It’s a tradition as time-honored as Law & Order’s "dun-duhn" and Horatio Caine’s sunglasses: Every now and then, network crime procedurals and/or ensemble dramas like to shake up their casts to boost ratings and revitalize their plotting prospects. And the end of the 2007-2008 TV season will prove no exception: Gary Dourdan is leaving CSI; Diane Neal and Adam Beach are exiting Law & Order: SVU; and Khandi Alexander is fleeing the ridonk world of CSI: Miami. If that’s not enough, Jesse L. Martin’s final Law & Order episode airs Wednesday, and Maura Tierney, who’s cutting way back on her ER workload, tells AOL Television that she’s been (unsuccessfully) begging the writers of her long-running hospital drama to kill off her character before the series ends its run.
I, for one, am glad to hear Tierney’s Abby won’t be paying the ultimate price for drama, because, let’s be honest here — isn’t it almost too easy for TV writers to enlist the Grim Reaper when it’s time to write off a character? Wouldn’t it be a greater (and more fulfilling) writing challenge for these scribes to tackle workplace exits the way they actually happen?
In fact, if SVU hasn’t already decided the fate of Neal’s ADA Casey Novak, how about this scenario? On a lazy Friday afternoon, Benson is catching up on some paperwork, when she hears the siren call of her email "ping," which turns out to be an announcement that Novak will be resigning in two weeks to pursue a lucrative gig at a private firm uptown. As Benson and Stabler spend the episode solving the latest "especially heinous" crime, they secretly plan a farewell pour for their coworker at a local pub. By episode’s end, the beer begins to flow. Toasts are made. A few tears are shed. Somebody makes an awkward plea to move the festivities to a nearby karaoke joint. And scene!

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Living in a Radically Transparent world is, it seems, not without risk. Apparently a Seattle man was recently sued for $10,000 because he left a “Neutral” rating for an eBay seller from North Carolina.
Sued! For $10k for using a system that eBay implemented to encourage feedback!!!
Shellhorn bought some Morgan silver dollars from a man in North Carolina. The price was fair, but Shellhorn says the coins were packed poorly.
“The coins were hanging out of the envelope, loose, with no packing whatsoever around them,” he said.
The seller wanted feedback. Shellhorn couldn’t honestly say the deal was good or bad so he took the middle ground.
“This is neutral feedback, not even negative feedback, but neutral. He sued me for $10,000,” he said.
The judge in Buncome County, NC did dismiss the law suit, but it still raises a serious question about the future of consumer feedback, if the consumer is fearful of leaving any feedback at all.
It’s amazing that someone would sue an individual for one “neutral” rating, but that goes to show just how important ratings are on eBay. It’s also scary that an attorney was willing to take on the case. What if the judge hadn’t shown any common sense? What if the court had ruled in favor of the plaintiff?
It may not have happened this time, but you can bet that this case will inspire someone to think they can remove legitimate negative (neutral?) customer feedback by taking them to court. And it will be a scary time for all, should a naive judge rule in favor of the company.
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