“I don’t come any nicer than this, ask anyone”
Nietzsche, as ever, has just the right words to describe Tracy Barlow:
Mischief-makers overtaken by punishments have for thousands of years felt in respect of their “transgressions” just as Spinoza did: “here something has unexpectedly gone wrong,” not: “I ought not to have done that.”
— The Genealogy of Morals
I’d forgotten, before I went back to the UK over Christmas, just how great Coronation Street can be. On form, I can’t think of many TV shows that come close. Witness in particular the recent storyline in which Tracy was pretending to be a victim of domestic abuse, in preparation for killing Charlie Stubbs. It was lovely to see Tracy persuading people by saying nothing, inserting artfully placed silences whenever the subject of domestic violence was raised. And the scene in which she finally killed Charlie was a superb staging of staging: Tracy playing the part of abused woman making a brave last stand, Charlie with his macho swagger playing the part of an abusive boyfriend.
The followup has been equally good, particularly involving as it does nascent sociopath David Platt. The only problem is, I’m fairly sure soap morality doesn’t allow people to get away with murder, so presumably Tracy is on her way out. But it will be a fine way to go.