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I have mixed feelings about 1897. Part of it is excellent, taut storylines, interesting complex characters, some really good performances. Part of it, you get the feeling that the writers had given up even trying to outline and were pretty much writing it day by day; it shows and it sucks.
The sibling rivalry/who did Edith leave the $$$ to?, Magda and Sandor, Trask and Judith, Quentin, Jenny, Beth, even a bit of Laura--all these are characters and elements that work so very well.
I think Joan Bennett possibly did some of her finest work as Judith and she plays beautifully against Jerry Lacy's Trask and David Selby. For anyone who thinks that the Reverend Trask is the same as Gregory Trask, well, they need to watch and compare the two again, because Lacy shines as Trask.
In the latter half of the storyline when I'm wishing to hell they would just end it, there are still great moments. KLS as Kitty, Lady Hampshire (she would only be Lady Kitty if she was the daughter of a duke or an earl--she married into her title) does some of her best work. I really wish they would not have morphed her into yet another SYT because she was interesting to watch. Then we have the Petofi character, who while he's just kind of disgusting to me, gives us one great performance from Thayer David.
And of course, there's Quentin.
What I don't like? Well, as I said, there's a point when they jumped the shark and you can tell. TPTB had no clue WTF they were doing. Characters lose motivations, plots make no sense. They had written themselves into one big hole and had no idea how to get out. Garth (sorry VAM), I don't get. Why is he there? Why should I care that he is? The Quentin/Angelique thing made no sense to me. It didn't work in terms of her character, which up until that point had been relatively consistent.
I like the Charity/Pansy angle a lot, but I think they went too far with it and didn't know how to come back. Amanda? WTF? This was during the "let's match Quentin with every female character under forty and see if our ratings jump" period. Rachel comes from the early 1897 period, but she's positively annoying to me. The character was written atrociously; there is no sense/or thought behind any of her actions and it's all godawful. Roger Davis also has entirely too much to do during this plot.
Luciaphil
