S04.E08: Crusade

[thewhiteowl]

SWAT searches for a group of extremists carrying out coordinated attacks against local businesses. Deacon and his wife, Annie, find themselves at odds when Annie wants to enroll their daughter in private school.

[Danielg342]

I guess it was only a matter of time.

So, last time out, I criticized the show for- almost- bowing to the "Black Dude Dies First" stereotype.

Now, with a bit of Plot Armour thrown in, the show decides that when they need a heroic death, someone who can bite the dust (literally in this case) to get the team to grieve- and Christina Alonso, no less- they go with...

The black woman.

In an episode where the team is fighting white supremacists, no less.

Never mind that the other team has plenty of white dudes and one- Rocker- whom we've seen since the start of the show who would be better candidates to die than Erika is.

This episode scrapes the bottom of the barrel for the amount of cliches it went through alone. I was already going to criticize this episode over the fact they made the Imperial Dukes as one-dimensional as possible, a fact that's made worse by the fact these guys were brought back.

I'm sorry, but if you're going to have some recurring baddies, give them some depth. Make them more than just cackling evil bots with a lazy motivation tacked on to their maneuvers.

Worse than the racial stereotypes and the razor thin villains is the fact that- once again, and worst yet- the show continues to think "let's give Christina Alonso random storylines and see what sticks!" is "character building", when time and again, it just does not work.

Alonso's flimsy writing would be bad enough on any other show, but it's worse when her colleagues can all boast having at least some kind of a character narrative. Even Tan, whose narrative is still rather weak but at least he's got Bonnie to focus on.

Is there a character on TV right now more misused and underserved than Christina Alonso is? I'm not sure there is, and this episode- and Erika's death- was the bottom of the barrel for her.

Which underscores this episode's issues in a nutshell. Simply put, the episode also hits the bottom of the barrel because the show decided- all around tonight- to go for maximum shock and maximum vile while doing none of the work to do it right.

Let's not forget, this is the same show that set up an entire episode where the former leader of SWAT- Buck Spivey- threatened to kill himself and almost nearly did, but backed off at the last second. All without losing that episode's potent message about the issues officers face with mental health.

This is also the same show that bucked the trend of so many cop shows where lead characters play hero and get rewarded for playing hero despite going rogue, not just when Hondo chewed out Tan for doing so last time out, but when Hondo himself was benched back in S1 for going too far chasing the Korean drug lord.

This is also the same show that earned lots of plaudits for the nuances it gave to race issues, from the moving scenes of the protests in this season's premiere to Leroy's story to the philosophical battles of the Hondos all the way back to Hondo Jr.'s storyline with Officer Reid in S2 and even the Pilot episode, where Hondo refused to be labelled a "mascot".

I could go on with the multitude of other stories and storylines this show has done that's been filled with nuance and depth, with wonderfully built characters and wonderfully built narratives that you don't just get on Hollywood TV nowadays, let alone on a procedural like S.W.A.T.

This show has earned a lot of goodwill for its storytelling, and in one episode, it's threatening to throw it all away.

OK. Maybe that's going too far.

I still don't think S.W.A.T. has hit the point of "bad television", and it's still got a ways to go before it reaches the heights (depths?) of Shemar Moore's previous outing, Criminal Minds, who, in its final seasons, threatened to make the worst episodes ever commissioned for a TV series.

However, episodes like this are where those declines off the perch begins. When the writers stop trying and start trying to cut corners.

When the producers start thinking more about scoring ratings than making sure they have good quality stories.

It was inevitable at some point that S.W.A.T. was going to cut narrative corners, since as any series progresses, the writing does tend to get looser.

However, you don't expect it to cut so many in one go, especially jarring when they have the track record they have for tightly-written episodes.

The silver lining is that there is still time for the show to recover, because one bad episode shouldn't destroy all the show's magic.

Still, once the magic's gone, the magic is gone- and it's next to impossible to get it back.

Pick your next move carefully, show.

Edited January 28, 2021 by Danielg342

[threebluestars]

I was so pissed at this episode, for every reason you mentioned.

I'm doing a rewatch of 21 Jump Street (TV series) and Tan's narrative really reminds me of Ioki. Season 1 it was like Ioki was just there. He didn't get any storylines or get to shine at all. It was like they had nothing to write for him. He didn't get his own storylines until S2, and even then the stories weren't putting him in the hero position at all, but more positions where he had to defend himself.

[Danielg342]

19 minutes ago, threebluestars said:

I was so pissed at this episode, for every reason you mentioned.

I'm doing a rewatch of 21 Jump Street (TV series) and Tan's narrative really reminds me of Ioki. Season 1 it was like Ioki was just there. He didn't get any storylines or get to shine at all. It was like they had nothing to write for him. He didn't get his own storylines until S2, and even then the stories weren't putting him in the hero position at all, but more positions where he had to defend himself.

(Side note- do you mean Chris or Tan? Because I was complaining about Chris, not Tan)

I think that's what this is really about- the fact that, after four seasons, Christina Alonso is still just there. She has no story, she has no storyline, there's no long term character arc for her, she's got no goals or ambitions other than in the short term...she's got nothing. Zlich. Nada.

This would be bad enough for a male character, but since she's the only female regular on the show, it sticks out even more. Nothing screams "tokenism" more than being not just the only woman in the main cast, but also being a female character whom the writers clearly don't want to develop in a meaningful way.

Worse, whatever material she is given is either weak or filled with cliches. Her name is usually shortened to "Chris" so she can be "masculinized" (which happens far too often on TV) and, because of her gender, she gets assigned the "sexism" storylines, which, unlike race issues on this show, get the most basic, run-of-the-mill treatment this show gives them. She's also had bisexual flings, so the show can claim it's "progressive", but the show then undoes it by laying on so thick the Chris+Street pairing that's really gotten old by now.

There might have been something with this TIL leadership liaison competition and her budding friendship with Erika but that's all gone now.

Why? All to give Christina some angst? Cheap angst at that.

It's just so infuriating by now that watching this episode really made it the last straw, or close to it. They have some major work to do if they're ever going to salvage Christian Alonso as a character.

[Netfoot]

So nice to see a cop show that is built around the White Supremacy framework for a change! Because we certainly don't see enough of that!

Also interesting to note that the Stars & Stripes are now a symbol of said White Supremacy.

The "Iron Cross" is a German military medal. It was established in 1813 during the Napoleonic Wars. It survives in a slightly different form to this very day. During World War II it was 'embellished' (debased?) with the addition of a Nazi Swastika. Over it's 208 year history, it was so 'embellished' for only 6 years, less than 3% of it's lifespan. 

The term "Iron Cross" describes the actual medal. It's shape was derived from an earlier symbol used as far back as the Crusades. That shape is known as the "Cross Pattée", which has been used for at least 1,400 years. If you paint that shape on your house or get a tattoo, it is not an "Iron Cross", and therefore not an sign of White Supremacism. Even if it was an "Iron Cross", it still wouldn't be a sign of White Supremacism, unless it bore the Swastika 'embellishment'. In which it would be the Swastika (not the cross) that carried the negative connotations.

I sure wish people would get a fucking clue and stop flagging innocent symbols, objects and phrases as horrific and hateful, just because they want to make a buck. If someone embroiders the Peace Symbol on their jacket and then commits a crime, it doesn't make the Peace Symbol a sign of criminal behaviour. 

[threebluestars]

16 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

(Side note- do you mean Chris or Tan? Because I was complaining about Chris, not Tan)

I thought I'd quoted, but I was commenting on "Even Tan, whose narrative is still rather weak but at least he's got Bonnie to focus on." - his narrative stuck out as weak to me since the early seasons. They've done a bit better with him as the seasons have gone on, but not much. It just struck me since I've been watching 21 Jump Street and it seems like the Asian characters get the short end of the stick a lot.

Chris is weird to me. It's like they want to give her story lines, but then they cut them off at the knees every time. Her thrupple, relationship with Street, now her friendship with Erika. It's like they're searching for something, trying it all out and going "Nah!" right when it gets interesting.

[Danielg342]

2 hours ago, threebluestars said:

I thought I'd quoted, but I was commenting on "Even Tan, whose narrative is still rather weak but at least he's got Bonnie to focus on." - his narrative stuck out as weak to me since the early seasons. They've done a bit better with him as the seasons have gone on, but not much. It just struck me since I've been watching 21 Jump Street and it seems like the Asian characters get the short end of the stick a lot.

Chris is weird to me. It's like they want to give her story lines, but then they cut them off at the knees every time. Her thrupple, relationship with Street, now her friendship with Erika. It's like they're searching for something, trying it all out and going "Nah!" right when it gets interesting.

I agree with you on Tan completely. He's a close second to being as underserved as Chris is.

They're very similar but different at the same time. They're similar in that the writers seem uninterested in the characters and have done little to develop them.

How they got there is different.

With Tan, they've done almost nothing with him until they- tellingly- paired him up with a hot white blonde woman. We didn't meet his mother until Tan made the decision to give Bonnie a special bracelet that Tan's mother kept for him. I don't believe we've ever met anyone else in his family, of which we only have cursory knowledge of, and the only other detail about Tan was that he was a transfer from the Hollywood division, arriving to the team just before they dealt with a January 2013 school shooting.

There may be other stuff I've missed but that's the best I can do off the top of my head and not missing an episode since the show started in 2017.

As for Chris, the writers either don't know or don't care to give her something they can meaningfully explore or pursue. I'd like to think they're not short circuiting her stories on purpose, but it does boggle the mind how many narratives Chris goes through that just wind up fizzling out.

Maybe they just don't have a great read for what Lina Esco can bring to the table, or maybe they're worried about not falling victim to Hollywood characterizations of women (especially women in "macho" roles) that the writers are trying way too hard.

I just don't know.

I do wonder (to bring up your point about Asian characters) if it's got something to do with the perception that Hollywood is still grappling how to best utilize Asian and female characters. Minorities in general still get the short end of the stick in Hollywood, but I do believe the situation is improving when it comes to Black and Latino male characters. It's not yet ideal there either, but we are starting to see more developed Black and Latino male characters on Hollywood television, and not just on this show.

When it comes to Asian and female characters (especially Asian female characters), Hollywood still struggles to use them correctly. It's a weird paradox since arguably both sets of characters have been on Hollywood screens for about as long as white male characters have been on screen, but their roles are generally reduced to stereotypical roles. This type of thinking has been prevalent for so long that I think it's been hard for Hollywood to shake. I don't know why they can't shake it because the solutions are obvious, but they can't seem to shake it- and maybe that plays into why Tan and Chris get the short ends of the stick here on S.W.A.T.

[momo]

At least they don't give Tan some kind of fake accent.

[Raja]

So while they opened the season referencing George Floyd and living with COVID that has all been dropped?

[Jaded]

[mythoughtis]

I just saw the death of Erika as the typical red shirt death on Star Trek.  I didn’t read any racial overtones into it.  Probably because the show has so much of that every week.  I actually saw the irony of the two of them moving into a ‘swanky’ apartment since they could share the rent and now Chris has to pay it all. 
My main gripe  this week-   The team as usual somehow teleports  to the crime scenes.  This time they got to the burning market before the fire truck from the nearest fire station got there.  And they came from some where out of the area to do so. 
My second gripe- Deacons wife.  There’s no other private school available  that isn’t for the rich and famous?  How about the local Christian or Catholic school - they are religious after all.   Deacon may be making good money right now, but who says that will last?  

[Sweet Tooth]

On 1/27/2021 at 8:56 PM, Danielg342 said:

Is there a character on TV right now more misused and underserved than Christina Alonso is? I'm not sure there is, and this episode- and Erika's death- was the bottom of the barrel for her.

Which underscores this episode's issues in a nutshell. Simply put, the episode also hits the bottom of the barrel because the show decided- all around tonight- to go for maximum shock and maximum vile while doing none of the work to do it right.

Ugh. 

You know, it's funny.

Sometimes I get a feeling about a certain show that something is about to go wrong.

Maybe it was the lighthearted beginning or the callback to Deac's house being shot up, but something didn't sit right with me, and so I decided to come here and see the grade ol' Daniel G gave it.

Ugh. Why am I not surprised? Kill the black woman, of course. 

This is going to seem off-topic, but bear with me.

There's a show I loved, The Good Doctor. Freddie Highmore is amazing, and the characters are pretty solid and have their own stuff going on, despite the ensemble cast. Everyone has gotten spotlighted.

And then a bunch of us realized that they kept throwing the most horrible crap at this one WOC doctor. Like, every time she pulled herself up and brushed herself off, they'd have another Mack Truck headed in her direction.

I stopped watching when they literally killed off a beloved main characters, because they attached him to her.

Nope. Watching a woman get constantly flattened more than any other character, is not my idea of a good time.

I also have noticed they shorten her name to make sure she's seen as "one of the guys." And what was her one story arc? It had to do with her sexuality. And as she even said, it sent her life backward.

So, I don't understand why you'd have someone sitting at the bottom, lamenting about their life, and take away the one good thing in it. What was the point? To improve her image? Give her a storyline by freaking FRIDGING? 

No. It's cheap and lazy writing. It's like when an author says, "I like to make my readers cry by killing off characters." Ah, thanks for letting me know you're the laziest writer on the planet and to avoid you like the plague.

Taking someone who's on top of the world and has everything, and making them lose something, is much more interesting. Someone who's already laid low by life and making her grieve? HARD PASS.

So, thanks for letting me know what happens, and I will be skipping this episode.

 

[Danielg342]

10 hours ago, mythoughtis said:

I just saw the death of Erika as the typical red shirt death on Star Trek.  I didn’t read any racial overtones into it.  Probably because the show has so much of that every week.  I actually saw the irony of the two of them moving into a ‘swanky’ apartment since they could share the rent and now Chris has to pay it all. 
My main gripe  this week-   The team as usual somehow teleports  to the crime scenes.  This time they got to the burning market before the fire truck from the nearest fire station got there.  And they came from some where out of the area to do so. 
My second gripe- Deacons wife.  There’s no other private school available  that isn’t for the rich and famous?  How about the local Christian or Catholic school - they are religious after all.   Deacon may be making good money right now, but who says that will last?  

Yeah, there are times Rock Star Parking gets on my nerves, and you'd wish the show would account for L.A.'s notorious traffic some times. It could be a good plot point every now and then. I do understand why this happens- to maximize the action in the episodes- but I do agree every now and then they should face some traffic issues.

As for Deacon's storyline, I never brought that up in my review since I thought that story was hokey. Does anything say "first world problem" more than drama over whether to send their kid to a private school? You make good points about the fact the show didn't have Deacon think to send Lila to a Catholic school, or another private school. Or even some "alternative" schooling like Montessori education. This is L.A. we're talking about- this stuff would be available.

Chalk it up to more of the episode's bad writing.

On to the race issue:

I do agree that S.W.A.T. does far better with addressing the issues that impact the black community, and I'd say that at least a part of it has to come from the fact that their showrunner (Aaron Rahsaan Thomas) and their star (Shemar Moore) are black themselves and have actually lived dealing with those issues, as opposed to a white person who may only understand them from an abstract position (Hondo's comment, "you don't think I was angry?" to a tone-deaf (and also badly written) Hicks underscores that).

Which is why seeing the show resort to storytelling stereotypes becomes more grating. Perhaps I'm just being naïve, but I would expect that a show helmed by a black man and centred around a black man would do its best to avoid black stereotypes, or at least do a better job in portraying them. The show went two and a half years without killing anyone and now, in the span of a little more than a calendar year, they've killed off two characters- both of them black (Cory Hardict's Nate Warren in the "Bad Cop/Good Cop" storyline and Erika in this episode).

I let go Nate's death for a few reasons. One, I do believe he acted in character. Two, the character didn't have much else to do on the show. Three- and more importantly- the story involving his death and the story of his tragedy was very well told. I'm not sure the storyline needed it, but it wasn't hurt too much by that event.

However, the fact Nate bit the dust was something that was always in the back of my mind. I could forgive a black-centred show for resorting to the "black character sacrifice" stereotype in that moment because it treated black issues very well, but that goodwill only extends so far.

With Erika's death, it pretty much smashed that goodwill all to pieces.

I'll get to your redshirt comment a bit later in this post, because I think it's relevant, but for now, Erika's death also caused me to rethink how well this show really has been when it comes not just to black issues but issues surrounding minorities in general.

Yes, this show has brought in a lot of black characters, many of them recurring and many of them highly valuable to the series.

However, you'll notice that those characters, aside from Erika, had connections to Hondo in some way- Hondo Sr., Mama Harrelson, Hondo's sisters, Darryl, Hondo's adopted son, Leroy, Hondo's erstwhile best friend and Darryl's father, Hondo's many love interests, etc.

Take out Hondo, and you don't have those characters. You're just left with Erika.

Extend it to other minority characters and things become even thinner.

Tan- whose storylines are almost as weak as Chris'- only has two other supporting characters that we've seen in Bonnie (his white girlfriend) and his mother, and we've seen Bonnie multiple times and his mother in two scenes.

Chris mentions her family from time to time but I don't believe we've ever met them. If we have, it's only been in a fleeting scene or two. There was promise with Erika but that's now gone, leaving the only other character in her orbit being Street.

Hicks has his gay son, but we only saw him once- in a "very special episode", no less.

Then there's the now departed Cortez, given a strong performance by Stephanie Sigman but was still a character flimsily written. I don't believe we ever met her family or friends, and the only people in her orbit were Hondo, Hicks and the L.A. Police Commissioner from S1. That's it- and all white, except for Hondo. Who was her love interest in a storyline that was doomed to fail.

Quite frankly, if you take out Hondo, you've got a garden-variety, very white police procedural. With guns and explosions. Which didn't work even in the 1970s, when you would expect it to.

6 hours ago, Sweet Tooth said:

Ugh. 

You know, it's funny.

Sometimes I get a feeling about a certain show that something is about to go wrong.

Maybe it was the lighthearted beginning or the callback to Deac's house being shot up, but something didn't sit right with me, and so I decided to come here and see the grade ol' Daniel G gave it.

Ugh. Why am I not surprised? Kill the black woman, of course. 

This is going to seem off-topic, but bear with me.

There's a show I loved, The Good Doctor. Freddie Highmore is amazing, and the characters are pretty solid and have their own stuff going on, despite the ensemble cast. Everyone has gotten spotlighted.

And then a bunch of us realized that they kept throwing the most horrible crap at this one WOC doctor. Like, every time she pulled herself up and brushed herself off, they'd have another Mack Truck headed in her direction.

I stopped watching when they literally killed off a beloved main characters, because they attached him to her.

Nope. Watching a woman get constantly flattened more than any other character, is not my idea of a good time.

I also have noticed they shorten her name to make sure she's seen as "one of the guys." And what was her one story arc? It had to do with her sexuality. And as she even said, it sent her life backward.

So, I don't understand why you'd have someone sitting at the bottom, lamenting about their life, and take away the one good thing in it. What was the point? To improve her image? Give her a storyline by freaking FRIDGING? 

No. It's cheap and lazy writing. It's like when an author says, "I like to make my readers cry by killing off characters." Ah, thanks for letting me know you're the laziest writer on the planet and to avoid you like the plague.

Taking someone who's on top of the world and has everything, and making them lose something, is much more interesting. Someone who's already laid low by life and making her grieve? HARD PASS.

So, thanks for letting me know what happens, and I will be skipping this episode.

 

Aww. I do appreciate the compliment. *hugs*

Though I'm 39...that doesn't make me old yet...right? :S

Anyway, an episode like this, where the writing goes so far off the rails that it sticks out like a sore thumb gets me thinking about the other times I abandoned a series- either effectively or literally.

Each time it happened was because the show got so bad that I lost my immersion into the story and the flaws of the show started to stick out more.

When a show is good, it feels "real" and you feel like you're inside the world that the show takes place. You may not find the show perfect, and you still recognize the show's flaws, but when you're engaged in the world, you're more willing to accept those flaws, or even find a way to rationalize them.

Eventually, though, as a series or a story gets longer the more likely you'll reach the point where you can't ignore the flaws anymore and it takes you right out of the story.

Once you're out, you're out. You may be able to get back in to the story, but it's very hard to do- if it can even happen at all.

I feel like this episode may be that point for S.W.A.T. I do hope I'm wrong, but it's not a good sign that, for the first time in this series, I paid far more attention to what the writers were doing and what story choices were being made than paying attention to the actual story.

In other words, the immersion was lost.

If it's gone for good, what led to it?

Was it a slow burn, where I lost trust in the writers to actually develop Christina Alonso into more than just "the member of the SWAT team who identifies as female"?

Or was it the slow burn where I lost trust in the writers to actually give me compelling baddies or interesting cases?

What about losing hope that this show could adequately develop characters not named Daniel "Hondo" Harrelson?

Or did hit me like a metaphorical Mack Truck, seeing Erika's death on screen and realizing that this show joins the list of so many other shows that, in effect, trivialize death by using it in such a cheap manner to drive ratings?

Or was it all those things, and other things I'm not thinking of?

I want to expand on the death part of things because I believe that may just be the straw that broke the camel's back.

@mythoughtis brought up the fact that Erika felt like a redshirt. I think it's pretty close to how she was treated as a character- expendable and disposable, although not entirely meaningless since her death is supposed to give Christina Alonso angst.

It's closer to the "fridging" trope on a more technical sense. One this show seems to like, since it already did it with Nate as described earlier, as all he wound up being was there to die to give Street some angst.

There's a reason why tropes like fridging and redshirting or the similar trope, "The Lost Lenore" (where the death of a love interest frames a character's backstory), get quite a bit of heat and that's because death- like in real life- needs to be treated carefully in writing.

There's the logistical reason- if you kill off a character, unless the show's setting allows for resuscitation, you can't bring back that character or (in most cases) the actor playing that character. Just like in real life, dead is dead- there's no going back.

Then there's the obvious- audiences bond to the characters like they do with real people, and seeing them die can stir those same emotions. Kill the wrong characters and you could face an audience revolt, especially if that character is beloved.

The ultimate reason, though, highlights an issue that seems to happen far too often in Hollywood writing these days, and that's the fact that writers use death simply as a means of "sparking" their series.

Either because they feel their series is in a rut and needs an impactful event to get them out of it, or because- as is the more likely motivation- they want that "buzzworthy" episode that shows just how "serious" the series is, hopefully to the point where it gets considered for awards and gets people talking.

Mission Accomplished on that, I guess.

However, the issue with treating death like that- in addition to the cheapness of it- is the fact that while death is a really impactful event (probably the most impactful event there is), it's still just an event.

Meaning that eventually the effects of that event will fade.

What's going to be the course of writing for S.W.A.T. after Erika's demise? There will be a memorial, likely, because every fallen police officer gets one.

Then the team will grieve for Erika, especially Christina, for whom it will hit the hardest.

...but...

Once the crying and comforting is all done, what are we left with?

The same SWAT team that took to action in S04.E07; and the same show that was in a rut then too.

Yeah, the show's down a recurring character but I doubt many of us in the audience will really notice she's gone.

Maybe Ms. Alonso will take some time off and not be a part of a few cases, and Lina Esco will do her best crying scenes over the next few episodes.

There's also the possibility this storyline is being used to write Esco out of the show, which would be a shame. Not just because the writers would basically be admitting they gave up on her character but also because I've been down this road before on CM, which only gave its first female lead (Lola Glaudini) meaningful material when she was headed out the door.

Then there's the...*shudder*...possibility that, in comforting Christina, Street will hook up with her again and this will bring Street one step closer to Christina and take him away from Molly, whom he has far better chemistry with.

By that point, there will be no hope for S.W.A.T. because it'll just become a bad soap opera with guns. I know Moore's an old soap vet, but c'mon!

Which is why, for the first time in this series, I'm actually dreading the next episodes. Because the show has ultimately taken a choice that I'm not sure it can get any good out of it.

I hope I'm wrong, but it'll be a monumental task now.

One other thing- because death is the one act a TV show cannot undo (generally speaking), it's one more reason to avoid it unless it's absolutely necessary.

I think a TV show, if it really wants to spark things, should pursue events that lead to another dynamic to develop. In Erika's case, the smarter play would have been to keep her alive and see how her friendship develops with Christina. That is something that you can maintain for as many episodes as you like, and you can cultivate many stories and storylines out of it as well.

Instead we got...this.

Edited February 1, 2021 by Danielg342

[Raja]

Well if the show stayed in the early "safer at home, flatten the curve" period that the season started with then a lot of that traffic was gone. But is is true  that with S.W.A.T.  being the first everywhere without a local patrol car in sight reminds me of CSI Miami's opening credits where the line of patrol cars and a helicopter struggles to catch up to the crime lab's Humvee

[Sweet Tooth]

9 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

Though I'm 39...that doesn't make me old yet...right? :S

No, you're not ready for your cane and caretaker quite yet.

9 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

Or did hit me like a metaphorical Mack Truck, seeing Erika's death on screen and realizing that this show joins the list of so many other shows that, in effect, trivialize death by using it in such a cheap manner to drive ratings?

There are three shows in my recent past that killed off a main character, and I vowed never to return. 

1. Sleepy Hollow. Self-explanatory, I think. I believe it hits all the notes you mentioned. It was cancelled by the next season.

2. The Magicians (SPOILER ALERT), where they killed off the MAIN CHARACTER. They said they had no more stories for him, even though it was based on an entire series of books. AND it was a magical show, so they could have brought him back. It was cancelled by the next season.

3. The Good Doctor. They killed off a beloved character because they'd attached him to the female character they constantly love to t0rture. They were like, "It couldn't have worked out between them." So...ummm...you're a writer. Figure it out. 

This show has not killed off a main character, however they are subjecting me to multiple episodes of people grieving her and destroying Chris's growth. 

I just went on Twitter to gauge the reaction, and it's a mixed bag. A lot of people are like, "NOOOOOOOOO!" A few had "bad writing" and "horrible writing."

One said how the show talked about Chris having an "emotional arc" this season, and I'm like, "You had to kill off her best friend to do it?"

One said this:

This program killed off an awesome woman who succeeded in a male dominated job. Not only was this patriarchal but also racist since she was a person of color. This program is chronically preaching social justice against whites, while killing a great female role-model of color.

So, it seemed a lot of people are not happy with this new development. 

I think two of the laziest forms of writing are killing off characters to give another character an emotional arc, and anything based on a "misunderstanding."

9 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

Then there's the...*shudder*...possibility that, in comforting Christina, Street will hook up with her again and this will bring Street one step closer to Christina and take him away from Molly, whom he has far better chemistry with.

I don't know if this will happen, but Chris/Street is endgame, and I know this, because they keep bringing it up. Brace yourself. It's happening.

But yeah, since he's the only other person she's closest to, I see rough waters ahead.

[Danielg342]

On 2/1/2021 at 5:16 PM, Sweet Tooth said:

Sleepy Hollow. Self-explanatory, I think. I believe it hits all the notes you mentioned. It was cancelled by the next season.

I never got into Sleepy Hollow because I thought it never really got the tone right between "realism" and "fantasy", but I did like Nicole Beharie's Abbie Mills. I didn't like hearing she bit the dust either. I do understand Beharie wanted to leave the series, but I believe that's just lazy. One thing I always liked about Criminal Minds was that only once- sadly with Damon Gupton's Steven Walker- did the show ever write off a character by killing them off (technically, they did it twice, as Mandy Patinkin's Jason Gideon too bit the dust, but that only happened seven years after Patinkin had left and it became painfully obvious Patinkin was never going to reprise Gideon). The benefit to this is obvious- if the actor ever wants to come back, you can do it without having to resort to flashbacks or a dream sequence.

Once a character is dead...they're dead. One more reason why writers need to be careful with this decision.

On 2/1/2021 at 5:16 PM, Sweet Tooth said:

The Good Doctor. They killed off a beloved character because they'd attached him to the female character they constantly love to t0rture. They were like, "It couldn't have worked out between them." So...ummm...you're a writer. Figure it out. 

This show has not killed off a main character, however they are subjecting me to multiple episodes of people grieving her and destroying Chris's growth. 

I just went on Twitter to gauge the reaction, and it's a mixed bag. A lot of people are like, "NOOOOOOOOO!" A few had "bad writing" and "horrible writing."

One said how the show talked about Chris having an "emotional arc" this season, and I'm like, "You had to kill off her best friend to do it?"

One said this:

This program killed off an awesome woman who succeeded in a male dominated job. Not only was this patriarchal but also racist since she was a person of color. This program is chronically preaching social justice against whites, while killing a great female role-model of color.

So, it seemed a lot of people are not happy with this new development. 

I think two of the laziest forms of writing are killing off characters to give another character an emotional arc, and anything based on a "misunderstanding."

I think about it more in terms of the writer made a decision and lazily comes up with a reason to justify what they did as opposed to those reasons themselves being inherently lazy. I mean, you can develop some great stories out a misunderstanding and as part of an emotional arc. They are, I would agree, overused reasons for conflict and angst.

When it comes to Christina, if the writers really wanted to give her "an emotional arc", have her lose that TLI competition. That would bum anyone out, and, considering it meant so much to Christina, it would be more than enough of a reason to get really depressed and angry over it.

Something like that could make Christina question her worth on not just the team but the force as well. She might start wondering if the men on the force would continue to respect her despite the fact she failed to beat them in the competition.

She might then internalize the defeat so much that it would affect her job performance in every other area and compound the feelings of inadequacy that she already feels.

Which would drive Christina to the point where she would feel like she would just want to give up.

...and who would be there to tell her not to? Erika, who could definitely remind Christina that, as a woman of colour Erika has had to fight two different prejudices (of being black and a woman), not just one. If Erika can find a way to fight on, so can Christina.

Yeah, having a female character's narrative be all about feminism is a Hollywood cliche, but much of the issues Hollywood has with feminism are the same issues Hollywood has with racism or any other kind of discrimination.

They tend to go for the token, "ra-rah! You go, buddy!" glurgerific treacle that makes fighting the issue a curb-stomp battle and minimalizes- if not trivializes- just how much of a real struggle discrimination can be.

S.W.A.T. has done a magnificent job displaying that with racism. In fact, much of Hondo's character is defined by coming to terms with his naivete, as Hondo himself comes to realize that solving race issues isn't as easy as he thought it could be.

S.W.A.T. could easily do that same story with Christina Alonso and feminism. It would even be a great story. Yeah, perhaps that story has been done many times before, but rarely has it ever been done right. A nuanced story on feminism that doesn't gloss over the real struggles a woman faces in her career, let alone in a male-dominated, macho career like policing would be a joy to watch and be a great direction for the character.

Instead we get...whatever this is.

[WinJet0819]

On 2/1/2021 at 6:22 AM, Danielg342 said:

Then there's the...*shudder*...possibility that, in comforting Christina, Street will hook up with her again and this will bring Street one step closer to Christina and take him away from Molly, whom he has far better chemistry with.

I know. That was the first worry that crept in my mind when Erica died. They may use Erica's death to try to advance the Chris-Street relationship. And SWAT isn't really the show you'd expect them to be pushing in-team relationships. Especially when there's just the one woman on the team. Trying to push the lone woman into a relationship with a team member will lessen her character and lessen the show. SWAT is a good enough show to not need to have Chris and Street together. It's the same thing that might happen on SEAL Team with Sonny and Davis.

On 2/1/2021 at 6:22 AM, Danielg342 said:

Chris mentions her family from time to time but I don't believe we've ever met them. If we have, it's only been in a fleeting scene or two. There was promise with Erika but that's now gone, leaving the only other character in her orbit being Street.

Before the episode, I actually thought Erica would wind up being a lesbian, and might be a relationship possibility for Chris, and completely take the Chris-Street relationship off the table. Or just be a best friend and be Chris' protégé. 

On 2/1/2021 at 4:16 PM, Sweet Tooth said:

I don't know if this will happen, but Chris/Street is endgame, and I know this, because they keep bringing it up. Brace yourself. It's happening.

If that happens, this show is toast. The entire fluidity of the team would be compromised. And I can't see Hondo allowing that on his team. He was in a similar situation with Cortez, but he had to let her go because their relationship was in direct conflict of the new guidelines she was trying to pass. Not to mention, how can women be portrayed as strong independent characters in these types of shows if they need to have a relationship storyline pushed with another team member? It just makes the woman look weak.

We've seen an example of it with the Stella character in Chicago Fire. When she first came on the show, without a relationship, she showed she could handle herself and was just another firefighter who happened to be a woman. Now that she's with Severide, she constantly needs his reassurance that she's good enough and most of her storylines revolve around their relationship drama. And the PDAs in the workplace are cringe-worthy. And thus, the rumor gets around that she's in a relationship with an officer, trying to sleep her way to the top. It's not true, but that's the perception.

If Street and Chris were to get together, it should happen at the end of the series, similar to what happened in JAG with Mac and Harm.

[Sweet Tooth]

2 hours ago, WinJet0819 said:

If that happens, this show is toast. The entire fluidity of the team would be compromised. And I can't see Hondo allowing that on his team. He was in a similar situation with Cortez, but he had to let her go because their relationship was in direct conflict of the new guidelines she was trying to pass. Not to mention, how can women be portrayed as strong independent characters in these types of shows if they need to have a relationship storyline pushed with another team member? It just makes the woman look weak.

I think with Hondo, she was his boss, and that's why it wasn't allowed. There was a power differential.

I don't know how it is for two members of the same team.

Now, I have seen the partners into full-on relationship work on NCIS Los Angeles. They started as partners, and Kensi was established at the beginning as a strong woman who didn't need a man. And when they got together, there hasn't been a bunch of drama. They work together well, and like it's not an issue. They have made it like a real relationship, dealing with normal relationship stuff but drama-free, and Kensi is very much her own woman. 

But they'd given Kensi her own storyline, and she was there before Deeks got there. Deeks is the kiind who will always defer to her and is not Mr. alpha male. 

It also worked on the show Bones, but here they had different jobs that intersected, and there was no drama again. They just were together, with each being their own person.

The problem here is that they haven't established Chris as a strong person by herself, where Street would just be a relationship and not someone to lean on. 

Street has had a nice arc. Even Chris said she was the one with her life together when they first met, and he was the screw-up. But they've really rounded him out and made him a strong character, while she's floundering, and now they've taken her one good thing away.

So, I don't mind her getting together with Street, but yes, if it's going to be one of those things where she depends on him for validation, it would weaken her character more. They need to shore her up and give her an identity before she attaches herself to him. Otherwise, it's bad writing that makes these once strong women become weak. In the right hands, it could be great. But I don't trust these writers anymore. 

On 2/4/2021 at 7:01 PM, Danielg342 said:

When it comes to Christina, if the writers really wanted to give her "an emotional arc", have her lose that TLI competition. That would bum anyone out, and, considering it meant so much to Christina, it would be more than enough of a reason to get really depressed and angry over it.

I think using death of a main character in any form is just lazy. It's a lazy way to create angst. It's a lazy way to promote growth in another character. It's a cheap gotcha for the audience. Like, "Here, we'll give you something to cry about." Ugh. GIVE ME GOOD WRITING. Give me complications that are REAL. 

I'd rather one character look the other in the eye and say, "I don't want to be with you, and here's why" than for someone to misunderstand why they don't want to be with them, and have the other person just not say anything, and for nobody to communicate. Drives me up a wall. Give me real tension. Real complications. Make it messy and difficult, and then you have to write your way out of it in a way that creates growth for the character. Not, "OOOOH! I thought you totally didn't like me." "NO! I totally liked you!" 

Yes, Chris losing the competition would force her to focus and get in gear. But I think, stupidly, that this death will make her fight harder to win it and blah blah blah. Now I'm sure she will. Unless they want Chris to try and commit suicide or something, and who knows at this point what the hell they're doing?

But making a fan favorite die to prop her up is stupid and lazy and a jerky thing for them to do.

[mythoughtis]

We have seen Chris’s family.  It was early on, but she joined her uncle and aunt at picnics etc.   it was definitely before the misadventure with the couple. 

[Danielg342]

On 2/6/2021 at 3:19 AM, Sweet Tooth said:

I don't trust these writers anymore.

The six (seven?) fatal words. I'm there too.

On 2/6/2021 at 12:59 AM, WinJet0819 said:

Before the episode, I actually thought Erica would wind up being a lesbian, and might be a relationship possibility for Chris

I thought that too, and I think it could have been great. I can't remember the last time TV had a gay or a lesbian romance that was organic and wasn't rooted in the characters struggling with their orientation or "discovering themselves". Erika and Christina had a nice, natural bond and there was an opportunity to make a romance between them feel normal.

That the show threw away for what, exactly?

On 2/6/2021 at 3:19 AM, Sweet Tooth said:

On 2/6/2021 at 12:59 AM, WinJet0819 said:

If that happens, this show is toast. The entire fluidity of the team would be compromised. And I can't see Hondo allowing that on his team. He was in a similar situation with Cortez, but he had to let her go because their relationship was in direct conflict of the new guidelines she was trying to pass. Not to mention, how can women be portrayed as strong independent characters in these types of shows if they need to have a relationship storyline pushed with another team member? It just makes the woman look weak.

I think with Hondo, she was his boss, and that's why it wasn't allowed. There was a power differential.

I don't know how it is for two members of the same team.

That was the official reasoning- Cortez was Hondo's boss, which raised more ethical dilemmas than your typical intra-department romance.

I do wonder, though, if the show has ever thought about bringing back Cortez since she's no longer with the LAPD. Her and Hondo didn't break up because the romance was dead. Heck, Cortez might be a better option for Hondo given that Nichelle is giving him such a hard time.

I still think it's too early to go to Christina+Street (Stris? Creet? Jina? Streelonso?), though. Maybe the show will go there out of fears there may not be a Season Five, but it's still the wrong move. It would feel like a cheap reason to create "intra-squad tension" when there are so many better methods to so, plus I'm not sure if this show is really designed to deal with relationship drama all that well. I know that Shemar Moore is a soap opera vet, but I feel the soap opera stuff is better suited for the team members "after-work" lives and really only in pieces.

Love stories are so overdone these days that there's no way to surprise people anymore. I feel they're much better suited for those shows where you can adequately explore those romances and do it justice, not on a show like this where it essentially gets the "tack it on" treatment.

Plus I'm with @Sweet Tooth in that Christina's not a well-built enough character to be ready for a relationship with Street. She needs to be a strong, independent character who stands on her own before they can even begin pursuing...Streelonso? I'm going with that.

By the way, in case anyone was wondering I am deliberately not shortening Christina Alonso's first name anymore. I'm tired of this show- and others like it- who do it pretty much do it to "reduce" the character's femininity and try to present her as masculine. Maybe if Christina Alonso actually becomes a strong character that women could be proud of I'll go back to the show preferred name but for now, I'm sticking with the proper version.

(I can't use "Tina" because there already was one on this show, though she was just a one-off character)

On 2/6/2021 at 3:19 AM, Sweet Tooth said:

Chris losing the competition would force her to focus and get in gear. But I think, stupidly, that this death will make her fight harder to win it and blah blah blah.

She'll dedicate that win to Erika and we'll get more treacly nonsense...

You know, the opportunity was there for Christina to want to win the TLI competition so badly that she'd try to "play hero" one time like Tan did just to do it. This can go back to the issue I raised in the last episode's discussion that asked if Hondo is a hypocrite because he got to play hero and Tan didn't.

Imagine Christina going rogue, Hondo chewing her out for it and reprimanding her, and Christina then turns it around and makes it a gender issue. Talk about your can of worms. Lots of story stuff to be mined there. The show may still go there but, with Erika out, it would just feel like "piling on".

7 hours ago, mythoughtis said:

We have seen Chris’s family.  It was early on, but she joined her uncle and aunt at picnics etc.   it was definitely before the misadventure with the couple. 

Yeah, early in S1, I think. I also seem to recall some time in S2 when her uncle did some work at the home Street and Luca (remember him?) shared. Maybe there was another episode that had her brother, I'm not sure.

That's it, though.

[WinJet0819]

13 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

I still think it's too early to go to Christina+Street (Stris? Creet? Jina? Streelonso?), though. Maybe the show will go there out of fears there may not be a Season Five, but it's still the wrong move. It would feel like a cheap reason to create "intra-squad tension" when there are so many better methods to so, plus I'm not sure if this show is really designed to deal with relationship drama all that well. I know that Shemar Moore is a soap opera vet, but I feel the soap opera stuff is better suited for the team members "after-work" lives and really only in pieces.

Love stories are so overdone these days that there's no way to surprise people anymore. I feel they're much better suited for those shows where you can adequately explore those romances and do it justice, not on a show like this where it essentially gets the "tack it on" treatment.

Plus I'm with @Sweet Tooth in that Christina's not a well-built enough character to be ready for a relationship with Street. She needs to be a strong, independent character who stands on her own before they can even begin pursuing...Streelonso? I'm going with that.

Agree with all of this. From the series premier, S.W.A.T. was about the action and the team. Not the relationships. It wasn't written in the same vein as, say NCIS, which had comedy sprinkled in. It took a more serious tone and focused on the job. The off-work drama, for the most part, was kept off-screen. And when it is on-screen, most of the time it ties into a case and doesn't overtake the whole episode, and it's not thrown in our faces multiple times. We know Deke is married to Annie, but their drama isn't brought up every episode. Tan is with Bonnie, and that drama isn't brought up every episode. And so far, same with Molly and Street. We, as viewers, still know they're around, but the drama isn't brought up every episode. That's the main reason why I'm so against Christina-Street being a relationship. The show is good enough to not need it and it's not designed to have a romantic focus. All the forced tension between Street and Christina is taking away from the quality of the show because it's thrown in our faces each episode. 

It's similar to what I feel about SEAL Team with Sonny and Davis. The show is about Bravo Team, and it's good enough to not need to focus on a romantic aspect within the team.

Not every show needs a love story between teammates. SVU did very well with the Benson and Stabler partnership for 12 seasons, as they kept the relationship platonic. I really hope more shows would try to follow that example, as opposed to trying to be a hybrid version of Grey's Anatomy.

[Sweet Tooth]

On 2/8/2021 at 2:36 AM, Danielg342 said:

You know, the opportunity was there for Christina to want to win the TLI competition so badly that she'd try to "play hero" one time like Tan did just to do it. This can go back to the issue I raised in the last episode's discussion that asked if Hondo is a hypocrite because he got to play hero and Tan didn't.

Imagine Christina going rogue, Hondo chewing her out for it and reprimanding her, and Christina then turns it around and makes it a gender issue. Talk about your can of worms. Lots of story stuff to be mined there. The show may still go there but, with Erika out, it would just feel like "piling on".

This just won't happen. They squandered that on Tan's petty jealousy.

She will win, and she will definitely dedicate it to Erika, and I'm pretty sure that Christina winning the competition was the entire reason Erika dies, which is completely ridiculous.

I don't know how they'll turn this idiocy around, but definitely Christina winning this stupid competition because Erika died, will make me throw things at my TV.

[Danielg342]

@WinJet0819 @Sweet Tooth (and anyone else that wants to chime in):

Since I don't have much to add other than "I agree completely with both of you", I have one question to raise: have we hit the moment where we can say S.W.A.T. has jumped the shark or is it too early to tell?

Edited February 12, 2021 by Danielg342

[Sweet Tooth]

5 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

Since I don't have much to add other than "I agree completely with both of you", I have one question to raise: have we hit the moment where we can say S.W.A.T. has jumped the shark or is it too early to tell?

The hopeful part of me is praying they can turn this ship around. As you've pointed out, they can pull it together if they want to. They just have to want to.

If they don't understand just how unpopular and stupid this move was, they will continue down the shark path.

However, if they've read some of the feedback and understand what they've done, they may try and do whatever they can to save it.

Only time will tell.

[Laverne]

The writers are RACISTS and have no creativity for Black women. Place a Black woman in the show to get OUR attention,  then kill her off and replace her with a white actor. Very poor move, very poor.🤬😡🤬

[Danielg342]

I'm late getting to this, but I thought I'd put it here anyway in case anyone else wants to comment.

In TVLine's yearly feature detailing the character deaths they found most tragic, S.W.A.T. made the list in 2021 because of Erika's death in this episode. Here's what TVLine said about Erika's death:

Quote

In just a few episodes, Erika Rogers — the second woman to make S.W.A.T. — endeared herself to both us and Chris, especially as she encouraged Chris during TLI training. As such, and because we had just dodged the bullet of Tan being shot while storming an Imperial Dukes hideout, Erika’s discovery that she, too, had taken a bullet was a huge gut punch, especially as Chris valiantly tried to save her friend and soon-to-be roommate.

Date of Death: Jan. 27, 2021

Now, I've spilled a lot of ink already saying how poor a story choice it was for Erika to die, since the show didn't build to it properly and discarded her character rather cheaply, I'd say. So I won't waste your time rehashing those arguments, which would be the same ones I would use to voice my disagreement with TVLine for its assessment. Really, the only gut punch I felt with regards to Erika's death were the missed opportunities.

What I will bring up is that when TVLine did this same list a year before, notably absent was the death of Nate Warren, Street's foster brother, during the "Bad Cop"/"Good Cop" pair of episodes. That story was far better told, even if, like Erika, Nate was really just a plot device for Street. I believe the key difference is that the show didn't try to make Nate any greater a character than he needed to be, while with Erika we seemed to led to believe that she was going to become a major character down the road before she was unceremoniously dropped without warning. Obviously, lists like these are subjective, but I can't help but think TVLine omitted the wrong character death in its reviews.

[nittany cougar]

On 3/29/2022 at 9:17 AM, Danielg342 said:

I'm late getting to this, but I thought I'd put it here anyway in case anyone else wants to comment.

In TVLine's yearly feature detailing the character deaths they found most tragic, S.W.A.T. made the list in 2021 because of Erika's death in this episode. Here's what TVLine said about Erika's death:

Now, I've spilled a lot of ink already saying how poor a story choice it was for Erika to die, since the show didn't build to it properly and discarded her character rather cheaply, I'd say. So I won't waste your time rehashing those arguments, which would be the same ones I would use to voice my disagreement with TVLine for its assessment. Really, the only gut punch I felt with regards to Erika's death were the missed opportunities.

It seemed to me like Erika's death was mostly about forcing an epiphany for Chris and Street.  

Erika was a minor character, and her only significant relationship on the show was with Chris. The show did a nice job of showing her as an ambitious young officer with a lot of goals in her job and personal life.  She was excited about getting a new place with Chris and had just met a new guy.  It is a tragedy of a very untimely loss and also a reminder that it could happen to anyone on the team.

I think that it would be interesting if they showed how the death of Erika impacts the team one year later.  

Edited April 2, 2022 by nittany cougar