4. Rose Reacting To Being Kidnapped Twice In One Series
To say that Rose Erskine is not popular with the Ripper Street fandom is like saying that Wesley Crusher wasn't most people's favourite character, or that Scrappy Doo received a lukewarm reception. Not only was she the resident damsel-in-distress but she broke the heart of the vastly more popular Sergeant Drake, which did little to endear her to the show's fans. In Rose's first episode she was brutally raped on-screen by a man who had every intention of turning her murder into an early snuff film, and in the finale she was seduced, drugged again and tied to a bed with the intention of shipping her to South America to sell into the sex industry. In both instances her trauma is not addressed in the first case she is shown going straight back to work and following sex scenes with Capt Jackson shows no sign of trauma. In the second she has left the brothel for a women's shelter but her thoughts are only shown in relation to Sgt Drake. Everyone from the writers to Rose herself seems to forget that it happened. In fact in the first case Detective Reid pauses in the middle of arresting her rapist to compliment his camera. Showing Rose's motivations for carrying on and her struggles in doing so could have not only humanised an unpopular character but also answered criticisms that the show presented an unrealistic, sanitised, sexist view of happy, unproblematic prostitution in a time period which was incredibly hostile to women and especially sex workers.