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« on: December 04, 2014, 07:55:00 PM »
Grayson Hall delivers a kittenish voiceover intro, relishing "the infamous Count Petofi"... I'm always afraid this this treasured program of mine will turn out not to have been enjoyed or respected by its makers. Grayson as Grayson (or as a neutral announcer) seems "into" it though...
We open with, groan, Tim again trying to ingratiate for a living. Get a job! He paces Petofi's empty Lair. I do like how they allowed time for the actors to behave realistically, this time anyway, even though it drags down any action or plot. Beth looks down her nose at him, which at her height is actually possible. Petofi comes in, actually seeming as if he's been someplace and is getting ready to knock off for a bit. He takes a few moments to choose to deal with Tim's presence. I like how unhurried the scene was. With DS, I'm always too conscious of the pressures of time upon them all, everyone making the show, and I like scenes like this, as an antidote to that.
Tim debuts suit #2 I think. This one's brown. Petofi is glad to hear Barnabas is "dead" (no one quibbles about that), and recent canary gourmet Tim seems astonished yet again that a shower of riches doesn't fall from the ceiling in response to the news. It seems his one bravura performance as a blackmailer with Trask and Judith taught him a simple, absolute, and utterly wrong life lesson... that you can base a career on that. He keeps trying to repeat that success, and it seems it will take about fifty failures or so to get through to him that he's made a fundamental mistake.
Petofi makes a lot of house calls these days. He drops in on Julia, a sort of post-murder-attempt courtesy call, as I understand was de rigeur at the time. I'd like to see Julia take her new confidence to extremes, which she's getting from knowing her own invulnerability. Either she could do some cool, insanely risky things (not risky to her), or become overconfident and take the attitude too far. They didn't get a chance to squeeze any of that in... Petofi tells her Barnabas is "dead" (again no quibbling over words) and gets the reaction Tim didn't. Julia gasps... then someone walks in and presents her on the spot with a Daytime Emmy. In my mind that is.
If there is such a person as a "rector", I imagine he's bound and gagged in a closet as this conversation is going on. Again, in my mind.
The (With)Drawing Room. Quentin greets Amanda, who walks in in a very eye-catching yellow dress. She and Nathan Forbes were made for each other. I just remembered, I'm out of bananas. Back on subject... Q and Amanda use the Grand Central Station of Maine as their private love hideaway. Angelique is way overdue to walk in. Donna McKechnie calls Quentin Tim, then on her next line has to think for a moment to remember "Quentin". Take that, poor innocent working actress who's just trying to do her job... It can be fun noticing these things, though.
I like Petofi's lines in the drawing room scene with Q. Gordon Russell though, not VW. Well written scene overall. Again we see Quentin thinking.
Tim does I Ching! Unfortunately they let us down, showing just a warning that Amanda's in danger from Quentin. I wonder which hexagram it was.