Greetings,
For a show that has done so much for female characters, it's rather surprising that they only had one actual female detective on the original series. (Van Buren doesn't count because she was a lieutenant) So, when Season 17 rolled around, they decided to break from the tradition of the old dude/young dude partnerships and get a girl in there. For a little while. Welcome, Nina Cassady.
Nina Cassady was portrayed by Milena Govich for only one season. She was brought in to replace Fontana, against the wishes of Lt. Van Buren, who had someone all picked out for the job. Someone with much more experience. Cassady had just been put in Homicide after she was involved in a shootout in a beauty parlor, causing many to dub her "Detective Beauty Queen". Because for what other reason are we on this Earth than to sell newspaper for others. Well, Cassady was not a fan of the nickname, nor the shades of condescension lingering over it. She felt as though she had a tough enough time as a female cop, and she didn't want anyone undermining her abilities. You'd think that Van Buren would be more understanding of this, and she is. But her problem with Cassady is not because she's a woman; it's because she was very quick tempered and, dare I say it, a loose cannon.
Yes, that is a title given to several cops on this show, and Cassady certainly earns it. Even in her short time on the show, she does lose her cool more than a few times, sometimes causing major problems with investigations. Okay, that's not good, but each time she reacted this way, I kind of understood. Although, I guess I did so more from the perspective of a woman wanting to be respected, but one must realize that keeping yourself in check for the good of putting away the bad guys and helping victims might be something for which we want to aim. I suppose I can see how some of her colleagues had issues with her, but Green seemed to be rather patient with her. As best he could, anyway. I, personally, am not qualified to stand in judgement of someone being quick tempered. Not at all.
All of this behavior continues off and on, right up until her last episode. She kind of provokes a suspect into losing his temper and throwing a chair at the window. And he broke it! Well, there you go, New Yorkers. Your tax dollars just paid for some criminal's temper tantrum. Moving on. Whilst Cassady does make a major faux pas that really ticked off her superiors, she kind of redeemed herself on the stand in court. She kept her composure and did very well. I admired the performance, both from the character and the actress.
Once Season 18 rolled around, Nina Cassady was nowhere to be found. She seriously just fell off the show, because they really never mentioned her again. Like, nothing at all, which is a little mean. But whatever, I guess. I'm also not sure that a lot of people had time to warm up to her, and I'm not sure why. Maybe they didn't like her being so sassy, maybe they didn't like the idea of her as a woman, which is lame. I don't know. Personally, I did like her. It took a few episodes for me to get used to her, but I eventually did. I'm sure that, had she been given more time, I would have liked her even more. Actually, she really endeared herself to me in her first episode, when she told Not Britney Spears to stop smoking around her baby. Because I think bad parenting needs to be called out...always. Anyway, I also really enjoyed the actress. It can't be easy coming onto an established show and stepping into a role that is usually filled by a man, but I think Milena Govich did a fine job. I found both her and her character very refreshing. Gotta love a character who has an attitude of "Yeah, I'm a girl. Whaddya gonna do about it?!" Girl power, indeed.
So, in closing, hats off to Nina Cassady and Milena Govich. In my opinion, this character brought something new to the series, and it helped that she was played very well. And no matter what any critic says, she's still the first and only lady detective, so they can't take that status away from her, and they never should.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
