Unforgivable: TV Drama

[WFHmutha25]

Can someone please explain to me what this is about and more importantly what the message is? I watched half or most of episode 1 and had to switch it off. It seemed like the viewer was being made to feel sorry for the perpetrator- is this correct? I also didn't really want to watch him repeatedly describing what he'd done to the boy. Everyone is raving about it and I can't find one negative review, so am I wrong in my assumptions having only watched a snippet?

I have watched it all and I have mixed feelings about it. It did focus a lot on the perpetrator's perspective which I found unsettling.

Im glad you said that. Nobody else has mentioned it.

I think it was trying to convey that these things generally don’t happen in isolation.
I thought it was very well acted but a grim watch.

Thanks for posting this.

I have recorded but will now delete recordings and not watch.

Not saying having it presented in this way shouldn't be allowed, but I am not sure I want to watch something and have to feel charitable towards the main character.

I understand why people might struggle with this, but I found it incredibly powerful.

Having dealt with an abuser in my own life I found it was the first drama I've seen that really represented the conflict that many victims and families encounter. Often abusers might also be sympathetic people - or someone upstanding & likeable in the community, a loved relative etc, and it is this which can make it so much more painful for those affected by their abuse.

In my case, the abuser was more than just one thing & the fact he wasn't a clear cut monster made it far more emotionally complex & resulted in a real inner turmoil for me - and still does.

Watching Unforgivable felt quite validating in a way, as I'm so used to seeing abusers portrayed as one dimensional monsters, and that often isn't representative of reality.

I watched it, it wasn’t a worthwhile watch for me, just extremely depressing but I can see the point they were trying to make. I didn’t find the perpetrator sympathetic at all, I found him typical. He was given an excuse, he himself was abused, and he grasped that with 2 hands as a reason he became an abuser. He disgusted me.

The acting was good, and it’s a window in the miserable worthless lives of these men but i still hated it.

I’m watching it now. It’s about the horrific ripple effect that sexual abuse has on families.

I watched it all the way through. It was perplexing and I had a horrible feeling it was inching towards acceptance. I definitely felt the wrong victim of historic abuse was hugged at the end.

It's a stand alone drama so there is only one episode
For me I think it's designed to make the viewer think on different levels
The perpetrator sexually abused his own nephew which has torn the family apart but then you find out he was also sexually abused as a child which also makes him a victim, but he goes on to try and justify his own actions becsuse of whst happened to him ,but by then he's an adult so he knows it's very wrong
I thought it was very good and thought provoking.

I think it is very dangerous, and something arty people who think they are clever enought to write, should be made to stop and think about.

Sadly many peope are abused, not only as children, but later in life.

However, tey do not go on to abuse others.

This is as lazy and stereotypical as implying that in the end somehow women who get raped allowed or encouraged it.

That's what the drama could have looked at. Not given the voice to one pervert but somehow contrived through the plot meeting up with someone who had escaped / rejected that choice.

More views here:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5373930-unforgivable-thur-247-bbc-2-9pm-tv-pace-no-spoilers

I think it would have been good to have had a series rather than a stand alone drama to explore all the different perspectives I felt sorry for what the perpetrator went through as a child as he was also abused but that really wasent an excuse to go onto abuse and he was definitely trying to use it as an excuse .