und du sagst, du wolltest immer raus hier...

Okay, I know I've been bitching like mad about the gay-bashing plot on GTST beforehand. And now having seen it, I'm thinking that maybe I shouldn't have. I'm still not crazy about including the incident, I stand by that. But maybe I should've had more faith in the writers.

Because I've seen it and... Boy, did they pull it off. Yes, the bashing was difficult to watch but I think IF you decide to show a story like that, you should go all the way. Don't sugarcoat it, because it is brutal and cruel and there's nothing to euphemise about that fact. I probably won't be able to rewatch those scenes very often, seen them twice by now and it's gut-wrenching. But like I said, it should be, it's supposed to make the viewer feel uncomfortable.

But what really got to me was the way they've handled the aftermath so far. I think it was amazing. All scenes focused on creating a certain atmosphere that felt like the minutes after a fatal storm is gone. Everyone being slightly numb, not having yet fully realized what had happened, consciousness only slowly leaking in. No one really panicked, it was more like people were paralyzed by the shock. The dialogue was rather matter of factly, yet the actors conveyed the terror really well.
All filmic techniques were reduced to a minimum, slow camera work, less editing than usual. Light dimmed down, discreet music.
It was less about what was being said and done than about conveying the raw emotions.

Actually it was one of the best episodes of GTST I've seen yet. Really feel like I should've given everyone more credit. That's a talented bunch of people working there.

Of course, we'll still have to see, where this is going from here. How will Noud and Lucas deal with what happened? Who were those bashers? I had the feeling that Dex might have known the one, who looked up at him, before he went away. That could even be connected to that story about the soccer coach, he got abused by? IDK. I sure hope they'll deal with Dex's issues in a good way, because that character is on his way to being nothing but sinister. But he has a lot of issues, that's for sure and if he learns to deal with them, who knows what could happen?
So many questions, so few answers but still I'm now confident that they'll handle it quite well. That's rather scary, actually.




(LOL, I'm curious if embedding videos works. :o)


Also on Monday we'll get a sexy male nurse, I've seen the preview clip. Not that I care about such shallow things.

So my newest addiction, Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden from the Netherlands, is going to have a gay-bashing incident in its New Year's Eve episode. And I just saw the preview clip and I'm so not looking forward to this episode. Meaning I'm actually thinking about just skipping it (I probably won't, though), because I can't bear the very idea of it happening.

GTST features a gay character called Lucas Sanders since last summer. He's made of pure awesome. In his late teens, completely confident and happy with who he is and unapologetic about it, speaks his mind, enjoys life. He's portrayed by the lovely Ferry Doedens and so far I've been completely in love with everything this show has done.
Lucas came back to the Netherlands after living in the USA for several years. He had to come to terms with his relationship to his mother, because he felt like she wasn't there enough while he was abroad. Also she didn't know he was gay until that point and had to deal with it, but she came around and it was all rather natural and no one made too big a deal of it.
Lucas was then involved in a plot with the homophobic Dex. Of course everyone suspected him to be gay, but thanks to an unexpected storyline twist we now know that that's probably not the case, but that he has been abused by his soccer coach at the age of 14. I give GTST massive credits for daring to pick this subject, for the unexpectedness and the superb acting by everyone involved.
At the moment Lucas (who has never actually been in love before) has fallen for his seemingly straight best friend Noud. And he's really, really sweet, clumsy and adorkable in this plot.

So much as far as the awesome is concerned. But now both Noud and Lucas will be viciously bashed on New Year's Eve for a completely harmless hug between friends.

Now of course I'm very well aware that horrible things like that happen every day and yes, even in tolerant countries like the Netherlands. Still I think it isn't necessary or good to include a gay-bashing in every single gay (or coming-out) storyline. After all, there are still many people who have lots of positive reactions to their coming-out and don't have to endure severe physical and emotional violence. And telling these kinds of stories is always connected with a big portion of responsibility for what young gay and lesbian people expect when coming out. But always something horrible like that has to happen, most of the time even with people ending up being hospitalized. I think it's kind of awful.

I'm not saying that soaps shouldn't tackle the issue of anti-gay violence at all, because like I said, it exists and has to be dealt with. But it would be so nice to see a story of a gay character who doesn't have to face all this crap but gets positive reactions and only has to deal with the same stuff like every straight soap character. I think it would be a great gesture and would very likely get lots of positive feedback.

And I so could've seen this happening to Lucas. He has an amazing support system of family and friends and it would have been interesting to see him deal with his unrequited crush on Noud and just interact with all the people around him. It seems to be such an open-minded, positive, non-violent environment. I thought that maybe just for once we wouldn't get the gay-bashing.

It's also a big pet peeve that they so often use the gay-bashing thing to make the closeted guy admit his feelings, come to terms with who he is or falling in love with the other one. I don't really see why that would happen. You could think that at least some would be terrified by the violence against homosexuals and be driven even further into denial. IDK.
Now I don't know if that's what's going to happen with Noud, because GTST has been pretty unpredictable so far and hardly releases any spoilers, but if they now make Noud fall for Lucas "just" because he got bashed, I'm not going to be impressed.

I'm annoyed, in case you couldn't tell already. I don't want to see all this violence, I can't take anymore of this and as we know the next gay-bashing is going to happen to Carsten on German GZSZ in January. I do not want to see it.

But guess all I can do is wait and see how it'll play out, watch through my fingers and hope that the plot is going to be better than I expected it to be. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.


By the way, subbed GTST-clips can be found on the youtube channel of the amazing person called GTSTfanMark. Probably I scared everybody off with my bitching, but in case I didn't and you can spare some time, go watch, so far it's been awesome.