Casting a show must be a tough, thankless job. When it’s done right, when you’ve slotted the perfect people into the roles that seem to have been made just for them, well, you did your job adequately. Anything less, and you’ll be hearing about it for the rest of the life of the show, and possibly for years to come as you’re blamed for the series’ implosion.
For the sake of The Middleman fans, let’s say that this is not such a case here. We’ll even go so far as to say that Natalie Morales hasn’t been given an opportunity to shine (or was she punished into obscurity for failure?…). But whatever the facts or conjecture, her Lauren Cruz certainly hasn’t endeared herself to viewers like me in the same way that equally supporting character Jones (Sharif Atkins) has. But what’s there to do about that?
Paging Diana Lancing (Marsha Thomason)!
That’s right … according to Entertainment Weekly, Thomason is set to return to White Collar in season two (congratulations on the renewal, boys!) as Agent Lancing, a character first and only seen in the show’s pilot episode. Just what I’ve been asking for, right?
Some people wonder what all the hubbub has been about, considering Morales’ debatable misuse and Thomason’s brief appearance. Well, consider this “some people”: as a percent of the whole, how much time did Paulo and Nikki take up on Lost? And I mean their ill-fated story line, not their mere inclusion as survivors on the island. Yet that was some grand failure on the part of a series that had rarely stumbled before, correct? Why?
Because it felt wrong, didn’t mesh with the rest of the show. And the same is true in the reverse. When Lancing and Caffrey met for the first time at the airport, Caffrey hitting on her and Burke explaining that he was barking up the wrong tree, there was chemistry. I was excited at the possibilities for Neal butting up against someone he couldn’t charm, no matter how much screen time she eventually would get. Traded in for the subtle sexual tension between Neal and Cruz, at least as seen in the first half-season, the entire dynamic and ingenuity faded away.
Plus Lancing’s probie agent just made a whole lot more sense than Cruz’s more experienced one. Even if they’re both meant to be in training, I don’t get that impression from Cruz, whereas I did from Lancing. I imagined that zest to learn potentially tugging against her inherent distrust of Neal as the series went forward, with her wanting to learn at his feet while hating the reason he had something to teach her in the first place.
Clearly there’s no way to know whether or not Lancing will be allowed to accomplish all these many things, but if White Collar wants someone riding in the backseat alongside Jones, it needed to do something about Cruz. And okay, I’m sure Thomason won’t be perfect, just as I’ll admit that Morales wasn’t an abject failure. But it’s as clear that she was wrong for the role as it was that Thomason was a great fit in the first place.
Why the initial change was made I don’t know (other commitments for Thomason, or maybe a network adjustment following the pilot?), but I for one am very excited to be getting the original cast member back.
Job done Ross Meyerson (casting).
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Feb 12, 2010 @ 14:00 EST5EDT
Hey Aryeh, I totally agree with you. I loved Morales in middle-man, but she didn’t quite seem to fit in WC. Likewise, I’ll admit that while I loved MT in WC, she didn’t do it for me when I saw her in Las Vegas. Sometimes there are certain roles/certain shows that just fit certain actors. The Cruz character’s all-seeming knowingness similar to her ‘tension’ with Neal seemed forced. Plus, although the Morales character allegedly joined the crew to learn from the man who captured the master twice, I didn’t quite get that respect/relationship that MT generated in her first few scenes with ‘the boss’. So, I hope that MT and the cast are able to re-channel the chemistry from the pilot – and, then, all my comments will have abated :)
*POST AUTHOR*
I just wonder if Morales has been bumped or not. No word about that, which is interestingly the way they did the original switch – I wondered how they’d swing Morales and Thomason’s seemingly similar characters in one of my early reviews, because they never said that Thomason was leaving!
Dude, your Thomason obsession is starting to become a tad creepy. I hope you’re not going to gush over her every single week like you do Brick.
While I like Diana, Jones, and Lauren equally, I’ll repeat my earlier hope that the actresses have scenes together, rather than one replacing the other, as the women on this show don’t interact nearly enough. Has Elizabeth even met June yet?
I’ll refrain from a point-by-point disagreement, but have to mention that I got the exact opposite impression from the two female agents. Diana already seemed comfortable in her position, as if she’d been assisting Peter for years, no matter how long it had actually been. Lauren has settled in well, but in her first appearance seemed very young and fresh. I figured that she was very junior to Jones in terms of experience.
*POST AUTHOR*
Far from an obsession, my friend. I didn’t like her on Lost, and I’m not enjoying her on Make It or Break It.
It’s very simple, really. When I saw the pilot there were a number of things that jumped out at me as being tremendous about it. One thing was Lancing, both as a character and as the piece she represented in the larger puzzle that was the entire show. When she was taken away, there was a hole. And not only a hole, but the character who presumably was meant to fill it both fell on her face for me as a character, and left the hole gaping even wider, if possible. So do I think Lancing (or Thomason) will be a Godsend here? No. Do I think her character completes the show? Absolutely.
And do I hope that this is an addition and not a replacement? Sorry … Morales seriously has been that un-enjoyable for me. Like someone said about her somewhere else, she took me out of every scene she was in.
Huh, I thought you’ve been talking her up because she’s a great actress. If she didn’t do much for LOST, I hope she doesn’t drag this show down when she has more than one episode.
As a side note, was she ever called Lancing on the show? Peter called her Diana, and I only know her last name from checking IMDb.
Yeah, you and Jen Creer share that opinion. Usually, I can understand someone’s cause for complaint, even if I don’t agree with it, but here I honestly can’t see how she’s any more affected or unrealistic than the other portrayals of minor characters on the show. I just can’t wrap my head around your viewpoint. You don’t have to explain it to me further, though; I’ll just accept it.
*POST AUTHOR*
Oh, I couldn’t remember! I just tried to give a healthy balance of first name/last name. :)