So unfair for Cooper
He's the one character - and only gay character - in the show who didn't get any equal treatment as the other actors did as far as depicting their love lives outside their police business. All the love scenes the heterosexual characters got to have and the joy they got out of sex and intimacy made them seem more alive and human, whereas the heavy suppression they did with Cooper made him seem less than the rest of them.
For five seasons in a row, they made him such a miserable character who couldn't put his guard down and lose his body and soul to anyone. For three years he was in a relationship with Cesar, who we only saw for at least three or four episodes, but we never saw anything more than a naked body in bed and a pat on the shoulder. No kisses, no cuddling, no happy morning talk in bed, and no dates. He deserved more than just looking so cold and distant because all the demons he struggled with in regards to his back injury, his murderous father, and his addiction made him too bleak of a character and never allowed us to see the moments where he could be happy with a person the way Regina King, Shawn Hatosy, and Ben McKenzie got to be, mainly because they were playing straight people.
I wish they could have shown more of him trying to drive away those demons by giving into the joy of love, sex, and affection and they suppressed that as a way of showing a gay character as having less value as a straight character. Whether it was the network's reluctance or Michael Cudlitz' reluctance, this show just ended with him as being nothing but a sad lonely character. If only the series wasn't cancelled, there should have been more chances for them to bravely let him get away with more enjoyment out of his life through the same way the other characters could as opposed to spending too much time with his miserable life on the force.