It's been brought to our attention that since the news of Verbotene Liebe's cancellation came out, a Chrolli fan has been going around spamming Jo Weil's Facebook and other VL-related social media presences in order to agitate fans into contacting VL and make them "bring back Chrolli" and "give them a happy end." These screencaps show seven sample posts from the last month alone.
Now, we want to start by saying that we are/were Chrolli fans too! And if you would like Chrolli to come back to VL, we are not unsympathetic to your wishes. They provided Jo Weil with some great stories to act for us, his fans. :)Â However, there is a huge concern that this particular Chrolli fan's campaign is encouraging and spreading misinformed beliefs amongst Chrolli fans about the likelihood of a Chrolli happy end.
We are not saying, "Don't e-mail Verbotene Liebe about Chrolli!" We are saying that if you decide to follow this fan's advice and send an e-mail or a traditional letter showing your love for Chrolli to any of the addresses repeatedly listed in the sample posts above, you should start by being fully informed about VL and respectful in your approach.
Here are some things you should understand about VLÂ and the likelihood of a Chrolli comeback before you send any message:
1. Verbotene Liebe has been cancelled, and its episodes are filmed MONTHS in advance:
The episodes airing this week? They were shot about three months ago, at least. It is currently the last day of October, and the show as we know it will end some time in January, in less than three months. In other words, filming for the VL daily series is ALREADY OVER.
2. There will be 15 more episodes of VL in a weekly format that will be rebranded as Vergeltung (Vengeance) and air over course of the spring, but the likelihood of Jo Weil being a substantive part of the weekly is slim to none:
Jo Weil has been on break for at least a couple weeks because he is currently on a small theater tour right now, at the exact same time that the final 15 weekly episodes are being filmed. Unless he manages to find a small break in his schedule of theater commitments in order to shoot some scenes for "weekly" VL, Jo will not be in the weekly at all. At best the most we may get, if he is able to cram in a day or two of filming somehow, are some small Olli scenes, certainly nothing substantial enough to bring back Christian and to have Olli and Christian reconcile and get back together. In other words: not only is Jo Weil done filming for the "daily" VL, but due to his current outside commitments even in the most optimistic and unlikely scenario he would only have small/short scenes in the last 15 weekly episodes.
3. Thore Schölermann, who plays Christian Mann, has been busy all year with multiple TV hosting commitments and appearances, and since the show's announced cancellation has made no indication that he is interested in returning to Verbotene Liebe for a Chrolli happy end:
Making a Chrolli happy end happen does require convincing VL's writers/producers to do it, but it also requires some sign to the fans that Thore would be willing to return to his old job for that alone. Not only has he made no indication of the sort, he is also quite busy with his own work which would rule him out from filming VL, even if you ignore the fact that filming for VL is essentially over!
There's a small chance Thore came back to film some Chrolli scenes once the news of cancellation came out in mid-July and scripts were later modified or rewritten, but if so, that would have already happened due to VL's filming schedule and Jo Weil's own schedule:
As already established above, filming for the "daily" is OVER and Jo is 99% likely to be finished with VL himself. Anyone who contacted VL and asked them to bring Thore back for a Chrolli happy end NOW, or any time during the past month is more than a little bit late. If you send such correspondence now, you are wasting your own time and that of the folks at VL.
4. VL survived on ratings from German viewers, not on the loyalty of international fans of one couple on a show filled with many couples:
What matters to VL is how many German viewers are watching, not how many Chrolli shippers from elsewhere around the world are writing in. Having a flagship gay couple and a small, dedicated international fanbase for that couple may have been nice for bragging rights, but it did not stop VL from being cancelled. Ironically, VL's ratings have been slightly improved since the news of the cancellation, fueling speculation that it might stick around depending on how the weekly episodes do. None of this has to do with Chrolli. This isn't to say that VL doesn't care about Chrolli fans or that they won't want to hear from you, but to point out that VL has bigger things to worry about in its last few weeks of shooting than bringing back one actor and changing scripts written months in advance to appease a small (if loyal) fanbase who mostly do not affect VL's ratings in any way.
5. Finally, even if there was a small chance that the writers on VL would change what they've written to appease vocal fans, it's been rare in TV history for that kind of reactionary writing to actually improve a show. In fact, the writing for Olli has significantly improved since the writers made the decision to end Chrolli once and for all.
A lot of Chrolli fans think VL treated Chrolli poorly. While we're Chrolli fans, we disagree. Yes, they've had stupid stories and been subject to some dumb writing decisions, but what soap couple hasn't at various points, particularly one as long-lasting as Chrolli?
Name any other soap that has had a gay couple, or any couple period, last for six years on their show: six and a half if you count the off-screen divorce and the overlap with the beginnings of Scholli. Name any other gay couple on any show given their own spin-off weblog by the producers (the now defunct Chrolli.De). Name any couple that would have been allowed by the writers and producers to even continue as a couple for so long after one of the two actors went to part-time status, long before he left the show altogether. In the world of soaps Chrolli has actually been treated fairly well, and the only way the couple could have continued after Thore left was to recast Christian with a different actor, which most Chrolli fans would probably have hated more than a Chrolli breakup. Please keep all this in mind before you e-mail VL asking or demanding they do something that they have probably already considered from various angles.
Imagine you were a producer or writer on VL who is responsible for giving Olli the divorce story, the Scholli story, and now the story with Dr. Jo Helmke over the past year. Imagine that you're excited that one of your actors, whom you haven't been able to utilize to the fullest because he has been long trapped in a "long-distance relationship/absent husband"Â storyline, finally has been freed up and has had more than a few exciting, infuriating, happy, sad, sexy, and fun stories to act all year.
Imagine that as a producer or writer you hope Jo Weil's fans are pleased that Jo is getting tons of screen time in 2014. Imagine that you hope that LGBT fans are pleased that queer visibility on VLÂ has been far higher this year, even with Marbecca broken up, now that Jo is free to act opposite various love interests instead of with an absent husband character.
How would you feel then if after an entire year or so of giving Jo Weil more scenes and increasing LGBT visibility on the show, if you continued to get e-mails demanding "BRING BACK CHROLLI"? Especially when "bringing back Chrolli" isn't a decision that can be made by VL alone?
Demanding a Chrolli "happy end" at this point, when VL is almost done shooting and Jo himself is done with the show, is not only a waste of your time and VL's, but it also sends a message to the folks at VL that you have no regard for how the show runs or any concern for the fact that the show is essentially over. It is also an insult to the amount of work that has been done by the show, imperfect as it may be, to give Jo Weil's character compelling stories to act and some visibility for queer characters on TV.
Again, if you want to contact VL and express your support for Chrolli, please do. But please be mindful of all the logistical obstacles to a Chrolli comeback, and how seriously a campaign with such a quixotic goal will be taken by the people at VL.
Anyway, sorry for the rant! Now let's get back to the regularly scheduled Jo Weil fun :D
