2007-2011 Teens Group

[CaptainTed84]

In this thread, I want to know your thoughts on the 2007-2011 teens group on Home and Away. Now the characters in this group consist of Annie Campbell, Melody Jones, Jai Fernandez, Ruby Buckton, Xavier Austin, April Scott, Dexter Walker and Casey Braxton as these characters were all in the same year level in school. Meaning that Geoff Campbell, Nicole Franklin, Indigo Walker and Romeo Smith technically are not part of this group as they were older than the big group of 5 Year 12's in 2011. I understand that Romeo was briefly in Year 12 in 2011 with many of these characters, but to me it doesn't really count since he wasn't there for very long.

Anyway my thoughts on this Year Group is that it is underrated. It was always going to be tough as the successors of the 2002-2007 group as that group are seemingly very popular and are no doubt more popular than this group but I think that they were a fine bunch. Here are some things that I really liked about this group.

Firstly, the beginning which saw Annie Campbell start Year 8 at Summer Bay High. Creating such a young character was the opener for this group to begin as it meant that it gave the writers the opportunity to think of more young characters to add in the next few years. 

A year later we saw the arrival of Melody Jones who was introduced as Annie's best friend. Now honestly I was never a huge fan of Melody's character, I understand that she was meant to be complex which was good for the show but there was just something about which made me dislike her so I was happy that she was only a guest role at first and then that her return was only brief when she left the show at the beginning of 2009. Anyway as far as the interaction between Annie and Melody went, I unfortunately haven't seen many of the episodes from when it was just them as the girls of this group but when I did I personally didn't like them as best friends. I thought they were too similar which sometimes doesn't work in shows, obviously it's good for the characters to have some similarities, but when Melody was at her early stages before the Axel storyline I thought that her and Annie were too alike for it to be a good friendship.

Shortly after Melody arrived we saw the arrival of Jai Fernandez, now once again I haven't seen too much of the patch of episodes set just before Ruby Buckton coming into the series but from what I know, Jai and Annie didn't have too much of an interaction in the character's first 24 episodes however I am certain that they did talk to each other at least once or twice.  

Roughly a month after Jai came into the series was when we saw Ruby Buckton join the series, and in my honest opinion Ruby is the key character of this group as she was on the show long enough to have a good interaction with just about everyone in the group, aside from Melody who was mainly a guest character, when the two were on-screen together they didn't have too much of a positive interaction. Once Ruby came in was when I believe this group became really awesome as Jai and Annie were both very alike and Ruby was a lot more bouncy, fun and outgoing than the others. I felt that in the latter part of 2008, those 3 characters had good chemistry as friends and what was also good was when Jai and Annie became a couple, the chemistry remained the same as Ruby never appeared to ever have feelings for Jai in the way that Annie did. I felt that Annie had a way better friendship with Ruby than Melody as they weren't so similar but at the same time they weren't so different.

At the end of 2008 was when we saw Xavier arrive, it was only a temporary stint as he came to Summer Bay for schoolies initially, but I feel that it was a good preview for 2009 when he had a thing with Ruby briefly which definitely would have made the viewers think that they would become a couple, And that they did on-off until 2010. Xavier I feel was another key character in this group as he had a good interaction with just about everyone, except Melody who I don't believe that he ever had a scene with. His friendship with Ruby Buckton was relatively strong, from memory the only time that they weren't "friends" was from mid 2010 to late 2010, as they didn't have too many storylines together during that period, after that they seemed to ease back into their friendship.

In mid-2009, Dexter joined the show temporarily, in which he was mainly there as Annie's love interest. Like many people, I believe that his character was much better when he was played by Charles Cottier, his 2009 stint wasn't a fantastic storyline in my opinion and I think that was mainly because his character and Jai's were a bit too similar and he was also quite a boring character when he first came into it. I much preffered the Jai v Romeo storyline when both wanted Annie as they were both different types of guys. I was happy when he left, because when they decided to bring him back which I will touch on shortly, it gave them the opportunity to improve his character and make him absolutely awesome.

In late-2009, Jai and Annie both left the series to go on student exhange. Although Annie technically returned briefly in 2010, it was only for a guest stint and didn't really make a huge impact on the teens group as it only really impacted Romeo who is excluded. In my opinion, these 2 departing wasn't a massive loss for the teen's group, at least in the long run that is. At the time it definitely changed the group a bit despite the fact that Ruby and Xavier still had good chemistry in friendship and relationship. But the reason why I don't call it a huge loss is simply because compared to Ruby and Xavier, these characters were a bit more immature and shyer, and being played by younger actors, I'm not sure if them staying on for a couple more years would have been good for the growth perceptive of a character as like I said before they were not as mature as Ruby and Xavier. So essentially I think it was perfect timing for those character's departures.

For the next 8 months (aside from Annie's brief return when she spent a bit of time with Ruby), Ruby and Xavier were the key characters in this group and their chemistry was awesome. Throughout this time they were both friends and in a relationship which was good for the time being when temporarily they were the only group members. 

Eventually, a new character was added to the group which was April and in my opinion she was created as a more mature version of Annie, I feel that April was who the writers wanted Annie to be if she stayed on the series for an extra couple of years and changed overtime. April's addition was a turning point for the group in a way as almost immediately she began a friendship/relationship with Xavier. This changed the dynamic of the group for at least 6 months as Ruby spent more time around other characters than Xavier and April.

A week after April joined was when Dexter returned which impressed me alot. I was extremely happy with the remodelling of Dexter's character, he was less shy, extremely out there and extremely funny. Another thing that I liked about Dexter was that in a way he was a good replacement for Jai, even though it wasn't really made too evident, Jai was a bit of a nerd. He wasn't a massive as nerd, but he definitely had a few nerdy characteristics when he first came into it. Like in 2008, he was an expert on computers and technology. He also was a target to bullying as well which doesn't neccessarily make him a nerd but it is something similar to Dexter as Dexter eventually was a target to bullies in 2011.They didn't really show too much of his nerdy side in 2009 but I feel that if he was to have stayed on for a couple more years then they would have expressed it alot more in his latter years of schooling. From memory, Dexter didn't have too huge of an interaction with the other group members. I definitely know that he interacted with them a bit, but it wasn't as huge until 2011.

Finally the last character to join this group was the much loved Casey Braxton. Although he wasn't really a major part of this group as he didn't meet Melody, Jai or Annie, he was at Summer Bay High for the majority of 2011 along with the rest of the group. Casey was a great addition as it gave Ruby a new love interest as I think that the Ruby and Xavier relationship storyline would have been a bit much if they were a couple in 2011 and potentially 2012.

2011 in my opinion was the best year for this group as there was the 5 main teens (Ruby, Xavier, Dexter, April and Casey) almost all there for the entire year.I thought that just about every storyline revolving around this group was good as we saw just about everyone in a relationship at some point with a love triangle to spice things up. I really liked the storyline where we saw Dexter, Casey and Xavier in a group project together which I feel was a turning point for both Casey and Dexter's characters as they both formed a friendship with Xavier and each other which ended up lasting for a while. The only thing that I thought that they lacked storylines of was the friendship between Ruby and April, I do know for a fact that they were friends but whenever they were having friendship scenes together, there was normally someone else alongside them. I think that more alone scenes between them would have been nice but I don't blame the writers for not adding it as I really liked this Teen's Group.

Just before I wrap up, here is my assumptions on where these characters ended up after they left the series

Melody- She moved to New Zealand for a fresh start with her mother who was quite crazy, sadly I feared the worst for Melody when I found out of her departure seeing them leave together but I'd like to hope that she settled down and the two formed a strong bond and that Melody is happy.

Jai and Annie- Both left together on Student exchange in Japan. Annie returned briefly like everyone on student exchange should but Jai didn't, he must have loved it so much. When Annie left again the last we heard from them was that they were staying on exchange at their Japanese school. What I believed has happened is they have hopefully become a couple again and stayed a couple to the point where they are still together now. If they didn't become a couple, I believe that once Jai finished school instead of returning to the Bay, he moved to Phuket to live with Miles or back to Australia. As for Annie, she most likely moved back to Australia to be closer to Geoff, assuming he still lives around there.

Xavier Austin- Left town to become a cop at the Police Academy, I assume that he has probably settled down in a town which has surf close by or possibly is still living in Goulburn where he originally moved because that is where the academy is.

Ruby Buckton- Unknown but most she most likely got charged for her crime, however with Morag as the lawyer she may have got off. I assume that if she was not charged, she probably went to Uni in the City and got her life back together.

April and Dex- Both left the Bay together at the end of 2013 to become Doctors and Nurses, I assume that they are still studying as they are long courses and probably work part-time at a hospital like they did in Summer Bay.

Casey Braxton-Deceased. Poor Casey

I would love to hear your thoughts on this teen group and what you thought of each of the characters