MovieChat Forums > Veep (2012) Discussion > Trimming down the cast

Trimming down the cast

posted 8 years ago by AFriendOfMrWhite
15 replies | jump to latest

Spoilers ahead.

Now that S5 has ended with Selina out of the White House, do you think that writers and producers will use the opportunity to trim down the cast? As the show went on, they kept adding secondary characters, meaning that in S5 we saw that original members like Amy and Dan barely appeared.

Tom James is obviously out, managing his hedge fund. I think Selina being away from power gives them an opportunity to get rid of Kent and Ben, which is a shame, because I like them both. I reckon Richard will probably stay, as well as all of the other original members of the team, with Sue as a possible exception.

What do you think?

[–] Shefhammer 8 years ago

Would love to hear some ideas for how they can possibly keep the characters interacting with each other organically. You can see Amy and Gary being in Selina's post presidential world but everyone else is a stretch. I would HATE to see Kent or Ben written out. They are my two absolute fave supports.

[–] kaypea-1 8 years ago

I think that they''ll trim down a lot of the minor characters-Furlong,Teddy,Jonah's uncle,Bill Erickson,etc.But I think we'll still see Ben,Kent,Amy,Dan -and certainly Gary-and Catherine-and Marjorie.As well as Jonah-and Richard.

But so much of the humor from the show came from the often rapid fire interaction between the characters in close quarters so I'm at a loss as to what comes next.Maybe we'll see people communicating digitally through cell phones and Skype.

[–] syncopatedrhythm 8 years ago

You did see the final scene where a senile Martin Mull says Selina won Nevada? Dont think she is going to be out of the White House for long?

[–] jpkrunch 8 years ago

Martin Mull character does not know what century this is. It was a joke! He called her Selina!

I would say my memory is not what it used to be. But I don't remember what my memory used to be.

[–] jozielee 8 years ago

Martin Mull character does not know what century this is. It was a joke!

I agree. He was forgotten in the basement. None of Selina's staff thought to tell him her rein was over.

[–] LuciaJoyce 8 years ago

Just read an Indiewire article (posted on another thread on this board) where showrunner David Mandel promises that we'll see everybody -- Marjorie, Furlong, Richard, etc. -- in the cast in season 6. They're just broadening the scope. I for one would have thought they'd gotten rid of Mike.

[–] FightingConch1970 8 years ago

A great strength of the show is the ensemble interactions, hope we do not lose too much of that.

[–] a_j_4444 8 years ago

I could do with less characters. I don't care about Furlong, Kent or the other old guy. I hate Tom James now, he can F-CK off, along with Doyle. I'd love Danny Chung back, his army talk was always so funny & true to what happens in real life.

Also please not too scattered around. The characters are most funny when they are together. All the Skyping with Amy was kinda confusing and not very amusing.

Edit: Come to think of it, all scenes this season that were funny or touching to me can be trimmed down to the following cast:

Selina, Catherine, Minna Häkkinen, Karen, Gary, Mike, Jonah and Richard

Honestly, any scene with Minna, Karen or Catherine are gold!

I would consider Amy and Dan essential, but they don't make me laugh, they're just solid cast members...who kinda need to be there to balance things out I guess.

[–] jczgal 8 years ago

It's possible Selina will join a political consulting firm or something and need to have a staff?

[–] mjd2491 8 years ago

Well...... Now that "Laura Montez" is President, here's how I see it:

Montez will be found out as ineligible to be President because she is Mexican. (Watch "Inauguration" again. She says she grew up "just outside Cleveland". No town name? Who doesn't know their hometown?) The birthers finally win!

I think that puts Tom back as President. Maybe. Or maybe it's a new constitutional crisis.

[–] prbronx5 8 years ago

They can easily get rid of Catherine & Marjorie, Mike & his wife, Dan, and as much as I love her, Sue. The funniest characters are Selina, Gary, Amy, Richard, Mike, Kent, Chung, Jonah and Karen.

They should also bring back, a few characters for appearances, here and there. The owner of Clovis and his uptight right hand (wo)man, the Prime Minister of Finland, being two of my faves.

[–] brch2 7 years ago

"Or maybe it's a new constitutional crisis."

Not necessarily... the House has the power to vote as many times as it takes to elect the President in the case it goes to them and no one wins the first round. The show tried to hide that fact and make it sound like it was a one vote over kind of thing, but that's not true Constitutionally, and in the last episode where Montez was speaking on TV, the lower-third news banner mentioned the Speaker saying the House wouldn't vote again. The show seems to be hiding the fact Montez is only President as long as no President qualifies or has been elected... if something were to convince or force the House to vote again, Selina or O'Brien could still become President (whether Montez somehow lost the position for other reasons or not). The fact they tried to hide that possibility, but alluded to it in basically an Easter egg moment, makes me think the House will eventually have another vote between her and O'Brien.

Someone ever tries to kill you... you try to kill em right back.

[–] johnston.scot 7 years ago

There's some more-elaborate-than-necessary discussion in some old threads on this point, if they haven't been deleted.

I take away the opposite, though: the show's creators warped reality to create a world in which Montez is president, period. If that isn't the reality they wanted to present, they wouldn't have gone through the trouble of doing the warping in the first place.

That wasn't an Easter Egg, so much as a rather weak justification for the reality they created.

[–] brch2 7 years ago

I have to imagine the writers have some plan that will get her back in office... otherwise, it seems it would have been much less convoluted to simply have her opponent win. Why leave open the possibility if they have no intent to use the unusual circumstances somehow?

Someone ever tries to kill you... you try to kill em right back.

[–] userrrrr 7 years ago

there'd better be no more *beep* Karen.

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