#l&o revival discourse

[sonnet77]

Totally agree, more thoughts under the cut

I’m constantly just sighing loudly at the screen when watching these episodes then i go back to any other season before 21 and the realization is whiplash. i want to like and root for the adas I really do, but... they need some work, writing is just making everyone subpar and it's not the actors' fault. you make a valid point, Nolan is lucky and the best in another antithetical universe’s meaning of the word bc with his reluctance and lack of drive to be a prosecutor, there’s no way he should be getting all these guilty verdicts. sometimes when i watch, i'm like, let 'em loooose. I can see how they’re trying for conflict or the chance at conflict with Nolan’s background. (If I recall correctly wasn’t Jamie a defense attorney before joining the DA’s office?)

“it’s like the writers can’t tell the difference between nuanced perspective disagreement and just constant contrarianism”  💯 💯 There were tons of instances of disagreements between prior detectives, pairs, bosses, (and even conversations with the defense attorneys). They were handled more realistically and left you still appreciating the characters as a whole. I remember hearing once (I think from an interview from some of the actors) that one of reasons L&O was compelling and iconic to be apart of was the fact it allowed that dialogue for conflict to be present in cases and verdicts and to have those discussions about things reflecting real life. of course, the catch is someone has to write them that way. we're missing it rn.

[also thank you for the gif of abbie, she is the only one who can capture that specific energy ]

my current summary of how the l&o revival eps go

Sam: It's murder 2 Jack: Charge murder 2 Nolan: *whining* Aw come on, do I have to ?

And I saw that episode where Nolan had the AUDACITY to say he was the best? prosecutor? in the DA's office?

[ insert abbie carmichael reaction gif here ]

[negative comments about the l&o revival and in particular nolan price ahead—gonna start tagging these #l&o revival critical and #character name critical if anyone wants to blacklist. general l&o opinions will be tagged #l&o discourse. i won't tag #law and order or #character name bc i don't want criticism of the show or characters to go into their general tags on the site. i will put this in a new nav post sometime soon lol.]

LMAOOOO LITERALLY THAT'S HOW IT GOES EVERY TIME

i mean maybe nolan does have a point about being the "best" prosecutor because for someone who is that bad of an attorney he sure does keep managing to get guilty verdicts somehow??? then i suppose it's less the "best" prosecutor and more the luckiest lmaoooo

like i get the decision to make him a former defense attorney just to change it up, but that background can't get so in the way of him doing his job that he shows massive resistance literally any time he's asked to prosecute anyone, since, y'know, he is by definition a prosecutor. it's like the writers can't tell the difference between nuanced perspective disagreement and just constant contrarianism. imo, there have been so many characters in the series who had conflicting opinions with the lead prosecutor but they didn't completely let it get in the way of doing their job, it just introduced a more complicated perspective on the cases they were dealing with (claire, jamie, serena, alex borgia, and connie all come to mind!). i wish we still had some of that—that's one of the main reasons i found the original l&o so compelling.

if nolan's so against prosecuting anyone, why in the world would he become a prosecutor in the first place? (except of course he's full steam ahead as soon as it's a case that he literally wouldn't have jurisdiction over/affects him personally. it's so easy for him to make excuses until it's the cases that he was directly involved in.)

and you're so right, no one can convey my feelings but abbie and her eyerolls!!!!!

[yourpixieandbuddy]

Rate (or roast or recommend) My Personal Library

my hope for 2025 is to review and read a book a week…this first week is coming to a close and naturally i have yet to open a book but maybe we’ll slide just one in. all less than savory reads will be donated to my free library on my street 📚

i lost all my personal books i collected over the last fifteen years in an emergency move last summer, so judge lightly

The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Martyr! - Kaveh Akbar

Little Miss Sunshine: The Shooting Script - Michael Arendt

The Handmaid’s tale - Margaret Atwood

Tuck Everlasting - Natalie Babbitt

New Animal - Ella Baxter

Sleepwalk With Me + Other Painfully True Stories - Mike Birbiglia

The New One: Painfully True Stories From A Reluctant Dad - Mike Birbiglia

Someone Who Will Love You In All Your Damaged Glory - Raphael Bob-Waksberg

World Travel: An Irreverent Guide- Anthony Bourdain

Grace - Daphne A. Brooks

Graffiti (And Other Poems) - Savannah Brown

Closer Baby Closer - Savannah Brown

Love is a Dog From Hell - Charles Bukowski

On Cats - Charles Bukowski

Molly - Blake Butler

Create Dangerously: The Power and Responsibility of the Artist - Albert Camus

Breakfast at Tiffany’s - Truman Capote

To Photograph Is To Learn How To Die - Tim Carpenter

Lewis Carroll’s Guide For Insomniacs - Lewis Carroll

The Awakening and Selected Stories - Kate Chopin

The Alchemist - Paulo Choelho

700 Sundays - Billy Crystal

The Year of Magickal Thinking - Joan Didion

Slouching Towards Bethlehem - Joan Didion

Notes From The Underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky

Crime And Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Wild Things - Dave Eggers

Disrupting The Game - Reggie Fils-Aime

The Interpretation of Dreams - Sigmund Freud

The Book of Delights - Ross Gay

The Anthropocene Reviewed - John Green

The Cult of Trump - Steven Hassan

People We Meet On Vacation - Emily Henry

The Twilight World - Werner Herzog

The Christmas Thief - Mary Higgins Clark

Open Throat - Henry Hoke

The Odyssey - Homer

The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson

No One Belongs Here More Than You - Miranda July

The Metamorphosis and Other Stories - Franz Kafka

The Trial - Franz Kafka

Girl, Interrupted - Susanna Kaysen

Book of Dreams - Jack Kerouac

Newspaper Blackout - Austin Kleon

Lady Chatterley’s Lover - D.H. Lawrence

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West - Gregory Maguire

From The Basement - Taylor Makarian

Wooly: The True Story of the Quest to Revive History’s Most Iconic Extinct Creatue - Ben Mezrich

Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller

Tropic of Capricorn - Henry Miller

Big Little Lies - Liane Moriarty

My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh

Memoirs - Pablo Neruda

Fifty Beasts To Break Your Heart and Other Stories - Gennarose Nethercott

The Birth of Tragedy and Case of Wagner - Friedrich Nietzsche

The Twilight of the Idols/Anti-Christ - Freidrich Nietzsche

Zarathustra’s Discourse - Friedrich Nietzsche

The Vulnerables - Sigrid Nunez

Haunted - Chuck Palahniuk

Lullaby - Chuck Palahniuk

A Bathroom Book For People Not Pooping or Peeing But Using The Bathroom As An Escape - Joe Pera

The First Rule Of Punk - Celia C. Perez

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Land That Time Forgot - Edgar Rice Borroughs

Another Roadside Attraction - Tom Robbins

Normal People - Sally Rooney

Franny and Zooey - J.D. Salinger

Nine Stories - J.D. Salinger

The Devil In Massachusetts - Marion L. Satarkey

The Woman In Me - Britney Spears

Little Astronaut - Hope J. Stein

Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer - Patrick Susking

Strange Tales From A Strange Time: Gonzo Papers, Vol 1: The Great Shark Hunt - Hunter S. Thompson

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas: A Savage Journey To The Heart of the American Dream - Hunter S. Thompson

Galapagos - Kurt Vonnegut

The Time Machine - H.G. Wells

John Dies In The End - David Wong

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin

The Private Lives of Adam and Eve - Albert Zugsmith

for reading tax here’s some images of my library/office space 💓📚

[shoeshineyboy]

A, C, E, M, O, Q?

A - Your current OTP(s)/OT3(s)/OTX(s) I am a Blackbonnet Everything right now I live and breathe Ed and Stede

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will (be nice) Franmaya, aka AA2's answer to "pair the spares" <3

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom, if so, what Phoenix Wright L meme, the TGS 2018 alignment chart, reviving Kristoph discourse, and I was partly involved in the discussion resulting in the Klavier Disociates to the Offspring video

M - Say something genuinely nice about a ship that you don’t ship (or its shippers, or anything related to you) Franmaya shippers I will give you this. the way you guys write them as a background ship is phenomenal.

O - Choose a song at random, which ship or character does it remind you of I got 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot' by Pat Benatar and look it's hardcore. kinda sexy. very sexy actually. it's a Jim/Jackie song

Q - A ship you’ve abandoned and why Blackmadhi, I liked it because it was like. the Blackquill ship of the time. but fuck it I do Not Like Nahyuta. I don't. I never have. I'm done faking it now. if I was gonna put Blackquill with anyone now it's Klavier

[unluckyoscthoughts]

ok bitch here I am. also for fucks sake i am gonna call it a drama if every member of the osc is fucking arguing about it.

all your doing is spreading the discourse dude. ur like one of those people who “hate drama” but also always cause it

And again, racism isn't drama my nigga idk why this is so hard to grasp for you

Not sure what's w yall and INSISTING that black people can't be upset at stuff

I can't believe I actually have to explain to you how racism isn't drama, are you braindead?

Remind you, T A Y L O R revived the entire situation after seven fucking months. He made a dumbass video ""explaining"" why he was wrongfully fired[he wasn't but sure] and ur surprised that I'm mad that a creator who's show I liked was supporting it? Do you lack the basic thinking skills to go "ykno what, maybe the oppressed group is allowed to be upset about this" going by ur last ask you clearly are :p

Now are you gonna let the black people let their voices be heard or are you gonna continue being part of the problem you stupid little bitch

[sonnet77]

Re: your impeccable review 

I thought the same thing about the FBI, why wasn't there the typical canon conflict between feds and state or even a mention of the related offices like you said for some realism to the nature of this case? I mean there were FBI agents at the freaking house working in the background, why even have them there then?!

I loved that Sam Waterston had more screen time and lines. I like that they got his real daughter to be on the show and act in the role. but her character omg, i feel it's not even close to being in Mccoy's bloodline as a lawyer with her obvious ignoring of the law and teary eyed pleading in her role as defense attorney and response to Jack when losing the case. also, as @connie-rubirosa already brought up, she's a lawyer and nobody heard about this before? Jack would be telling everyone that since she was in law school, come on.  (and even Jack didn't know she's trying murder cases now?)

the "damn you" at the ending from Rebecca just played weird for me, too soap opera like, and ugh seems so overt without any real justification. the writers didn't offer anything to make that anger/ hurt more believable. the emotional absence and Jack's focus on work is the most plausible relationship strain, as you said, but why is there so much hostility from Rebecca when what we last heard from S18 - 20 was that they were on better terms.

Nolan's past traumatic experience was an obvious bias, so I don't think he really should've even been trying the case in the first place. then he needs a recess due to his own emotional reaction and goes further downhill. where is the basic premise of we only look at the case and the law and we prosecute? This caselaw was cut and dry. then they write Nolan to fail to even have a reality check on how much he's failing at doing his job with his clouded judgement. I thought Sam should've stepped in and finished the trial, if he couldn't handle it. trauma is completely valid but Nolan should be able to compartmentalize something at his job or know to step away from the case.

Price's cross examinations are weak, imo and never point out obvious facts from the case that establish intent, guilt and obvious support of the prosecution's charge. I'm always talking to the screen, now saying, are you going to mention this Nolan?  the video about coming back for the car, and the lake bit weren't even brought up! The summations or lack thereof on the revival is so disappointing. those strong thoughtful closing arguments are where key points can be made.

Like what you wrote!! all of it was so great, and those dialogue bits got me missing Michael Cutter tenfold!!!!

For all TWO (maybe THREE) of you in the Law & Order fandom.

A review of Law & Order, Season 22, episode 22...

This episode left me absolutely frustrated.

We got a manhunt, a red herring, and a chase in the first 20 minutes!

I feel like the assassination of a United States Senator was, again, way too big for the show. You'd think the FBI would be involved? I mean, even Jack and the NYPD Commissioner being on the phone with the US Attorney General would have been NICE, maybe having a bit of an argument about jursidiction would have helped.

I was skeptical about the cop-half being done in 20 minutes and… my skepticism was right.

Things I can appreciate: The increased screentime for Sam Waterston, who was allowed to show his acting chops this particular episode. He did a hell of a job as usual. The pain on Jack's face was palpable at the end.

The casting of Katherine Waterston as his daughter? Also really appreciate.

It's hard saying who this episode was written for becaause, unless you watched the series prior to the revival, and followed Jack's life through the bits of info that were peppered in, the hostility between the McCoys was too implicit? What we know about Jack is: While he certainly wasn't abusive like his own father, he probably wasn't as involved or emotionally available as a parent because he was so career-driven (and let's not forget the three other relationships he had with his assistants that did not lead to marriage). This was probably severely exacerbated when Jack and Ellen got divorced. Could I see Jack absolutely prioritizing a case over his daughter's dance recital or soccer game? Yeah. And let's be real, I'd imagine the types of cases Jack handled probably wore him out emotionally as well.

So, I loved the acting and conflict between the McCoys and the Waterstons did a great job ACTING. But the writing…

First of all, I cannot suspend my disbelief that Rebecca would talk to Jack and ASK Jack for a favor regarding a case where they are on opposite sides. Okay, Jack McCoy was not the paragon of good and ethical behavior, but he's the DA now. Her going through Price? Yeah, I think that's fine. Second, why would she think her dad would cut her any kind of break in this case. A UNITED STATES SENATOR WAS ASSASSINATED?! Her anger at her own father really clouded her legal judgment. I was really kind of hoping for an "Under the Influence" moment where she realizes just how ineffectual she was and ask for a mistrial or something. But nope.

Second of all, Price needs to be fired. That Man 1 Plea would have gotten Jack tossed from office so fast. If your legal judgment is clouded for personal reasons because you witnessed the immediate aftermath of a mass shooting… maybe you shouldn't be prosecuting the case (I miss Cutter).

What's frustrating is this episode had a real chance to be good and the acting was great. It's just the writing, like the entirety of this revival, has rarely ever matched the level of the acting the cast can bring.

I got SO frustrated while watching this episode I started writing snippets of dialogue about how Michael Cutter would've handled this case in Discord DMs with my best friend (we watch the show as it airs).

Jack & Mike talking after arraignment.

Cutter: Has your daughter talked to you about the case? Jack: … Cutter: Jack, I gotta subpoena you. Jack: What the hell are you talking about? Cutter: If she approached you, ex parte for anything, that shows a conflict of interest in this case and it's easier to remove her as a defense attorney than argue for a change of venue.

Now let's say that didn't working and the hearing goes against the state, Mike and Rebecca talking in the court after the judge has ruled.

Rebecca: What the hell are you doing, Cutter? Cutter: Trying to protect your father. Seems to be I'm the only one trying around here. *walks away*

Cutter cross-examining Quinn. Yes, this is badgering but that's like… normal for the show.

Cutter: You weren't in your right mind? Why did you turn to run? Quinn: I don't know. Cutter: Why did you run to the park, then change direction and blend into the city? Quinn: I don't know. Cutter: Why did you wait the night to come back, when no one was around, for your car? *plays video* Quinn: I don't know! Cutter: *Pauses video of him getting into car* Looks to me like you knew exactly what were you to try to evade capture. Quinn: I STILL GOT CAUGHT! Cutter: Only because you're not a pro. But isn't that the point, Mr. Quinn. That these weapons *holds up gun* can make even the most amateur individual an assassin? Isn't this what you fought against? Isn't this why you became a gun control activist? Rebecca: OBJECTION Cutter: Withdrawn! Nothing further.

Cutter's closing argument, partial.

Cutter: Mr. Quinn's anger is justified, yes. His trauma is valid, yes. But that doesn't not give him the right to kill someone in cold blood. At the end of the day, he was an angry man. Angry at the world. Angry at that the society that wronged and failed him. Valid feelings or not… isn't this the basic motivation of every mass shooter the last 30 years. Isn't this what Mr. Quinn's crusade as a gun control activist supposed to stop? I can't think of any bigger perversion of one's crusade than becoming what you fight against. You can have empathy, for Mr. Quinn. You can sympathize for him and regret the pain he feels. You can feel angry at the government, at society, at the NRA. But what about empathy for Senator Chandler's family. His daughter? Who saw her father gunned down… at her own wedding. Are we supposed to ignore the pain of the victims? Mr. Quinn certainly felt people were ignoring his pain, like many mass shooters have… and like many mass shooters, he turned outward and inflicted it on everyone else. And that… is not diminished capacity. That is not mental defect. That is not, "I don't know." This was planned. He had time to think about it. To realize his own anger might make him do something terrible… and still went ahead with it. And tried to hide after he killed a man in front of his own daughter. That's murder, plain and simple.

[yandere--stuck]

Could you bless us with some yan.Kankri? Maybe with a Human s/o?

Kankri fought back a snarl, his eyes were like flames as he glared down the illuminated screen. His eyes roamed over the text on screen. It was almost funny, in a sick way. Kanlri had found he was right all along - much like Beforus, Earth C was no paradise planet. No such thing existed, or could ever exist. No planet, no universe, in fact, was without it's strife, it's bigotry, it's hardships. And Kankri had the evidence all typed out in black and white.

The troll jad to refrain from digging his claws into his keyboard, possibly breaking it. But, it was so, so hard to quell his rage. 

Kankri had looked around online not long after being revived, along with his friends, on Earth C. He had found multiple forums specifically for the troll populace of the planet. It was a rather casual place - mostly-for planning meetups, finding friends, talking about various interests. Despite engaging in some discourse and debates with other users, Kankri attempted to keep conversation and interaction light-hearted and not so long-winded, something you had suggested. You had said it might make him feel less tense and would help him with his suppressed anger. 

And, of course, you were right. You were always right. Just thinking about you made Kankri's anger momentarily disappear from his mind, filling him with warmth and making his bloodpusher flutter.

But, then Kanlri remembered… Remembered when he had logged on one day to find new, odd threat at the top of the forums. 

"Troll/Hum^n Couples???" Was the title.

Kankri frowned, one eyebrow quirking up at the odd title. But, he couldn't resist the curiosity within him.

"So I've been noticing ^ trend l^tely… Wh^ts the de^l with trolls and hum^ns getting together as m^tesprits,,, if they even use qu^dr^nts ^t ^ll… like… things were so much … less complic^ted before our gods and their d^ncestors returned… like… K^rk^t's d^ncestor h^nging ^round with th^t hum^n,,, letting them live ^t his hive and seeming re^lly close with them… idk it just seems… kind^ gross to me??? Like… i dont H^TE hum^ns or ^nything but i definitely wouldnt be in ^ qu^dr^nt with one… theres nothing WRONG with them but,,, still. I think our species should just st^y with our own kind. Idk,,, ^nyone else sh^re my view???"

Kankri's eyes widened in horror and rage as he read the post, then scrolled down to the comments to find that a majority of commenters had agreed with the original post. How… How dare they?! There was nothing wrong with humans and trolls finding love! And to use you and him as examples? Kankri's lips pulled back to bare his teeth at his computer screen.

He then noticed how some commenters seemed to specific focus on the mention of you and he - how they couldn't understand what he saw in you, how… How you didn't DESERVE him…

Just the memory of seeing such a horrendous thing made Kankri choke out a roar, slamming his clenched fist against the tabletop. The troll growled lowly in his throat, taking in deep breaths.

And after reading that post - that's when it all clicks for him. Why you had talked to him about feeling insecure, as though you didn't deserve to be with him, like he deserved better. Had you gotten wind of such comments, thinking yourself unworthy of his love?

The thought made Kankri so, so angry…

He had sworn celibacy for as long as he could remember… But, now he knew that it could go on no longer. He needed to prove to you just how much he loved you, how red he felt for you, how you were his one and only, his everything, his destined matesprit.

The troll turned off his computer, before stepping away from his computer. He crossed the room, standing above the bed he had ordered just for you, in order to make sleeping more comfortable than it would be in a shared recuperacoon.

He marvelled at your peaceful, smiling face - not even disturbed by the ropes he had tied around your wrists and ankles, anchoring you to the bed posts. 

Kankri had had a feeling you would feel unworthy of his affections, rejecting his advancements and his want to break his vow of celibacy for you out of insecurity. This was, you'd have no way of escaping his love!

Kankri hummed contentedly, cupping and stroking the side of your face with a hand, staring down at you adoringly.

He couldn't wait… He was becoming so giddy at the thought - the thought of marking you as his, showing you and the entire world just how much he loved you and how worthy you were of his love. You simply had no choice but to be loved!

A wide grin split Kankri's lips.

He couldn't wait.

[writemarcus]

Black, Queer, and Here

In a post-‘Moonlight’ world, writers like Michael R. Jackson and Jeremy O. Harris are making the case for LGBTQ stories that go beyond the gay white experience.

BY MARCUS SCOTT

Last month, when Michael R. Jackson’s A Strange Loop earned unanimous praise upon opening at Playwrights Horizons, it was a pivotal moment for me as a spectator. As someone who is also a Black, gay, musical theatre writer, I saw myself and my story onstage for the first time. I guffawed, clapped my hands, snapped along, celebrated the pageantry of Black excellence, and even teared up a bit during the play’s climax.

For the first time I didn’t have to undertake the mental gymnastics all marginalized people are basically required to do once they enter the theatre; to empathize with the white, often male protagonist as default. Not to mention, there was additional apprehension. Any time I saw a story centered on LGBTQ characters, I could usually predict what I was getting myself into: either comedic NutraSweet schmaltz with heart, or a maudlin tragedy where happy endings are laughable and everyone dies in the end.

But this was different. Led by a colossal, virtuoso performance from Larry Owens—not to mention anchored by an all-Black, all-queer ensemble of multitalented, triple-threat featured players—A Strange Loop (now extended through July 28) is a singular, seminal Bildungsroman that casts a subversive, critical third eye on both mainstream and nether regions of the Black gay American experience that had not been shown before.

The show follows Usher (Owens), a young, NYU-educated, overweight Black gay man working as an usher at a long-running Broadway musical and struggling to write a musical about a young, NYU-educated, overweight Black gay man working as an usher at a long-running Broadway musical and struggling to write a musical (hence the loop in the title). A Strange Loop is a visceral, soulful, psychosexual panoramic pièce de résistance that may just be the most radical Off-Broadway musical of its kind. Contextualizing everything from #MeToo, Moonlight, Tyler Perry, Stephen Sondheim’s Company, and second wave feminism, Jackson’s show is a potpourri of popular culture, existentialism, and metafiction—a dazzling coming-of-age artistic journey of self-discovery.

My sentiments for the show have been shared. In a post-show talkback on June 19, “Pose” star Billy Porter joined Jackson, choreographer Raja Feather Kelly, and playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins onstage to discuss the musical. The event, which was attended by top names in the theatre community (such as Lin-Manuel Miranda), was presented by Ucross, a prestigious residency program in northeast Wyoming. Porter choked back tears as he began the panel: “To sit up there and see my life onstage, when everybody said that my story wasn’t valid—to see that up there, to see it so brave, and to see it so bold. To see it so truthful, so complicated, so honest, and so unapologetic, has been one of the most wonderful nights for me in the theatre.”

Over the course of the 2018-19 season, I saw 100 shows, and few of them affected me like Jackson’s musical. None of those other shows centered on queer bodies of color. In all fairness, it’s not like a lot of theatres are producing plays by or about queer people of color. And when they do, it’s sanitized, ambiguous, and not complex—for example, Celie and Shug’s neutered romance in The Color Purple.

Earlier this year, in a lively panel about the state of the American play (copresented by American Theatre and Signature Theatre), playwright and director Robert O’Hara wryly offered some insight into the queer POC experience in American theatre. Speaking about the 2017-18 season, O’Hara pondered the state of Broadway, which was littered with prestige London transfers or star-driven assembly line revivals of treasured classics. But he also noticed a third trend: “the amount of gay white men we have on Broadway this year.” Naming Angels in America, The Boys in the Band, and Torch Song, all of which were written by white gay men, O’Hara remarked, “There’s too many white gay people, particularly white gay men and their struggle being white and gay and male. Do we really need that many conversations? To some people, that’s diversity. But to me, that’s just more white folks onstage.”  

Though theatre prides itself on being a space for outcasts, and most of its preeminent artists are gay men, their visibility often comes at the expense of other members of the LGBTQ community. In the theatre, LGBTQ plays have often centered solely on the experience of gay white cis-men and (only recently) cis-women, while people of color war in the margins for mainstream acclaim.

Whether it’s about the gay civil rights movement (Mart Crowley’s seminal The Boys In The Band, Dustin Lance Black’s 8), the HIV/AIDS epidemic (Larry Kramer’s definitive The Normal Heart, Tony Kushner’s iconic Angels in America, William Finn’s neurotic Falsettos) or communal inherited trauma (Moisés Kaufman’s triumphant docudrama The Laramie Project, Matthew Lopez’s Broadway-bound The Inheritance), gay white men have dominated queer stories, creating nuanced characters and becoming the epicenter of the narratives of LGBTQ culture.

Openly gay Black artists like O’Hara and George C. Wolfe have created work about Black queer life over three decades, but their numbers were fewer and far between. The difference now is the sheer volume of diverse queer voices. Some are even calling it a renaissance.

I trace it to the film Moonlight. Released in 2016 to universal acclaim under the helm of director Barry Jenkins, and based on Tarell Alvin McCraney’s unpublished semi-autobiographical play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, Moonlight became the first film with an all-Black cast and the first LGBTQ film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. The victory was a watershed moment in popular culture, sparking public interest in Black art and queer stories.

Ever since, queer Black theatre artists have begun to storm the proverbial tower in droves: McCraney recently returned to Steppenwolf in Chicago with Ms. Blakk For President, and his Choir Boy had an acclaimed run on Broadway after making the rounds of the nation’s regional theatres. Donja R. Love, an HIV-positive gay Black playwright, saw the world premieres of his queer period dramas Sugar in Our Wounds and Fireflies. Jordan Cooper’s Ain’t No Mo earned an extended and lauded run Off-Broadway at the Public Theater. Hailed as “The Queer Black Savior the Theater World Needs” by Out magazine, Jeremy O. Harris became a literary sensation and enfant terrible of the theatre world after Slave Play and Daddy had their world premieres this past season (Slave Play will transfer to Broadway in September).

What makes these plays radical is their candor, addressing the audience with frank depictions of queer Black life. Most importantly, these are plays that are creating discourse on what artist Lora Mathis calls radical softness, or “the idea that unapologetically sharing your emotions is a political move and a way to combat the societal idea that feelings are a sign of weakness.” In one of the most pivotal scenes in Choir Boy, one of the boys chooses an a cappella rendition of “Love Ballad” (originally by Jeffrey Osborne of L.T.D.) to express his love for another boy, but imagination ends up being the closest he’ll ever get to confessing his feelings. In Sugar in Our Wounds, an enslaved man offers another reading lessons, but the subtext is that of romantic yearning. In Slave Play, an interracial gay couple undergo therapy, in an effort to reconnect. These writers subvert and comment on the oppressive systems that affect disenfranchised and marginalized people without attacking or distancing mainstream audiences.

Not to mention the playwrights who identify as queer but whose plays aren’t chiefly about LGBTQ life: Colman Domingo (Dot), Marcus Gardley (The House That Will Not Stand), Jonathan Norton (My Tidy List of Terrors), Timothy DuWhite (Neptune), Keelay Gipson (#NewSlaves), Korde Arrington Tuttle (clarity), Jirèh Breon Holder (Too Heavy for Your Pocket) and Derek Lee McPhatter (Bring the Beat Back). Chief among these is Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, who was listed among the Top 20 Most-Produced Playwrights of 2018-2019 and has been honored as a two-time finalist for the 2016 and 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, respectively.

As writer-activist Darnell L. Moore noted on Twitter: “In the past few months, I’ve witnessed displays of brilliance—Black queer men who have created theatrical works that dig into the complex interior lives of Black characters. Their works disrupt & reimagine all we believe to be true about the limits of Blackness, of gender. They poke at the grounds of Black radical politics by illuminating how the freedom dreams conjured by some of the Blacks often function as nightmares for some others—trans folk, queers, drag queens, the not-respectable. They remind us about the futility of white liberalism. They refuse the white gaze.” He characterized these plays as “Black folks-loving art works” which “preach and sing and lament and celebrate and bear witness and take up arms and push and pull us.”

At the same time, Moore does wonder “how these works might be received if the creators and/or main actors weren’t Black gay men.” He has a point: Queer women, trans, or gender non-binary writers still struggle to be seen, with only a few receiving recognition such as Aziza Barnes (BLKS), Tanya Barfield (Bright Half Life), Tracey Scott Wilson (Buzzer), Nissy Aya (righteous kill, a requiem), and Ianne Fields Stewart (A Complicated Woman).

While many Black artists are generating work that are nuanced and empowering, and even dissecting of the white gaze, there are still just as many works that default towards “enterpainment.” Coined by playwright Aurin Squire in his play Zoohouse, “enterpainment” is a trope that calls for historically oppressed people to be forced into situations where they must put their suffering and victimhood on display for the education and edification of the masses. This exercise in emotional masochism has been at the forefront of many Black plays, with this trope being weaponized and commodified. Many Black characters in general are defined by their pain, and in plays that center on LGBTQ people of color, too often that pain is doubled because of their race and sexual orientation.

The “bury your gays” stereotype is still very much the norm for these plays, including some of the ones mentioned above. For example, in Donja R. Love’s Fireflies, the protagonist is a woman who clings to the memory of the woman she loved who was horribly murdered in the streets. The main character in Chisa Hutchinson’s She Like Girls is a 16-year-old lesbian who is shot and killed at the climax of the play.

Most stories featuring queer characters of color forefront the atrocities that inherently arise from the stigmatization of one’s sexual agency and one’s race. Rather than showcasing the beauty within the full expression of queerness—such as falling in love or (in A Strange Loop) standing up to your parents—too often writers are defaulting to trauma.

But this is part of a larger issue: that of Black artists working within a primarily white system who feel they must commodify their pain for white consumption. And of white producers not feeling like they’re able to challenge artists of color to look deeper, of them thinking of these artists as a single diversity slot or purveyor of issue plays, instead of artists whose careers and ideas need to be invested in. At the live event, Robert O’Hara had some advice for white producers: “You have to be able to live inside the power and the privilege that you have, and also continue to demand the rigor, intellect, and dexterity that the work requires so that it does not just become a play but a [major stepping stone for a] career.”

Recently I ran into Jackson at Musical Theatre Factory’s High Five, a gala hosted at Town Stages; he was being honored that night. Before I could congratulate him, he kindly rebuffed. “There’s still work to be done,” he said as he was greeted by eager patrons and admirers. He’s not wrong. In 2017, Pew found that younger, non-white, and low-income people (lower middle-class people of color) were more likely to self-identify as LGBTQ than whites, debunking the myth that Blacks and Latinos are overwhelmingly homophobic.

Reality is more complex than we give it credit for. And considering that Broadway is in need of new musicals in it’s 2019-20 season, there really is nothing more topical than, to quote A Strange Loop, a “big, Black, and queer-ass Broadway show.”

Marcus Scott is a New York-based playwright, musical writer and journalist. He’s written for Elle, Essence, Out and Playbill, among other publications.

[cabriesun]

a lil discourse for your tea?

hi, hey what’s up? now i don’t usually discourse, as i’m a creator, and not a troll, or someone that doesn’t have a life outside of the ship wars in this fandom. but, since it’s been all over my dash, and i’m exhausted, i’d like to say something a bit neutral, from a multishipper’s point of view (aka all ships in shklance):

1. anyone can ship anything they want in or outside of canon because of a beautiful concept called free will. you cannot bend people to your will, so why bother fighting about it? it’s kinda, como se dice, redundant?

2. if you go on someone else’s page and harrass them about their ship, you are a harrasser. meaning you actively went out of your way to harrass that person. and if you’re happy with that, you’re beyond any point of humanity, tbh.

just be fucking nice. tumblr made blocking and filtering for a reason. if you really can’t be tolerant and kind, just use it.

3. do i even need to say anything about harrassing the creators and executives? leave them out of this! they gave us the very show you’re sending death threats over. they owe you literally nothing. 

4. and to anyone that thinks they’re some paragon of moral ity, righting the wrongs of people who just want to create content about their favorite characters? fuck you. like honestly, from the bottom of my heart, fuck you. who are you to say what’s right or wrong? you’re just like the people that said “no, an african amercian can’t vote,” or “no, a woman can’t work,” or “no, two people of the same sex can’t kiss”. deciding what’s right for everyone...l m f a o. CUTENESS! TRY AGAIN! i’m going to go out and vote, work, and kiss as many girls as i want to. and everyone else will operate under that same metality, including you, paragon of morality.

and with that, we will ship whatever the hell we want to.

ship and let ship, how about that for a change?

and since i’ve been told that most people with this logic aren’t even legal adults yet, im here to tel you to: - abide to your bedtime and - learn a bit about the world before telling people just a bit older than you how the world works.

because i promise you, 90% of the time, you’re wrong. my world? works different from yours. and everyone else’s too, matter o’ facto!

5. prob my last point, but, don’t force your headcanons on other people? they’re called headcanons for a reason. if you headcanon blood brothers sheith, then don’t try to tell people that ship them romantically that they’re wrong and they need to perish. because at the end of the day, all the stuff you’re spewing is a theory. theoretically, this is what you think. and you’re 100% entitled to that! but that doesn’t make what you’re saying concrete and canon. at the end of the day, you don’t decide that. joaquim dos santos and lauren montgomery do.

and that doesn’t just go for people that think shipping something is wrong because of x, y and z. that goes for the people that ship something romantically that someone thinks shouldn’t be! at the end of the day, nothing is canonically proven. nothing. and i don’t mean “but this person said this, so it’s implied--” naw naw relax with that. sit that ass back down, and chill the fuck out.

let. people. live.

as a major multishipper (like deadass, i would cry if sheith, klance allurance or shallura or anything turns out canon; i’m open to all interpertations of romance in this beloved show. i’ve shipped everything i’ve come to love, including lotura) i gotta say...yikes. lmfao like, are y’all good?

and i guess this ended up really being a message to antis, though i hope the fandom as a whole can take this into consideration. this is just my piece, and i’ve never put it out there and i wanted to. exercising free will... interesting, amirite?

i love this show, and i’ve met some of my closest friends through it. i love the characters, the producers for reviving such an incredible project, and i love the creativity showcased in every pocket of this fandom filled with beautiful people (uless of course, you go out of your way to hate on others).

love each other! :(

but this is just my piece; i’m a judge of what’s right or wrong either! this is just how i see it. why be so bitter? be happy with what you have. get off your computer. go outside. if your life centers what ships become canon, or what direction a TV goes in, the you don’t have a life i hope you find one.

now, imma sit in my “i love fucking everything” corner, and if y’all wanna join me, by all means!

and yes, i’m tagging this. didn’t write this whole essay and a half for thirty minutes for it to not be read. fuck that, lmao.

thanks for coming to my ted talk ;) come scream at me in my ask box about anything at any time, i dare you.

[connie-rubirosa]

"'nolan is conflicted' about the case. big surprise for a guy who never wants to do his job!"

... I have so many conflicted feelings on this episode. But let me assure you, when two certain scenes happened, I was thinking of this as I watching it.

It got to the point that I started writing full dialogue in DMs with my friend I watch the episodes with, imagining how Cutter would have handled some parts of this.

Glad Sam act alongside his daughter and do a fantastic job. But the writers... I don't know.

hahaha once again, he does not want to prosecute, despite somehow having been promoted to executive assistant district attorney.

i have a lot more to say on the writing of rebecca mccoy (will address in my reply to another ask from @sonnet77), but i'm guessing one of the scenes you're referencing is the conversation that nolan has with rebecca, where she's pleading with him to show leniency, and she references the subway shooting episode from the beginning of the season. just the fact that they even let that happen in an episode (*ahem* A DA CAN'T PROSECUTE A CRIME HE WAS A WITNESS TO!) is ludicrous, but that he also seems to be so willing to let it influence and color the way he does his job. nolan, my guy, my fella, my dude, your job by definition requires you to check your feelings at the door. it sucks. trauma is real, i get it. but in that case, RECUSE YOURSELF!!! DON'T TAKE A CASE YOU KNOW HITS TOO CLOSE TO HOME!!

not to mention the run-around logic of "oh this guy shot a senator bc his students were killed by gun violence" and then nolan makes no effort to argue that the law is not an eye-for-an-eye. at that point he should have just passed it onto maroun (like he did earlier this season in one episode so it's not unheard of for him, lol).

on the other hand, mike cutter wouldn't have even thought twice about prosecuting this guy. for a prosecutor it really shouldn't be that complicated; if anything it's extremely cut-and-dry legally. (lowkey i would love to see some of those dialogue snippets but i won't be offended if you want to keep them to yourself, haha)

ANYWAY... here i go back to minding my own business and watching the original series on repeat again!

[connie-rubirosa]

Did you see the revival finale with McCoy (and Waterston's real) daughter as the guest star?!! I'm just like 😬😬 How they brought her in and dealt with their relationship was honestly just disappointing.

[l&o revival critical comments ahead]

oh boy DID i see the finale..... [facepalm]

i agree with @valenshawke that it was nice seeing sam waterston act with his real-life daughter, but the writing was sub-par, to say the least. once again, i don't think any of these writers have that much familiarity with the established canon (not that the l&o-verse has ever been much for continuity), but i find it hard to believe that jack and rebecca went from starting to patch things up with that season 17 cameo to jack visiting her semi-regularly when she moved to california (we hear snippets of this in seasons 18-20), to now another ten years and they're back to having this extremely distant, adversarial relationship? not to mention the fact that we've been hearing about rebecca in passing for years and not once does jack ever mention that his only daughter is a lawyer, just like dear old dad. knowing jack, he would have been bragging about it all the time. what greater honor could he have?

rebecca herself is also presented as being ready and willing to abuse her connections to help her client, which on the one had i understand that as a defense attorney, you do what you have to do to help a client. but on the other, do you expect me to believe that the only child of JACK McCOY genuinely thinks that pleading to him because "he's her dad" to cut her client a break is going to fly with him? and if their relationship is on such bad terms, why still would she think that an appeal to nepotism would help her? it's almost insulting that she would even try that with jack, more than once in the episode, and then barge into his office near the end almost in tears because he wouldn't grant her client a special favor because she was his daughter—it's almost like a tantrum. ugh.

the whole thing just doesn't make any sense and feels like the writers didn't even try—it's just like "how can we make this as dramatic and emotional as possible," but in a cheap, melodramatic way, not genuine or earned in the way the original l&o was known for.

and just the whole "oh no!!!! jack's daughter is working for the defense!!!!" is so contrived. like it literally wouldn't matter. she would just do her job. it's not like jack was the one personally prosecuting the case, so who cares? i would have much preferred to see the return of an old character who has left the DA's office for a different kind of law (serena southerlyn would make the most sense to me, considering as she was fired by branch for empathizing too much with defendants, but i'd take paul robinette as well who canonically became a defense attorney)—in other words a character whom the audience already has a history with and is emotionally invested in rather than essentially making up a character and conflict just for the sake of conflict.

i just want a normal, good episode of l&o that doesn't involve any soap-opera nonsense about the main characters' personal lives. is that too much to ask???? (apparently, it is!)

[connie-rubirosa]

So I'll send you an ask here so as not to clog-up the lawandordersource blog with my love for Mike and Connie. But yes! I did catch the how the board had Mike and Connie and, much like you, I now headcanon it that Mike and Connie are back in the office somewhere. From what I've read, most DA's offices have a Chief Assistant DA that acts more on the operations and administration of the office and is more traditional the office's second-in-charge. There was a character in SVU, Chief Assistant DA Charlie Phillips and he mentions that he gave a case to an appreciative McCoy (was a slam dunk) to Cabot in some talk they were having, And there was statement by Cabot that it was rumored he would run against Nora Lewin.

But I headcanon that after Mike's stint as SVU Bureau Chief and his prior experience as... I think it's now all but confirmed that the EADA on the mothership is the... Homicide Bureau Chief that Jack promotes him to Chief Assistant to handle the administrative end of the office and Connie came back as a Bureau Chief (hey if they can bring back Jamie Ross as an ADA, let me have this people).

I kinda hold out hope that if/when Sam leaves the show, they'd bring back Linus Roache as the DA with the justification that operationally and with his prosecutorial experience, he's best equipped to handle a smooth transition.

Plus I just want to see Cutter tear into Price.

No shade against Hugh Dancy, but when Price said he was the best after Jack says there were 20 other homicide prosecutors that could have taken the case (and should have!) I said to my friend as we were watching, "In a ranking of 21 Homicide Prosecutors, I'd rank you 22 Nolan."

Sorry for the long ask again but that's just how I headcanon that board (changes be damned).

hehehe we can be on that headcanon bandwagon together! (i just feel like it'd be in character for the two of them anyway—Mike would definitely be a lifer in the DA's office, and i can totally see connie returning in like a "oh, i can't stay away from you, manhattan!" scenario, lol.)

it's easy to envision Mike in that kind of second-in-command position for jack the way you described (it's funny but i just started a rewatch of the early SVU seasons and i just saw the episode where they introduce Chief ADA Charlie Phillips. very funny to see him show up periodically in the original later in the run as a different defense attorney, haha.)

and yeah i feel like enough time has passed that both mike and connie could easily handle those respective positions (would love to have seen Connie as a lead prosecutor at some point on screen—she nails that closing in the season 17 finale—but i think that might be beyond what the writers on the revival are capable of delivering right now, ugh.)

[side note - THANK YOU for pointing out that weird thing with Jamie!!! they're telling me that she was a defense attorney, then an ada, then a defense attorney again, then a judge (okay fine, i'm still on board, this is a somewhat normal career trajectory so far) and then SHE BECAME AN ADA AGAIN???? who goes from judge back to being an attorney??? i was happy to see her again but then just make her the trial judge!!!! please l&o i can be your continuity person, you need one]

HAHAHA i've had SO many laughs with my roommates (we watch the show every week anyway and play a drinking game called "Claw & Order" named after the White Claw seltzer) about Price (no hate to Price fans, he's just not my cup of tea) doing bizarre things or totally bungling cases. maybe he's "the best" because he screws up royally in nearly every episode and then still wins almost every case???

i would LOVE to see Linus come back as DA Mike, i could definitely see him as being more of a hardliner compared to the revival's characterization of Jack (when they feel compelled to write him any dialogue, lol). (and i wouldn't mind seeing him rake Price over the coals hehehe. i can't tell you how many times Price gets reticent about prosecuting or something and i'm just like "Mike would be foaming at the mouth right now LET IM AT EM")

for the record, long (or short) asks about l&o are ALWAYS welcome!!! i feel like i'm just finding the l&o contingent on tumblr (especially the seasons 18-20 gang) so it's always a blast to chat about it with people who clearly know their stuff and have great takes.

once again, here's to earnest civil servants!!! (i made this gif for the last ask you sent in to lawandordersource and i feel like i'm already getting a return on my investment hahaha)

[connie-rubirosa]

lmaoooooo pretty much my thoughts exactly. like i would LOVE to have him back but as the revival has gone on i’m getting more anxious about what they would have done to him if they had lol. at least this way i can just imagine that he’s still in the da’s office, kickin’ butt as opposed to whatever nonsense the current writers would inflict on him... BUT YOUR HONOR I MISS HIM

MICHAEL CUTTER AND HIS THREE PIECE SUITSSSSSSS

rbfeiudfibadfiupbfdubiabi okay okay I'm fine

YOU ARE SO RIGHT AND YOU SHOULD SAY IT!!!

i'm glad you're fine but i'm definitely not! lmaoooooooo

I MEAN GEEZ WHAT DO Y'ALL WANT FROM ME!!!!!!

i might just have to make a dedicated post to mike and his three piece suits at some point aaksdfnkjdnf

[connie-rubirosa]

my current summary of how the l&o revival eps go

Sam: It's murder 2 Jack: Charge murder 2 Nolan: *whining* Aw come on, do I have to ?

And I saw that episode where Nolan had the AUDACITY to say he was the best? prosecutor? in the DA's office?

[ insert abbie carmichael reaction gif here ]

[negative comments about the l&o revival and in particular nolan price ahead—gonna start tagging these #l&o revival critical and #character name critical if anyone wants to blacklist. general l&o opinions will be tagged #l&o discourse. i won't tag #law and order or #character name bc i don't want criticism of the show or characters to go into their general tags on the site. i will put this in a new nav post sometime soon lol.]

LMAOOOO LITERALLY THAT'S HOW IT GOES EVERY TIME

i mean maybe nolan does have a point about being the "best" prosecutor because for someone who is that bad of an attorney he sure does keep managing to get guilty verdicts somehow??? then i suppose it's less the "best" prosecutor and more the luckiest lmaoooo

like i get the decision to make him a former defense attorney just to change it up, but that background can't get so in the way of him doing his job that he shows massive resistance literally any time he's asked to prosecute anyone, since, y'know, he is by definition a prosecutor. it's like the writers can't tell the difference between nuanced perspective disagreement and just constant contrarianism. imo, there have been so many characters in the series who had conflicting opinions with the lead prosecutor but they didn't completely let it get in the way of doing their job, it just introduced a more complicated perspective on the cases they were dealing with (claire, jamie, serena, alex borgia, and connie all come to mind!). i wish we still had some of that—that's one of the main reasons i found the original l&o so compelling.

if nolan's so against prosecuting anyone, why in the world would he become a prosecutor in the first place? (except of course he's full steam ahead as soon as it's a case that he literally wouldn't have jurisdiction over/affects him personally. it's so easy for him to make excuses until it's the cases that he was directly involved in.)

and you're so right, no one can convey my feelings but abbie and her eyerolls!!!!!