I’m a soaps expert and this is why Emmerdale NEEDS to axe Mackenzie Boyd for good
MACKENZIE Boyd has been the subject of heated debates amongst viewers who believe his time in the village should come to an end.
While the havoc he has wreaked through Emmerdale is enough of a reason, here are other motives for axing the divisive character.
A lack of redeeming qualities
The character played by Lawrence Robb has reached an all-time low in recent scenes of the ITV soap as Chloe Harris (Jessie Elland) decided to leave the eponymous village and take their son Reuben along with her.
Times are set to be tough for the devoted father and to Mack’s despair, all I can say is “cry yourself a river.”
The successful and long-running show has had its fair share of captivating characters, complex and prone to growth.
One perfect example is Jeff Hordley‘s Cain Dingle who has gone from a snotty wannabe gangster to a respected tough man with family values and a strong moral code, albeit flawed in some instances.
But if viewers were expecting Mackenzie to develop any sort of moral conscience, unfortunately, that ship has seemingly sailed a long time ago.
One of the primary criticisms I can hold against Mackenzie Boyd is his apparent lack of depth of character.
Unlike many Emmerdale residents who learn from their mistakes and undergo harsh growth, interesting redemption arcs and who display a mix of positive and negative traits, Mackenzie seems to be consistently on the wrong side of morality.
His actions, which include deceit, manipulation and a propensity for criminal behaviour, have left me and many other viewers wondering whether there is any depth to him beyond being a troublemaker.
Beauty is skin deep and nothing in Mack’s most recent actions have made me develop an attachment to him – particularly when it comes to his poor treatment of BOTH his wife Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) and Chloe Harris.
Even after becoming the caring father he likes to believe he is, Mackenzie goes through life without much regard for anybody else’s feelings or well-being.
Charity’s ectopic pregnancy and its traumatic termination was not enough for Mackenzie to stop pestering her to have another baby, all in an attempt to accomplish his own selfish dreams of fatherhood.
He not only cheated on the Woolpack landlady, he also kept his tryst with Chloe Harris a secret from her for months, going as far as to propose to her instead of coming clean.
And don’t even get me started on his behaviour towards Chloe.
While she may have been a guilty party in the love triangle, Chloe remained insistent for a good reason as she was pregnant with Mack’s baby and determined to do what was right by breaking the news to him personally.
Many fans have been unforgiving towards her, branding her “selfish” and even “hypocritical” once she found out Mackenzie was still very much in love with Charity.
But having been a young 20-year-old woman myself a handful of years ago, I can only understand her position.
Chloe has tried to find her mark in a village she barely knows with very little to rely on due to her finding out about her true parentage mere months ago.
Her own sister Amy Wyatt (Natalie Ann Jamieson) hasn’t always been the most supportive and, again, Chloe is still just finding out how convoluted life can be, even without a baby.
Mackenzie, on the other hand, is a full-blown 40-year-old adult male who should know better than to string along a woman half his age when he’s fully aware he’s still hung up on his wife.
To top it all off, let’s not forget Mackenzie let the mother of his own child perish in a car crash by saving Charity, therefore without a single care about Reuben and how important it is for the tot to have his mother by his side.
Let’s not forget that Emmerdale has seen enough two-timers roaming freely in the Yorkshire Dales and with Tracy Robinson (Amy Walsh) embarking on an affair with Caleb Milligan (Will Ash), history is doomed to repeat itself.
Gay-baiting at its finest
As mentioned above, most of the Mackenzie critics among soap viewers have argued that he falls intro the trap of being a stereotypical “bad boy.”
His criminal tendencies and rebellious nature align with familiar soap clichés Emmerdale usually has a history of breaking away from.
But another criticism that can be made against Mackenzie is his clear participation in a gay-baiting tactic from soap bosses.
When he was first introduced in late 2020 as the long-lost brother of Moira Dingle (Natalie J. Robb), many viewers were under the impression he could be a potential love interest for Aaron Dingle.
At the time, Aaron was still struggling with the incarceration of his husband Robert Sugden and he could have used some of the fun Mackenzie was teased to bring.
Soap fans spotted both Mackenzie and Aaron flirting back and forth and accused bosses of trying to replicate the latter’s relationship with Robert – without actually delivering.
Many believed Mackenzie could be a good change for Aaron as a happy-go-lucky flirtatious bisexual man who would slowly come to terms with his sexuality.
The soap has tried in the past to give representation for the LGBTQI+ community and Mackenzie could have been yet another chance at showing how fluid sexuality can really be.
Mackenzie then had the potential of being more than a troublemaker as many could have related to his struggle to figure out where his feelings would take him.
But as we’ve all figured out, this potential was wasted when Charity decided to cheat on her fiancée Vanessa Woodfield (Michelle Hardwick) and the pair decided to make their relationship official.
Meanwhile, Aaron stayed close to Ben Tucker and their own romance was cut short as the latter succumbed to the tiresome Kill Your Gays trope thanks to serial killer Meena Jutla.
Emmerdale has already breached the subject of asexuality through Liv Flaherty’s character and Charity has, somewhat, helped representing the bisexual community.
Other characters in the likes of Ethan Anderson (Emile John) and more recent additions such as Suni Sharma (Brahmdeo Shannon Ramana) and Nicky Milligan (Lewis Cope) have also allowed gay men to feel seen in mainstream media.
Matty Barton (Ash Palmisciano) has also taken part in pushing Emmerdale into the 21st century.
But there are still individuals that are questioning their own sexuality and who deserve their own representation – Mackenzie could have been the one to support them.
Viewers have had enough
Mackenzie’s continuous presence in Emmerdale has led to many fans of the Yorkshire-based program to grow tired of his disappointing antics.
And with the character’s repetitive patterns of behaviour, audience members are yearning for fresh storylines and dynamics.
Multiple viewers continue to take to social media to air out their frustrations… and sometimes beg bosses to put an end to Mackenzie.
“Please please please send him with them, for all that is holy get rid of Mackenzie!”, one of them penned as recently as Thursday, November 22, 2023.
“Reuben and Chloe are better off without Mackenzie. Mack deserves everything he gets”, another added.
A third echoed: “Mackenzie Boyd is quickly becoming one of the worst soap characters of all time.”
Soap boss Laura Shaw has recently teased a plethora of narratives to come with one focusing on Mack’s sister Moira as her biggest secret is set to be revealed.
Some have speculated that Mackenzie could be at the centre of this new storyline as Moira is revealed to be his biological mother.
But what’s left in store for the deceitful hunk?
Will bosses ever give him the makeover his character clearly needs?
Or will they follow the advice of many exasperated fans and scrap him altogether?
Emmerdale airs weeknights from 7.30pm on ITV.