Picking up from this topic:
The 2004 WB Pilot
I finally saw the 2004 pilot last night in Burbank. Jim Pierson introduced it, and generally had lots of criticisms to make--about how Marley Shelton was "allowed" to be blonde, about what he saw as "odd choices" by Jessica Chastain as Carolyn, and in general whining about how it wasn't "Dan's vision."
Honestly, I didn't care. After all the bellyaching I'd heard from those who'd seen it--it was awful, the characters didn't make any sense, the actors couldn't act, etc.--what I saw was an excellent re-imagination of the basic story. A few plot holes along the way were closed as well. The look was extraordinary (although methinks it would have been tricky to sustain for a weekly series), the hints of where there going with the whole idea were fresh and interesting.
Yeah, some stuff was different. Julia was an attractive younger woman rather than a severe older one--but with a speculative reaction to the attacks suddenly happening in Collinsport. David seemed genuinely disturbed, the most-impacted person in what is clearly a dysfunctional family. Roger, rather than a sarcastic dilletante, came across as a stubborn and extremely withdrawn man with his own dark secrets. Perhaps most startling was to see Willie Loomis as someone well-groomed and articulate, if not the sharpest or most ambitious pencil in the box.
For the record, I thought Jessica Chastain gave the single best performance.
A minor complaint--I just didn't like the full portrait of Barnabas. Methinks it eliminated the power of a "close up" portrait and made less explicable everyone's reaction to their english cousin. Another complaint (which is also a problem IMHO with the 1991 version) is making Victoria Winters the reincarnation of Josette. Apart from the fact it is now a cliche, this does not follow the original storyline at all. That in and of itself I don't mind, but this is weaker than the original. If Josette has not been reincarnated (as it was in the original series--because we saw her reincarnated in 1897 and know what that would be like) then Barnabas is just trying to turn a look-alike into a brainwashed copy of his love. Not only is this more disturbing, it creates a most specific conflict in that he has the potential of another, real love in the present--Victoria Winters, not as a reincarnation but as she herself right now.
Anyway, I wrote a fuller review and am posting it on my blog tomorrow morning.