I don't know what his vision for the show is. I thought I did judging from the latter half of 2012 and the first half of 2013, but now, the show has switched back to what it was under Bower. There was a much more balanced cast in terms of ages and diversity; the storylines also felt more diverse.

In the latter half of 2012 we had the teen car crash, Tash/Ed/the app, Andrew's Epilepsy, Chris & Aidan, Kyle & Jade, Lucas/Vanessa/Rhys, Paul & Priya's affair, Susan/Summer/Bradley Fox, the Rebecchi's had story... The first half of 2013 saw Sarah/Karl/Susan, Lucas & Vanessa dealing with Patrick's illness, Lucas' cancer, Steph's return, Andrew & Tash, Kyle/Georgia/Scotty/Chris, Paul/Priya/Ajay, Priya's sexual harassment, Angie's return, Toadie & Sonya's wedding explosion, the Turners had their rushed story with Robbo... More seemed to be going on, whether it was all good or not.

Now we have Robbo's return, Amber & Josh, Josh's dodgy swimming coach, Mason/Kate/Kyle/Georgia, Imogen's issues, Lucas & Vanessa have their debt story, and Karl & Susan have been thrown a bone in the form of Holly Hoyland for a few weeks. Uncle Walter and Paul's sexual harassment stories have just concluded.

In a short space of time the show has lost a variety of characters, and a long with them different storylines and ages. The teens and young 20 something characters have been hogging the screen time for months. And with recent axing's the show will have even less over 30s around. I get the impression this is the direction the show will be heading in for the rest of the year at least.

I doubt it. With the amount of storyline being thrown at Mason, I doubt he will be going anywhere in the next few years.

Can the director really not see how poor his acting really is or am I missing something completely? Are we supposed to watch Neighbours with blacked out glasses so we can only listen and not see?


That teamed with the fact she does not look like a schoolgirl (more like a young woman in her 20's) makes it 5 x more cringeworthy!

Wish they could bring back Donna, Tash and Summer.

It must be a network thing. They probably want Neighbours to be aimed at kids due to advertising/network demographics etc, so maybe the producer is under pressure to re-teen the show against his will?

Is it actually a crime to have a family orientated show nowadays rather then a teen orientated one? Seems to be the case with Neighbours and Home and Away nowadays.

Remember the good old days of Neighbours when there used to be a nice mix of older and younger characters? Those days have long gone!

Exactly. H&A was always more teen orientated but Neighbours always had a balance of ages.

I can't quite see Ten caring too much. They're just happy they now pay for the show based on ratings - the lower the ratings, the less they pay, so it's in their best interest never to move the show from Eleven to Ten. Actually, I think I've just proved your point.

They're probably also under pressure form Channel 5 and FremantelMedia, too. I guess like all things, it would be best left in the hands of the writers only without any interference from the suits.

I miss the days when the show had a decent balance of ages and storylines. I think this is one of the problems with Lucas & Vanessa leaving - we lose another 30 something couple, and who will replace them?

More bloody teens most likely

I think Jasek has improved Neighbours 100%. It was a no-brainer for me that they bring in a pair of families and it's fairly obvious IMO they went with Turner/ Willis so that Mason could turn out to be Brad's son one day. IMO this is a great storyline and will be interesting when it unfolds. Yes it's a shame they are "all white" but I don't think the show is going backwards. Chris/Hudson is already being better handled than Chris/Aiden.

However, I think the big mistake was bringing them in all in at once as people mourn for those gone and resent the newcomers that don't match up right away. For example, Matt and Mason are no worse than early Andrew or Ned, but it's more noticeable to people because they have all arrived at once. On the positive side, Terese and Sheila are grand additions. Same for Rhiannon if only they'd keep her as a regular!

I think the proof is in the ratings. The show really suffered under Susan Bower. You just have to look at barb.co.uk to see this. Under Jasek, the show has at least stabilised. All soaps are going down a little every year but Neighbours plummeted more than any other whilst under the previous EP.

I just think it needs to be more ethnically diverse and less casting of Actors for their looks and bodies and more for their acting talent...

I don't think Richard is as 'damaging' as Susan Bower was to the show, in that his but I definitely don't think he's up to the job the way many of us first thought.

His ideas for improving the show seem very 1- step. Like introducing two generic family models= problem solved (I get seriously confused sometimes as to who belongs to which family...). Painting Harolds= problem solved. NO, people wanted interesting families, with each member having a distinct personaility, like the Bishops, or even the Timminses.... and when people said they wanted Harolds to change, I'm pretty sure they meant (like me) for the Lassiters complex to be torn down and built all over again, not for the wall colour to change

All of the returns have been awful. Steph's probably being the worst, adding damage to her character and reducing her to a cliche 'mad-woman'. She was around for weeks and all they managed was 'to give reason to what she did back in 2010?'. Horrible writing. Made me switch off.

The year started with such promise, but at this point, the show is fast headed for another session of crashing and burning.

Well I doubt they'll be adding any more older (over 30) characters once Lucas and Vannesa go. In fact Rhiannon is one replacement and she's... another teen!!!! Are we sure Susan Bower hasn't secretly disposed of the new producer and is going incognito at Neighbours pretending to be him?!

She's 25

Oops! Haha. I thought she was younger!

Poor cow, no doubt she is going to be paired up with Moron Mason.

You're probably right, I think so too.

Maybe. And time for a reality check: Neighbours' "network", is Channel Five in the UK.

Australia's Network Ten ditched to program over to a digital channel three years ago, and don't even advertise Neighbours. Meanwhile Five has a long term contract to keep funding Neighbours upfront, for years to come. Though people on DS often claim Neighbours' to be the highest rating program on digital in Australia, some evenings it isn't and children's programs http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2013/08/...gust-2013.html (or repeats of US sitcom 'Big Bang Theory' http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2013/08/...gust-2013.html) rate higher.

Network Ten has been dining out on their massively popular drama series 'Offspring' which has huge resonance with its Australian fan base. 'Offspring' has been all over the mainstream news for weeks now. Google it.

Thanks for the reality check!

We saw far too much of Mason in the bod department at first _ hopefully he has taken the hint and covered up. I may be old fashioned but Soaps aren,'t meant to be a leer- fest are they?

I like a bit of eye candy as much as anyone but not at 5.30 in the evening. And callow youths do not appeal to everyone - Neighbours' audience is not all teens.

If all someone cqn do is flash the flesh then they're obviously lacking in talent as an actor. Mason is a case in point - he isn't even attractive, although he obviously thinks he is!

I fear the direction this show is going in, is to shove Mason down our throats, which is a shame as they may lose vieaers because of it.

CHris is OK - I'd hate it if he were to go and all we had left was gruesome Mason!

THis new bloke is shaping up to be every bit as bad as Bower!

I don't see what peoples problems with the teens on the show is. I'm still enjoying Neighbours as much as I ever have. It's not perfect, but what soap is?

Heck, I even enjoyed it during Susan Bowers reign! Maybe I'm just easy to please!!!

Regarding the teens, we have Bailey, Amber, Josh, Callum, Mason & Imogen, with Rahnee leaving soon.

I think people just seem to have a problem with any characters under 30 in soaps, and its not just exclusive to Neighbours!!

Over 30 couples we have Susan & Karl, Terese & Brad, Lauren & Matt, & Lucas & Vanessa.

I have faith in Richard Jasek, that he'll come good, and he's certainly an improvement over Susan Bower, even though as I said I enjoyed her stint as well.

He's axed them though.

Neighbours has improved in leaps and bounds since Richard Jasek took over. I admit that the show is currently dominated by Mason, Robbo, Kate and Amber, but at least we haven't had to suffer stories as dire as Red Cotton, PirateNet, Sunny the Korean exchange student who was dire and Summer I-Know-It-All Hoyland.

I still think the show could do more with the Willis and Turner parents and give more storylines to Karl, Susan and Paul (when is Paul getting some action!), but on the whole it's much better than it was under Susan Bower in my opinion.

On Aus pace, the Pirate Net set is back!

I would rather the Sunny all over again than Josh and Mason. Those 2 are appalling.

I'm loving Neighbours more than ever now. All the characters are good and lots of storylines to keep me interested. I don't mind Josh but I'd like to see Brad developed more. I really thought he would work at the school rather than the gym though. I'm glad Paul now has some more characters to interact with too.