All his villains were like that. Andy, Mark Evans, Silas, gosh, even Diane. Diane was VERY different when the Dobsons wrote her. She wasn't a schemer, exactly, more a woman in love with a man she's never going to have but still trying to protect him.
It's not hard to believe that that would eventually make her bitter and turn her against him, but she just became a pretty rote villain in the end. I didn't even understand half the vindictive things she was doing. (If anyone can explain how she benefited from having Alan take Phillip out of his will, PLEASE do).
In Diane's case it was not being great at writing a nuanced villain and also that she was a woman, because unless the actress was especially esteemed by him, like Lisa or Jane, he didn't write them very well.
And I just realized--all the nuanced villains he inherited: Ross, Alan, Roger, Lucille, Diane--were either put on the road to redemption or killed off. (I know MZ, Sofia, and Rita Lloyd were on the way out anyway, but I wonder what would have happened to their characters if they had wanted to stay).
Even one he created--Nola--was eventually redeemed.
Anyway, we were talking about RN. I always say that actors can surprise you when they get the right material. That definitely happened with him. It's true that this started happening before Long came on. They made Josh less sleazy--he was a good friend to Amanda, he had a complicated relationship with Morgan, he was trying to succeed in business in an honest way. His character was already evolving.
I don't think they did a "redemption" thing for Josh--it was more memory holed and since few cared about sleazy Josh, they got away with it. It would have been a little difficult for him to be holier-than-thou with Reva if people were bringing up his past with Leslie Ann, etc.
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DeeVee ·
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