I love prestige TV because it's like reading great literature but with the bonus that an actor could quit and ruin three seasons of plot at any moment. Like if Javert disappeared halfway through Les Miz so he could focus on his film career
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Also happened in Deadwood. They killed off Bullock’s “son” in the show because the child actor’s stage mother was so hard to deal with, and it became one of the most poignant episodes the show
Mad Men really lucked out on that one. I don't think they had a single major character's actor on the show leave for career reasons except maybe Jared Harris, and I never got the sense even that was the case from the commentary tracks on the DVDs back in the day.
They might've even completely inverted the trope, since Christina Hendricks was only supposed to appear in the first few episodes before leaving, but instead became a long-term fixture due to her popularity with the cast and crew.
In the original concept for The West Wing, Martin Sheen as the President was supposed to appear for only occasional cameos with the focus on staff - but he was so popular in the pilot that he became first among equals in the ensemble.
Same in Breaking Bad. Jesse Pinkman was supposed to die at the end of the first season but after seeing how good Paul was with the character they re-plotted things during the writer's strike.
sometimes can improve the show, though. THE SOPRANOS trajectory changed surprisingly for the better after Nancy Marchand sadly passed away forcing them to deviate from another planned Tony vs His Mom plot
it wasn't from my knowledge, it was old school combination of a stunt double for the reverse angle and using outtakes from a previous episode for her on-camera lines.
I really love how they turned Livia into a dark looming cloud in the later seasons. That's a really, really great way to incorporate a character's death into the narrative effectively.
It's a relatively minor work, but Bloodline shrank to almost nothing when Ben Mendelsohn went off to the movies to play bad bosses that you kinda like anyway
Literally what happened to Downton Abbey. The whole show was about Dan Stevens being the next heir to the title and fortune and at the end of season 3 he had a car accident, killing him off so he could come make films in America.
I regrettably missed out on Abigail (but I'm a spooky movies all year round guy so I'll get to it sooner rather than later), and even *I* know how amazing that delivery is!
But yeah, really in the mood to rewatch The Guest now, he's phenomenal there.
This is my stance on everything Wingard's directed in the past decade, honestly.
(I do think his godzilla movies are fun, but *man* hopefully his next movie brings that guy back)
Can work out great, Mike Ehrmantraut exists because Bob Odenkirk had scheduling conflicts and they needed another character to be in a bunch of Saul scenes.
Or you could be obsessive and plan a full 5-year-arc with exit routes for every major character, just in case someone -- say, the core of the show -- ends up having to leave after the first season for health reasons. Nah, no one would ever be THAT obsessive...
Only for members of the cast who'd appeared in flash forwards scenes deciding to go "exploring beyond the RIm" during the specials that were set before their characters' last canon appearances.
That's what I like about Network Television. When someone leaves to go pursue other projects, you don't give a fuck, because why would you? And they usually come back for specials all the time.
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But yeah, really in the mood to rewatch The Guest now, he's phenomenal there.
(I do think his godzilla movies are fun, but *man* hopefully his next movie brings that guy back)
We did get Rupert Everett in S3 though :)
in-universe he spends the entire season in his room silently moping after a girl beat him in a fight