The Writers of OUAT: Because, Um, Magic, That's Why

[LizaD]

Also, Jane has a Rumple worship too that A&E don't seem to share.  She essentially created Rumbelle.

If she does that hasn't been evident since Miller's Daughter. She hasn't written a Rump centric since then but its not like she does him any favors in her episodes. It's not like she throws gratuitous lines in there about how Rump has suffered oh so much more than baby Jesus or his love is so epic he feels it with his kidneys. As for Rumbelle, she's been coasting off of Skin Deep. But I don't know about "created." If we give her that then she created OQ too and does anyone really want credit for that?

I wonder if there was a difference of opinion there. She seemed to love the woobie while A&E are willing to let him be more shady. Meanwhile Robert is hardcore, Rump's a villain and no happy endings for him. Maybe that explains why she moved over to writing Mary Sue full time.

[Mathius]

Also FYI, here are the cool writers (and their best episodes) who have left the show that I referred to earlier:

 

• Liz Tigelaar ("Snow Falls"); came in S1, left in S1 after it got a full-season order

 

• Ian Goldberg ("The Stranger", "Lady of the Lake"); came in S1, left after S2.

 

• Daniel T Thomsen ("7:15 A.M", "Good Form"); came in S1, left after S3.

 

• Robert Hull ("The Crocodile", "Snow Drifts"); came in S2, left after S3.

 

• Christine Boylan ("Tallahassee", "Good Form"); came in S2, left after S3.

 

Now, none of these writers were perfect, they had their share of clunkers.  But the show was still better during their presence than it was afterward, IMHO.  With them gone, we were left with A&E&J (whose flaws need no explaining), Andrew Chambliss who isn't very good without Ian Goldberg to help him (case in point: he wrote "The Price", "The Bear & the Bow" AND "The Bear King" this season), and Kalinda Vasquez who wrote or co-wrote many notorious episodes ("Selfless, Brave and True", "Quiet Minds", "Kansas", "Breaking Glass", both egg-napper Snowing episodes).  

 

David Goodman's the most reliable writer we have left, and even he isn't infallible, having one dud each season ("True North", "The Cricket Game", "Nasty Habits", "Enter the Dragon"...he's likely to have one in 5B as well given this record.)

Edited November 19, 2015 by Mathius

[LizaD]

Who wrote Hat Trick? I still think that's their best episode of the series and man did JM and Sebastian sell the hell out of it and then some.

 

I hadn't realized they had such a revolving door of writers. Maybe that's the problem? There's no dissension cause people just leave. Not saying that all these people left cause they didn't agree with A&E but that the longer you work with a group of people, the more likely disagreements come up.

[YaddaYadda]

Who wrote Hat Trick? I still think that's their best episode of the series and man did JM and Sebastian sell the hell out of it and then some.

 

Vladimir Cvetko and David H. Goodman.

[HoodlumSheep]

What about Dana H.?

*she's only been around since season 4 apparently. I liked the episodes she did. But, some of those seem to be unpopular.

Edited November 19, 2015 by HoodlumSheep

[sharky]

To be fair to Andrew though, he seems to have been saddled with the Merida episodes this season. No matter how hard to try to polish that turd, it's still a turd. And overall, I get that the final scripts are the responsibility of the writers, but I still feel that A&E are the ones driving that crazy bus. I'm not sure if it matters who they decide to put in place as a head writer, if that's what they decide to do, as long as A&E don't have their hands on everything. As others have mentioned, being more big picture guys would definitely help this show regardless of who may be put in charge of day-to-day stuff.

 

Also, we still haven't seen anything from Brigitte yet, have we? And looking at Wikipedia's episode guide, none of the scripts we know about yet have her name on them. She seems like a big Hook/Captain Swan stan so I'm wondering what a script from her is going to look like once we finally see it.

[Rumsy4]

Didn't JE say at one point that the writers get a 40-page draft? I don't know if the lesser minions write the drafts or if A&E do, but I don't think full credit/blame can fall on the declared writers for each episode. At the end of the day, A&E drive the bus, and the scripts undergo several revisions before they finalize things. More changes take place during the final editing, especially as they film more scenes than ends up in the final version. That's why we sometimes get episodes that seem widely different from the same writers.

Edited November 19, 2015 by Rumsy4

[HoodlumSheep]

I wonder when we're going to get an episode from He-who-must-not-be-named? He hasn't written anything for 5a, but what about 5b? Does he still handle some of the writing? I can't remember.

[Serena]

Liz Tigelaar was never part of the writers' room though. I think there's some sort of guild rule that they have to give one episode each season to write to someone outside the room, and LT had an overrall deal with ABC, or something so it went to her. I listened to a podcast with her about writing an episode of Once and, I think maybe Brothers and Sisters? Or another family drama, and she was talking about how she preferred the other one because fantasy wasn't her "thing".

 

However, I agree that individual writers don't really matter. How can you make "Snowing are eggnappers" or "Snow just loves adultery, cheers OQ on" good? You can't.

Edited November 19, 2015 by Serena

[Curio]

I highly doubt Adam & Eddy are jumping ship as co-showrunners because this show is their baby and their first-ever TV project where they're the head guys in charge. If they had done other projects before this, then maybe I could see them getting bored and wanting to leave, but they've had this idea for years before they pitched it, so they'll probably want to see it through to the end. But looking at that revolving door of writers, it really makes me hope David H. Goodman stays on board for the rest of the series. There may be a one or two dud episodes under his name, but he seems to be the writer who "gets" Hook's character, voice, and motivation the best. And that's one of the few things keeping me around at this point.

Edited November 20, 2015 by Curio

[Mathius]

What about Dana H.?

*she's only been around since season 4 apparently. I liked the episodes she did. But, some of those seem to be unpopular.

Dana is more miss than hit, IMO. The other new writer, Jerome Schwarz, that came with her has done better, but he benefits from being paired with David Goodman.

JE say at one point that the writers get a 40-page draft? I don't know if the lesser minions write the drafts or if A&E do, but I don't think full credit/blame can fall on the declared writers for each episode. At the end of the day, A&E drive the bus, and the scripts undergo several revisions before they finalize things. More changes take place during the final editing, especially as they film more scenes than ends up in the final version. That's why we sometimes get episodes that seem widely different from the same writers.

Agreed, at the end of the day, it all goes back to A&E.

But looking at that revolving door of writers, it really makes me hope David H. Goodman stays on board for the rest of the series. There may be a one or two dud episodes under his name, but he seems to be the writer who "gets" Hook's character, voice, and motivation the best at this point. And that's one of the few things keeping me around at this point.

Agreed. As I said, he has (IMO) one dud per season, but for the most part he manages to do the best with what he's given, and with Hook in particular.

Edited November 19, 2015 by Mathius

[Faemonic]

About Killian Jones, on the Unpopular Opinions thread:

 

That's one of those things where you have to wonder if they knew what use they'd really be making of the character when they named him -- like, would they have given him something a little easier or at least easier to shorten (in a way more dignified than "Killy") if they'd known he was going to be a regular, main character and something of a romantic lead, and if they were going to ever want to call him something other than "Captain Hook." It's a great name for a one-off or sparsely recurring character or as the alter ego of a character usually known by another name, but it's a terrible name to actually call someone, and there's no good way to shorten it to a nickname. Did the positive network feedback or whatever happened that ended up making them bring him on as a regular before his first episode aired come after they'd already shot "The Crocodile," and did they want to kick themselves later after he'd turned himself around and they realized it was going to be hard to let people call him by his first name?

In one of the panels hosted by Yvette Nicole Brown, she prodded them from Mr. Gold's first name. A&E had no clue what it was! They stammered a lot and then settled on Barbara. I preferred Robert's answer, which was Ichabod.

 

I think whoever wrote the line that first introduced him as "Killian Jones" thought it was an okay name. Cillian Murphy and Gillian Andersen are doing all right. But maybe everybody else at the writer's table and some of the actors wanted to kick that writer. Or maybe it was a unanimous agreement that they realized later doomed them to unwieldyness.

 

Or maybe, even, it was a unanimous agreement that they still think is a-okay, and not liking Killian's name really is an Unpopular Opinion!

 

I wish they'd gone with Kieran.

 

I also wonder why they gave him an Irish first name and hired an Irish actor to play him, and then made him talk in an English accent.

Well...French Australia.

 

Or, I don't know, maybe the episode "Good Form" actually is a brilliantly subtle and elaborate metaphor for the dissolution of the Black and Tans, although Killian's relationship with King Arthur is getting to be too on-the-nose. Maybe every take that Colin's accent slipped and they let it get to the final cut, it meant something.

[KingOfHearts]

 

I don't think it's that the writers' don't know how to write the relationship or don't want to write the relationship. I think it's their ham-fisted solution to a narrative problem.

I agree. Rumpbelle has been written into a corner for quite some time. In order for it to work, Rumple has to completely redeem himself. But Hero!Rumple is boring to write and sucks a lot of the fun out of the character. Regina has the same problem. With Belle coming back into play in S2, distracting her only works for long before it makes her a complete idiot. Rumple can't be the villain the audience likes to see without compromising the Beauty and the Beast relationship that's also popular. If the writers want Rumple to backslide or do gray actions in 5B, they can't let him if he's happy being a hero for Belle.

 

If Belle broke up with him in 1x12 and that was it, then it would be okay. If she left him permanently after 4A, then I'd find that passable. But since the writers have dug themselves into this hole so far, they can't end it. The narrative has already explained in great detail that no matter how many break-ups they have, they'll always get back together. In essence, the writers wanted their cake and to eat it too. They want Rumple/Mr. Gold, but Beauty and the Beast too. They want the Evil Queen, but redeemed Regina too. It just doesn't work.

Edited December 6, 2015 by KingOfHearts

[Amerilla]

In essence, the writers wanted their cake and to eat it too. They want Rumple/Mr. Gold, but Beauty and the Beast too.

 

And a lot of this is the restrictions of genre. Once is an action/fantasy show, not a relationship drama. While Twu Wuv is the catalyst of a lot of their stories, they don't really pretend it's a romance show.

 

Telling a nuanced relationship story eats up screentime. Show's got four leads and five supporting characters - not to mention the recurring characters and between a half-dozen and a dozen short-timers per half season. When you add such a bloated cast to the basic inability to do nuance or tell a simple-but-exciting story, it's no wonder they yadda yadda so much relationship stuff.  Even Regina's romance doesn't warrant a lot of exploration - it just exists, and we move on to the next plot point.

[KingOfHearts]

 

Telling a nuanced relationship story eats up screentime. Show's got four leads and five supporting characters - not to mention the recurring characters and between a half-dozen and a dozen short-timers per half season. When you add such a bloated cast to the basic inability to do nuance or tell a simple-but-exciting story, it's no wonder they yadda yadda so much relationship stuff.

I just completed my rewatch of S1, thinking it would be appropriate for tonight before the 5A finale. What I noticed was that the S1 finale does very little character development (outside of Emma believing) and it mostly plot-oriented the whole way through. It fully embraced the fantasy element and told a simple story without exposing complex emotions too much. That can be very entertaining and satisfying if the story is done right and not in every episode. There was plenty of downtime leading up to it, so it wasn't as if the emotional payoff was lacking.

 

To me, now, the writers are confused. They want to explore the human mind, morality, relationships and all the "deep stuff". But they also want to show cartoony adventures, flamboyant villains, crazy CGI, and magical shenanigans. Fairy tales, by nature, are not logical and usually don't possess detailed character development. That setup is juxtaposed against a prime-time drama format, which can make it very problematic. But how S1 handles it is compartmentalization. The flashbacks can be whimsical, silly or epic, while the Storybrooke events can remain more realistic, mature and dialogue-heavy. It's a great contrast and the little connections that link them together are clever and not in your face.

 

2B-onward, on the other hand, does not carry the same subtlety. When we see a character repeating what they've done in the past, it's not their real selves bleeding through the curse any more. It's lazy parallel writing trying desperately to hold onto the same formula while still attempting to bring the fantasy upfront in the present. It intermixes Saturday morning cartoons with deep relationships, all the while introducing a ton of new characters. It's like speed dating through the Disney universe. The show goes from being about fairy tales living in the real world to fairy tales playing by the same rules they always have, just with cell phones.

 

It all becomes a mess because the writers want everything at the same time. They can't pace. They can't plan long-term. They just throw out what they feel like.

Edited December 6, 2015 by KingOfHearts

[Mari]

But, at the same time, for a not-a-romance show, they spend a lot of time on relationships.

 

I guess I don't see the problem with just letting the relationships be a given fact, as long as they use the characters.  For example, while I like Snow (sort of.   Some days.) and Charming, I'd have no problem with their relationship almost never being the focus, as long as they were allowed to do something interesting once in a while.  I enjoy Hook and Emma, but would be just fine with them being eventually made into an established couple, with drama centered around something else, as long as that was interesting.  

 

Why do they insist on focusing Belle and Rumple's drama around their break-up/make-up pattern?  Because since they're not interested in doing a serious relationship exploration, wouldn't it be a more interesting story to do one or the other, and then focus them on just having the Storybrooke version of regular lives?    If they're together, you see them having a tender moment before Belle goes off to help someone research, or Rumple helps track down a magical object.  Maybe once in a while one of them gets kidnapped or cursed, and the other is traumatized and helps fix the situation.

 

They're doing wacky drama with Regina and Robin's relationship, too.  I mean, what's a more soap opera relationship drama than having a baby with your girlfriend's sister after deceptive sex?    If the writing team wanted to focus on fantasy action, why are they setting up these ridiculous storylines?  Wouldn't it make more sense to just move Regina and Robin into a relationship, then have brief sweet or sparky scenes that move quickly into whatever the current Storybrooke threat is?

 

I'm not convinced they don't want to write romance.  I wonder if they do, but are just really bad at it.

[Amerilla]

I'm not convinced they don't want to write romance.  I wonder if they do, but are just really bad at it.

 

Maybe that's my problem: my brain just rejects the idea they could be so bad at it and still be employed.

[KingOfHearts]

 

Maybe that's my problem: my brain just rejects the idea they could be so bad at it and still be employed.

That's probably why we still discuss this show. There's got to be other reasons... right? Right?!

[Rumsy4]

Maybe they never figured how to add Belle to the show organically, as Skin Deep was originally meant to be a one-off? I wish the writers had not introduced romance into Rumple's life. The Nevengers are "heroic" enough to keep saving his life even without Belle's prodding. I would have taken Rumple&Neal iinteractions over Lacey and Love Triangle drama any day!

[YaddaYadda]

Maybe they never figured how to add Belle to the show organically, as Skin Deep was originally meant to be a one-off?

 

But the moment they decided to keep her meant that they had or should have had concrete plans for her. It's been 5 years, and as far as I'm concerned, they really have no excuses.

 

In any case, Belle and Robin are interchangeable. 

Edited December 7, 2015 by YaddaYadda

[KingOfHearts]

https://twitter.com/AdamHorowitzLA/status/673738619706720256

Seeing a lot of negative feedback on tonight's episode. Hmm.

[Curio]

https://twitter.com/AdamHorowitzLA/status/673738619706720256

Seeing a lot of negative feedback on tonight's episode. Hmm.

Twitter hates every episode. It's kind of like these forums, except instead of giving constructive criticism and cohesive sentences with punctuation, it's just nonsense and ship wars.

Edited December 7, 2015 by Curio

[Mathius]

https://twitter.com/AdamHorowitzLA/status/673738619706720256

Seeing a lot of negative feedback on tonight's episode. Hmm.

 

It's from the regular crowd of obnoxious BA Swan Queen and Rumbelle shippers.  Who cares?

[KingOfHearts]

 

Twitter hates every episode. It's kind of like these forums, except instead of giving constructive criticism and cohesive sentences with punctuation and actual sentences, it's just nonsense and ship wars.

I see more hate this time than usual. I think some valid points were made.

Edited December 7, 2015 by KingOfHearts

[Curio]

Amy Manson is RTing some bitter stuff from fans about the lack of closure for her character. A few days ago she wrote "Can't wait for you both to see what #merida does in the mid season finale", so... I'm guessing a bunch of stuff was cut.

 

I don't understand how A&E manage to do this every season. It's mind-boggling that after several years of being showrunners, they still haven't figured out a formula where they don't try and cram in a billion characters into a storyline, only to realize they have to squeeze everything they've built up into a 42 minute finale. And there was absolutely no excuse this half season because they were technically gifted another episode by ABC (that they promptly wasted on some characters we haven't seen since Season 3). At least they made the smart decision and cut out the superfluous secondary characters in 5A's finale instead of pulling a 4A finale where they short-changed the main characters' arcs. It's still frustrating as a viewer to constantly get all of this build up, but without a properly paced resolution to everything. Rushed and frantic does not equal intense, guys!

 

And these are the same showrunners who think that they have enough time to quickly run another show during the summer.

[Camera One]

If they are writing each half-season as a somewhat self-contained story, then it is a fail that the Camelot characters were dropped like a hot potato, with no attempt at any sort of resolution.  This was the first half season where their special toys became blatantly irrelevant.  Usually, one thing I can say for them is they plan out the beginning and the ending of the arc, with very little in between.  The role of Merlin in particular was extremely poorly thought out and executed.  

[Hookian]

First of all Amy comes off not only unprofessional but ungrateful. How many centrics did Merida have this season? 2. How many were completely useless to the main plot? 2. 

 

So she should be freaking grateful instead of whining about the fact that her ten seconds of screentime in this episode got cut. I'm sure ABC will release their cut farewell.

[Katherine]

I agree that the Camelot arc was poorly planned out. Dropping the characters without any kind of resolution or mention just isn't good writing. I mean, I'm glad they focused on Emma and Hook in the finale, and I definitely prefer short-changing the Camelot arc to short-changing the main arc, but the fact that they always end up short-changing someone is a problem. Maybe they can somehow work the cut scenes into next season? This kind of reminds me of how they dropped the character of Will.

That being said, I do think Amy Manson is handling it poorly. She has a right to be annoyed, but it's probably not a good idea to voice that annoyance in a public forum, particularly since Once really did give her a good opportunity this season.

[Wishing Well]

I found out that these two also wrote the newest Tron movie and now everything makes so much more sense.

[Rumsy4]

Could care less about Merida, but the Camelot characters deserved better. Shame.

[Serena]

Amy is unprofessional. She just burned a lot of bridges - she may not care about offending A&E, but does she think DISNEY won't notice? The company is so image conscious, would they risk hiring an actress who would go off on Twitter when something displeases her again?

 

Does it suck for her her scenes got suck? But that happens in Hollywood ALL THE TIME. I'm sure Sean isn't overjoyed by what he's had to "work" with this season. I'm sure MRJ wasn't either at the time. But they act like grownups about it.

[Rumsy4]

It's odd because her character actually had

closure in Camelot at least, unlike Arthur and co..

What the eff happens to Guin and Arthur and Lancelot? Maybe they'll show the scenes they cut in the 5B. Doesn't seem likely though.

Edited December 7, 2015 by Rumsy4

[OnceUponAJen]

I was sure that the writers had set up the whole UW ale thing with Merida so that we'd get Hook and Emma speaking again before showing the Nevengers leaving for the UW. It was probably in their plans, but they either dropped it or shot the scene, but didn't have time for it in the finale.

[Serena]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the episode ran long and they had to decide what scenes to cut. They should have planned better, but they made the right decision.

[HoodlumSheep]

I feel like releasing the Camelot crew's goodbye as a deleted scene would be kind of offensive and a bit insulting. I'd rather they shoehorn it into the 100th, like right at the beginning and turn it into a quick flashback of some sort.

Because if it's deleted, then what does that mean when the dvd's released or people rewatch this arc? There's a lot of people who are going to keep thinking, "I wonder what Guinevere, etc. is doing in Storybrooke right now?" In 5b. Although I guess that's the same thing that's happened with Will, Lily, etc.

I feel like just having it as a deleted scene isn't going to cut it in this case.

I'm curious to see all the Merlin stuff they dropped. elliot had mentioned there was a lot more to Nimue (and hinted at the possibility of more Merlin, too) in the final episodes, and we really didn't get that. Also, I still want to know what that snow globe was.

Edited December 7, 2015 by HoodlumSheep

[Curio]

I believe now would be a great time to pull out that "there's just so many characters" quote from Eddie.

[FierceAfroChick]

The Dark Swan/Dark Hook storyline could have been great if they hadn’t:

 

*Involved Camelot/Excalibur
*Killed Hook again.
*Retconned Hook’s back story to include Regina.
*Gave emotional beats that should have been Emma’s (talking Hook down) to Regina.

 

And I’m convinced that as long as Regina and Rumpel exist on this show, other characters will get dragged down to prop them.  I almost got a twitter account because I need the writers to know that they are totally fucking up Hook and Emma’s dynamic by dropping Regina into it.  First 4.11 and now this shit.  If Emma had been the one to convince Hook to turn away from the Darkness, that would have been a nice parallel to him doing the same for her and it would have made sense given that she’s a key reason for him wanting to be a better man.

 

Rumpel or Regina is going to have to die in order for this show to make sense again.  Most of the ridiculousness comes from the writers twisting themselves into knots to even the evil playing field to make Regina look better and to keep Rumpel relevant.   But since death for Mary Sue and Gary Stu isn’t going to happen, all I can do is keep drinking while watching this show.

[orza]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the episode ran long and they had to decide what scenes to cut. They should have planned better, but they made the right decision.

I don't see how this particular case is a writing issue. Writers don't have creative control over the final product. and are not involved in the editing. The writer's job is to produce about 60 minutes of material and his job is done when he turns in his script. Producers are involved with the editing and network people ultimately decide what is broadcast. I imagine that for a big fall finale like this Mary Ann Wolf or her people would screen the episode and final editing of the episode would be based on her feedback.

 

We know from filming spoilers, BTS photos and actor tweets that the big Camelot goodbye scene was filmed. I do agree that it was a good call not to include that material in this episode. A cheerful goodbye scene did not fit the mood of this episode.

[Rumsy4]

Adam has said several times that he and Eddy make the final decision on what scenes to cut. They retain creative control of the product until it's ready to go.

[orza]

When A & E say they decide what gets cut they are acting in their role as executive producers, not as writers. And they still have to get Mary Ann Wolf's blessing, though not for every detail. She is VP for current programming at abc and has control over what is broadcast. 

[Curio]

Considering A&E wrote the episode and are the show runners and executive producers, I think they were very influential in deciding which scenes were cut and what the final product looked like.

Edited December 7, 2015 by Curio

[Rumsy4]

Yes. It's strange to assume A&E sit on their hands while someone else makes all the final decisions.

[Free]

I don't understand how A&E manage to do this every season. It's mind-boggling that after several years of being showrunners, they still haven't figured out a formula where they don't try and cram in a billion characters into a storyline, only to realize they have to squeeze everything they've built up into a 42 minute finale. And there was absolutely no excuse this half season because they were technically gifted another episode by ABC (that they promptly wasted on some characters we haven't seen since Season 3). At least they made the smart decision and cut out the superfluous secondary characters in 5A's finale instead of pulling a 4A finale where they short-changed the main characters' arcs. It's still frustrating as a viewer to constantly get all of this build up, but without a properly paced resolution to everything. Rushed and frantic does not equal intense, guys!

 

And these are the same showrunners who think that they have enough time to quickly run another show during the summer.

 

Agreed, they have set arcs and yet it still results in a mess.

[orza]

Yes. It's strange to assume A&E sit on their hands while someone else makes all the final decisions.

I didn't say that. Fact is that abc owns the show and A&E only have as much creative control over the show as abc gives them. Normally, that is an awful lot of control. Networks trust their show runners to do their jobs without micromanaging them, but at the same time networks are responsible for the content they broadcast so oversight is necessary.

[Serena]

I'm sure if ABC felt a last Merida/Camelot scene was necessary, they would have made A&E add it. They made them add a random Robin scene in 5B because they were afraid the audience had forgotten about him while he was in NY.

[scenicbyway]

Can I just say I won't be reading Brigitte's hints on Twitter. She'd been teasing since September that the mid season finale was great for Captain Swan and then a few weeks ago she cried happy tears once she saw it on film. Either she hates Captain Swan or has a weird since of humor. I don't consider the fact that Emma had to kill Killian as good for them going forward...

[Camera One]

For a writer, what's great for a couple is a whole lot of overwrought drama and they delivered that in spades in the mid-season finale for CS.  What's not good for a couple is dialogue-less scenes eating lasagna by themselves waiting to die.

Edited December 8, 2015 by Camera One

[Mathius]

CS got confirmed as endgame TL on par with Snowing (and remember, Snow killed Charming in 3B), and Hook beat the Darkness for Emma. I think it was good for the couple in the long run.

[Rumsy4]

What's not good for a couple is dialogue-less scenes eating lasagna by themselves waiting to die.

 

I'm starting to think Ginny and Josh decided they may as well have Baby no. 2 while they are sitting/standing around waiting for plot to happen around them. 

[orza]

I'm starting to think Ginny and Josh decided they may as well have Baby no. 2 while they are sitting/standing around waiting for plot to happen around them. 

Ginny started publicly talking about wanting to have a big family just months after her little boy was born. It seems more likely that Ginny's priority is having babies and she is fine with transitioning to a supporting role with little to do and the show is happy to oblige with a light filming schedule. Josh has always been in a supporting role so limited screen time is his normal. Some actors are quite happy to have a cushy job and collect a fat paycheck.