(1/2) hey! id love to hear your thoughts on a few things! we saw sonny's cynicism kinda come out about yesterday, and we know that the law door has kinda been opened for him. theres also been talk about how barba is in danger because his main writer left. do you think the writers would actually get rid of barba and have sonny take over his place? i cant imagine them killing one of the most popular characters on the show, but at the same time they did get rid of nearly all of the original cast...
I truly don’t think the writers are thinking that far ahead, unfortunately. Not for Sonny, and not for Barba. Regarding Sonny’s future, in a recent interview, Peter said “Honestly, I'm not really sure” and they’re currenty working on episode 14, so I’m assuming nothing concrete will have happened until that point. That said, Barba apparently has a “secret”, so I have some hope something interesting might be coming up for him.
As for Barba leaving, I wish I knew more about the duration of Raul’s contact, but I believe that Barba’s fate will simply be determined by that and/or Raul’s wishes at the end of the season. If he wants to stay on, no problem. If he wants to leave, Barba will leave (alive, hopefully).
If that does happen, the show will either have to get a new ADA, or (theoretically) shift Sonny into that position, and get a new detective. Same difference. Again, theoretically, it might be more interesting to have Sonny changing jobs, because that gives him a built-in character arc (former cop navigates life as a prosecutor), plus the squad gets a new member and they all have to work on establishing a new dynamic. Practically, though, it might be easier to hire a new actor to appear as an ADA, with limited appearances and no personal arc.
Barba’s popularity won’t matter, in my opinion. Raul has been with the show for many years now, and I feel he is the one who will ultimately decide. i mean, I don’t think he’ll get fired. Replaced just for the sake of being replaced. He appears to be well liked by his colleagues and (I assume) the writers/EPs, and I can’t imagine he’s particularly expensive, you know? Also, going by the fact Dodds still hasn’t been replaced, it seems that the current writers aren’t big on bringing in new people (because that would require the creation of an actual personality, maybe), so why get rid of Barba? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
The way I see it, the only way Barba will leave is if Raul wants to leave. And I have no way of knowing his intentions.
