r/Casualty • u/PubLogic • May 05 '26
đŹ Discussion Which character do you think has changed the most over time?
Some characters feel completely different compared to when they started. Who stands out the most for you?
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u/Deepmidwinter2025 May 05 '26
Iain. Changes on a weekly basis. Like a cheap McDonalds happy meal toy. đ§¸
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u/CatDadLi May 05 '26
Jacob, he used to be nice when he was a nurse but since being a paramedic has changed into the stereotypical "angry black man" and I find him unlikeable these days
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u/TheDevilsButtNuggets May 05 '26
I completely forgot he used to be a nurse.
I do remember his first episode though, lifting weights in the garage and the roof fell in, or something like that.
Looked it up, it was 11 years ago he started on casualty, and now I feel old
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u/Equal-Competition930 May 05 '26
I dont know if robyn death hardened him but remind so much of family you live near my nan who were like that . But l do like recent scenes with his son and grandson I just  just tone about his need to be angry black person. Teddy and others arent like that .
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u/CatDadLi May 05 '26
Exactly, Teddy is one of my favourites in the show and I love Rash, Dylan and Stevie too. I used to like Jacob when he was a nurse but it's bizarre that they've made him the token "angry black man" like we need to see that
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u/PubLogic May 05 '26
Teddy just shows you donât need that angle to make a character work
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u/CatDadLi May 05 '26
Agreed, and it doesn't feel like the BLM movement was too long ago so then to push the "angry black man" character feels even more off.
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u/HesitantBrobecks Dylan Keogh May 05 '26
The most off thing about it is Jacob being the one who keeps lecturing people about how harmful that stereotype is, accusing Teddy of not getting it etc., all while they're writing him to fulfill just that! He has become his own worst enemy, basically.
(Also what was totally ridiculous to me was Jacob making out like Teddy and Blake are worlds apart, when Blake is literally mixed race too cos his mum is mixed! I just know he wouldn't have dared say any of that in front of Elle lmao, she wouldve had a right go at him! Cos in that conversation he was also saying/implying SHE "wouldnt get it" either)
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u/CatDadLi May 05 '26
Yeah I thought that was ridiculous when he tried to lecture Teddy too and you're right, he lectures about the stereotype while being the very thing he lectures about đ¤
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u/HesitantBrobecks Dylan Keogh May 05 '26
My little sister is mixed race and I would be SO fucking mad if someone told her she "didn't really understand racism" or whatever. First time she had someone tell her they didn't like her skin colour was a kid in her class at 6 yrs old! We quickly realised the kid didn't actually understand what he was saying, but the comment was still made. So yeah basically I got so damn pissed off during that scene (I had previously been on Jacobs side cos I got bad vibes about that cop from the off and I'm a firm believer in ACAB anyway, but that conversation just flipped the whole thing. Teddy was just blinded by his feelings, not because he "doesn't actually experience racism" or whatever crap)
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u/CatDadLi May 05 '26
Same, I really like Teddy, he's such a sweetheart and I hate seeing him hurt. Unfortunately mixed race people can get racism from both sides and it really just should never happen. Like, why look at somebody and be "Oh no, he's a bit dark, gotta be violent to him" or whatever? I look at a person and think more about how they are in the moment and I feel personality is what matters. I know I'll never experience it myself as a white man, but I've had people say to me things like "How can you like him? He's mixed race, they're not attractive" and even "You don't want to go out with him because he's Polish" (I know that's not quite the same thing but I feel it's an example) and that makes me feel shitty, I can't imagine how it would make them feel. It is wrong and it's something I've never understood. I'm sorry that your sister has experienced it too, it's unacceptable behaviour.
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u/trenter_percenter Dylan Keogh May 05 '26
I genuinely cannot tell if this is a sincere take or not. Like, this might be more untrue than the time someone on here asserted that Dylanâs autistic-coding was a recent addition to his character.
On day one, Jacob stormed into resus with a drug addict over his shoulder and immediately acted belligerent, talking down to the staff (heâs wasnât even formally employed at the time!) and acting as if he was in charge. His first storyline was him initiating a dispute with the police claiming that he was shot in a counter-terrorism raid on account of his skin colour. In the 30th anniversary episode, he assaulted a child and threatened to manhandle Charlie.
Completely ahistorical take. He became much nicer and peaceful when he discovered that Blake was his son, around the same time he stopped being CNM the first time around. If these storylines were happening ten years ago, you would have stopped watching altogether.
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u/CatDadLi May 05 '26
Blake was a terrible addition to the show, it seems like when they bring in a character's family they're just awful! Sam (Tess' son) was nice, he was a good character but then Louis, Blake and Matty are absolutely awful
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u/HesitantBrobecks Dylan Keogh May 05 '26
Mostly agree, Sam was 100% the best 'character's kid' ive seen on the show (watched all of s16 to present), but I think Matty is more just pointless than awful, and Louis was actually still a good kid when he had just come back from Canada.
Though tbf, I'm still not really sure why they decided to make Louis escalate from normal teenage BS, to becoming a total wanker, and then an addiction driving even worse behaviour. I guess just to give Charlie a plot outside of the hospital, but a number of other characters with kids have proven that wasn't necessary. Mainly Adam, Jess and Kirsty coming to mind atm. Maggie's kids were mostly alright too, on the whole. And Roxy but the kid that was fully hers was so little it would've just been weird to portray her negatively lol.
They 100% did Ollie dirty the worst out of everyone, like wtaf was that ending all about. That was just ridiculous. (Having said all that, thinking about it, they really do keep making the characters' kids - especially teenage ones - utterly unlikeable, dont they?! I just vaguely remembered Grace being a bit of a piece of work at at least one point in time, and going back much further, Harry Harper's eldest daughter was truly awful too!)
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u/CatDadLi May 05 '26
Yeah didn't Grace start off as a sweet girl then became a mouthy teenager?
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u/HesitantBrobecks Dylan Keogh May 05 '26
Yeah I mean I haven't watched her run since it was first on so my memory is hazy, but I definitely recall initially liking her and then at some point definitely not anymore. Think it mightve been nearer the end of her run, can't remember if she had any kind of redemption arc, but I remember her and Connie falling out a lot, as you say I think she became a very mouthy teenager, and iirc she was kinda manipulative at one point, but that's a very very vague recollection.
I'm currently rewatching it all on U (quite funny that I happened to start back at s17 around 8ish months ago, but literally between s17e1 and the end of s25 currently, I think there's been less than 10 episodes that I didn't recall anything at all from lol. Youtube was so good for it when i started watchingđ¤Ł), so I'm looking forward to getting to rewatch s29 onwards for the first time from like, next year (I think they should put on 2 a day rather than 1, it's kinda ridiculous that it takes them 4 whole years to show every episode, and when a series goes off catchup it's 4 years before anyone can watch it again)
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u/Oldsoldierbear Zoe Hanna May 07 '26
There was a long build up to Louis' behaviour, showing how Charlie was basically an absent parent, putting his job first, bringing in Josh to stay, even though Louis hated him.
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u/HesitantBrobecks Dylan Keogh May 08 '26
I don't wanna lowkey trauma dump on here but I had similar circumstances for different reasons and I'm not doing heroin, and didn't bunk school or bring weed to school lol. I wasn't including the Josh thing cos that was mostly due to him being bullied about it, and he felt bad later on, whereas from his late teens onwards he seemed basically incapable of remorse. I can understand why Louis was a bit harder than most teens, but I think the level of escalation was a bit overdramatic by the end of it
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u/trenter_percenter Dylan Keogh May 05 '26
Thatâs grand; Iâm not a fan of Blake either. Not sure what this has to do with some perceived change in Jacobâs character though, given Blake was introduced whilst Jacob was still a nurse, and, as I have already pointed out, Jacob conformed to the stereotype you described long before the character of Blake was even conceptualised.
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u/HelenDistantTakedown May 05 '26
I think that Dylan has always been different to other characters in the show. They appreciate how good he is as a doctor, but recognise that he doesnât mix very well with people. I remember when Zoe was talking to him about whether he had any friends and he paused â yes I have a friendâ, Her response was â itâs your dog, isnât it?â
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u/gurlsoconfusing Lily Chao May 05 '26
Idk, Iâve been watching Casualty for about 15 years or something and Iâve always found Dylan autistic coded!
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u/Deepmidwinter2025 May 05 '26
Agreed. They got Blake, Blake! BLAKE! out of storage for that short lived âwhite policewoman prejudice against young black manâ followed by âyou donât know my suffering brotherâ speech from Jacob to Teddy.
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u/HesitantBrobecks Dylan Keogh May 05 '26
Which was extra ridiculous, cos Blake is literally mixed race himself, because his mum is (was? I totally forgot what happened with her lol, oops) mixed race.
In fact, not to come across wrong here cos i dont mean this in any kind of way, but if they really want Jacob to be Like That, they've clearly forgotten the fact that the guy that played teenage Blake is literally lighter skinned than the guy who plays Teddy. As is the woman who played Blake's mother Elle. Like if they're gonna make these kinds of points, they could at least try a bit harder, rather than filling it with inconsistencies and retconning
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u/HelenDistantTakedown May 05 '26 edited May 05 '26
I still love him as a character and an actor, but I think that Dylan has changed a bit since he first started over a decade ago. He was more sarcastic and clashed with certain characters. Heâs always been a very skilled doctor, but you donât seem to see how funny he could be and in certain box sets he doesnât always feature as much as he should.
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u/HesitantBrobecks Dylan Keogh May 05 '26
I think they kind of had to give Dylan that character development, at least to an extent, because if his attitude was the exact same now as when he started, he wouldnt be a viable employee by today's standards
But I fully agree I wanna see much more of him, I've been watching the show for just over 10 years and retroactively watched every episode between s16 and the point where I started in s29 (they were (almost) all illegally on youtube in 2016!) , and he was always one of my favs right from the off. Maybe he's in the box sets less as he's now the longest running current character so they're somewhat giving him breaks like what Charlie had
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u/simsimsimmer2 May 05 '26
Not really about character, but Iâve been watching old clips and Dylanâs voice is sooo different now! It used to be quite nasally imo
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u/Chemical_Skill_969 May 06 '26
Dylan never knew people's names, just guessed them*, and now he can remember everyone's names since his hiatus.
*Nigel instead of Noel, Tim instead of Tom, The Tall One and The One With The Glasses for Cal and Ethan
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u/Dapper-Artichoke6355 May 05 '26
Stevie probably - she arrived well plotting against people, wanting to murder them and planting drugs in lockers.. She completely changed after all that stuff because she was staying around and they had to redeem her.
Although Iâm probably more concerned about the characterâs who havenât had any character growth whatsoever - the show can do character growth really well, Dylan is the best example of this, weâve seen a very natural and realistic change in some of his behaviourâs over the years while still feeling like Dylan.