1) Soile, I agree completely with your comments. I have come to care about keeping up with the friends I have made through the years in these blogs more than in keeping up with the show and it's entertainment value. I have "Outgrown" it, they think, and for the most part, I have. I've moved on, not because I lost interest, but because I lost faith in where they want to go with all the stories they are trying to sell to us. They ruined the outcome of what I and many others waited to see (cont)
come to fruition and there was every opportunity to capitalize on the years of story telling we all invested ourselves into only to be sold out by cast and crew apparently feeling trapped in their commitment to Heartland and wanting to do other projects, which in my view is why these stupid plots got passed off on us. I canāt blame them for wanting to expand their careers by reaching for the next rung up the ladder, as some of the others have successfully done in the past, but I willforever resent the way we all got cheated out of the best part of the series with the parts most of us loyal fans waited so patiently to see even though there was never a guarantee we would get the seasons to see them. We got the seasons, but we did not get the payoff. They blew it and it can not be fixed with crazy, meaningless plots just filling time between when Georgie jumps a pole, gets kissed, and cries. The way things finally played out were a huge disappointment to me and to many others who have finally begun to voice similar opinions to mine. I have found a show on Netflix called āWildfireā aired by ABC starting 2005. The set up is crazily parallel to Heartland except the lead is a girl who gets out of juvie prison camp to work for a woman like Lisa Stillman on a nice ranch and trying to fit in. The 4th episode even used a goat to help a skittish race horse. Sound familiar? At least they have not disappointed me yet. - Steve__________________________________
Yeah, I think for me, I lost the trust first, even though we were told toĀ ātrust the writersā. I tried, at first, because I knew the earlier seasons were good and felt like there was still a way out of the hole they dug themselves into, it seems like they realized they had made a mistake and it felt like they wanted to fix it (the whole Ahmed fiasco). While they didĀ āfix itā by getting Amy and Ty married, it felt pretty weak safe in the scale of things, but I thought,Ā āokay, well, I give them a pass - this time - but I hope theyāve learned from this.ā In the end, itās the fans who they are doing the show for, and I think everyone in the fandom agreed that the whole Ahmed thing was executed poorly for many reasons.
In the end, I found they were not worth my trust (at least), so I started to lose faith altogether when I kept seeing the results and realizing that ourĀ āend game situationsā clearly differentiated from what I expected from them based on the earlier seasons (their end results were no communication between the characters/very shallow resolutions to conflicts instead of going deeper). Then I started to lose faith things were going to change, especially with Ty and Amy, and even though I havenāt been a fan of the baby related storyline for many reasons, looking back, I think itāll always make me bitter that since I donāt think weāll get past season 12 and whether I like Baby Lyndy or the storylines around her or not, itās such a wasted opportunity to have the showās final seasons with Tamy and their baby spent apart. So, now Iāve lost the faith for Tamy altogether.
Yeah, they will get years of togetherness forever off-screen, but weāll never going to get this time back with them, so itās not the same. Same goes for Louās story lines; I know not all people like her, but I do, even though she can make me irritated too at times. These last few years are spent with us being apart from her. I understand the actors want to do other things, but when they are there, I wish the time was spent differently.Ā āWeāve hadā Graham around when heās been to Mongolia, but that time is spent apart from Amy and now from Lyndy as well. Weāll never get that back.Ā
And when Lou is around, yeah, I personally do enjoy her scenes with Mitch, but itās all very repetitive - theyāre on, theyāre off, it doesnāt go anywhere - so I wish weād see her doing other things with other characters, because that time too weāll never get back. Itās too late to change these things now, I understand, but they did this last year and they got the same kind of reaction and yet, here we are - again. Why did they think fans would suddenly love it even more? Did they even rethink their approach? I donāt know. The only explanation Iām left with is that they donāt care what fans think and that the writers really have lost their interest in the show and just go with what feels easiest, because Iām not getting any warmth from them outside few odd moments. The only HL storylines that feel like HL at this point are Jisa, Tim and Jade related (even Georgie at times, even though I find the showjumping/boy drama mostly repetitive and boring). I feel like the rest is some other show I donāt even know with familiar faces I used to know.Ā
I can only speak for myself, of course, but I will not be told that what Iām feeling is wrong, because I know itās the truth for me, as you canāt control an emotional response, and if I feel like the soul of the show has died, I should be allowed to feel it. Nothing anyone can say about it.
Every character just keeps almost dying for shock-value, it seems like the writers think thatās all thatās left, but there would be more stories to tell about family and the support they offer for one another if they just shifted their focus back to what the show was built on. But I know Iām beating a dead horse at this point (no pun intended).
I donāt expect them to care what fans think at this point, but at least we have each other to talk to. So, thanks for giving me that, Steve and others.
As for Wildfire, I once checked it out, but it didnāt have characters I would have found likable or connected with, so I didnāt go very far. Iāve tried to find joy from other shows, but none of them are like Heartland theme-wise, so itās sad that Iāve somewhat lost that part of my life even when the show is still airing.
