Speaking of season 5, I was reading a thread on Reddit about whether the show gets better after season 2 and there was an interesting comment about the change in staff writers/directors:
“Was just about to chime in that 3 and 4 are peak Iannucci. 5 starts out strong but clearly the format has changed with the installation of Mandel as showrunner and his staff of writers (yes, a different showrunner doesn't change the show completely, but in this case when Mandel came onboard, he also changed out a lot of writing and directorial staff - Georgia Pritchett was the only writer who was around for both Iannucci and Mandel's run, and even she was gone halfway through S5).”
https://www.reddit.com/r/Veep/comments/dgypt0/watched_the_first_2_seasons_so_far_not_quite/
I was curious, so I looked up the writing/directing credits for all the episodes in season 5 to see which members of the original team stayed on. The credits include Georgia Pritchett and Will Smith as writers and Chris Addison and Becky Martin as directors.
Will Smith wrote Chung (1x04), Midterms (2x01), Running (2x09), Some New Beginnings (3x01), Fishing (3x05), Storms and Pancakes, and Testimony (4x01), along with Thanksgiving (5x05) and C**tgate (5x06).
Georgia Pritchett wrote Fishing (3x05), Crate (3x09), Joint Session (4x01), Storms and Pancakes (4x06), along with Thanksgiving (5x05) and C**tgate (5x06).
Sean Gray wrote Catherine (1x03), Chung (1x04), Hostages (2x03), Running (2x09), Some New Beginnings (3x01), Alicia (3x03), Convention (4x05), Testimony (4x09), and Thanksgiving (5x05)
Chris Addison directed Signals (2x02), Hostages (2x03), The Vic Allen Dinner (2x04), Some New Beginnings (3x01), New Hampshire (3x10), Crate (3x09), Joint Session (4x01), Storms and Pancakes (4x06), Election Night (4x10), along with Nev-ad-a (5x02), The Eagle (5x03), and Thanksgiving (5x05).
Becky Martin is the only one from the original team who stayed on to occasionally direct episodes after season 5. She directed Camp David (5x08), Inauguration (5x10), Georgia (6x03), Qatar (6x06), and Super Tuesday (7x05).
I just thought it was interesting that there was still some influence from the original team in season 5, especially in regards to the writing. After that, to quote Reid, “Season six was when you really saw the new regime's voices come into their own.”
