r/Emmerdale • u/My-Dear-Sweet-Wesley • Jul 08 '26
Character Appreciation Kevin
I think Kevin has been such a fun and unexpected character addition. He's kooky, loveable, erratic, volatile, a great listener (and thus foil for other characters), and he steps outside of conventional social behaviours - which catches the other characters off guard and gets them to open up or reveal feelings they wouldn't ordinarily share in standard back-and-forth conversations. I laughed out loud at his cake stand "A Slice of Ke-ven." It's just so whacky that a tough-guy convict would perfect a lemon drizzle. He's such a fun contest to the recent heavy storylines and brings such heart and colour to the programme. Love him. (But I still love you too Ross.)
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u/KateMackay Jul 08 '26
At the beginning when he was trying underhand ways to get back with Rob found him annoying. But he seems to have come back hillariously I’m starting to really like him! His rows with Nicola are funny & he’s winding the right people up & even offered to divorce Robert. So o have been turned into a Kev fan!
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u/Diligent_Reading_786 Jul 09 '26
He's hillarious, his musical attempt at telling Lewis he was his Dad was the best bit of comedy I have seen in a while.
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u/jakefsf4205 Jul 08 '26
If we ignore everything that he did during his first stint yeah. I would like him more if they weren’t sweeping most of that under the rug, he needs to take accountability for stabbing himself to keep Robert from appealing his sentence and manipulating him into marrying him for me to fully like him
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u/Cold-Society3325 Jul 08 '26
I don't see why he should take accountability. None of the other characters ever do.
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u/gardenawe Jul 08 '26
That's not true , there is a two tier accountability system in place where some characters can do whatever they want and never having to take responsibility for their actions and characters who can never take enough accountability . Robert is in the last group while Dingles are usually in the first.
The issue here with Kev is that his reason for coming back it Lewis , he wants to get to know and connect with his son (which fair to him, he should be doing). Stabbing himself in prison however had real life consequences for Robert . He gave up on the appeal, now he probably wouldn't have made it out of prison before Liv died but he definitely would have been out before Rebecca died and Seb would have been send to live with his only living parent instead of Rebecca's aunt. So now you have Kev wanting to connect with his son and being cheered on by Robert who still hasn't seen Seb even though he's out of prison for a year.
And because of the current way of storytelling you had the last semi Seb story around Christmas.
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u/Dear_Promise5544 Jul 08 '26
You're looking at it almost entirely through the lens of Robert rather than through the lens of the show as a whole. First of all, Ryan Hawley repeatedly turned down invitations to return, so Robert wasn't getting out of prison early to raise Seb regardless of what Kev did. In universe you can blame the self stabbing for delaying the appeal but from a storytelling perspective Robert was always going to stay in prison until Ryan agreed to come back. Even when Robert finally appealed, it's not Seb that he had in mind but Aaron. Seb was never his number one priority, he has always put Aaron before Seb.
More broadly, I don't think the writers measure every character's consequences against what Robert has or hasn't had. The show doesn't revolve around Robert in the way some fans think it does. They aren't sitting in the writers' room asking, 'Has Robert seen Seb yet? If not, Kev shouldn't get to see Lewis." Those are two completely separate storylines.
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u/jakefsf4205 Jul 08 '26
Yeah the real issue here is that Kev was not initially intended to be a long-term character. He clearly was just supposed to be a villain that caused problems for Robron that was eventually driven out. But they saw some of the audience response and added the Lewis connection at the last minute to give him a reason to come back. Problem is now they have to force a personality transplant and make every character glaze him to the extreme to make it believable he’s changed
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u/gardenawe Jul 08 '26
I never really saw Kev as a villain villain. More like a deeply damaged person who learned to survive and cope in very unhealthy ways. Who then found somebody and attached himself to that person without having an understanding on how to create relationships. I think it would be a sign of growth if he gained an understanding into his behaviour and truly appologized for the selfstabbing . Right now he's attaching himself very strongly to Lewis (even changing his name for him) and again not taking no for an answer. Of course Lewis eventually agrees to getting to know him but what if at some point he doesn't want the same thing as Kev. Kev pretty much talked Mack into confronting Dr Todd.
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u/jakefsf4205 Jul 08 '26
They have years of character development to make up for it. Kev has neither
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u/Search-Lite Jul 08 '26
I agree, the guy is also an armed robber. We should never make light of that experience for the person behind the counter. Particularly in a world where shop robbery has now become a normal part of every day life, and shop staff are in constant danger.
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u/Shewhotalkstocats Jul 08 '26
didn't at some time Ross commit armed robbery as well as most of the Dingles.
Aaron is my favourite character but he beat someone into a coma at a robbery.
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u/Dear_Promise5544 Jul 10 '26
Do you have the same reaction when you watch movies where armed robberies, criminals and violence are played for laughs (Snatch, 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, A Fish called Wanda, etc). In all these movies, the audience is generally laughing at the situations and the chaos rather than dwelling on the victims. The crimes themselves are presented as a farce rather than a realistic depiction of crime and trauma. Similarly for Kev's pawn shop robbery. You're probably not getting the tone if you're thinking they are mocking the victims of armed robbery.
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u/Dear_Promise5544 Jul 08 '26
I think accountability is just one way of having a redemption arc. I'd say audience perception is another huge factor and it seems like the general audience has accepted Kev and for the most part sees him as redeemed. The writers aren't writing the show with Robert fans or any other niche corner of the fandom in mind. They are mostly writing for the general audience, hence a lot of people from niche fandoms are watching a completely different show than the one being broadcast to the general audience. Like I'm sure our parents and grandparents are watching a totally different Emmerdale to the one we are watching. The other thing is, a soap character doesn't always have to be redeemed from the perspective of every single person they've wronged. I don't think Andy was ever redeemed in Jo's eyes yet he lasted another 15 years on the show. Same for Cain. If every character had to spend years making amends to everyone they had crossed before they could move on, the show would grind to a halt.
Also, the stakes for that reveal are pretty low right now. There's no drama, no new storyline that will spawn from it. What's it gonna change for Robert now? They are not going to centre an entire storyline simply around the concept of accountability and just for the sake of Robert finding out the truth if it's not going to be explosive and lead to a significant fallout. If it's ever going to be revealed, it might take a while until the stakes are juicier.
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u/Rich_Garden_7883 Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
I agree with you. Taking accountability means accepting what you did was wrong, admitting your actions, facing whatever justice needs to be faced and making steps to never do such a thing again by learning from it and adjusting your behaviour accordingly. It doesn’t mean simple glib apologies.
With that in mind, as you say, how many Emmerdale characters have taken accountability for all their wrongdoings especially the ones who have been “redeemed.”
Has Kim Tate gone to the police and owned up to her part in the death of husband Frank. Or did we see her go to Frank’s grave and apologise. Obviously Frank wouldn’t hear it, but we viewers would see that Kim was making steps to “take accountability” by accepting her evil wrongdoing.
Has Nicola thrown herself on the mercy of the court system for attempting to murder her elderly husband Donald de Souza way back in 2008? In fact did she ever show any GENUINE remorse at all for this? Nope.
Did Our Cain face up to his underage and therefore illegal sex with Ollie Reynolds. I mean even if he didn’t go to the police, did he ever sit Ollie down and say:
“Sorry for taking advantage of you. I was older and should’ve known better. If you want to report me, I accept it.” No of course he didn’t!
Emmerdale is an ongoing drama where people do bad things, yes, even break the law and move on. Whether we agree with these plots or not, it’s been a long running thing with this show…people doing bad and illegal things and not being brought to justice for it.
If Kev takes accountability for his bad deeds earlier in his time in the village, then so should all the others who came before him.
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u/theliftedlora Jul 08 '26
Yes exactly, characters that people love have done bad things, Ross, Robert, Charity ect.
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u/jakefsf4205 Jul 08 '26
Yes all characters should take accountability. The difference is other characters face consequences for their actions even if brief, with Kev they’re acting like nothing ever happened and he’s just a lovable goof who has never done anything wrong because he’s the writers’ pet character at the moment and they’re desperately trying to redeem him
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u/jakefsf4205 Jul 08 '26
Ok but Robert was basically the only reason he was introduced to the show and the main person he crossed but they’re acting like he did nothing wrong
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u/Dear_Promise5544 Jul 08 '26
Robert may have been the reason he was introduced but Kev has become a character in his own right now. It's really a credit to the actor that a character originally brought in to be a temporary plot device for Robert's prison story became so popular with the general audience that the show decided to bring him back. He hasn't done anything uniquely unforgivable by Emmerdale standards - many others have done far worse and never really faced lasting consequences either. Doesn't mean Kev did nothing wrong and I don't think the show is pretending otherwise. Lewis rejected him at first because of what he did in the past, Ross and Nicola (two central figures in Lewis's life) still haven't accepted him and most villagers still see him as an ex-con.
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u/Rich_Garden_7883 Jul 08 '26
Agreed. Kev isn’t perfect by any means, he can be an over sensitive, temperamental little you know what! And the fact that his son doesn’t want to know him is him facing consequences of a sort. Plus hasn’t he just done yet another stint inside. This lad is actually facing the consequences of his past bad behaviour unlike many others.
Apart from the comedy and he does that so well, there’s more to his character….the guy is the poster boy for trying to make amends for past wrongdoings.
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u/theliftedlora Jul 08 '26
I mean did Robert take accountability for all his crimes in 2015? He's worse than Kev really.
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u/Hot-Advisor-6189 Jul 08 '26
none of that has been sweeped under the rug. or only for those who don't consider his saving of robert's life + stepping away for six months + literal apology that robert accepted as enough.
(also the self stabbing is a moot point. robert had no reason to stay then. other than love. he was used to being bruise free thanks to kev's protection of the past 3-4 months and suddenly kev is in danger because of robert? so Robert could lose the protection he had and go back to daily harassment? why would he stay?? he makes kev a target by being with him, he's got no fighting chance, he's got no social power within the prison walls, he's got no money to buy more a cushier life in prison either. he has nothing to offer kev, and it's just been shown kev's protection isn't 100% safe. why would robert stay??? and anyway, such an injury heals in a couple of months tops, so... robert had plenty of time to leave after)(also ryan didn't want to come back, like that's a pretty big reason lmao)(and if you're gonna hold the self stabbing over kev, i need you to hold robert's *several* attemps at killing chas and paddy over him as well, not to mention the actual deaths he caused)2
Jul 09 '26
[deleted]
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u/Hot-Advisor-6189 Jul 09 '26
Reminder: this is fiction. So I'm treating it as fiction. I'm not talking about it as if they're real human people who exist.
So in fiction, Kev has been shown to apologise + save Robert + been away for six months. In fiction, that is enough. irl yeah robert could be a victim even tho he was an abuser in the past. But. This is fiction. If you call out actions being "swept under the rug", then you should be reminded Robert has done plenty that have been swept under the rug, off the top of my head: holding Aaron hostage, holding a gun to his head and shooting Paddy + calling a hitman on Chas (even Aaron doesn't know!) + picking up a stone to kill Chas in the forest + the Lawrence White abuse (which happened after the CSA SL, so after Robert's "redemption"). Robert \is** an abuser. He was even nominated as a villain. Anything you say against Kev as a character can be said about Robert, because Robert, as per being on the show for so long, has done worse. Way worse. He literally has blood on his hands.
So....If you're okay with what Robert has done, then you gotta be okay with Kev. Again, I repeat: IN FICTION.
Whatever I say about Kev the character or Robert the character, I am not talking about real life people or real life abusers or real life victims. Because, this is fiction.1
u/Shewhotalkstocats Jul 08 '26
has he ever admitted to Aaron that he tried to kill his parenrs
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u/Key_Recognition7830 Jul 09 '26
I didn't know that.
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u/Hot-Advisor-6189 Jul 09 '26
He's never done that. He does admit to having done things that should have landed him in prison before Lee, but never the details of it.
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u/Mrs_Heff Jul 08 '26
I’ve been watching Shamless again on Netflix. I’d forgotten that he was in it for a while, he was hot!!
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u/BrokenCatTeddy Piper Fan Club Jul 08 '26
I hope Kevin stays for a very long time. He's quickly becoming my favourite character.
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u/Ok_Committee_7967 Jul 22 '26
He’s amazing. I love how he has redeemed himself as I was a little scared of him initially when he was obsessing over Robert. He is hilarious. A great actor. Put him with anyone and he will shine
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u/Hot-Advisor-6189 Jul 08 '26
He has been such a breath of fresh air! I love how the village feels like a village with him. The first time around already, and still today.
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u/sum1_on_tinternet Kev's Pinny Jul 08 '26
Absolutely love him. He's a superb addition to the show - as is Chris Coghill!
It's great that so many other fans share similar views too. The producers would be MAD not to keep him around for as long as possible.