Hello, everyone. I finished watching DS in its entirety about a fortnight ago, and decided to join this forum to celebrate.
I look upon 1840 as the "Marnie" of the DS storylines. Much like Hitchcock's 1964 film, it's undoubtedly incredibly flawed, but engrossing, enchanting and constantly thought provoking. It's also integral to the DS mythos in a way that something like 1970PT wasn't. The actual moment of Angelique's death is logical, ironic and tragic all at the same time, rather like a Shakespearean tragedy. However, what I take issue to is the lead up to this, what should have been the development of Barnabas and Angelique's newfound kinship. Now we get a few glimpses of this (the scene where Angelique removes the curse and Barnabas admits that he finally understands his love, and later when Angelique reveals that it is Gerard who in fact is possessed by Judah at Quentin's execution), and they are gems, but there is simply not enough. In fact, I do seem to remember getting an abundance of Judah/Gerard mind-screwing Daphne, which is neither interesting nor integral to the core mythos of the show. Although 1840 had some great ideas, it just seemed like the writers were getting a little lazy.
Oh, by the way, I love the Leviathans. Just want to see where that sits.