatting casually in The Diner rather than being in the heat of the action themselves - where we demand and expect them to be.

That leads to my next point. The last 3-4 months have concentrated almost exclusively on Martha and Amanda’s respective journies to destruction. However, both storylines should have reached their natural conclusion long before now.

The viewer lost all sympathy for Martha when she ended her marriage to Jack because he went for one night-out with colleagues and then proceeded to bang his best friend later that week. Yet still we’re supposed to care as she goes through the agonies of an abortion, alcohol abuse, dalliances with drug dealers and so on. Her initial reaction to Jack and her typically whiny and whingeing female behaviour has ensured I don’t care what happens her in the future. Not now and not ever. Dragging out her demise needs to stop now - not because we care too much, rather because we don’t give a fook at all.

Then we have Amanda’s sister coming to the Bay to ruin Amanda’s life in revenge for injuries she sustained in a car crash many years ago when Amanda was driving. This has been ongoing for months now and is so incredibly shoddy at this stage that I weep every time she’s in a scene.

So far:
She’s kidnapped Amanda’s daughter.
Arranged for her accomplice to drug Amanda, get her back to his motel, take naked pictures of her and then pretend that she cheated on Peter with this accomplice man.
Blackmailed Amanda for money through possession of the photos which also entailed forcing Amanda to steal drugs from Northern Districts Hospital.
Convinced Amanda she killed a man when they merely drove him off the road.
Paid off her daughter’s kidnapper who was threatening to come clean.
Subsequently arranged for him to be murdered so he wouldn’t upset her plan of ruining Amanda’s wedding to Peter.
Ruining Amanda’s wedding involved placing these pictures under everyone’s seat so she wasted AUS$80k and killed a man for this - not great value surely.
And it’s still going on even though I assumed the marriage disaster would bring things to a head.

It’s just so repetitive and amazingly boring. Every single episode is the same:

Amanda says her life is ruined. Kelly says she’ll always be there for her. Amanda says she doesn’t know what she’d do without Kelly and starts crying in her arms. Kelly smiles over her shoulder while plotting the next evil move. Every single fooking day for 4 months. I’m at my wit’s end.

The only little bit of hope I’m clinging to is that surely Cameron Welsh must realise that this is simply not good enough. Otherwise I literally don’t know where go from here other than one thing - it won’t be to The Surf Club, The Diner, Yabbie Creek or The Caravan Park anymore. It’d be all to easy to sid idly by and watch the programme degenerate further, or worse still turn my back on it, but I can’t and I won’t. I am going to fight tooth and nail for a return to the standards we’re accustomed to.

Home and Away used to be the Daniel Hantuchova of soap operas / dramas and now slowly and surely it’s morphing into something akin to Roger Federer’s missus. It has to stop and it has to stop now.

2

Wonderful post Bandage - I was going to post something similar yesterday but I had neither the eloquence nor the time to do so.

I literally yelped with delight the other week when Mr Stewart returned to the Bay. I thought he’d sort Martha out good and proper, and better still I thought he’d do it immediately. Yet he was sidelined after a brief period at the front of the screen when he excelled as a character again.

Did Dr Flynn Saunders die to see some wet, miserable, weak, insipid cretin like Brad Armstrong take his marriage bed? Did Zoe Jacobsen preside over a reign of absolute terror in the Bay just so Kelly might come along afterwards with her petty, disproportionate and frankly irrelevant pursuit of revenge? Did 'Ric Dalby follow in the footsteps of lovable rogues like Peter “Tug” O’Neale, Vinny Patterson and Kane Phillips only to be replaced by a mindless, manipulated victim like Rocco who felt so sorry for himself he cried in nearly every episode?

The only solace I take is that one day we will look back at these leaner times and say we were glad we went through them for it makes us appreciate the finer moments all the more. We will be forever grateful to Alf and Sally for remaining with the Show during these bad times.

3

This is what I dont understand of all the characters they could have concentrated on the choose the two least likeable characters Amanda came to the bay as a villain and though they have tried to redeem her I dont think they ever did so to see her suffer by someone elses manipulations doesnt bother me at all she made plenty of people suffer herself so what goes around and all that. This revenge plot is the most ludicrous thing ever Amanda didnt have any money arriving in the bay and no friends for most of her time so to see her lose her money and the handful of acquaintances she made does not seem like revenge to me I never for one moment doubted that the old Amanda would come back after all this and marry another old man for money.
They only time I felt bad for Amanda was when she was upset over Ryan and Dan told her he was going for full custody. For all her faults I do think Amanda loves Ryan and to have her discredited as a bad mother and have Ryan taken away from her at the start would have been a far better revenge plot in my opinion. She decided she loved Peter in five minutes Im sure she could get over it in five so ruining the wedding not really evil to me but to lose her son would have been something. At this point I dont care what happens to her all Kelly seems to have done is turn her into an alcoholic because for someone who is supposed to have lost so much money she is certainly not worrying about it.

The Martha storyline is also ridiculous I couldnt care less what Cam drags her into she brought it all on herself. What annoys me about the storyline is that it is bringing down decent characters like Jack to her level. I cant believe Jack would risk his career for her and to see Peter being reduced to helping further Marthas little saga was heartbreaking. The Peter Baker that risked his life to save summer bay numerous times would never advice Jack to break the rules. We saw that during the Ric - Jail storyline that though Peter doesnt like the evidence he will always go by it I dont for one minute believe he would hint at Jack to get rid of the evidence. This furthers my believe that the Real Peter Baker never came back to the bay after the original stalker storyline and will return soon to rid the bay of rubbish storylines and worse characters.

While I dont like seeing Alf and Sally running around after Martha it is their way they dont give up on lost causes and to hear Sally tell Alf last week not to bother checking up on Martha also proved that characters just arent behaving like themselves. Sallys uncharacteristic behaviour is either poor writing or Brads influence. Brad just proves again and again that he doesnt have half enough heart and character to make him anyways suitable for Sally. I just hope that the writers are building him up for a massive fall hes just too sickly sweet and I dont buy it. The real Peter can come back and expose him for the fraud he is and Peter and Sally can live happily ever after.

I really do hope that this is just a minor bump but sometimes its hard to see a way back. Then again I like the new doctor and think he has potential but I thought the same of Brad so what do I know.

4

Haven’t watched if for maybe ten years and I was always more of a Neighbours man, but happened to see ten minutes of it the other night (classically unbelievable bad boy suggested drinking at a party and ended up getting smacked by meaty hunk struggling to reform his formerly violent ways), and one thing really struck me. Am I supposed to fancy those birds? And would it even be right?

They’re clearly slim, pretty, well turned-out girls and the show seemed fairly packed with them compared to the days of Bobby and Carly leading the way, but they’re just so goddamn young. I know I’m getting on a bit now but they actually just look like kids to me. Did the likes of Rebecca Emalamagou (tough) look that young? Or Angel?

I definitely fancy Marissa and Summer who are playing a similar age, but these girls. They’re not even birds.

I dunno, maybe I should be watching some Thirtysomething or This Life style programme.

5

Decent episode tonight actually. Nothing fantastic but it had action at least. Hopefully this will be the wakeup call Tony needed though something tells me he’ll be a miserable wreck instead.

On the ladies front I guess they’ve lost Hayley (Rebecca Cartwright) recently enough and they’ve had some trouble replacing her. Tasha was always too weird to get any great affection and Amanda too old and made-up.

So it’s the new wave of Cassie (not for me), Mattie (Bandage to be fair to him called it when she was 12 or something) and Belle. Belle and Mattie will do for me.

I reckon Angel can’t have been that old anyway.

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Excellent stuff on this thread since my initial post.

Fats, I saw that episode last week too and myself and my housemates were discussing the birds in it. For me Matilda has to take over the Hayley mantle. It’s actually her birthday in real life this month if my memory serves me correctly and she’ll then be fair game at 17.

Cassie turns me right off. She’s orange and whiny.

I’m becoming a real advocate of Belle. She’s getting better and better.

ClarkeyCat has a thing for Martha but I despise the character and that’s probably affected how I rate her looks.

I do admit having a thing for Amanda despite how fake she is.

As for tonight, at least there was a bit of action. I knew what was coming with Beth seeing as one of my mates who’s in Australia keeps texting me updates to pi$$ me off - think that episode only aired Down Under about a month ago.

Getting rid of ugly, boring, old hags like Beth is a good start but I don’t want to have to put up with weeks of listening to Tony rattling on about her.

In my initial post I also meant to include Kim, Rachel and Kit. I detest all 3.

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Yeah Beth is no real loss to the show but my big worry is that they’ll mourn her for ages. She brought little or nothing to the table and you could give her credit for Mattie but then she’d lose all that praise for bringing Scott Hunter into my life. Something I can never forgive her for.

Spotted that the crash was Beth fairly early on today. Pleased with myself because I’m not very good at watching tv most of the time and tend to miss obvious clues like that but I figured it out today way ahead of time.

Back to my worries about the future - if 'Ric goes to counselling to curb his anger I think I might seriously contemplate my relationship with the show. That guy has got it all. He’s tough but fair. He had a few dalliances with Belle and others but he’s settled on his girl now and I think he’s made a decent call there. He’s like a younger Alf and I use that comparison advisedly, knowing just how respected Mr Stewart is. But to think that some fool like Brad could become fear an t in that house when Alf is away is heartbreaking.

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Some very good points above. As regards birds I do think that Martha is savage and definitely old enough. Mattie (why don’t they call her Tilly - it’s way nicer) is only about 16, so a little wrong to fancy her but she’s hot stuff in fairness. Cassie is an orange monkey face but has a sweet ass. Belle I’ve fancied from the get-go. I like the slightly bohemian look. Not sure what age she is though.

Very much enjoyed the end of last night’s episode. Great drama although I did think Kit and Kim getting stuck in the bush was way too obvious. Great to see Tony’s delight turn to despair and thought it was really well acted. Clarissa (Big as a) House will be no loss to the show.

Agree very much with your assertions regarding Ric and Brad, Rocko. After Mr. Stewart and Sally, Ric is my favourite character. Legend and doesn’t need to change.

Another character who I really like is Jack. Was glad to see him change his usual by-the-book attitude to try bring down Reynolds and to save Martha. Martha’s treatment of Jack has been abysmal but it’s plain to see he still cares a great deal for the girl. Nice to see that those sort of fellas still exist. A real role model.

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I am sick to death of the cell phone out of coverage/dead battery storyline should Kim not have learned from his wedding fiasco and have at least 2 phones with him at all times in case of emergency?

I really think this could be the makings of Tony now that he doesnt have to be Beths lapdog. Last night just reinforced why I love him he was so sweet racing to the hospital as soon as he was told Mattie was upset. I agree that it was an excellent scene at the end Jacks voice breaking as he tried to tell Tony was very sad.

I agree on the Kim, Kit and Rachel hate their storyline line is just rehashing the worst of the Scott, Haley, Kim storyline. If they all move to France at the end of the storyline it will be worth it. I feel bad sometimes for disliking Rachel so much as I never gave her a chance but she was tainted from the get go with her association to Kim. That and I blame her for inflicting Brad on us I still cant get over how little interaction they have as brother and sister.

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Excellent points there westy. The phone coverage thing has been done to death before. Fair enough a signal might not be always available out in the bush but surely Kim would have known this beforehand.

The scene at the end was superbly acted. Jack’s face said it all - that’s the level of acting we’ve come to expect.

11

Such was my concern at the path Home and Away was taking lately I felt my initial comment warranted a thread all to itself.

Now I think we should let this thread die and revert back to discussing all happenings in that superb ‘stalker is back’ one.

By the way I totally disagree with any praise of Tony in yesterday’s episode. He sat there like a weiner in the house and didn’t go to the hospital straight away cos he ‘didn’t want Beth coming home to an empty house’. Well, the fat dyke would have quickly filled it up. Then he’s there trying to ring Irene to get her to come over cos he heard Matilda was upset. What a wuss.