Originally Posted by
Telly Watcher
I look at all of the Emmerdale characters. Nearly all I love, a few I want to change and improve. Yes, Emmerdale is a soap. I like it when it is as realistic and entertaining as possible, like family in the TV lounge, just as posted here in this thread earlier. I have been avidly watching Emmerdale for about the past 2 years or so, and on-and-off before this.
Ross Barton is as real and as-large-as-life as anyone could be for now, it seems, on UK TV soap dramas. Let's face it, Ross Barton has been a figurehead for major Emmerdale storylines for the past 4 months or so and in many lounges for some peoples for as long or longer than that. Ross Barton comes across as a complete sociopathic misfit in Emmerdale, a villainous thug and someone really left alone and kept away from. Ross Barton is definitely not someone to date or admire.
I wrote before here on soapboards that there are better ways of solving problems in life than by using violence. Ross Barton is a classic case of how using personal violence against people has not solved his problems but caused more for him and those around him, usually his closest family and local villagers. Unfortunately, Ross Barton is a major character in a primetime UK TV network 7pm soap, so what this character does then is totally unacceptable for any kind of role model when shown to other impressionable people. Many of the things which Ross Barton has done before 8pm on primetime UK TV have not been shown to have received any come-uppance or consequences, and this, in my opinion, has been the most appalling failure for Emmerdale over the past 4 months of barmy storylines. Yes, Mike Parr has agreed to act out violent storylines on Emmerdale over this period on UK TV before 8pm. I want to make it totally clear now that, had I had any control over Emmerdale storylines and scripts for the past 4 months or so, then I would never have allowed what has happened and been televised over this period to have happened. There are other and usually better ways of solving life's problems than by using violence. If anything, when someone uses violence it is because they have failed to use more sensible ways of trying to get what they want. A classic recent case of this idea is how attacks by extremists in France did not achieve what they wanted. Of course, these extremists had nothing to do with UK or UK TV though or anyone displayed on it. I think it is very unlikely that the extremists would have been regular viewers of UK soaps or any actors appearing on these programmes.
I don't like Ross Barton. I don't like what he's done over the past 4 months. The previously "naughty scamp" and "bad boy" has graduated into someone very dislikeable. The actor was hired to be the soap villain and to be disliked by everyone, if he had the talent to achieve this with the storylines and scripts given to him. I get what Ross Barton is about and I understand how the actor tries to achieve because I am able to see beyond the appearance of the good-looking guy on screen. Other TV viewers don't seem to get what I do though, so for these, the actor appears to have failed to do the job he was meant to do.
I have come to like Robert Sugden. I didn't at first when he returned to Emmerale. He really came across at first as a toffee-nosed snobby rich kid who'd been born with a silver spoon in his mouth at birth. But time has shown history to appear to be very different. For now, Robert comes across for me as someone who has struggled from a modest start in life and made the most of his opportunities and talents through life. This is someone who has really ruthlessly taken every chance. Robert is really the most fascinating and unusual character in Emmerdale. Cool, calm, impulsive but knows how far to go before stopping, threatens to get his way for a laugh and then stops, helps people when there's something in it for him at the end. Yes, he pushed Katie, but he wasn't to know the floorboards would then give way and Katie would fall to her death. Katie's death was truly an accident. For now, New Robert has largely threatened but not been able to go through with anything really major and criminal. Robert is definitely a truly terrific character and very much one to watch for the future.
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