I’m guessing that “the man” is out to make e-cigs out to be as bad as possible.
If you watched it, Olivia and her partner walk into a suspect’s home and she is vaping. Olivia starts waving her hand and scrunching her face like the smell is killing her and asks the suspect to put her “cigarette” out. The suspect replies that its simply water vapor, and later asks Olivia to leave if her “cigarette” is bothering her.
Okay. Never mind that in episodes past Olivia has questioned suspects in their home who are smoking actual cigarettes with nary a mention. Never mind that Every Single Person I know has no problem and cannot even smell the vapor off of an e-cig, including my own mother who could smell alcohol on my breath from 40 paces. And the fact that it was being “smoked” by a blackmailing whore with cheap lingerie draped all over her place.
No, the new normal seems to be to stigmatize these things with no reason whatsoever. Can anyone in this thread really say that e-cig vapor bothers them as in “immediate discomfort” not an unfounded worry about future health effects?
I know this is Cafe Society, but I posted it here because the show seemed to want to send a message that e-cigs are Just As Bad as smoking.
I can smell it when I’m in the same room. The liquid my wife uses smells like burnt caramel, not overpoweringly so, but it definitely has a distinct aroma that I’m confident I could identify blindfolded.
But it smells far better than any actual cigarette, and for a TV show to pretend otherwise does sound like the pernicious influence of Big Tobacco.
I thought it was weird, too, but then I think Olivia’s character has gotten really weird over the years. Her “guilty til proven innocent” attitude is stronger than ever with a dash of nit-picky snootiness thrown in.
[aside]I do think the show’s plots have improved. They’re not pure gory sensationalism anymore where each week’s crime(s) were more “heinous” than the previous week’s. I like the current ensemble a lot, and Barba may be my favorite ADA of all time. [/aside]
There’s a suggestion on the IMDB discussion board that the e-cig bothering Olivia plus the fact that she was drinking water at the bar is laying the groundwork for the revelation that Olivia (not Mariska, but the character) is pregnant. All I can say is I hope to God that’s wrong.
It could just be cultural. Maybe in New York the reaction is more severe than in other places. In California, smoking is virtually a crime, but in Las Vegas, they go out of their way for you to smoke comfortably. On more than one occasions, they’ve made references that only a New Yorker would understand.
Some vapes are more richly (or more annoyingly) scented than others (and some people overdo it). I know one person who alternates the scent of what she uses between innocuously pleasant and “Jesus, turn on the vent fan” sickly-sweet. Then again, she also seems to believe the e-cig means she now has license to suck on the device almost continuously (I worry she may be actually increasing her nicotine intake vs. her old-school smokes).
But yes, it would be unsurprising to have some sort of plot explanation for Olivia becoming oversensitized.
I don’t have a problem with the vapor, normally. I was recently in a play where several characters smoked, and the actors used realistic-looking e-cigs with a vanilla scent (no nicotine). It was actually quite pleasant.
But the other day I was in the mall, and walked past a booth selling e-cigs just as the salesman was blowing a puff of vapor, and I started coughing and gasping. I don’t know what scent it was, but it was nasty. And the booth was right in front of a Bath & Body Works, if that tells you how strong the scent was.
