‘Necessary Roughness’ season 3 spoilers: Exec talks Mark Blucas’ departure
When you watched the season 3 premiere of “Necessary Roughness” on Wednesday night, there was probably one thought that entered your head by the end of it: This feels like a very different show than the one you watched last year. Not only did you not see either of Dr. Dani’s children (as they have each been bumped down to recurring guest stars this season), but the news was revealed during the episode that Mark Blucas’ character of Matt had taken a new job in Boston, and was thus leaving both the New York Hawks as well as Dani.
In some ways, you may have seen this move coming. Blucas was not in the recent promotional picture for the show, and he also has a new series coming up in ABC’s “Killer Women.” (This is almost always a telltale sign of trouble for a character.)
So why make this move now? Speaking in an interview with TV Guide, executive producer Liz Kruger explains that one of the primary motivations behind such a move was a conversation that came up between the network and the series when it came to changing things up:
“The network poised the question to us and said, ‘Iit feels like someone needs to die.’ And I don’t think they meant it necessarily literally. They meant it figuratively … We really thought about … what was the most natural and obvious progression based on where we left off. I think that everyone felt that with Matt and Dani, there were two choices: They were either going to have to get married or it was going to have to be over.”
While there are surely people upset about this move (we’re a little ambivalent, as well), we will be shocked if Dani does not get a new love interest at some point this season. As for who it will be, that’s a little unclear. There are some obvious choices working at the V3 firm, but we don’t really know enough about their relationship status yet to make a call one way or the other.
Are you sad at all by the Matt character’s exit, and does it make you less excited about the rest of the show? If you want to check out our full review of the “Necessary Roughness” premiere, you can do so over at the link here.
Photo: USA