Emmerdale risks isolating fans with Chas and Samson becoming so unlikeable

Few characters in soap can claim to be out-and-out good people. But as the Dingle dynasty is torn apart, it’s clear Emmerdale has a clear problem with redemption.   

Being tempted by Al Chapman (Michael Wildman) wasn’t out of character for Chas Dingle (Lucy Pargeter). Chas has always been selfish but warm and vulnerable with it, as strong as her acrylic nails — simply a flawed human being. 

But for redemption to work for any character, we must buy into it. Unfortunately, something has been missing recently – an insight into her motivations and inner workings.

Chas has been through so much, losing a child and her mother. However, feeling an emotional connection or understanding the character in her current form is challenging. She has taken out her pain so completely on others, and has lashed out so thoroughly.  

Her recent actions have included manipulating her own son Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller) as he grieves for his lost sister — industriously lying to him and driving him out of the village at his most vulnerable so that he doesn’t tell Paddy Kirk (Dominic Brunt) about her affair.

She didn’t seem to look for understanding, but for justification as she told him, ‘I was struggling, okay? With your nan, struggling with everything. Trying to keep it all together.’  

She points to her affair with Al as a ‘release, something had to give, I needed an escape.’  

Later, Paddy told her he wanted a divorce, after discovering the cruel betrayal, which she had previously shown no remorse for.

In the confrontation, Chas stated, ‘you couldn’t hate me any more than I hate myself, but lashes of guilt feel self-serving and short-lived.

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Later, she would let off the firework containing mum Faith’s ashes without telling any other family members.  

The impact of her behaviour has rightly isolated many fans, not least of all due to how beloved and soft natured Paddy is, and how it has driven him to the brink of the edge when it comes to his mental health.

In the aftermath of Paddy’s recent disappearance, Bear Wolf (Joshua Richards) gave her an honest account of her actions, ‘you made that poor lad’s life a flaming misery.’

And Aaron’s parting words: ‘This is pretty much it for you and me, and all you care about is yourself,’ must also resonate with viewers.   

In these soaps where a character is previously loved, we want them to become older and wiser — a little more world-weary. We want them to face obstacles and earn forgiveness bit by bit.  

Soaps should rely on slower unfolding stories which are realistic and generally in-line with the characteristics we know.

But recently, Emmerdale made a jarring and abrupt change with Noah Dingle (Jack Downham) and Samson Dingle (Sam Hall).

After stalking Chloe,Noah has changed radically since his time in prison, whereas soft-hearted and timid Samson seems to have become twisted overnight. 

Emmerdale had handled Noah’s backstory well. Stories across the years showed how Noah could have formed a negative and warped attitude towards women.

Disrespectul and misogynistic incidents with Liv and Gabby Thomas (Rosie Bentham) and his difficult upbringing with many negative male role models—were all explored and considered.  

Going from glib, unrepentant, and blaming everyone else to this new character, seemingly unaffected by those years of history, is lazy storytelling which shuns genuine redemption. Moreover, it diminishes the real-world impact of his behaviour.

Like Chas, this is a character whose his rehabilitation needed to take place on the screen slowly, if it’s even at all. After all, viewers don’t forget.

After all, Noah stalked Chloe Harris (Jessie Elland) for some time. He took her keys and went into her bedroom covertly, stealing her journal, photographing her personal possessions, and even lying on her bed.

When she found his laptop, it had hundreds of pictures chronicling his stalking and abusive behaviour — which also included using the information he gleaned from recordings to manipulate her.    

When she confronted him, he stopped her from leaving the house. The scene pulsates with Chloe’s fear and Noah’s delusion, ‘why is he like this?’ Such a question needed to be examined much more thoroughly.  

Meanwhile, Samson has undergone a personality transplant to facilitate his own plot, which has jarred viewers because it has been largely unexplained.

He wants a better standard of life than his father — he doesn’t want to be a father himself but it doesn’t fully explain his utter contempt for all those around him, his face permanently contorted into a smirk or scowl.

He is now willing to exploit Amelia’s insecurities, spitefully refusing any role in the arrival and upbringing of his baby.

He also callously put down his loving father in a vicius, and ruthlessly demanded a pay-off from Noah’s trust fund in return for staying away from his young child.  

Emmerdale will struggle to find a satisfying long-term conclusion to such a stark and abrupt trade-off.  

The soap has given itself a redemption problem. Long-running characters have had their reputations ruined and must prove they deserve forgiveness — in the court of viewer opinion, but it could already be too late for Samson and Chas.  

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