A common misguided opinion when it comes to most media is
that the moral fiber of the characters translates to the quality of the work;
or, in layman’s terms, having hateful people as our leads means that the film
sucks. Now, even though I’ve echoed similar ideas in the past like with the Eli
Roth films that I’ve reviewed on here before, I want to try and clear up that
misconception. It is possible to make good stories using not-so-good
characters; the entire popularity of shows like Seinfeld exists because of that
very reasoning.The problem is that the characters require the right thematic framing to work. If they’re conveyed as awful people and we’re not supposed to sympathise with them, it shows that the creator at least knows what the reality of the people in the work is. It’s when these same character traits are portrayed as something we’re supposed to agree with that things start to fall apart; unless there’s extenuating circumstances involved, finding sympathy in the loathsome is a difficult task. It’s because of this that I feel Bad Santa 2 works as well as it does… and why I honestly think that this film doesn’t. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself; we should start from the beginning.
