Feel you can’t take any more heartache? It’s over for Ric and Cassie! How can we take any more??
We’re still recovering from the death of Flynn, the jailing of Alf, the loss of Leah and Dan’s baby…and now Ric and Cassie’s love for each other is over.
Emotional highs and lows
You, the loyal fans of Home and Away have been on an emotional big dipper ride lately...what is it that keeps you sharing such a huge range of emotions, from bliss to heart-ache to tragedy?
What is good about the highs and lows of Home and Away is that there’s a sense of ‘being in this together’. We are all sharing the sadness of Sally and the kids with Flynn’s early death. We are sad that Leah and Dan have lost their baby – it just doesn’t seem fair that Leah has had so much heartache...how much more can she take?
We’re broken-hearted that our fave Cassie is breaking up from Ric – they’ve been such a cute, cute pair for so long, and they’ve been through so much together!!
And we’re all repulsed by the sleazy Dr Helpman’s inappropriate behaviour with Rachel. He’s even using his power to make her appear inadequate in her job! We know she is professionally a very capable doctor – she even saved Kim’s life, for goodness sake!!!
And she saved Dr Helpman’s son from drowning. But still she’s being victimised.
At the same time, we are very happy for Kim and Rachel. Kim’s love for an older woman seems so natural, and we’ve noticed his hot and sexy charms seem to be maturing when we’ve seen them together lately.
And we’re ecstatic that the much-loved couple, Tasha and Robbie are reunited: and there’s to be a wedding!! Wedding bells let us share the happiness of our fave couples as they commit their lives to each other.
You, the viewer
You the viewer, the fan/audience, play a huge role in the success and perpetuation of television series such as Home and Away...your fan mail and other forms of audience response can frequently determine the direction that some of the storylines may take.
But what’s in it for the Viewer?
Firstly, by watching the day-to-day life of the people of Summer Bay you enjoy a diversion from the realities of your own daily life.
Secondly, watching Home and Away is a form of entertainment and relaxation and gives you a cultural landscape on which you can map your own hopes and desires.
Thirdly, we become involved in the lives of the people who make up the families of the town of Summer Bay. We see how they behave and interact with each other and get to know the personalities of each person by seeing them day-to-day.
We learn about the dynamics – the ‘give’ and ‘take’ of relationships. We learn empathy and sympathy for people who are in sometimes tragic circumstances (such as Sally coping with the knowledge that Flynn is dying, leaving her with three children). We’ve seen the pain of Kim and Belle, searching for their natural mother.
We can understand Ric’s anger at himself and at his school, but at the same time, we know he’s letting himself down by walking out of school.
We can personally identify with the characters in Summer Bay (surely not with that devious vixen Amanda!!) and we receive confirmation of the sort of person we can imagine ourselves being. We can see ourselves in others and this helps to know what sort of person we are. (Stone the flamin’ crows).
Through it all we somehow know goodness will prevail – as long as we’re alive (and human) we’ll have optimism…so to be alive is to be full of hope for the future.
We know that in life there is joy and sorrow – it’s all part of what it is to be human.
It also helps to know we are not alone.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
