I've always loved the bad guys. Never a moment when I didn't. I don't mean the full blown evil guys but the grey hats. The one with the bad attitudes or the checkered pasts or the rather unusual sense of morality. For a brief moment in my twenties, I thought I loved them in real life. I was, thankfully, mistaken. But in my "reel" life, it's the bad guy all the way for me. That is to say, the bad guy who's on a road to some semblance of redemption. So, with that, I decided to start thinking about what redemption is and how it works in daytime drama. And, as I did, I realized that redemption is something quite different in daytime than in any other form of melodrama.
The bad guy has to be redeeemed in daytime more than in other forms as they have to conitnue to exits long after their "sell by" date. They need to be eternal and if you, say, poison the whole town, you may not be able to stick around without some work. Who would do that??? Not my boyfriend Dr. David Hayward!!! So, there are a variety of ways that redemption happens on soaps and I thought I'd take this long, dull, hot summer day to recount some of them.
Redemption by Love
This is an oldy but a goody- sometimes. It's a quick fix where the bad guy finds the woman of his dreams and that makes him want to be a better man. This happened with a very young Tad Martin several times. He was redeemed by the love of a strong family- sob, Tad and Joe and Ruth and Jake- and the love of several women. The first one was Hillary, I believe, but he was not really redeemed as he was still caddish as she left him. It was Dixie whose love healed Tad completely. I have to admit he became a little dull after that, and self-righteous. But he was still Tad and who wouldn't love that face!
You see, Tad was never really a "bad" bad guy. He was a cad. But he was so damn cute and charming, he could get away with it. Sure, he slept with his girlfriend, Liza's mother, but he felt bad about it. Sure, he married Lottie for bad reasons, but he felt bad about it. Sure, he smoked pot...well, I'm not sure he how he felt about that, but I doubt it was bad. At any rate, he didn't have far to go to be redeeemed. He was well on his way there when he was adopted by the Martins and Ruth's everlasting love, as well as Gram Kate's, were too powerful to not make him good.
I'll have to stop now because if I continue, I may not be able to contain myself. That damn Martin love and family make me feel all squishy inside. That kind of love could have made anyone jump to the nice side. Even Billy Clyde Tuggle- BEST VILLAIN EVER- was tempted to jump the fence for the love of Dixie who was a Martin by injection....I mean marriage.
Redemption by Saving Another
There's always the old standby of redemption by saving another. Often it's a child or someone they've harmed. Those are often cheesey, unless the actors are great, but they are ones lazy writers can pull out of their bag of tricks. I find these redemptive techniques only interesting as they don't motivate the character to change, so much, as it makes the rest of the town see that they aren't soulless bastards. I prefer that as when the shift in personality sets in, there really isn't anything original about the character anymore.
This technique was used with my boyfriend, David Hayward, on several occassions. David was the perfect anti-hero as he was a brilliant doctor, so no matter how bad he got, he coud still save someone and make it not right. but, let's say, "not as bad". He saved people all the time but notably Kendall, the shrieking harpy, and Angie. He didn't save Angie's life, but her sight and some could argue that's as important.
Kendall was, of course, ungrateful to some extent as she was Kendall, spawn of the most self-absorbed character of all time- Erica Kane- and her rapist, whose name I can't recall as, well, I don't care. Now, I have conflicted feelings about Kendall. I love the actress who I believe to be a nice Jewish girl after my own heart, but found the character insufferable. Kendall was annoying when she was played by Sarah MIchelle Gellar, another nice Jewish Actress. Why is Kendall always played by the Jew broads? I never thought about that, but maybe I should. But, then I'd have to think more about Kendall and that would be annoying.
Alicia Minshew's Kendall was more endearing but she, too, was a harpy and sucked the soul out of all she touched, like her mother. I did like her with Zach but she was sucking the soul out of Patrick Thornheart, who couldn't have been more irritating, and what we were left with was so much hotter. I have to admit that Thorsten Kaye got so much more attractive with age, he makes me weak in the knees, like Kendall. Maybe that's because I'm a nice Jewish girl, too....I'm seeing a connection.
But I digress. For a change. Kendall had her life saved by the alsohot Dr. David and was she grateful for more than a minute? No. Was Erica? Hell, no. But, she's Erica and she was once sleeping with David and she was probably bitter than he preferred others, as he should. He was far too hot for her.
Angie, on the other hand, was her stellar self as David saved the day. It's one of my favorite moments as AMC ended. She came to understand him and he appreciated her. I loved that redemptive "moment", as I'll call it. He was not going to be a "good guy" like Tad, but she saw that he was less horrible and, I think, deep down, she even liked him. Come on, Angie, what's not to like???
Redemption by Justification
Then, of course, there's redemption by justiification. It makes sense that they do bad things as they have bad lives. They've been beaten or unloved or, my favorite, have a brain tumor. OMG, give me a fucking break!! That one's the worst. I know I've been very AMC-oriented in this piece, but if the shoe fits, I gotta wear it. Jonathon, the evil brother of Ryan, was just damn evil. But Jeff Branson was popular. So, what do they do? The brain issue, of course. Hell, having to be Ryan's brother should have been enough justification for whacking people, but he needed a brain problem, as well.
I don't remember if it was a tumor or what, but, really, does it matter? They operated, I believe, and then he just became "slow" or something. It was one of the worst redemptions I've ever seen. He became the Stuart of the younger set and any charm he had was gone. The Village Idiot But Really the Smartest Person in the Room role needs a really great actor to not be annoying or funny. Canary could pull itoff wonderfully but Branson was just annoying. Leonardo DiCaprio played the slow brother in What's Eating Gilbert Grape? and did so masterfully. But Branson just acted like an idiot. Nothing challeneged or special, just an idiot. He should have stayed evil. Much more appealing.
Now, there are those characters for whom redemption is not possible or they always try but fall short. The Todd Mannings of the world and the Adam Newmans. But there's a serious distinction here. Todd's been through all of these tactics and still is in the guilt-ridden hell of his own making and stupidity. Adam has yet to show me any justifictation for his bad deeds although I think he saved Noah and loved Sharon and now Chelsea. I still see no reason to think he's having any redemptive moment when all Todd does is have redemptive moments and they all go astray- by his own making or misfortune. But they all go astray....so far.
Hell, this time, I hope he at least gets laid. Adam gets laid all the time. Poor Todd. He's really screwed. And not in the good way. Maybe he'll get redemption through sex with Blair without a lie hanging over his head. That might work. But I doubt it. He'd screw it up....and not in a good way.
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