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« on: August 24, 2022, 06:12:11 PM »
I vastly prefer The Dream Curse. The show was at a creative peak, wild and unpredictable. It also managed to involve almost the entire cast and gave each some interesting screen time. I too would like to have seen what Roger's dream would have been like. Elizabeth was off in the looney bin at that point but I'm sure that the writers would have come up with something special for her. But there certainly could have been dreams for Tony Peterson, Joe Haskell and Harry Johnson. Maybe even one for Cassandra.
The dreaded playroom! A truly bad idea right from the beginning. A retread of the Quentin/Beth haunting of less than two years previous and it does not compare well. David and Hallie are much too old to be drawn to a playroom. It's creepy for all the wrong reasons. I can accept vampires, werewolves, ghosts and witches. But I could never understand how the door would open to a huge playroom for some people but be a linen closet for others. Physical space should not change. If it's going to, there needs to be a reason.
Why does Gerard want to destroy Collinwood? He and Daphne have possessed the children and have taken control of Carolyn, Quentin, Elizabeth and Mrs. Johnson. Maggie has been sidelined. Barnabas is easily distracted. Julia spends way too much time reading ancient journals. Roxanne prevents Sebastian from doing anything. And Eliot is surprisingly useless.
I also think that the established occult practitioner Quentin is so easily seduced by the ghost of Daphne. That would have worked far better with Roger but Louis Edmonds had the good sense to sit this story out.
Many things are hinted at in 1995 and this setting but they never pan out. The Daphne/Gerard relationship that we see in 1840 doesn't really reflect what we see in 1970. And, if he's such a powerful warlock, why should he need two inept kids to resurrect him? Why would he have Carolyn be possessed by Leticia? In 1840, she's afraid of him. Edith would have been a better choice.
Poor Hallie. Poor, poor Hallie. I don't know if Cody was directed to give such an irritating performance or if that was the best that she was capable of at the time. I can easily picture director Henry Kaplan coming to her dressing room after taping and deliver a C minus.
Despite its many flaws, I do maintain a certain affection for the story. Nancy Barrett does some phenomenal work. And it's our final extended look at the core characters.