Nooch to the Rescue?

It seems like the finale aired years ago. So eager was I to forget #SVU18, I wasn't going to bother with a post like this one. The switch from Leight to Eid (sorry to use your name and his name in the same sentence, Warren) nearly destroyed the show, or, at least, almost permanently tuned out a significant portion of fans. After seventeen seasons, #SVU's staying power had already been proven, what I didn't expect was the ability of one incompetent asshole to so easily deface characters, discount their stories, and crush the core premise of the show.

Seriously, did Rick save Dick Wolf's life at some point? I don't get it.

I suspect I gave Eid too much credit because of articles like this one in which he seemed to have his finger on the pulse of Leight's creation. Season seventeen ended in such a way that it could have been the series finale, there weren't many loose threads, but there were enough unanswered questions for Eid and the writers to roll with new story lines while simultaneously tackling those unfinished stories. To re-read this article now is both depressing and amusing, particularly the segment below.

Frankly, I think he's a psychopath.

Throughout the interview, Eid used the verb "explore" multiple times. We're going to explore this. Explore that. Something I'd like to explore. Except, either he did not understand what explore actually means, or he was neither smart nor clever enough to actually bring his vision to fruition. If the latter is the case, then he also wasn't humble enough to trust the talent in @SVUWritersRoom to take care of it. And we got the most disappointing season in the show's history! Thanks, jerk.

Michael Chernuchin's Summer Agenda:

I. Very carefully watch 2.0. I cannot stress this enough. Take notes. In fact, watch some 1.0s to get the full essence of Olivia Benson. Because we almost lost her in #SVU18.

II. Trust this tweet. 

Nooch is already winning in my book. At least he can be normal on Twitter.

Since we are so smart, there is no reason to abandon "show not tell." One of the dumbest things Eid allowed  was to give Benson and others schoolyard lines such as "let's catch him in a lie" or waste screen time chasing down leads they were only going to rehash in the squad room anyway. Even worse was the apparent insistence on ignoring core issues and conflating victim blaming with "gray areas." Yet another sin was refusing to give us an earnest glimpse into the characters' lives (other than dropping token lines and seconds-long scenes). So...

What not to do:

a. Please refrain from taking the easy way out (crime, arrest, trial, verdict). Rarely does life play out so neatly. Examples: Great Expectations (the hockey hazing one)--a perfect opportunity to explore the increasingly pressure-filled world of youth sports and the potential for permanent damage when adults insist on living vicariously through their children. The same goes for that ridiculous ep where the woman sleeps with the dude who she thinks is the admissions director at Hudson University. Aside from her inability to Google, isn't the broader issue the outrageous hoops we expect high schoolers to jump through in order to attend decent universities? If they can afford them...

b. Why Rape and Trauma Survivors Have Fragmented and Incomplete Memories

Rick took the easy way out and made almost every victim an outright liar, so let's not do that anymore, kay?

c. Nothing pissed me off more than a preview clip teasing a character's background info and then getting maybe a twenty-second glimpse into whatever was mentioned. Remember how deeply Fin connected with Captain Williams since they were both Rangers? Yeah, me neither. Remember when that Barba secret left us in limbo for a few weeks? Hahahahahaha....

Pretty Please?:-)

d. Speaking of the characters....let's work the following into #SVU19 scripts: Fin as grandpa, Declan Murphy (even a mention would be good, can you believe Eid produced a script with a character named Declan and Rollins HAD NO REACTION WHATSOVER ARE YOU KIDDING?), Rollins' evolving relationship with her sister, Barba's threats, Barba's political aspirations, Carisi's lawyer aspirations, we can forget about Carisi's #34B, the weirdness surrounding Fin's promotion (feel free to promote Rollins instead), multi-ep arcs a la Gregory Yates and William Lewis (but if you sic another Lewis-like perp on Benson the fandom will explode), and I seem to remember being promised a "bigger, badder Benson" in one of the #SVU18 articles but that didn't exactly develop...I think that's enough for now.

e. Y'all didn't think I was going to forget #Tuckson, didja?

We all know the break-up was clumsy and abrupt and a little nonsensical since OMB had "never been happier" and then all of a sudden things were "complicated" for a few eps and then a nanny kidnapped Theo which somehow meant Benson was a bad mother and she let Tucker (temporarily?) walk out of the apartment. This was unfair (Leight sorta spent several seasons gradually shifting Tucker into a likable character) and sucked....because I can't get WL's words out of my head....

It was a black and white character thing before…He's a real man. There's a lot of man-boys that we've had in various incarnations. I think he's the real deal and solid as a rock. He's a human being who has learned some lessons too. Again, we've gone more from a black and white conception of Tucker to [shades of gray.] That's part of the way how the show has changed. On what planet does someone as appealing as Olivia Benson not have a spouse in her life?

  

So there is no closure and my heart is still broken, and there is room every once in a while for some #Tuckson and if you would like further reasons why, please click here. 

f. Twitter is not the enemy.

g. If you're unsure about her role, Julie is the official timekeeper. #42Minutes

You haven't deactivated and reactivated your account multiple times, so you're apparently of sounder mind than your predecessor. 

At the moment, that's enough to get me through the summer.

#SVU19