To worry about the unrealistic representation of this scene in beyond paradise - Spoiler and Trigger warning!!!

[CluelessInThe21st]

I am not even sure if the scene is unrealistic but I assume it is. This post contains massive spoilers about the second episode of beyond paradise so if you are looking forward to watching it please stop reading now.

I've just watched the second episode of beyond paradise where basically a man abducts his wife and two children after his wife confesses to him that she's been having an affair (but she's ended it and actually loves her husband). When the police find them in a car he threatens to drive the car off a cliff with his family in it. He almost does it but in the end let's his family go. Long story short detective Goodman manages to talk him out of it and in the end they show him making up with his wife. I'm horrible at recounting stories so I'm hoping that pp will have seen it and know what I'm talking about.

The thing I find so disturbing is that basically in the end they hint that the four of them can be a family again and happily live ever after because he decided not to kill his family and himself after all. (He's also involved in a hit and run accident so presumably will be charged with that). Surely, this wouldn't happen? apart from how on earth can the wife trust him again surely, social services would get involved and not allow him unsupervised access to his children again? Surely, if the wife after this decided to stay with her husband, they would take the children away? Di Goodman later says to his wife that he saw a man's life fall apart today presumably talking about how he broke down after learning of his wife's affair but surely the moment his life broke down was when he threatened to kill his family?

Am I wrong? Would they just be able to go back to living together without any interference or anyone raising any safe guarding concerns? Till he snaps again?

I wish they hadn't glossed over this bit. The consequences of his actions. What message does that send to young men and women?

Yabu: it's just a TV show, who cares? You are overthinking this.

Yanbu: this is too serious a matter to gloss over the consequences of threatening to kill your wife and children

Wish I could add another yabu but am I unreasonable in thinking that ss would get involved and he would not see his children again, at least not unsupervised?

I think he’d go to jail.

Have you ever seen Romeo and Juliet?

I saw that episode too. But the thing that struck me most was how unrealistically well behaved the kids were after supposedly being missing and spending 2-3 days just in the car.

I raised an eyebrow at how odd that was too. It’s a fluffy show that nobody would take seriously but very 🧐 as t t try hem all living happily ever after following the attempted kidnap, murder, suicide!

It’s fiction, the post incident trauma is never addressed, you get a happy ending!

As an aside, It's not a patch on Death in Paradise - it seems more "dark" with as you say dad threatening to kill his family, not to mention the IVF and miscarriage. I am finding myself not being as forgiving with stuff that would absolutely not happen in real life in this one that I would ignore in Death in Paradise. I find Humphreys wife character so wet. I do like Alan Partridge's Lynne and the lad from Derry Girls.

Wonder if it's a bit like a holiday romance, sun blinds you to things you wouldn't tolerate back at home?

I thought the same, like her having an affair made his reaction ok/acceptable!

Also the end of The Patient when the doctor and his wife are happy together despite everything which went on

I thought it was a bit off too OP. I love a bit of cosy village crime as much as the next person, but don’t want children involved, and don’t enjoy domestic or sexual violence being framed this way either. My preference cos of my values and others may disagree. Perfectly valid just to find all cosy crime a bit odd. I did think this episode skirted close to victim blaming - ie she had an affair therefore of course he’s gonna want to kill them all!!

but also I assumed he’d go to prison or she’d leave him..

It went out at 8pm, the ending was ambiguous, but appropriate for the mainstream tv time slot. The ending didn't really imply happily ever after, more we need to talk. In delicate services the police wouldn't necessarily arrest immediately for the crime because it's a mental health crisis better dealt with more delicately unless they believes he was an immediate threat to himself or others. I think it's was probably edited to be ambiguous, in case viewers would find a more dramatic end triggering, whilst still having the essence of the story, they could come back to it here characters remember

It's make-believe. Everything on tv doesn't have to represent real life - have you seen any Bruce Willis' movies / Star Trek / Star Wars to name but a few

I also thought this was really inappropriate op. Not ok - abduction, domestic violence essentially (threatening both his wife and children with death). Absolutely not ok.

SS would definitely get involved, they always do after police have been to a domestic incident involving children. And the police would have followed it up and so on. I think the couple hugged each other because they were glad to be alive, not because they're going to live happily ever after. Humphrey did say he saw a man's life fall apart today which is a nod to the shit show the father has created, but I think that should have been written as he saw a family fall apart and a man destroy his own life or something.

I didn’t like it because I thought it implicitly condoned his behaviour because of the way it ended.

It's a spin off of Death in Paradise.

A programme set on a Caribbean island where most of the population are black but for the first 3 series only white people were killed.

Where they get everyone together for the 'big reveal'.

But NO ONE ever goes to court to give evidence.

Harry the CGI lizard has lived longer than any lizard on earth.

That’s awful.

Yes and they always have to have a white male English detective because reasons.

I got the sense you say what you need (within reason) to get the hostages out of the car.

I found it unbelievable that he managed to open the door of the car, roll out and get away before the car slid off the cliff and no one even noticed!

And why pretend it's Devon, but use Cornwall. Why not just say it's set in Cornwall?

You'd be gutted if you were a jobbing actor, waiting for the call for death in paradise.... only to end up in the spin offin the UK.

Or Irish.

But yes always white and male. With some sort of odd behaviour / OCD / note taking / thinking.

The Met must be recruiting and training these oddballs.

I thought the same! I wondered why on earth the wife would want to hug her husband at the end, I'd have been pissed off he didn't go on over the cliff. I was also half expecting him to take her over with him at the end during the embrace, but that would have been too dark for this series!

It is unwatchable crap, I don't mind unrealistic stories, for example 'Midsomer Murders' but this is a poundshop version, much like 'Hope Street' set in a cosy rural place, with crap acting and puerile scripts. I watched the first episode, but not for me.

Of course it's totally unreal.

It's Beyond Paradise - a spin off of death in paradise.

It's not meant to be realistic! It's like a modern day Poirot with the gathering of suspects!

When my ex cheated I told him never to walk through the front door again! Of course that's probably more realistic - but believe me it doesn't make a good humoured happy ever after drama.

I haven't seen it as a disclaimer, but having worked with CYPSS for years, the idea that they step in and not allow unsupervised access ever again happens incredibly rarely and with multiple factors taken into account.

Sorry, posted too soon. The idea that a Mother choosing to stay in the relationship after this would surely result in her children being removed is also incredibly unrealistic.