DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
General Discussions => Current Talk Archive => Current Talk '24 I => Current Talk '11 II => Topic started by: michael c on October 29, 2011, 05:31:06 PM
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i've been rewatching the end of the leviathan storyline and the introduction of 1970 parallel-time...
those first episodes when barnabas first sees the room and it's inhabitants are certainly some of the series' most goosebump inspiring. especially the catty exchanges between "hoffman" and "elizabeth". roger spying "himself" in the room is another very memorable moment and the whole setup is highly mysterious and atmospheric.
but the way that this plot is introduced is somewhat misleading. liz, roger, julia, carolyn and willie are the characters used to set this storyline up. they're the most prominently featured and the implication is that they will be the focus characters...
but we all know how that went, don't we? after the initial setup the main cast departs to tarrytown for the filming of HODS, quentin, angelique(not featured in the movie)and the secondary characters(cyrus, sabrina, bruno, etc.)take over and then they are largely absent for the rest of the time period.
don't get me wrong. i very much enjoy this period and storyline. but having seen it before i'm slightly disappointed knowing that the main collins family will be away for much of it. the sneak peak we get at characters like parallel-time liz, roger, carolyn and company are fascinating and i would love to have seen more of them. at least "hoffman" gets alot of screen time. she's too much fun.
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I agree, and I understand the logistics did create the long absences (although some did show up here and there on the show during the filming of the movie, shuttling back and forth, but that was probably arduous until they all returned after DC said "that's a wrap" at Tarrytown). My favorite PT characters were Carl and Carolyn Loomis and I wish there had been more of them burning up the scenery. What were their characters' backgrounds? How did they meet? Stuff like that, too. And how did Liz and Roger become the "poor relations," the glamour gone (it was actually an enjoyable twist, seeing Liz in frumpy clothes and sweaters), relying on the benefits of younger-brother Quentin who apparently inherited virtually everything? Was Roger ever married? Did PT Paul Stoddard croak from natural causes or did he and Liz divorce? There were so many dynamics to explore but time did not allow for it.
Gerard
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Do we know that Quentin was Elizabeth and Roger's younger brother? I always thought they were some kind of poor cousins that Quentin allowed to live at Collinwood out of the goodness of his heart.
I also liked Carl and Carolyn Loomis. Maybe Carolyn wanted to rise above her mother's station and frumpy wardrobe and hung out at literary and artistic events. She must have married Carl back when he was still cranking out bestsellers.
It would have been fun to find out all the things you mention, Gerard!
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i think more than any other characters liz, roger and carolyn are the viewers' "collinwood representatives".
they stand for collinwood with a presence and permanence that the other characters do not. so introducing the storyline through them makes more sense that just having someone like cyrus or buffie(who viewers were not that invested in yet)walk onscreen for the setup. but again it ends up being rather misleading.
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I agree with you, the initial teasers for PT were very evocative and full of promise, but then it was a long time before we got to really explore the secrets of the PT Collins family. I definitely found Roger, Carolyn, Will, and Elizabeth much more interesting than the Cyrus and Alexis sideplots that were created to fill in during HODS. I found those filler episodes to really drag on, personally (what really comes to mind is that episode where they had a pathetic costume party where no one at all showed up--yet we had seen a vast and vibrant Collins family at first.) I also think that many of the later stories on DS did start out very interesting, but eventually fell back on the same-old. I would much rather have seen almost everyone survive to the end.
p.s. Carl is an 1897 name; it was Will Loomis for 1970PT
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Whoops, I did mean Will, of course! But I agree that this storyline started out with incredible promise that was squandered because they filmed HoDS at the same time. One wonders what might have been if they hadn't done the movie--or at least not then.
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Double whoops! I also meant Will Loomis (William H. Loomis, to be more precise). Dang all these time periods!
Gerard
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I love Will's first scene with Maggie Collins. That whole first week of PT (after the teaser scenes) is just brilliant.
It's disappointing that after the return from Tarrytown, Liz goes back to being like a watered down version of our timeband's Liz--especially in wardrobe. As we see her initially, she looked the kind of spinster or widow lady who would volunteer a lot at the church or a nursing home. Liz has one line in which she refers to having had money but she gave it to Roger to manage or invest and he lost all of it. Now Roger and Elizabeth have to rely upon a monthly allowance given them by Quentin.
I'm glad that PT Roger had a consistently defined persona and that we gradually learned more about him.
I think of this as the last strongly told and thought out storyline of the series. After 1995 it's all downhill, alas.
G.
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no matter who joan is cast as on the series at some point she seems to morph back into "liz". she just did haughty and matriarchal so well it's her default. does her wardrobe here go glam again, i forget?
i agree this storyline is the last truly original one on the series before it devolves into rehashes and retreads and teenagers playing with dollhouses.
it is a great storyline it's just that the setup is a bit misleading in terms of who will be the primary players here. although it is set in an alternate timeband it is also set in the "present" in terms of atmosphere. it's not another sojourn into the past and in general i prefer the "present time" storylines so that's another reason i like it.
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as few more thoughts about the period and in particular quentin...
as soon as the storyline shifts completely to parallel-time and quentin is introduced as the protagonist the character comes to life(as annoying as parallel-time quentin can be).
in fact in any other time period besides the "present" quentin can easily be written into the lead and the character makes sense. yet in the "present" i always am struck how poorly written and integrated the character seems. he's never given a compelling raison d'etre. to me he just sort of sticks out like a seven foot tall piece of dead wood.
perhaps because by the time her showed up at collinwood as a real flesh and blood character the show had already been on the air for nearly four years. the tone at collinwood had been established and to me he never fits in. he's an awkward presence standing around with julia and liz. i don't "get him".
but in any other period he makes sense. he can be written as big as they want him to be. he's by nature a protagonist and just doesn't work as a supporting character.
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I agree about Quentin in the present time being out of place. They went out of their way in 1897 to make sure he would be around in the present time but then when they get to the present time, they didn't know what to do with him.
Perhaps they should had David Selby play another grandson of his daughter Lenore in the present time and just have him die in 1897 as he did originally.
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That would've been a great idea, Joey! They could've even kept the new character's name Quentin (and maybe have given him a different last name). He would show up at Collinwood, the descendent of Lenore, investigating his "lost heritage." At least there wouldn't've been the "Grant/Olivia" sub-plot, replaced with so many other possibilities.
Gerard
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I would have loved to have seen who Jennifer Evans was going to be parallel to. Was this the part that Marie Wallace was supposed to play? Or a parallel to Olivia Corey or Vicki?
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One of the ONLY interesting things about Leviathans was the interaction with 1897. I got fed up with muliple Quentins all over the place. Q in 1970 would fall flat, as just some descendant named Quentin. but his having lived through all the intervening years, that's fascinating. Olivia Corey and the cheap-ass limbo reality could have been left out. Q didn't have much to do in 1969-70, but they could have written him better.
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except we never found out what quentin had been doing in those intervening year. the writers didn't even TOUCH upon it. they never bothered.
to me there was nothing fascinating about quentin in 1969-70. the writers threw in the towel. it was as if, aiming the series heavily at the preteen audience by this time, they just thought they could call him "quentin", give him those sideburns, stick in him that victorian room with that stupid gramophone, and nobody would notice how badly he was written or question what he was doing in that house.
just have him fight the monster like he did in 1897 and the kids will come running. a comic book character. lame. [hall2_rolleyes]
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There is one episode where Quentin's 1930s/40s pre-Grant Douglas identity is mentioned. Julia finds a clipping and some other things and a name is mentioned. I can't recall it at the moment but it's one of my favorite episodes. I love the shows where Julia is trying to help "Grant" overcome his amnesia just because I think Grayson and Selby had such fabulous on-screen chem.
But you're right, the show could have done more with this, but they didn't. An option might have been to have a storyline that involved the 1920s and Quentin having to do the I Ching back to his former self then and come to Collinsport and change history. I think Selby would have looked very hot in 20s regalia, and the women would have looked great in the period fashions too.
Ah, we can dream...
G.
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The idea of Q being there in 1969 is fascinating. Then of course they do little with him. I wouldn't give up 100-year-old crazy Tate for anything. Leviathans is like that. A lot of elements that your imagination can run away with, that seem great at first, then little is done with them.
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Quentin was used poorly in mist of the modern day, which is a shame, he was so great in 1897.
I'm pretty sure Quentin was supposed to be a cousin to Liz and Roger in PT. I always thought he was the descendent of Jenny and Quentin's son who lived in PT, but that's just my theory.
I always wondered who Maggie's sister Jennifer was supposed to be. In my imagination she's Maggie's adopted sister , the PT version of Vicki.
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I wonder if Hannah Stokes was meant to be the parallel version of Mrs. Johnson. Though Paula Lawrence certainly did some good work as the character, it does seem to be a good fit for Clarice Blackburn
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I loved Paula Lawrence and I wish they had done more with her.
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A parallel Mrs. Findlay maybe?
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To my understanding, Hannah Stokes was just a placeholder while Thayer David was unavailable to portray his PT Stokes character. It was therefore rather unplanned, so I don't think they had that much in mind except that she was a loyal relative to Angelique. It might have been interesting if she stuck around and had some scenes with her brother, but alas no.
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...Anyway, she was probably the PT version of Hallie Stokes' dead mother, right?
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Well, I think that Hallie was supposed to be the daughter of Stokes' brother.
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I wonder if Hannah Stokes was meant to be the parallel version of Mrs. Johnson. Though Paula Lawrence certainly did some good work as the character, it does seem to be a good fit for Clarice Blackburn
since clarice didn't appear as mrs.johnson in HODS(the part was recast)filmed at the same time one can assume she must have had some other commitment.
unfortunately after her stint as minerva trask in 1897 blackburn's presence on the series became greatly diminished with the exception of her "1995" appearance.
as versatile as blackburn was i don't see her as the flamboyant hannah stokes. there was a sourness and seriousness to all of her roles that feels at odds with the eccentric hannah. still it could have been an interesting part for her to take on.
paula lawrence was alot of fun in the role. i wish she had stuck around longer. there is something of an abruptness to her departure. a hastiness. she ended up being rather underused.
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Well, I think that Hallie was supposed to be the daughter of Stokes' brother.
Yup--she would have to be the daughter of a male Stokes in order for her last name to be Stokes as well.
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Auntie Hanna was a wonderful character, along with Buffie Harrington and, as has been pointed out, despite so much potential they were both underutilized.
There was so much in PT1970 that could've been explored but never was. Exactly how was Quentin related to Elizabeth and Roger? I always figured him to be a younger brother; others think he was a cousin. Either way, why did he inherit virtually everything whilst the rest became the "poor relations?" Why was Angelique Stokes the belle of Collinsport? It appears that Big Daddy Timothy Stokes was another well-to-do in Collinsport (and it seems that the PT Collinsport was more affluent that the regular time one). Why was Quentin smitten by her enough earlier to marry her? What soured their marriage (although things were hinted at)? How did Carolyn Stoddard meet William Loomis? Why did Maggie Evans and her sister move to New York City? How did the recently mourning widower Quentin meet up with her there? Did ABC also broadcast The Brady Bunch in PT1970? Did people watch The Beverely Hillbillies? Would Amy Collins go on to appear on The Electric Company?
I would rather they had explored all this instead of having a lame Jekyll-and-Hyde subplot with the mysterious vanishing nose.
Gerard
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There was so much in PT1970 that could've been explored but never was.
Yes, that's something I have complained about, but around the time the Watching Project finished with 1970 parallel time, I decided that the lack of detail was something that was a deliberate part of the atmosphere of that storyline. I'm looking forward to watching it some other time in the future and enjoying, instead of deploring, the many unconnected dots.
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I would also love to know what really happened between Sam Evans and Quentin's father that led to Sam's death and the subsequent suicide of Quentin's father. Angelique/Alexis mentions that Maggie might have reason to avenge her father's death by targeting the Collins family.
This might also explain some of the hostility that Maggie experiences from Daniel, Roger and Hoffman
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Well, I think that Hallie was supposed to be the daughter of Stokes' brother.
I see. But the rules of PT conversion are such that she could still have been the PT of Hallie's mother, not that the writers likely thought that far ahead or in-depth at that late stage of the series. There were certainly people in that time who kept their maiden name and even gave it to their children after marriage; my own grandmother was one of them.
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My biggest PT gripe has been that they'd just drop PT versions of RT characters in, without thinking of whether it was possible for them to be there. PT was supposed to be about different choices characters made... I always thought, then I guess Quentin decided to be born in the 20th century.
Quentin and Angelique could have been descendants of "our" Q and A, but since they don't address this, we might take that as evidence that they didn't care or didn't think about it. Then again, DS is full of instances where it's left to the viewer to figure things out.
I think the biggest problem with PT and some other storylines was that they were concerned with the impact that something would make onscreen that day, and sense and fitting it into a larger story were considered irrelevant. Look, another Quentin! Look, another Angelique!
I agree that if you as a viewer are actually taken to a parallel universe, we should be able to expect more than Rebecca and Jeckyl and Hyde redone. I'm now listening to the novel "Rebecca", so I'll probably have fresh complaints about PT later...
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i actually like the "rebecca" redo. it's so blatantly derivative it's stunning but it's fun. it's hard to beat "hoffman".
the jeckyl and hyde plot i could have easily done without although elizabeth eis is alot of fun. and don't get me started on the liesure-suited snoozefest that is the damien edwards subplot. talk about filler.
if nothing else lara parker is really given the opportunity to shine and take center stage since she was not part of the movie shoot and was available to be fully showcased in this storyline. ang spent so much time in period costume she looked lovely in the parallel-time couture as outrageous as some of it was.
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i'm really enjoying this rewatch...
one thing i like about this storyline is that, for lack of a better word and in terms of DS, it sort of feels "normal". i like the atmosphere at collinwood.
"normal" of course is a relative term but what i mean is that there are not monsters coming out of the woodwork. it is largely about people and on DS after 1968 that is saying something. it is told with a slightly more "adult" sensibility than some other storylines.
yes there is a vampire and a ghost and whatever exactly angelique is here(a witch? sort of?) but there is not some overarching theme about a race of demonic creatures trying to take over the entire earth like there was during the later part of the adam storyline or the leviathan plot.
it's just about the crazy folks in the house up on the hill in their hairpieces and psychedelic prints. that's it. i like that about it.
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one thing i like about this storyline is that, for lack of a better word and in terms of DS, it sort of feels "normal". i like the atmosphere at collinwood.
"normal" of course is a relative term but what i mean is that there are not monsters coming out of the woodwork. it is largely about people and on DS after 1968 that is saying something. it is told with a slightly more "adult" sensibility than some other storylines.
yes there is a vampire and a ghost and whatever exactly angelique is here(a witch? sort of?) but there is not some overarching theme about a race of demonic creatures trying to take over the entire earth like there was during the later part of the adam storyline or the leviathan plot.
it's just about the crazy folks in the house up on the hill in their hairpieces and psychedelic prints. that's it. i like that about it.
I like an adult story, but an adult story with imagination. Everything you said may be why I don't like PT.
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There is a "tease" element to the 1840/41 PT as well. There are a couple of glimpses of Samantha Drew before the shift into parallel time but the character never appears again. Perhaps the justification was that after Justin's death, there was no longer a need for a nurse. Or perhaps Virginia Vestoff had simply left the show. And wasn't Julia called Mrs. Collins in the teasers? And, as long as I'm on the subject, shouldn't the parallel Gerard have been named Ivan Miller?
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i actually find the storyline to be very imaginative. in fact i think it's the last truly original plot on the series before it starts to devolve into rehashes and retreads.
magnus i'd be willing to bet we come to DS for very, very different reasons and that's what's great about it. there's so much to take away.
for me the supernatural element is almost incidental. i'm not otherwise remotely interested in "the occult". i love the whole weird package. the sets. the music. the costuming. the actors.
for me DS is an atmosphere. an attitude. a mood. sometimes i care for the plot at hand more than others but i'm always sucked into the ambiance.
some of us come to the series for the vampires. others for the hairpieces and squat shoes. it's all fun. [santa_tongue]
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One of the other things I enjoy about PT1970 is how different the Collins family, including with regards to the community around it, is from the NT Collins family. The NT group is quite loaded, obviously, but it spends its time in seclusion, in a grand mansion where most of the rooms are shuttered. No one else in Collinsport is apparently of the moneyed-set. However, in PT1970, the Collins' are far more like Dynasty, flaunting their wealth, listed at the top of the Collinsport social register (which seems to have quite a few more affluent families than the NT counterpart). Even Carolyn Stoddard Loomis has a far better wardrobe (she may have worn fashionable slacks more often, but at least she could afford sleeves and have her hair professionally teased high ala Jerseylicious). I picture the PT Collinsport to being more like Bar Harbor, with palatial summer "cottages," over-priced resorts and millionaires' yachts docked in the harbor.
Gerard
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I love Parallel Time and I wish they would have stayed longer. Perhaps once Angie was destroyed a new threat could have emerged? And if I am not mistaken; during this time they had asked Alexandra to come back to the show. However, she wanted to play a baddie. I think it would have been brilliant to have an evil Victoria show up after Angie died. Can you imagine how shocked and horrified Barney and Julia would have been?? Of course DC being DC wouldn't let her play anyone but Miss I Don't Understand, so it never came to fruition. What a waste. Although, I do love 1995 but it could have been put on hold. We also know that a lo of people started keeping journals during PT because it was bit confusing to people.
I think that was what truly destroyed DS. They changed stories too often. They should have moved a little this way and a little that way and mixed traditional soap stories in with the supernatural. The show may have ran another 5-10 years....Alas....
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I remember by the time of 1840/41PT, PT was just too confusing. You only knew it was 1840/1 in a parallel reality if you'd been watching for a long time. If you missed DS sometimes, you could feel so lost that it seemed hopeless trying to catch up. Julia Collins? What?!
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And who's to say if the PT Angelique would have stayed dead? Death never stopped the RT Angelique from popping up in another storyline. What if she had crossed over from parallel time to get revenge on Julia and Barnabas? And had to fight her RT doppleganger in the process?
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What a wonderful idea, Uncle Roger! I'm imagining a scene between our-time Angelique and parallel-time Angelique, with our-time Angelique utterly baffled by PT Angelique's obsession with Quentin, and PT Angelique utterly baffled by our-time Angelique's obsession with Barnabas.
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Huge fan of PT 1970 here. I agree that it was the last of the really good storylines on the series. (1995 feels more like an idyll than a fullblown storyline.) Nancy, Grayson and Louis in particular all had some really great material... Parker had great clothes and great opportunities to do what she did best.
[spoiler] I personally failed to "get" the whole Yeagar-goes-after-Maggie Collins thing, and both Quentin and Maggie seemed wearisomely one-note to me ... others disagree which is a fan's prerogative of course ...[/spoiler]
I also LOVE Hannah and Tim Stokes... great characters! I wish Hannah had stayed on for awhile after Hoffman returned.
G.
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At some point I decided that I liked what went on in the Old House in PT1970, but not PT Collinwood, until evil Tim Stokes comes along.
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Thanks, Lydia! And, as long as I'm at it, ponder this. Although we saw the PT Angelique interact with the RT Julia, how would the RT Angelique have reacted to intense devotion of Hoffman the housekeeper?
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One aspect of the parallel time story that has bugged me since I saw it back in 1970 concerns Chris and Amy. It's great that they are accepted by the family but shouldn't their last name still be Jennings? Is there a Tom in parallel time?
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Uncle Roger,
[spoiler]When Julia came back from 1897 to 1969, there's a scene where she tells Chris that he is actually a Collins because he descends from Quentin's daughter, who survived. Since the head of the family in PT 1970 is a Quentin Collins who looks just like the 19th century Quentin, we must presume that the PT 1890s Quentin proved to be a devoted husband to Jenny and that both his children survived. The Chris Collins of PT 1970 could therefore be a descendant of 1890s Quentin's first son, or of a second son if, as seems likely, he and Jenny had more children together. If Chris was a first cousin of Quentin's, then he would have descended from very close to the original 1890s Quentin. Since Chris handled Quentin's legal and financial affairs, he was clearly a close and trusted member of the family.[/spoiler]
That is my take on why Chris in PT is a Collins. If Tom existed, he presumably was no longer living in Collinsport, as he is never mentioned.
Best, Gothick
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some characters...like liz, roger and carolyn for instance...seemed to be genuinely alternate versions of their "real time" counterparts. they were the same people for whom life had worked out differently. their circumstances were different. this was the original premise for the storyline.
others, like of course quentin and angelique, were actually different characters completely who happened to have the same names as characters who somehow functioned in "the present" but were not actually part of that time. ang and quentin were only extant in the present through supernatural causes. they didn't really "belong" there.
as for chris and amy they were such a minor presence i didn't concern myself much with their relationship to the period. in fact their abrupt departures mid-storyline gives me the impression that they were just finishing out don briscoe and denise nickerson's contracts.
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I wish we could have known more about Chris Collins. Sadly during that storyline Donald became ill...Oh what a talent he was. I hope he is entertaining the masses in the afterlife...
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um, really? [santa_undecided]
don was very, very easy on the eyes. and he certainly created a memorable DS characterization in chris jennings...
but i don't think i can agree that he was a gifted actor. [santa_lipsrsealed]
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um, really? [santa_undecided]
he certainly created a memorable DS characterization in chris jennings...
but i don't think i can agree that he was a gifted actor. [santa_lipsrsealed]
I would think he'd need to be the latter, to achieve the former. Also, the kind of basic, believable, everyday acting that viewers take for granted and see sometimes as being so easy, is hard. I know, I've tried to act, and I know I have none of that talent.
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have i been properly scolded, magnus?
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We didn't ever see Don Briscoe playing someone on Dark Shadows who was thoroughly different from his other characters, the way many other actors on Dark Shadows did, so I don't think we have enough evidence to make a fair judgment of his acting ability. I think, however, that if Dan Curtis and the writers had seen great ability in him, we would have seen him playing different personalities.
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Just trying to be positive. Taeylor called him a "talent". I see no reason to dispute that. So what if he might not have had a wide range? No one said he was one of the greatest who ever lived.
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Polite disagreement in a debate is the furthest thing from a scolding.
Experts say that acting talent is something you're born with, and I feel that Briscoe's talent became more polished during his time on DS. Starting with Chris, he had a terrific energy that made his characters even more sympathetic in their situations. So I do think he was a talented/gifted actor who sadly lost that energy by the time he appeared in PT.
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good grief.
i would have thought my choice of words(a "proper scolding")would make clear my remarks were meant lightly. a jest. a bit of back-and-forth.
it sounds like something roger would say.
back on subject. i would have to say that talent and presence are two different things. like most actors who ended up with major parts on the series briscoe had alot of onscreen presence. he kept your eyes glued to the screen when he was on it. however that's something else than being truly gifted along the lines of say grayson hall or louis edmonds or clarice blackburn. they were genuinely gifted actors.
even our beloved roger davis had alot of onscreen presence. he left an indelible mark on the series. but i would not call him an immensely talented actor.
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Magnus apparently didn't realize you were joshing, which I can't say is surprising since none of us can hear your tone, see your facial expressions, or hear Roger's voice in your message. That's why posters use smileys, "J/K" or state that they are joking.
Anyway, who's to say what Briscoe would have accomplished had he had the stage or screen credits and training of the actors you mentioned, and had more experience beyond his 30th birthday?
Roger Davis' acting had issues in spades!
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good grief.
i would have thought my choice of words(a "proper scolding")would make clear my remarks were meant lightly. a jest. a bit of back-and-forth.
Okay.
i would have to say that talent and presence are two different things. like most actors who ended up with major parts on the series briscoe had alot of onscreen presence. he kept your eyes glued to the screen when he was on it. however that's something else than being truly gifted along the lines of say grayson hall or louis edmonds or clarice blackburn. they were genuinely gifted actors.
even our beloved roger davis had alot of onscreen presence. he left an indelible mark on the series. but i would not call him an immensely talented actor.
Isn't there a middle ground, between immensely talented actors, and actors who don't even rate as talented? It sounds as if basic acting doesn't even count as "talent" to you. A lot of people feel that way. "Presence" doesn't get you through a scene believably. Actors make a scene look natural, and viewers think it was easy. Try it. If you don't have the talent, gift, whatever, however basic that gift may be, it can be a disaster.
Midnite: I never even responded to the "scolding" remark.
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Midnite: I never even responded to the "scolding" remark.
Thought this might have been but wasn't sure (which is why I stuck with "apparently")...
Just trying to be positive.
Regardless, it was not clear.
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first i was jesting. now i'm annoyed.
i expressed an opinion of an actor on an old television show. i don't need to be badgered about it and i certainly don't owe anyone any explanations.
but you're right. i'm wrong. briscoe was talented. give him an emmy.
now i'm taking myself out of this tempest in a teapot. have fun.
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I don't by any means think he was the best thing since sliced bread. I do think he was a good actor who could have been an amazing actor. As for presence, I think Don had a great presence and a good skill. He was nice on the eyes but that wasn't what made me like him.
He used to watch his performances and critique himself and I think that speaks volumes about an actor. He was a much more competent actor than some that graced the DS screen; or that is my opinion. I am sorry my comment turned into drama. [santa_sad]
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I loved Paula Lawrence and I wish they had done more with her.
I have to agree here. I loved her character and wished that the storyline had been expanded.
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i first watched this storyline about five or six years ago...
two characters that loomed large in my memories of it were paula lawrence as hannah stokes and elizabeth eis as buffie harrington. they left a big impression.
so during this second go round i'm surprised to be reminded that both characters barely appear in a dozen episodes. for me they were a bigger "presence" during this time period than those numbers would suggest.
they both disappear abruptly mid-storyline. but what's notable here is that they both survived. during the time travel storylines as we all know those characters specific to the period, who do not need to survive to return to "the present" or to carry on some continuity issues, tend to get pegged off one-by-one.
hannah and buffie just walk away. quite remarkable with buffie considering how embroiled in the plot she was. barnabas just bit her an episode or two before she was written out which is odd because that usually implied a character(if they were not killed outright)would have some major moments in the near future.
but perhaps with the main cast back from the HODS filming by this point they just decided to refocus the storyline and they were superfluous.
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My private hypotheses for Hannah and Buffie were that [spoiler]Hannah fled far, far away from Angelique and that Barnabas released Buffie from his thrall, then advised her to sell the painting that Yaeger gave her and move to New York. But that's just my own idea with no basis whatever.[/spoiler]
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This storyline is also notable that a Trask survives it!
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This storyline is also notable that a Trask survives it!
few things on the series have struck me so much as filler as the trask/bruno/damien edwards subplot. pure soy protein. it killed a week or so of episodes while frid and company were off making HODS.
in fact trask and chris and amy collins were so peripheral to the plot that my impression of it has always been that they were just finishing out the actors contracts.
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I think Hannah went to Sweden, had a certain operation, came back by way of Paris filling up on the great food, and came back to Collinsport to her/his old home and bird, as Evil Tim. And took up drinking. Doesn't he seem to be living in Hannah's place? I forget.
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few things on the series have struck me so much as filler as the trask/bruno/damien edwards subplot. pure soy protein. it killed a week or so of episodes while frid and company were off making HODS.
in fact trask and chris and amy collins were so peripheral to the plot that my impression of it has always been that they were just finishing out the actors contracts.
That story WAS disappointing and peripheral, but at the time it is unfolding one doesn't know that. There is mystery and suspense about it and it does give [spoiler]Angelique a chance to demonstrate some of her powers as she deals with the situation.[/spoiler]
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Yes, Magnus, I think Tim Stokes moved into Hannah's house--but maybe it was his all along and she was just staying there.
Meanwhile, Merry Christmas to all!
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We didn't ever see Don Briscoe playing someone on Dark Shadows who was thoroughly different from his other characters, the way many other actors on Dark Shadows did, so I don't think we have enough evidence to make a fair judgment of his acting ability. I think, however, that if Dan Curtis and the writers had seen great ability in him, we would have seen him playing different personalities.
Not trying to beat a dead horse. But you can be a great actor, and get lousy writen parts. Then that
doesn't show your talent. You can be a bad actor, and have great material, and look great. IMO, it comes
down to luck and sparkle, and having great and giving actors to work with. [a2a3]