YMMV / The Dumping Ground

• Broken Base: The show gets hit with this on the topic of the Series 4 through 6. Fans either like the new series just as much, finding them to be fun to watch or they dislike the Lighter and Softer changes to the show and find the writing to be poor and silly. Series 7 goes back to having a similar tone to Series 1 through 3 with more dramatic and realistic storylines, interesting characters with development, and toning down the subplots.
  • The debate about romance in the later series. Fans either ship characters with a passion and are excited when moments appear in an episode or are annoyed with all the boys and girls being paired together and wish for the series to go back to having platonic boy-girl friendships, seeing the changes as being forced and cliched.
• Creator's Pet: Floss. There are many times where she ends up getting her way after being bratty or mean to the other children.
  • Jay, who in his second episode (although Bird partakes in this too, though most episodes, including this one, show he's clearly easily led) almost gets May Li fired due to a false accusation, and is barely punished for doing so, and in the 2020 Christmas episode, describes Bec as having a heart of stone, which the episode later blames Sasha for.
• Seasonal Rot: The show gets hit with this in the later seasons from fans due to it being Lighter and Softer, almost every episode having a Zany Scheme or some kind of competition in the subplot and the new children not being as interesting as the old ones. Many will agree that it started going downhill after the third series after the old head writers left but some believe it happened after the first series. However, fans are enjoying Series 7 as it brings back more drama and realistic stories, more characters with backstories and development and cutting down on the silly subplots.
• The Scrappy: Floss gets a lot of a hate from fans because she stole Harry's Iconic Item Jeff the Giraffe along with her bratty and meanspirited attitude to the other children. The fact that she has been on the show for years but has little to no development doesn't help things.
  • Bailey at first for his cocky attitude.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Nazeer is introduced near the end of the first half of Series 8 as a boy that Jay feels threatened by and quickly becomes rivals with him due to Jay's nasty attitude towards Sid. He also shows signs of being a Big Brother Mentor to the eccentric Sid. His backstory was even brought up with how he had been close to his dad until his stepmum arrived on the scene. His rivalry with Jay and relationship with Sid could have led to some good Character Development for the two, while his backstory could have been delved into more and created some good story ideas. However, aside from having a major focus in the subplots of the midseries finale and the first episode of the second half of the series, Nazeer's appearances are reduced to a few cameos in a few episodes before being written out as moving back with his dad.
  • Murphy, a character who was introduced back in Series 3 as Sasha's baby brother, returns in Series 9 when it is discovered that he has been neglected and left alone by their mum, causing him to be put into care. With Murphy's Tantrum Throwing behavior and Jerkass attitude (which was similar to Sasha when she first arrived at Ashdene Ridge), it could have been interesting to see Sasha looking after Murphy while Murphy could have some Character Development and his backstory could have been focused on. It also could have offered some interesting family drama involving the Bellman family. However, aside from Murphy's first appearance and Sasha's leaving episode, the two don't interact at all and Murphy has no development and leaves the show after Series 9 with no explanation.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: At the very end of Series 9, Bec had a subplot in which she develops feelings for a girl named Joy, only to find out that Joy has a boyfriend and she ends up coming out to Jay, saying that she might like girls but is still figuring things out for herself. Bec's storyline about being LGBTQ+ could have led to an episode where she ends up coming out while teaching the audience the importance of being true to yourself and your own feelings. However, Bec leaves the show in-between Series 9 and 10 with no explanation.
  • The Series 10 finale features a fire that quickly spreads through Ashdene Ridge and burns it down to the ground and also has Kyle and Hugo inside the house during which Kyle has to pull a Heroic Fire Rescue to get Hugo out after he collapses from the smoke. This leaves the show on a cliffhanger and also had potential to focus on some interesting storylines for Series 11, such as Kyle and Hugo dealing with the trauma of being trapped in the home during the fire and Sabrina and Wes or Doreen feeling guilty and at fault for started the fire (for context, Sabrina and Wes were messing with the crystal ball to begin with and then Doreen set the crystal ball in front of the window in the quiet room where the sunlight redirected its rays off the crystal ball and started the fire), plus all the kids dealing with the loss of what felt like home to them (especially for longer-running characters like Finn and Taz). However, Series 11 removes all the pre-Series 10 kids and Hugo offscreen, the remaining kids don't seem that affected by losing Ashdene Ridge, and while Frankie and his gang seem to briefly see Wes as a threat as they had heard that he started the fire, this storyline is glossed over and then dropped after the first episode.

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