The Punishment
of jail, criminals. Now I suppose if soaps still had the patience to keep someone in jail for months, have them be visited by the prison chaplain, and dedicated some time to seeing the character have a change of heart and then stick with it, that would be plausible. But of course, who in daytime has patience anymore?
A slightly more believable avenue for a villain doing a 180 is being struck with some sort of illness, preferably potentially life threatening. The same pitfalls are there though in that if fans want to see the character suffer and the show doesn't really live up to their expectations, they'll remain unforgiving. I think far too many redemption stories that have taken this route have done little more than the perfunctory apologizing to the people they've wronged. These people are too kind to not be accepting when a person is lying ill in a hospital bed, but fans are not as kind. Yes, I want to see a character who has committed crimes come to realize the gravity of what he's done, feel remorse for it, and ask for an apology. But if that is accomplished in a group of scenes while he's bald due to chemotherapy and when he gets better it is never brought up again, we have a problem. ATWT's writer Hogan Sheffer previous lack of patience concerns me regarding his tumor story with Barbara. Of course, we all have been jumping the gun in assuming it is a redemption story, but if it is, a few apologies to Paul, Lily, and a dramatic moment where we see her bald isn't going to cut it for many if not most viewers. Only using this draining and incredibly frightening experience to have her search her soul for her behavior and really use the time to improve herself and show consistent remorse through the ordeal gives her IMO even a chance of being welcomed back into a favorable light with viewers.
Of course, if Hogan wanted to speed up the redemption process, he could just use Barbara's brain tumor to explain away her behavior, tumor is removed and problems are solved. I'm not entirely sure how successful that would end up being for the majority of viewers. But so long as Barbara went back to herself and was consistent in that, in time, I think many viewers would let their guard down and like
Latest Articles