Morality and Redemption in Soap
I've been thinking about this on and off for a while, but the storyline with Lewis and Ben in EE has raised it to the top of my thoughts again.
In EastEnders (and possibly in other British soaps, but I only watch EE), we have multiple murderers wandering around - and as viewers we're expected to have forgiven them and moved on.
Yet, it seems there are some crimes worse than murder - I'm thinking particularly of sexual assault and violence against women.
There was a moment in the Gray storyline where I thought they might try and redeem Gray and change him as a character with counselling - a potentially fascinating opportunity to get to the bottom of why some men are actually like this, and explore whether or not they can change, or will always be violent towards women. Yet, once Gray's domestic violence story resulted in the death of Chantelle, it was clear that he was beyond redemption, and the character had a shelf life
Yet, Ben killed Heather, and has been able to continue as a prominent character. Stacey killed Archie, same result. Janine has a fairly high body count and yet, we love her.
I should clarify, I'm not saying that domestic violence and sexual assault are minor offences - but I wonder what kind of message soaps are sending out to both victims and perpetrators of these kinds of crime. Are they really irredeemable? Are these people intrinsically evil and worse than murderers? Or, in the real world, can people change and come back from having committed such awful acts.
I'd be curious to see a show like EastEnders go down the route of exploring a redemptive arc for a character like this, and whether or not people around them can actually forgive and forget.
Or do you think we'll never see that and soaps will always have some crimes that the characters simply can't come back from?
In EastEnders (and possibly in other British soaps, but I only watch EE), we have multiple murderers wandering around - and as viewers we're expected to have forgiven them and moved on.
Yet, it seems there are some crimes worse than murder - I'm thinking particularly of sexual assault and violence against women.
There was a moment in the Gray storyline where I thought they might try and redeem Gray and change him as a character with counselling - a potentially fascinating opportunity to get to the bottom of why some men are actually like this, and explore whether or not they can change, or will always be violent towards women. Yet, once Gray's domestic violence story resulted in the death of Chantelle, it was clear that he was beyond redemption, and the character had a shelf life
Yet, Ben killed Heather, and has been able to continue as a prominent character. Stacey killed Archie, same result. Janine has a fairly high body count and yet, we love her.
I should clarify, I'm not saying that domestic violence and sexual assault are minor offences - but I wonder what kind of message soaps are sending out to both victims and perpetrators of these kinds of crime. Are they really irredeemable? Are these people intrinsically evil and worse than murderers? Or, in the real world, can people change and come back from having committed such awful acts.
I'd be curious to see a show like EastEnders go down the route of exploring a redemptive arc for a character like this, and whether or not people around them can actually forgive and forget.
Or do you think we'll never see that and soaps will always have some crimes that the characters simply can't come back from?
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Comments
Perhaps that's the difference? Rape/Sexual assault isn't a grey area, where I guess murder can be as with the case of both Stacey and Ben.
In the case of Gray, though... If his only murder had been that of Kush, a brutal callous murder, then the show would still have found a way to redeem him. Lucas is another case in point - an actual serial killer that the show brought back and tried to make us feel some kind of sympathy for/gave a redemptive arc.
I find it odd though, that in regards to soap murder is seen as a lesser crime than certain others.
My favourite soap character in recent times has been a remorseless serial killer, after also liking several other killers / serial killers in the past such as Richard Hillman, Cameron Murray etc. I laughed at hysterical comments I read elsewhere, saying that it was 'sick' or 'depraved' for me like a fictional serial killer, whose kills and actions were about as real as mine when I played Grand Theft Auto in the past.
However I was thinking that on one hand it would be strange for me to shrug off or joke about Meena did in Emmerdale, with also wishing that she'd gone further and wiped out half the village with Chas and David top of the list, but simultaneously have a huge issue with what the likes of Cain and Noah have done, which while very bad of course pale in comparison.
But then again on the flipside when it comes to serial killers and certainly if we ignore Hollyoaks which has been farcical in that department, we know early on that they have a limited shelf life and will eventually be arrested and imprisoned and / or killed. When it comes to established, long-term characters that are part of the furniture, I guess it's easy to judge their 'lesser' actions and crimes more harshly, because we know that there's a strong chance that they will not receive much comeuppance, which has definitely been true in Cain's case. Even if they are banged up, there's a good chance that they'll be released after a comically short period of time, with them and other characters quickly acting as if nothing happened.
Has this trope been played in the UK?
Also, I know the lead character of Tddd Manning on "One Life to Live" was a rapist (the gang rape of Marty Saybrooke), but don't know enough about the show to explain how they redeemed him enough to keep his character on the show for another 20 years until it went off the air. If interested, there's an entire Wikipedia article about this rape saga with these two characters. Similarly, Roger Thorpe on "Guiding Light" was a very popular character who not only raped Rita Stapleton, but there was also the case of marital rape when he assaulted his own wife, Holly. With that one, Holly eventually shot Roger and he was presumed dead, but he faked it, and they eventually wrote the character back in. From what I've picked up, I believe both Todd and Roger are seen as very comp[ex anti-heroes who were always seeking redemption. In any event, I think they'd easily be termed fan favorites, played by dynamic, award-winning actors.
In any event, I don't think a lot of these stories would play today.
Ben is the one character who isn't ever allowed to move on from his bad deeds the way other are . Nobody is running around the square reminding Stacey and everyone else that she murdered someone . With Janine it's camp fun and he should habe worn slip on shoes . Bobby had his secondary victim Max becoming his cheerleader and an entire story arc about ghost Lucy . With Ben you get an endless list of all his misdeeds everytime the character is doing something, anything really .
It is shocking how Bobby is now redeemed when he wanted to hurt Lucy as that is why he was carrying the jewellery box. He also wanted to kill Jane as that is why he was holding a hockey stick. Do people actually know how dangerous he is
It's true. Killing someone in cold blood is the worst thing anyone could ever do,but in soap it's often treated as camp fun. There's definitely a double standard at play here.
Lost his memory in an accident and Susan forgive him and moved him in, the whole street was affected by this and they all had to learn to come to terms with him being there.
He then got his memory back and turned killer again
I never bought into Bobby being the murderer. It seemed like an afterthought on the part of the writers, a disposable character played by a new child actor who would not be missed in the same way as the other 'suspects' when he inevitably left the show. By contrast, I like the direction the writing team have taken Bobby since Clay Milner Russell took over the role.
Bobby is about as dangerous as a paper cut. Plus, he feels guilt and shame for what he did. While nothing he ever does can make up for what he did to Lucy and Jane. At least he's trying to be a good person going forward, and so far he has been.
Ben is totally ruined. I think giving him a rape story is wrong. Because I think many people will struggle to feel sympathy for him. Now I'm not saying he deserves it, as no one does. But I think the viewers will struggle with this storyline going forward.
I love Bobby but he does still have a bit of a temper at times - does anyone else remember him lashing out at Denny in the run-up to the boat crash? It doesn't come up often and he's obviously working really hard to manage his emotions, but I wouldn't rule out him being violent again in the future.
I'm not sure Lachlan was redeemed though. He was always a creep - he was super weird with Belle in his first scene, and we were told that the reason the Whites moved in the first place was because he'd been stalking a girl. He had a long shelf-life because of his age, but I think he was always a villain.
From what I remember he wasn't even all that apologetic about assaulting Alesha, not for the longest time. I think there may have been a period when he was dating Belle when it seemed like they were trying to redeem him but then he became a murderer.
Lucas in EE was a religious character. Religion didn’t redeem him
Well he was on the road to redemption but the producers could not help themselves and decided that he must not be redeemed
The thing with Ben, is that he does horrible things and just doesn’t care and then expects everyone to feel sorry for him
When things mess up. Stacey has kind of owned up to it all and does try and be a good person (and her killing Archie, whether rightly or wrongly, was her killing her rapist at the end of the day)
Janine ultimately (again whether rightly or wrongly) does what she can for herself and her daughter and her softer side is shown but doesn’t feel forced, unlike with Ben.