You mentioned in a fic recently how you never really cared about ships in CPD until Hailey, can I ask why?
Aww, people read my rambly little notes in my stories? Cool. Sure, Nonny, without trying to get too negative (though I am gonna tag everything anti just to be on the safe side). I'm not going to talk chemistry and lack thereof because it's not really the main factor in my opinion (though it is a factor.) It's very subjective, so if that's more what you're looking for, try shopping this question around elsewhere, but just know you're audience when you ask it. It's all under the cut because a) it got a little long, and b) I don't want to expose anyone to this stuff if they don't want to see it.
With Burzek, it's simple; I just wasn't invested. I liked Kim(and still do) and wasn't really feeling Adam (again still often the case). So I just didn't really care one way or the other with them. Other than getting their start by cheating, they were fine. They were a cute, solid couple but quickly got into some bad habits and relied on bad advice. And if things continued that way, it probably would have been ok. I very likely would have continued to be pretty indifferent. But that's not what happened. Now with them, I'm just totally over it. Even from a 'whatever POV in terms of shipping them, they're beyond ridiculous. It's been years of hookups, of not letting each other move on, and enough is enough. Kudos to Adam this seasons; he has made himself very clear, he wants her. Kim is the one who's struggling now, holding onto familiarity and trying to see if that's enough (it's not). So yeah, they need to communicate and settle on what they want their relationship to be or just stop. This isn't some cute back and forth, are they aren't they, anymore, and TBH it never was. There are serious issues at play with them, and both need to think about why they want to be together. Not if, why. Once that's answered, then they can figure out the if.
As to the rest, Antonio and Al were both established as married men going through some typical and not so typical marriage difficulties. Sure, you could root for them, but your options were always reconciliation, divorce and 'please, dear God, just don't cheat.' So again, pretty indifferent on my part. Voight was a widower, and while I always liked learning more about his wife, that storyline seems to have been sufficiently dropped. And he was never really given much of a love interest line. Maybe things are changing with Miller (I know some people ship them.), so we'll just have to wait and see on that front. I'm not huge on Voight as a character. He's growing on me this season, but he's also been fairly limited this season with screen time, so maybe that's why.
Kevin, he's literally had one hook up that we've seen in 8 seasons, to my memory. I don't know what happened with Vanessa or where they were going. I know it got said that Rowater was supposed to happen, and I know many people are all about the Rowater. But again, for me, there is some indifference there. Other than some small UC bits and a mention or two of off-screen hangouts, they were never really shown together, so it does make it a little hard for me to ship them. But who knows what would have happened if Vanessa had stuck around. I just want Kevin and happiness, ok? My Dude deserves it.
As for Erin and Jay, well, they were the true "from the jump" couple for the show. All shows have this couple. The one you know from their first meeting will be hooked up at some point—the main couple. And honestly, I'm usually 50/50 on this. Sometimes it works; sometimes, I just don't feel it. On cop shows, it's more like 80/20 in favour of not feeling it. The exception is on cop shows, where the whole premise of the series doesn't really work if they don't get together (and stay together) at some point. Think Booth and Brennan from Bones or Castle and Beckett from Castle. Those shows and how they're written need those couples together because they have a significant personal and interpersonal focus. CPD doesn't, Law and Order doesn't, Blue Bloods doesn't. Those shows work without romantic relationships (Blue Bloods is a bit different because it is very family-focused). CPD was like this, especially in the early seasons before everyone joined intelligence when they split focus between them and patrol. But even now, it doesn’t need to focus on relationships, it chooses to give some light to them now and again, and now it’s working. For me at least.
But from the jump, well... let's just say we knew who Jay wanted to. Lust, that's all he and Erin ever were IMO. They literally only hooked up because Erin wanted to piss off Voight. That's is something that was far more dangerous to Jay in terms of job security than to her. Her job was never going to be at risk but Jay'd already been threatened with losing it if he ever went there and I’m pretty sure Erin knew that. Now eventually, they moved on from there, but it was still only ever based on lust. At least from what we were shown.
And again, they faced the age-old problem; they never communicated. Ever. Hell, the two of them make Burzek look like communication champions. And any issues they had got blown up by something else and put on the back burner. And when they came back together, they waved it off. They never spoke about it again until it (usually Bunny) reared its ugly head again. And when it did, Jay would give his unsolicited opinion, and Erin would tell him not to tell her how to deal with her mother. (Fair enough that at the end, she pretty much said she was using him as a sounding board. That's totally fair; sometimes, you just need to get the words out and hear them for yourself.)
Jay also didn't have a lot of character development when Erin was around, even before they hooked up. He was the former soldier turned cocky cop, the sharpshooter for the team. Honestly, especially in season 1, he was a douche. Like pretty much a complete tool. In season 2, they transferred that douchiness more to Ruzek, but that was pretty much it for Jay's development until season 5. Sure he had a backstory like the Lonny case and Mouse and the kid (Ethan?). But that's establishing a character, giving them a history so later you can hopefully develop their character.
We did not really see him grow as a character until Erin left because Erin was the show's focus. Her character development. Her relationship with Voight. The kind of cop she was going to be, how that meshed with Voight and his vision for her. That very quickly became the focus to the detriment of other characters. They all became secondary to Erin and Voight.
None of this is said to fault Erin at all. I liked Erin. She was a solid character, my heart broke for her on several occasions (Nadia!!! Her brother! Bunny's constant manipulations!) I loved the growth they gave her with her mom before it backslid(for obvious reasons). I like how they were moving her to be more independent from Voight. Growing away from him, instead of just being his mini-me (again until it backslid for the obvious). I don't like how they wrote her out. I think there were other ways to do it that didn't undo a lot of her growth. But I also get it. Sophia made it very clear she was not coming back, so they needed to make it clear that neither was Erin.
Then Hailey came. I was honestly, before her introduction, thinking I would stop CPD at the end of the season. Because other characters I kind of liked (Kevin and Jay) weren't developed enough to keep me interested.
And then the name Tracy Spiridakos flashed across the screen, and I was sold from her first lines.
I loved Revolution; if you've not seen the show, give it a try, for Tracy’s character at the very least, she’s fantastic. So when she came, even though initially it was only supposed to be for those three episodes, I was like, "yup sign me up. More hot, talented, kick-ass Canadian women on my screen, yes, please." And then through Hailey, with Hailey, we start seeing development in other characters. It became an actual ensemble show (they tried that for half of season 1 before the focus mostly narrowed to Erin and Voight). Jay's character journey in season 5 was phenomenal. The little bits of Hailey growth that we got as they established her character was also great. Because that's how it should be done, you can establish and develop a character simultaneously. Finally, they were doing that.
If I'm remembering correctly, season 5 was where we saw a lot of turnover behind the scenes. Eid took over as the showrunner (and he likes interpersonal stories better). And wasn't there also a massive writer turnover at this point? So that's a factor as well, with all the new development we saw from that point on. But it was long overdue.
So yeah, that all why I wasn't huge on shipping in the first four seasons of CPD. A lack of interest in one ship though it did develop the characters and the needed that development in others. That shift in storytelling is also why CPD has become one of my favourite shows. They've finally found a middle ground between the ripped from the headlines, case only focus of L&O, and the maybe too heavily interpersonal focused lines of other crime shows. I'm looking forward to what comes next, not only for Upstead (and even Burzek) but for the characters as individuals because that's something they actually give us now. And it's beautiful.
