PSYCHOTIC! A top psychologist’s verdict on the most toxic couple on TV
WHEn it comes to conflict, human nature dictates that we must identify the ‘goodie’ and the ‘baddie’ as quickly as possible — then we know exactly who to root for.
By aligning ourselves with the virtuous, it keeps things simple and clear cut.
But with Dr Foster, that’s a luxury the scriptwriter cleverly denies us.
Thanks to some serious sideways thinking over plot lines, they have managed to keep viewers in an almost permanent state of confusion.
At first Gemma, as the injured party, seemed fully deserving of our sympathies. In real life, we all know someone whose marriage has crumbled due to an affair — anger, jealousy and hurt are all natural responses that make their mistakes, fuelled by pain, easier to forgive.
But over the course of the second series, Gemma’s behaviour has often been unconscionable: she has systematically betrayed her friends; blackmailed a lover; abused her position as a doctor and used her son as a pawn, watching him turn into a violent, disturbed young man as a result.
As gripping as it has been, I’m not sure any of us know people who have acted quite this badly.
HEr response to her husband’s betrayal was by no means typical — instead of screaming and shouting at the perpetrator, letting rip at Simon for the pain he caused her, she internalised her agony over many months and it became something evil, ugly and made her hungry for revenge.
A more sentient person would have got their feelings out there, worked through their emotions, and either walked away with dignity or found a way to forgive and move forwards.
But instead of facing reality, Gemma created one of her own. Frankly, hers is the kind of psychopathic behaviour you’d expect to see in murderers and those existing on the fringes of society, rather than a professional, educated, middleclass stalwart of the community.
But then, how do you even begin to root for Simon — a man who is equally Love and war: Simon and Gemma capable of plumbing the depths of outrageous behaviour? The one thing you can say about him is that he has remained consistent in his motives.
His biggest problem is that he was able to be with one woman while still in love with another. This is something for which he never apologised, and displays almost sociopathic inability to accept responsibility for his actions.
He put it down to biology, pleading that it ‘happens all the time!’
Yes, sadly it does, yet even the worst offenders usually manage to feel guilty about it. But not this man.
Yet there is a strange integrity to Simon in that, despite all his appalling behaviour and betrayal, he does still love Gemma.
What a mess. And little wonder that the person viewers now feel most aligned to is Tom — Simon and Gemma’s son.
As is so often the case in an acrimonious break-up, the boy is by far the greatest casualty of this war between his parents. He is now the only character viewers can truly relate to.
Because, like him, we feel utterly torn between two sides, looking from one character to the other and back again for someone to make sense of it all.
And sadly, like millions of damaged children in real life, we never find it . . .