MovieChat Forums > Happy Valley (2014) Discussion > Sympathy for the "bad guys"?

Sympathy for the "bad guys"?

posted 9 years ago by mikkit9298
2 replies | jump to latest

In both episode 1 and 2 I found myself sort of feeling sorry for some of the bad guys. And then hating myself for it. These were guys who seemed not intrinsically "bad" but men, who in a moment of desperation and weakness, did something terrible which they regretted. I think this is brilliant story telling in that our protagonist often is her own worst enemy, the victims are sometimes not so "innocent" and some of the bad guys are regular folks, and alas some of the bad guys are just evil incarnate. Season 2 did this particularly well. Did anyone else find themselves, albeit briefly, hoping that the some of the bad guys would find a way out of the mess they made?

[–] lilactime2014 9 years ago

I can see your point. Although if you asked 1000 hardcore criminals and their wives they would all be the salt of the earth. Even Hitler had a few mates.

I think everybody has a few points in their life where they have a door to walk through and whether they are a "Good Guy" or a "Bad Guy" determines whether they walk through it. A good guy doesn't walk through the door but turns back. If Kevin had been a good guy and not a self serving, spineless, bitter, entitled creep he wouldn't have started the ball rolling when he didn't get what he wanted and even then he had plenty of doors to turn away from. But chose to go through all of them.

Both Kevin and John made awful decisions that ended in someone else's death and rape / kidnap. They both had the opportunity to be the Good Guy even once the ball was rolling but both chose the coward's way forward....

Not much sympathy for them here.

'tler

[–] Ithilfaen 8 years ago

Did anyone else find themselves, albeit briefly, hoping that the some of the bad guys would find a way out of the mess they made?

And by "bad guys", are you referring to the two men who brutally murdered and mutilated women just because they were *beep* weaklings too pathetic to work on their mommy/wifey issues?

Then no.

For every lie I unlearn I learn something new - Ani Difranco