dang, late to the discussion, as always :lol:
Posted by DarkUFO at Saturday, March 28, 2009 (Comments: 4)
Labels: Casting, CSI NY, Episode Info, Pay Up
[VINCENT ANGELL] Male, early 50s. Retired cop & father of our recurring character 'Det. Jessica Angell' played by Emmanuelle Vaugier......ONE DAY GUEST STAR
[CRAZY TONY TARDELLA] Male, 30s. Tough, kind of guy you'd see in an episode of Sopranos, owns a chop shop...ONE DAY GUEST STAR
[ER DOCTOR] Male or Female, late 20s. Attractive and professional...CO STAR SCALE ROLE
Source: SpoilerTV
...intriguing, Keptain... :vulcan:
And to further my hamster-wheel pleasure... a recap.
What we've been given so far from Peter Lenkov himself as sanctioned tidbits: We have a 'member of the team' targeted, this 'forever changes' the show, we'll 'lose a member of the family,' the crime(s) of kidnappers turned copkillers will 'forever change the CSI:NY line-up,' and the 'cast will shrink by one' this May.
The casting news, even in combination with the PL spoilers, is not enough for me to do more than go, huh, well, that's curious.
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Emmanuelle Vaugier is a Guest Star reprising a recurring character. Robert Joy's Sid and AJ Buckley's Adam both started out that way as well. Carmen Argenziano's Insp. Stanton Gerrard, Mykelti Williamson's Brigham Sinclair, Julia Ormond's Deputy Inspector Gillian Whitford all fall into this category, as do all the show's guest performers, stunt casting or otherwise. Nelly, Robert Gant, Ashlee Simpson Whassername, etc., all get the same listing. Just something to consider here.
The impact Angell has on the show has far more to do with what Vaugier's made of the role than her billing. The fact that the producers have returned to her over several seasons and that the writers have kept providing Angell material instead of other detectives (Kaile Maka, Charlie Thacker, etc.) speaks more to a happy and workable discovery that has evolved a character who contributes more to the show than a 'secondary' detective was probably expected to. As far as how many detectives are too many, Vegas has someone supplementing Brass quite regularly. I even think Sofia Curtis got a decent bit of development and backstory while she was on. I honestly don't think NY would suffer for two.
Sure, a possible issue here could be whether TPTB want to offer Vaugier a contract in order to guarantee her availability, as they did with Robert Joy and AJ Buckley, versus perhaps hoping to continue on with the current arrangement where their obligations are lesser and what they gain is presumably in their favour. I suppose it would be entirely dependent of the offers of work Vaugier may or may not actually be getting, from NY or from anyone else. We do know TPTB are certainly accomodating to the cast they do have on contract in terms of outside appearances, projects, and work, and were also willing to bring on both Robert and AJ when they were approached with the possibility.
Characters like Sid and Adam may now be contracted, but the terms are unknown. It is likely they're specified appearances in fewer episodes than the core group. Regardless of how many or how few episodes, a contract in theory makes it easier for both the cast and the show to manage obligations and opportunities. I suspect it wouldn't take much of a nudge to move Vaugier in the same category if the studio wanted it, even if on a season by season renegotiation instead of some multi-year deal. If they felt the guaranteed appearance of the character would serve to promote the show with the audience it courts (hello, Adam), they would do it. Unless of course they think there's a bigger return in making her, over and above absolutely any of the the others, the one to be killed in the finale. It's always about the bottom line, viewers and $$, no matter how much dramatic or artistic integrity is being battled for, or over, behind the scenes.
For me, factors in all this roundabout speculation are how literally to take Lankov's spoilers, how much/little to read into casting news, contractual semantics, how I feel about the roster of characters, and how much I suspect TPTB are playing upon all of that to twist everyone in knots in order to both guarantee and groom an audience as the season winds itself out, let alone as the planning and writing of the next one begins.
I see Angell as having a substantial impact on the show, but she's
not a member of the 'line up,' not in the same sense I look at the main roster of characters. Angell may be a member of the extended family within the show, but I'm simply not convinced that writing out a recurring character and losing a guest star equates to 'the cast will shrink by one' in a way that will 'forever change the line up and forever change the show.'
It would be a supremely cheap and literal way to build and then gut the hype if that's really the way it's gonna go down. As little credit as I'm willing to give TPTB, I really hope for better than that from them. I'm not even excited about a cliff hanger. I'd rather they did a decent finale like Snow Day than turn out another like last year's Hostage (even if Koteas was good).
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People are obviously looking at the casting call and trying to glean as much as they can as far what it might mean. Might help a little to look at what the terms are before really trying to infer too much. Someone asked, here or in the other spoiler thread, what scale means. Here's what I gather as far as casting relates to a) 'scale' and b) to 'major' roles. I went poking around the SAG site to see what I could find there that might relate or be useful here. Found this:
- "Scale is the minimum payment or payments set forth in the collective bargaining agreement between SAG and the producer. Scale is not just the session fee. Scale, in fact, covers all the negotiated fees that are part of the contract, including residuals, wardrobe allowances, per diem, mileage, transportation and travel time—to name a few. Scale is the upgrade you get when, as a background performer, you are thrown a line, and the liquidated damages that are added when your check is late. And don’t forget pension and health. Can a non-union producer provide the benefit package that is the equivalent of what professional performers make when they work under contract? I don’t think so. All of these payments are scale because they are negotiated as the minimum payments that come due when the particular circumstance calls for it. For scale to be paid on a non-union job, the equivalent of all these payments would have to be assured, and they are not.
And as for what a Major Role is, on a
freelance contract (as opposed to negotiated series regular, for example):
- "...A 'Major Role' performer is one who, as part of his or her contractual arrangement for that employment, negotiates credit at the front of the show or negotiates credit on a separate card, or is equivalent in a crawl, at the back of the show or who negotiates credit in any of the following forms: " guest star," special guest star," "starring," or "special appearance by."
Hope that helps a little.
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I dunno what the appearance of Angell's father means for an ep. It could mean greater development for her character and a way up the ladder as much as it could mean her demise. What. C'mon. Work with me :lol:
Flack has had Sam appear, Mac's had Reed, Danny's had Louie, Stella's had a long lost friend from foster care, so having family appear isn't unheard of. It might be unusual simply because it's for a recurring character, and that's the only reason it does give me pause. Still, who's to really say what's to be inferred. I mean, I'm frankly more surprised that we actually found out that Hawkes wasn't beamed down from a mothership and that he does indeed have parents.
I'm thinking at this point I'd love to see Flack and Angell's dads get together and go bowling sometime. :lol: And in an ep where we've been informed there are cop-killers and that someone's gonna die, the casting of an ER doc is not a huge surprise.
I'm gonna resist putting the whole picture together with only a handful of pieces. Call it denial if ya will.
I'd rather see Angell bumped up in the roster than removed from it, because I think S6 would suffer for her lack of presence after what they've managed to build with her character. She along with Adam have been the more refreshing contributors to breathing a little new life into things this season. A season six without Angell, and with a married DLFamily is absolutely almost too much to bear contemplating.
:brickwall::censored::brickwall::censored: *ngah* ...must...resist... :lol:
Mebbe Angell gets shot but doesn't die and we meet her father while visiting at the hospital. Mebbe Flack meets him. Mebbe that's a way into finding out more about
Flack's father next season. Finally. Who knows. I still hope Lindsay. I still muse Sinclair. I still worry Hawkes. I still wonder Danny. I still wonder in general. I still absolutely suspect TPTB of silly buggers. I guess I'm just full of salt here. I'm not sold on anyone.
And to close out, here's a fun grain in the form of a CSIFIles snippet from Charge of This Post: "In a race against the clock, the team works with local agencies and government authorities to locate the bomber and narrow down the next trigger among the city's six million cell phones before he strikes again. Meanwhile, as Mac investigates a routine crime scene, he stumbles upon a bag containing C-4 explosives and is unable to evacuate the building quickly enough to get his team out of harms' way. While a CSI is rushed to surgery, Mac struggles with the memories of the last person he was unable to save, a fellow Marine killed during the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing."
(...um, mebbe
that's why the 5.15 writer got mixed up in thinking Messer came from a long line of cops...?
)
Spoilers. Gotta love 'em. Take all these snippets as you will.
