1992 - Your Reviews

[Dan F]

This thread is your opportunity to review the 1992 season as a whole - we're not after a writeup of the storylines, but rather your opinions on the year.

Such points to consider could be your favourite storylines, the storylines which didn't work so well, any character developments that you found interesting, what you thought of character arrivals/departures...even any points about new underscores/locations/opening titles etc. are all welcome to be part of it.

Just to give you a quick recap on just some of the year's main storylines:

Blake/Meg/Julia

Sophie's Pregnancy/Running Away/Meeting Mary/Tamara's birth/Giving up Tamara

Bobby & Greg's Engagement/Wedding

Nick/Lucinda/Ryan 2.0 + Lou's departure

Damian/Finlay/Irene

Tug & Shane's arrivals

Marilyn/Phil/Toni + Marilyn's departure

Simon's departure

Blake/Les/Roxy

Shane/Damian/Kelly

We hope to post some of the reviews on the main site when we get to revamp the Year Summaries section, so please feel free to write as much as you like (within reason) and take your time over it.

Please only post your own reviews in this thread, one post per member, any discussion should continue in the 1992 discussion thread.

If you forget something, feel free to edit your post at a later date to add more to it.

[JosieTash]

The 2 storylines that i loved most about 1992 back then were the ones i focussed on this time about. I mean i taped/watched other eps this time around, but the 2 biggies for me were Meg [especailly THAT death at sunrise ep] and Sopie giving up Tamara.

In terms of both, i felt pretty much [if not exactly the same] MUCHLY emotions taht i did the 1st time around.

Especially in terms of seeing the 1992 seaon finle last night .....all that pain that the Sophie was going through ...adn it made me think of the 1992 Neigbours finale [which was screened the same night back then as the H&A finale] ...... whilst Sophie went through her gut wrenching decision, we had someone's son [Julie's i think] going al waaaaaaaaaaaay melodramatic ....setting a house on fire and trying to kill Julie [in a hot tub i thnk] !!!!

It;s been a BLAST seeing Sophie, Meg, Blake, Shane, Foxy Roxy etc again !!!!!!! ......

and i'm looking forward to seeing the likes of Angel and Shannon again [let's hope 7two keeping on screening these Early Years eps that long.]

[Natasha]

My favourite storylines: Meg and Blake and Meg's death plus Finlay/Damien and Irene.

The storylines I found frustrating the most: Lou/Nick/Ryan and Sophie's drama before she gave up Tamara.

[j.laur5]

This season has made me see Pippa in different light and here's how.

Pippa is not always soft hearted mother hen as there are times when can be quite feisty and even harsh to her foster kids.

So I will admit she can be rather unlikeable at times!.

So I think I prefer Vanessa Downing version as Pippa as I think she gave her more life and I feel Debra seems bored at times or maybe its more Pippa being up fed up with fostering and living in Summer Bay and she just does not what to admit it or she does not it yet!.

Don't get me wrong I still like Pippa and she has her likeable moments.

But it what makes Pippa realistic character and both Vanessa and Debra are both fantastic at playing her and making her believable.

But however I can honestly say I don't think Debra makes Pippa any more mummsy then Vanessa did as they both had there moments of being likeable and mummsy and then there moments of not being so likeable and hard on there kids.

But I will admit I did get bit to used to how sweet Debra Pippa always was when she visited between 2000-2009 and always watching polit episode and seeing what super mum Vanessa was playing.

And I forgotten they were written different when they were regulars.

So I think comes down to witch actress you prefer and I like Debra Pippa but I prefer Vanessa Downing as like I said before I just felt she gave Pippa that more life and charisma to her.

[rachel1990]

Well 1992- Like 1989 a mixed bag of storylines and characters but I felt it was poorer than 1991 and was slightly overhyped to be a great year.

But I will start with the best storyline of the year. After Karen's departure and with Simon proving to be blander than dry bread Blake desperately needed a decent storyline for 1992 (I am ignoring the rubbish finale with Josh). And oh boy did he get it. He and Meg were one of the best couples in Home and Away history and their obvious chemistry was amazing. But what probably helped was the fact that Meg was going to die and so it all ran with a very tragic thread. Julia was an annoyance at times but unlike Sophie throughout the year, you could see her reasoning for being overprotective with her daughter (she wanted Meg to spend her last moments with her.) Of course THAT moment did have to come and it was so well written and tragic (and unfortunately copied in 2007 by the writers) that we all wished that Meg didn't have to die as the sun rose in summer bay. Oh and Julia left at the end of the storyline. Fair enough.

At the start of the year Frank was my most annoying character (that would change very quickly). I just cannot believe Bobby would choose him over Sam and Greg (note How I put Sam first. Without the kid I would have dumped both). However sense prevailed and Bobby and Greg got back together. And Frank hanged around for a couple more weeks and finally left. As for Bobby and Greg they got engaged and Married (Before Sophie gave birth I have to say) and apart from the drama of not having any money and Sam getting his finger stuck down a plughole they seem to be a stable couple (for the time being).

Oh god its Nick, Lou and Ryan. This was always going to happen. The writers saw the story in 1991 and thought it would be a great idea to revisit it and this time have Lou have an affair with Ryan. To be honest it wasn't that bad with both the acting and story being strong. Of course Nick found out and Ryan left (AGAIN) and Lou and Nick tried to patch things up but it was too late and she left. Then Ryan returned for A Sophie storyline. I wished he hadn't.

A good year for Finlay saw her past revisit her when her brother Damien joined the full time cast after running away from home to join her. The producers did the right thing by bringing Damien in and having Irene leave (but She will be back as the character that we know and love). Apart from that Finlay had a quiet year but was a better character in the Sophie dramas.

Two more arrivals heralded the start of a new teen group. Shane (with his lovely hair) was the first on the scene and despite his early bad boy ways did prove to have a heart and cared deeply for new best mate Damien and brother Nick and helped Nick through the Lou and Ryan traumas. Shane had a rivalry with the other new arrival bully Tug (who unlike Shane got on my nerves A LOT). Tug however went too far and has framed poor Shane for something he hasn't done. It will be interesting to see how this goes in 1993 with these two and Damien. Shane needs a Miracle right now. How about an Angel?

The saddest exit of the year was our Beloved Maz. Over 3 years Emily had acted her socks off but her stories were becoming limited and maybe a departure was inevitable since Bobby and Greg were going to tie the knot. Having Maz marry her so called prince charming was perfect for her and her leaving the bay was sad at least for me there is a golden thread to it.

Ah Simon. Always second best to Blake and Sophie he became a background character (seriously at times I forgot he was in the show past the opening titles) He and Sophie fizzled out to nothing him and Toni fizzled out to know and the actor quit and was written out to live with his dad without a goodbye scene. I don't think he was ever mentioned again.

After Meg’s Death Blake was at a loose end and it was difficult for me to see where they were going to take the character. Thankfully the producers and writers decided to look into his past and decided to bring in his dad and cause a conflict between Blake and Alf. It was a great story seeing that Alf was the Dad that Blake always needed but he would be drawn to Les due to his history. But Sense prevailed and Les left but not before they brought in Roxy as Blake’s sister (which mattered little if truth be told due to the fact that I believe Les Hill had quit anyway.

Shane/Damien/Kelly- Yes Shane did have a love interest before Angel and here it was. In quite possibly the most boring story of the year Shane and Damien fought over Kelly nobody won and she left. BORING.

Talking of Boring…. Home and Away could have had a new name this year- The Sophie Show. Seriously poor Rebekah didn’t seem to get ANY time off as Sophie had a storyline for every week of the year. Firstly she lied about who the father was (That was never going to work). Then she ran away making Sally feel pushed out (Kate was pretty much forgotten about this year). Then she came back had the baby quit school (That was dumb) was ‘Sexually harassed’ in quite possibly one of the worst stories ever, then Ryan came back and she obsessed over him (that was really boring as well) and finally decided that she didn’t want her baby Tamera anymore (even though David the father was her true love) and gave her up. I got really bored of Sophie and her character changed every single week it seemed and Poor Pippa, Finley and Michael were dragged along with her. In 2014 looking at her now I realised she was just an overhyped character who was very poorly written for. No wonder Rebekah quit the show! I dread to have thought what they would have had her gone through in 1993 if she had stayed!

Oh and Pippa’s Pregnancy- While it had to be written in surely they could have mentioned medical issues or something like that otherwise its ridiculous to be honest.

But while 1992 was much poorer than 1991 Meg and Blake save it from being a 1989.

[Red Ranger 1]

It's hard to believe Blake and Meg was the same season as the stuff we've just watched, it seems so long ago. But yes, you can see how the elder statesmen remember it so fondly, there was a clear chemistry between the two characters and the storyline was given enough time to breathe and for the relationship to build naturally before it was cut short.

Ah, Sophie. I'd like to think someone sat down at some point and planned out her arc for the season, opening it pregnant and desperate to hold onto her baby and ending it worn down by single motherhood and contemplating signing her away. Actually, maybe someone did and that was the problem: Too little narrative scope for too long a time frame. So we end up on this eternal loop of her struggling, then coping, then struggling, then coping, until she eventually decides to give Tamara up at a time when things don't seem any worse than usual. Still, I have found the character likable and empathetic, it's just a shame her storyline was so repetitive. The same goes for the Nick/Lou/Ryan triangle, which was far too slight a storyline to run for so long.

You know, much like Sally, Simon is a character whose year could probably be summed up in a couple of sentences, if that, but for me, when he was in a scene he added something to it. So I was sorry to see him go and that his departure was somewhat downbeat, despite the attempt to soften it the following week. I kind of wish they'd have been brave enough to have him jump in that car with Marilyn, Phil and Toni, that would have been an interesting set-up. As it was, he didn't even seem to get to say goodbye to her. Sally's still there, obviously, but I don't think she gets a storyline until about 1995.

Michael, I think, really came into his own this year. After having a dodgy second half to 1991 and starting the year on somewhat uneasy terms with Sophie, it was good to see the bond between the two of them grow and him clearly loving her like a daughter by the end. The arrival of Damian was probably another important step in his development, as he was forced to accept that a foster child is for life, not just for Christmas, and accept Damian into the family unconditionally despite his faults. The bond between Alf and Blake also worked well, adding to the trauma of it being broken apart by Blake's reunion with Les and the relief when things were finally settled.

Although Blake was the prototype, Shane and Tug are the point where the bad-boys-turned-good idea really kicks in. While Shane was probably intended to be a "goodie" from the start, with his rougher edges being knocked off by his friendship with Damian and by Nick giving him a chance, Tug seems to have been a short-term bully character who kept coming back to the point where he eventually got given some background and the occasional sympathetic moment. Oddly though, the moment where he starts to become more complex is the moment when he moves from a very low-scale threat to getting Shane sent to jail and quite clearly taking pleasure in it. It'd be interesting to know at what point the decision was made to make him permanent but either way, the road to redemption was waiting in 1993.

[CaptainHulk]

Good Season but dragged on in certain parts (Nick/Lou/Ryan), closed well.

[beau_t]

I was sorry to see the back of Marilyn Chambers, one of my favourite characters, but in hindsight I actually think giving the character a break for a couple of years worked really well for both the character and the show as a whole. It did feel like Marilyn was coming to the end of her shelf life as a character. Settling into farm life as a dutiful wife and mother, with a ready-made family, is the perfect ending for Marilyn and her traditionalist views. And returning as a fragile divorcee in a couple of years would give her character a new angle to work with.

You could say that Pippa's serious medical condition which makes being pregnant very risky, is the pinhead on which all of Home and Away is based. Without this fact, she and Tom would never have started fostering and there would be no show. So to not mention it even remotely, when Pippa fell pregnant again, is ridiculous.

[CaptainHulk]

She supposedly fell Pregnant again, to Ian after she left.

[beau_t]

She supposedly fell Pregnant again, to Ian after she left.

My issue isn't with her falling pregnant, it's about the life-threatening complications not being mentioned.

When she fell pregnant to Ian that was offscreen so I wouldn't expect it to be mentioned then, but in this case she was still a (the) main character.