Where I get hooked on a couple I've never been emotionally invested in...
It's been an extremely odd week, emotionally. For some reason, I got incredibly caught up in the exit storyline of a soap opera character. I don't watch soap operas. It's been very confusing.
There's a UK soap opera called Hollyoaks, famed for a revolving cast who are mostly in their twenties and extremely good-looking, but many are not, shall we say, regarded as terrific actors. I've dipped in and out of it since I was a teen - I remember it being the first show I watched with lesbian characters in it - but I've never been a fan, mostly because the characters are pretty uneven and the storylines mostly ludicrous. I'm all for a bit of melodrama but I loathe shows where so many people are desperately unhappy. I can't stand that kind of bleakness. I think I've just been reminded why.
For the past couple of years, Hollyoaks has featured a character called Brendan Brady - an Irish, gay, gangster-type with a moustache and a great deal of anger and violence. It turns out that he was both physically and sexually abused by his Dad when he was a child. He's homophobic and also in the closet to start off with, both beating and sleeping with beautiful young regular character Steven 'Ste' Hay. Ste himself was beaten as a child, and went on to abuse the mother of his kids. Meeting Brendan changes everything - it causes him to realise he's gay for a start. So there's a complexity there and a journey that fans have loved. Brendan does change, and want what's best for Ste, even admitting he loves him and can't live his life without him, he comes out and, after they both pretend they're fine without each other and Ste marries another guy, they actually get together and have a proper relationship. Then Brendan's father turns up and his exit storyline begins. Emmett Scanlan, the actor behind Brendan, decided after two and a half years on the soap that he wanted to move onto other acting challenges, so his storyline was set. His sister discovered the abuse from their childhood and killed their father when she saw him threatening Brendan, Brendan, who's killed other characters during his time on the show, decided to take the hit for her, admitting to those murders and his father's. The police shoot him, though he survives, and we last see the door of his prison cell shutting. His goodbye with Ste in the hospital is beyond heartbreaking, Brendan telling Ste to let go of him.
So yeah, this week, the week of the Brendan exit storyline, I ended up in a surprising amount of tears. Not what I was expecting. I knew of the storyline thanks to the internet but didn't expect to end up so affected by the exit. I think, because I know Hollyoaks, I'm dreading them putting Ste with someone else. I'm dreading him having to move on because thems the rules of a soap, everybody always moving on in some way. I hate it because Brendan did change and despite his often awful actions - the show never really blunted his edges - he tried to be better and he fell in love and gah, I hate such bleak endings! They really upset me and for some reason, that's really hit me this week. I've definitely cried too much and felt like a complete idiot because of it. Anthony reminded me that life is like that for some people, no real happiness, just bleakness and darkness. He's right, and I hate that that's a reality for some. I really do.
To Anthony's credit, he's held me and listened to me rant and hasn't once said 'it's fictional, get over it.' He doesn't always understand why I'm so emotionally affected by stuff, but he always supports me through it. And I'm so grateful for that, considering what a crazy person I've felt like this week. The fact is, Hollyoaks slyly didn't kill Brendan off, which is what everybody expected would happen, because Emmett Scanlan asked to leave, because they likely had more plans for him. So by shoving him in prison, they can stage a jailbreak for him should Scanlan find, like many soap actors, that there aren't as many roles out there for him as he'd hoped. He's not your typical soap actor though, he's always likely to be cast as the villain due to his face and I can see him doing really well elsewhere, which is what I'm hoping for. Yet, I also hope that he turns up in Hollyoaks again. I hope that Ste's actor, Kieran Richardson, leaves soon, because he's been there since 2006 and deserves to move on, and I hope that Brendan appears in his exit storyline. I expect though, he'll stay and have more boyfriends and that will depress me. So I'll retreat to reading about it on the internet instead.
I am writing something though, something weird, a fix-it, because it has to be fixed. Also I want to write something about Brendan being in prison and Ste refusing to let go of him and Brendan breaking out - he'd be able to, he has the contacts. So yes, had to get that out there lol. It's been on my mind pretty much the whole week. Frankly I'd like to have a better grip on myself before my Mum's birthday in a couple of weeks :S
There's a UK soap opera called Hollyoaks, famed for a revolving cast who are mostly in their twenties and extremely good-looking, but many are not, shall we say, regarded as terrific actors. I've dipped in and out of it since I was a teen - I remember it being the first show I watched with lesbian characters in it - but I've never been a fan, mostly because the characters are pretty uneven and the storylines mostly ludicrous. I'm all for a bit of melodrama but I loathe shows where so many people are desperately unhappy. I can't stand that kind of bleakness. I think I've just been reminded why.
For the past couple of years, Hollyoaks has featured a character called Brendan Brady - an Irish, gay, gangster-type with a moustache and a great deal of anger and violence. It turns out that he was both physically and sexually abused by his Dad when he was a child. He's homophobic and also in the closet to start off with, both beating and sleeping with beautiful young regular character Steven 'Ste' Hay. Ste himself was beaten as a child, and went on to abuse the mother of his kids. Meeting Brendan changes everything - it causes him to realise he's gay for a start. So there's a complexity there and a journey that fans have loved. Brendan does change, and want what's best for Ste, even admitting he loves him and can't live his life without him, he comes out and, after they both pretend they're fine without each other and Ste marries another guy, they actually get together and have a proper relationship. Then Brendan's father turns up and his exit storyline begins. Emmett Scanlan, the actor behind Brendan, decided after two and a half years on the soap that he wanted to move onto other acting challenges, so his storyline was set. His sister discovered the abuse from their childhood and killed their father when she saw him threatening Brendan, Brendan, who's killed other characters during his time on the show, decided to take the hit for her, admitting to those murders and his father's. The police shoot him, though he survives, and we last see the door of his prison cell shutting. His goodbye with Ste in the hospital is beyond heartbreaking, Brendan telling Ste to let go of him.
So yeah, this week, the week of the Brendan exit storyline, I ended up in a surprising amount of tears. Not what I was expecting. I knew of the storyline thanks to the internet but didn't expect to end up so affected by the exit. I think, because I know Hollyoaks, I'm dreading them putting Ste with someone else. I'm dreading him having to move on because thems the rules of a soap, everybody always moving on in some way. I hate it because Brendan did change and despite his often awful actions - the show never really blunted his edges - he tried to be better and he fell in love and gah, I hate such bleak endings! They really upset me and for some reason, that's really hit me this week. I've definitely cried too much and felt like a complete idiot because of it. Anthony reminded me that life is like that for some people, no real happiness, just bleakness and darkness. He's right, and I hate that that's a reality for some. I really do.
To Anthony's credit, he's held me and listened to me rant and hasn't once said 'it's fictional, get over it.' He doesn't always understand why I'm so emotionally affected by stuff, but he always supports me through it. And I'm so grateful for that, considering what a crazy person I've felt like this week. The fact is, Hollyoaks slyly didn't kill Brendan off, which is what everybody expected would happen, because Emmett Scanlan asked to leave, because they likely had more plans for him. So by shoving him in prison, they can stage a jailbreak for him should Scanlan find, like many soap actors, that there aren't as many roles out there for him as he'd hoped. He's not your typical soap actor though, he's always likely to be cast as the villain due to his face and I can see him doing really well elsewhere, which is what I'm hoping for. Yet, I also hope that he turns up in Hollyoaks again. I hope that Ste's actor, Kieran Richardson, leaves soon, because he's been there since 2006 and deserves to move on, and I hope that Brendan appears in his exit storyline. I expect though, he'll stay and have more boyfriends and that will depress me. So I'll retreat to reading about it on the internet instead.
I am writing something though, something weird, a fix-it, because it has to be fixed. Also I want to write something about Brendan being in prison and Ste refusing to let go of him and Brendan breaking out - he'd be able to, he has the contacts. So yes, had to get that out there lol. It's been on my mind pretty much the whole week. Frankly I'd like to have a better grip on myself before my Mum's birthday in a couple of weeks :S