random 1897 comments ...

[stefan]

Well, I guess the days when the Collins' leading matriarch Naomi would moan "...when will all this END?!..." is over. Now it's "That Crazy Collins family" where no-one blinks an eye over the ghostly possession of Charity Trask in her frills and feathers or a sullen Barnbabas (from England again) skulking about after plunging a stake through the heart of another doppleganger vampire Barnabas. The supernatural has taken over the family and everyone has their own supernatural life/death struggle to care or notice what anyone else does.

Anyway, all the acting is terrific though and the regulars improved tremendously. The casting crew really had a knack for talent. But, that all said:

My worst 1897 storylines so far: Count Petrofi - way too much airtime spent on this nonesense but Thayer D. is always excellent. All the Petrofi hangers-on - Aristede, the Blackmore fellow with the chains, the crickly glove/hand, the possession of Quention. It was just all too much and too much time spent away from the more interesting Collins stuff ...

The best and makes it worth watching so far: Kitty/Josette reincarnation and Barnabas. Very very engaging and sad because barely touched upon (barely stuck in between Petrofi's trance). The chemistry was right too and it appears KLS started to take the Josette/Barnabas pairing seriously and was touchingly sincere and believable. Also, I sensed a new maturity in KLS. What a great Kitty/Barnie and Edward triangle it would have made!!

Judith and Trask. Judith locking her Trask husband in a room and calling him periodically was fantastic. Fantastic acting by Joan Bennett and Jerry Lacy (who is much more solid). Great writing and tone.

The sullen Collins crowd: Judith, Edward, Charity (such as she is), Edith. Quentin is a handsome dude but I wished they gave him more interesting stuff to do.

[AndreDuPres]

I completely agree, although I find the Quentin-Petofi switcheroo pretty exciting since it's the last time we get to see Selby as a villain with a purpose rather than some languid loafer who has nothing to do as in the succeedng storyline.  I *love* the Barnabas-Kitty plot--it's *the* best Josette spin-off, and I dare say it's better than their original relationship.  You're spot on about KLS's maturity--she seems so in control of the character and her acting ability.  Oh, I so wish they had given her more development!  An Edward-Kitty-Barnabas love triangle would have been perfect, but, alas, we only get Judith stating, "What will Edward say?" in that last 1897 episode. 

[stefan]

I *love* the Barnabas-Kitty plot--it's *the* best Josette spin-off, and I dare say it's better than their original relationship.  You're spot on about KLS's maturity--she seems so in control of the character and her acting ability.  Oh, I so wish they had given her more development!  An Edward-Kitty-Barnabas love triangle would have been perfect, but, alas, we only get Judith stating, "What will Edward say?" in that last 1897 episode. 

With both Frid and KLS in top form they wasted the opportunity to clarify and deepen an uneven but potentially beautiful romance. It would have also have finally given Josette the voice she was never allowed in 1795. When Kitty started to talk about being afraid of Angelique and that she was her maid I thought "YES!" please go there, allow Josette to understand that Angelique was the witch and that her fiancee had sexual relations with her. What drama that all would have made and, in addition, you have a lovely Edward not to be entirely pushed aside, plus the whole ghostly possession thing (though they already had the Charity Trask possession). Not to take away from the Charity storyline because Nancy B. seems to be having a blast, it would have been ghostly possession with characters the audience was already familiar with and with storylines left unopened and underdeveloped. It would have made perfect sense and why they didn't explore it much more is beyond me. As example, you have a beautifully staged Kitty/Barnabas/Josette scene and then next Barnabas is wandering about looking for Petrofi or Quentin. The writing just lost its focus by that time I think. I mean, why else would they have Barnabas meet hooded goblins, straight out of a Star Trek episode, stopping him from meeting Kitty. I was so dissapointed and right when things were just starting to heat up between those two!

[Barnabas'sBride]

I love 1897. There are parts that dragged for me, and Petofi did become a bit tiring after a while (though he was a good villian, I loathed him so much), but overall I was just glued to the television while I was watching it. I thought many of the characters were interesting and fun to watch. I liked the dynamic between the Collins siblings, the Judith/Trask storyline, Charity-Pansy, Quentin/Beth and the changes that Quentin went through.

I wish Kitty had been brought into 1897 earlier. I loved Barnabas and Kitty, though it seemed like the storyline ended right when they met. I think that's part of the reason why I despised the beginning of the Leviathan storyline so much, Kitty was just dropped. I would've loved more than anything to see how the Josette/Kitty angle played out over time, her having two different personalities (Josette, Kitty). Because the storyline is only at the end of 1897, it almost comes off at times like Josette possessed her, rather than the way I think of it - that Josette and Kitty were the same person and Kitty was just a more mature, life hardened version of Josette. Still, I loved what little we got of Barnabas/Kitty. I wanted him to take her back to the present, when they were seperated (even though I knew they would be) I was very disappointed. So much potential lost.

[Gothick]

Personally, I love all the wild and woolly antics of the 1897/Count Petofi storyline.  I think a lot of the credit for how good it was goes not only to Thayer David and the rest of the cast, but to Violet Welles who seems to have had the knack of using the supernatural intelligently in a television screenplay.  She wrote all the best 1897 episodes in my not-so-humble opinion.

As for Kitty, I think she's much more interesting in her original persona.  I find the whole Josette-rediviva thing a snooze-fest, although I agree that KLS and Frid had a wonderful chemistry together.  I just find the chance the original Kitty character gave KLS to show that she knew how to do more than just fall apart onscreen to have created some of her finest moments on the series.  Once Josie starts seriously taking over, that comes to an end.

I guess we all find personal strengths and weaknesses, favorites and not-so-favorites, in watching this extraordinary series.

G.

[Misa]

I loved the Count Petofi story so much, I also was loving the Kitty, Barnabas, Edward triangle. I wish that instead of doing the Leviathan story they could have stayed in the past and told the Kitty story to a grand completion.

I agree with Barnabas' Bride that Kitty and Josette were the same person, Kitty was the reincarnation of Josette, her memories were being reawakened. If only the writers would have showed this instead of having her drawn into the portrait and her whole Kitty personality being lost. "Boo" Then they show the 1796 thing again, BORING" and once again Josette kills herself, I just don't think she would have done this. By having her kill herself they made her seem to be such a weak person. "Oh boo-hoo Barnabas left me, I'm going to kill myself. What about her duty to her aunt and father? And to the Collins family? After she married Jeramiah she became a member of the Collins family. I just hated this part of the Kitty story. Kitty was a fighter, she becomes Josette and is a quitter. Yuck! Crap! Bad writing!

A love triangle with Barnabas and Edward would have been such fun! And wasn't it fun to see Josette as a gold digger? The scenes they could have had between Angelque and Kitty would have been delish.

What a missed opportunity. Poor KLS, this was the best character besides early Maggie that she was given. If only...

Misa

[Patti Feinberg]

And wasn't it fun to see Josette as a gold digger?

I was thinking the same thing Misa. I wish they could have expounded on this facet of Kitty too.

For me, Petofi was T H E funnest part of DS; I really couldn't stand the Beth/Quentin/Jenny/Angelique issue(s). It also would've been fun to watch additional identify crises, ie Edward and Charity on other characters. Hmm...Barnabas could fancy himself a butterfly...

Patti

[Josette]

There were lots of intriguing possibilities with the Kitty story.

[spoiler]Aside from what we learned about her in her letters home, which were obviously quite different from what she was pretending to Edward, so that story had lots of potential, there was also the fact that both Edward and Kitty thought the other had a lot of money and that's why they were so interested in each other.  How that would have played out would have been lots of fun.[/spoiler]

Some of the Josette reincarnation part wasn't too bad.  It could have been incorporated into her main story, but once they abandoned that and just turned her into Josette, it was very disappointing.

[stefan]

I agree with Barnabas' Bride that Kitty and Josette were the same person, Kitty was the reincarnation of Josette, her memories were being reawakened. If only the writers would have showed this instead of having her drawn into the portrait and her whole Kitty personality being lost. "Boo" Then they show the 1796 thing again, BORING" and once again Josette kills herself,

I wonder why they had Josette kill herself again? I wonder if they felt it added to the BarnabasJosette pathos. Maybe they just wanted a lead into the next storyline which came about very suddenly. I could have gone for a Josette reincarnation or a Josette ghostly Kitty takeover. Both of those possibilities would have been great. It's interesting that it appeared Josette (if she were separate) was aggressively taking over the mind of Kitty. Was Barnabas in cahoots about this? I thought I heard Barnabas soliquizing that he wanted Kitty to be Josette. I thought the image of Kitty floating up into the Josette portrait really beautiful and affective but since I havn't watched more of "normal" Kitty I can't connect to her yet. I'll have to buy more CDs of early 1897.

[Misa]

The way Kitty was drawn into the portrait was really well done, and beautiful. Having said that though, I just wish they would have had Kitty stay herself with the memories of her previous life now intact. As others have said Kitty was a fascinating character.

The Josette time line change they showed just made the already tangled up 1795 more messy. Each time they went back to 1795/-6 they changed something. The way it was the first time was beautiful, each change just messed it up. This change also made Josette into a weeker character. She originally killed herself only because Angelique frightened her with what she would become if she went to Barnabas. Before Barnabas had bitten her she certainly wasn't going to kill herself. Now she kills herself, what is the reason? "Dumb, dumb, dumb."

And what a waste of a great character, Kitty. Oh crumb! If they do a remake perhaps they can fix this, and explore this character more.

Misa

[michael c]

i just started to watch the storyline so these are my random comments thus far...

so far i'm really enjoying the story for the most part.for me it's a bit like a new beginning.i always watched the show with vicki as my focus character and this is really the first storyline that she is squarely not a part of.while i'm not quite as emotionally involved i have a new objectivity and that's not a bad thing.i can enjoy it or not on it's own terms.

so far i'm liking the mix of the supernatural and more "human" storylines(edith's will,jenny,worthington hall).i like that joan bennett has a great part to play in judith collins.she has such chemistry with david selby.they have a few "come into my parlour said the spider to the fly" moments that are priceless.i can see why mr.selby became such a hit with viewers.he's tremendously charasmatic.i love jenny and feel that marie wallace brought pathos and a smidgen of sweetness to a character that could easily have been a standard-issue psycho.and what can i say about the return of laura collins?her 1966 story was and is a personal favorite and seeing her again is great.especially her scenes with joan and louis edmonds...seems like old times in a way.

my only apprehension with it is that it lasts so long.i'm only about forty episodes into it and it's much longer than that.it's thus far been pretty tight but it sounds like the middle/end gets a bit all-over-the-place and that's where my patience with the show can wear thin.time will tell.

[stefan]

my only apprehension with it is that it lasts so long.i'm only about forty episodes into it and it's much longer than that.it's thus far been pretty tight but it sounds like the middle/end gets a bit all-over-the-place and that's where my patience with the show can wear thin.time will tell.

I was getting impatient watching the Petrofi stuff, it seems like one thing after another. Just never ending gloom and doom from show to show (a big problem for DS after awhile there's so much "terror and evil" you can't take anything seriously).  Petrofi inhabits Quentin, Quentin comes back to himself, Petrofi inhabits Quentin again ... anyway, the 1897 I've watched so far could use some lightness and comic relief. 1795 had early Millicent as a comic figure, the Collins early bickering had some comic touches (though with dark undercurrents) and Andres Dupres cracked me up sometimes with his no-nonesense attitude. Even Angelique/Ben scenes had some funny dialogue.

[Julianka7]

One of my favorite 1897 moments was when Nora saw her mother in the drawing room fire.
When Edward wanted to take Nora back in to show her she hadn't, Nora planted her feet and
stiffen her little body. Both Denise and Loius did a great acting job.
Julianka

[Josette]

Now that you've mentioned Nora, a moment I particularly liked, and I think my favorite Denise Nickerson moment, was when Edward was trying to get Lady Kitty to play with Nora and hoping for them to get along.  Nora had a lot of sharp comments to her.  It was a great scene.

[MagnusTrask]

1897 is my favorite period, (almost) everything to do with Petofi in particular.    That hand was lodged in my memory for the thirty years it took for me to see it again.    I love all the characters and complicated interwoven storylines.    There is humor but not much in the way of lightness-- Tim Shaw expected to get the hand from Quentin after Petofi actually has re-attached it by that point, is priceless.   Tim goes rushing out into the night determined to get it back, when everyone but him knows he can't...

Carl suddenly re-appearing in the gloomiest of moments is fun.    Carl's later exit isn't.   Trask has one of the most fun deaths you're ever going to see.    Charity Fay is always a scream.    I love how everyone's just fine with leaving Charity possessed for the rest of her life, because Pansy Faye was fun, and Charity was lifeless.    Evan Hanley getting threatened and embarrassed was funny too.    Giant Quentin turning into a really short werewolf was unintentionally funny.

1897 starts falling apart for me with the Q/Petofi bodyswap.   That was silly, T David wandering around saying "I am Quentin Collins!!"... in his Petofi voice!    They redeem themselves with the very end to 1897, where

vague semi-spoiler (below)?? [spoiler]everyone's stories are tied up depressingly but satisfyingly, and I've decided it was even satisfying to me for BC to have achieved such mixed and inconclusive results, and information, after all that agony, time, and struggle.    That's life for you.[/spoiler]