#h50 rant

Like she’s so badly and pointlessly sidelined in seasons 2 and 3 (and 4 but maternity leave) in favour of the white women hoped to be regular/regular. And she barely interacts with them one on one. Her plot lines feel like they are allll about Adam from late season 2 onwards. Sigh.

It’s so ironic that the best interactions between female characters are between the non-white female cast members of later seasons (especially 10) as later seasons fail at balancing the larger ensemble as a general rule. Yet do better with female characters interacting. Which says a lot.

fans are allowed to have opinions! there’s a reason we are called “fans,” from the word “fanatic,” because we don’t just watch a show or a movie or read a book and enjoy it, we have opinions, ideas, thoughts!! there is also no right way to be a fan.

you dont get to tell me that i shouldn’t criticize the show i like! i can criticize without offering a solution because it’s not my job to offer a solution! i have opinions, and sometimes they suck and you don’t agree with them, but it’s not my job to fix everything??? 

and for the record, as much as i criticize, i also praise! i love h50, i like the characters, so much so that i write fanfiction and meta and headcanons and i have a damn fan account. if i sit here and write my opinion and it isn’t tied together with a solution or a fix-it, there’s literally nothing wrong with that!

stop telling people how to be a fan! there’s no right way! as long as we are respectful of others and we don’t spew out hate, there’s literally nothing wrong.

(i don’t like cath, i’m not a huge rachel fan, and i criticize lenkov, but i dont hate them! i acknowledge that cath had an important role, she has had some great moments; i acknowledge that rachel is super important, i actually really like her character!! lenkov has written some great stuff, too. i dont like some things and i verbally criticize it, but i don’t do it out of hate!! i do it out of love for my favorite television shows or movies or books, because i care and i care so much that i have an opinion! and an opinion doesn’t necessarily mean a solution, they are not comorbid!)

don’t let anyone tell you how to be a fan or how to express your opinion; just be respectful and say what you want without being hateful! you are allowed to simply not like a character or a pairing, but don’t force others to do the same, and don’t force people to give a reason! there’s no linear, simple way to be a fan!! just be respectful and that’s it!!

i dont expect everyone to love my opinions, if you don’t like it, then scroll past it and move on???? and if you like it, tell me, rb or add a comment!!! if you can’t handle the way i express my opinion...... leave??? its as simple as that. don’t let anyone tell you how to be a fan, period. 

fuck it, here’s my two cents. 

last night’s episode, as well as last week’s, had so much potential. first of all, if you think it’s purely coincidental that cath was in last week’s episode and then this week’s episode had rachel, then you clearly have not been properly watching the show. it’s literally common knowledge that lenkov has his own heteronormative, fucked-up, toxic agenda for this show, and has been-- and will continue to be-- willing to sacrifice good writing, plot, and characterization for this agenda. if you don’t get that by now, then you need to open your eyes, because the proof is right in front of you. 

i’m gonna start with danny, and also rachel, and then steve, and then everyone else. 

the episode was not entirely bad, at all, actually. i will always beam with pride when scott caan comes on screen, because he is such a wonderful actor and this episode is further proof of that. he did a wonderful job, and i loved it. rachel’s character........ oof. i did like that danny did not hesitate to call her out on constantly lying to her, and i liked that despite it all, they stuck together, because grace is, after all, their daughter, and despite everything, they should stick together at a time like this.

what i didn’t appreciate was the contradictory parts of the episode??? the first half was danny calling rachel out on her shit, and then the last scene was them together away from everyone else, remembering their first date-- which, uh, so damn predictable, and such bad writing, wow-- and steve just standing there smiling???

really???? lenkov????? wyd man, because in season one when steve walked in on them together in the hospital, that face he made was not one of happiness. so you’re telling me, years later, after they split up again, and rachel lies to him about charlie, tries to take grace away, et cetera..... you’re telling me that steve is happy to see his best friend with his ex-wife all cozy and nostalgic???

if you don’t think lenkov has a steve/cath and danny/rachel end-game and agenda on his mind, then please help yourself, because it’s so painfully obvious.

moving onto steve....... i loved it, for the most part. didn’t like that smile at the end, but i did like everything else. i don’t like how they didn’t even half-assedly address the whole joe thing in the episode unless you squint and tilt your head. steve was definitely tired and was definitely not handling his grief so well (i mean, that scene with the dude in the car..... Big Oof, but it makes sense because Steve has been through a lot and he doesn’t give two shits anymore, he refuses to lose anyone else). to me it’s just weird that no one like.... checked up on him? no one asked to see if he was okay, especially because of what happened with joe and all of his old team, plus grace??? like i truly think that someone should be addressing this??? i know steve has a tendency to be closed off but seriously, i know his current teammates care about him, and no one even bothered to say “hey man, are you sure you’re okay?” like wow...... bad writing but whatever, go off. 

i did like the steve/danny moments, i love how much he cared and how determined he was, his i-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude when it came down to protecting grace. i love the scene where they’re both sitting on the floor, when danny says all that stuff to him.

on to the rest of the characters.... i truly and whole-heartedly believe that junior reigns and tani rey deserve so much more than the shitty writing and bad plotlines that lenkov has been giving them. i want to care, i truly do, but lenkov just doesn’t know how to find that balance, and i genuinely like junior and tani and lou, but they deserve so much more.

and that’s the thing, no? i feel like the over-all plot for this season.... well, there isn’t one, is there? i’ve said this before and i’ll say it again: each episode feels like a new show, there’s no one plot that’s weaving the episodes together. i mean, the last episode had literally zero connection to this one, and the greer thing ended in half a season? i feel like i’m watching like five different shows. there’s no coherent plot that i’m following along with, and it just sucks. 

i hate to say it, but the only reason i continue to watch the show is because i love the characters, and i mean that broadly. i love danny, hate the sudden out-of-character-ness that happened in the last few minutes of the episode. i love steve, but i feel like his character isn’t so well-rounded and consistent. i love tani, junior and lou, but they barely get any good screentime and they don’t have any good plot/story attached to them. also i’m not fully understanding why adam is still there??? how is he allowed to have a badge??? what purpose does his character serve??? also side note i have a crush on noelani, anyways.....

my point is, the show is getting harder and harder to watch. the bad writing is just so hard to ignore, the shitty plot-line and lack of a coherent and continuous story-line is terrible, the mischaracterization is even worse. lenkov only cares about cath and rachel and attempts to give them a redemption arc but it all blows up in his face because he contradicts himself half the time? and this episode, along with the last episode, had so much potential! they weren’t bad, but they had the potential to be so much more. i’m not gonna stop watching the show, but i genuinely don’t anticipate it getting better, and i wouldn’t be surprised if the show got cancelled. it’s so hard to follow, and it’s getting worse. i love h50 and i love my favorite characters, but they’re sitting on so much unused potential that will never get used because lenkov will never shift from his antiquated, heteronormative, and dumb agenda. it’s truly sad, and the show deserves more.

(this rant doesn’t really have to do with what could be fixed, like im not here to talk about the potential and what should have been done-- for the most part, at least. but if you wanna hear my opinion on that, or on anything else, don’t hesitate to ask.)