Isn't there mention of the family home being brought over stone by stone from England, where it originall was, at some point in the series?
Barnabas expalins how that took place in the pilot episode of the '91 series. But the only history we get of Collinwood in the daytime show was that Jeremiah built it for Josette - and 1795 rewrites that history, so it's anyone's guess how/why the Collinses would have built a house patterned after a French chateau.
I personally didn't like the "explanation" for the building of Collinwood (i.e. transferred stone by stone from Europe or whatever) that was added to the 1991 series ... can't really explain why, just that it wasn't said to be that way in the original series. If there had been a new WB series, I feel we would have gotten even further away from the original stories and intentions, and that was one thing I felt trepidation about. Guess I'm an old series purist!
Josette wrote:
But, everyone rebels against their positions and how people behaved. In this one several refused to go to the church services, although it was required and obviously an important part of life back then. They would do other things against the rules, etc. The women didn't like not having a say in how things were run, etc. It's not as though they would be stuck in this new life forever and felt a need to rebel. They were playing a part for a few months. One would think they would go along with all of those things as much as they could, to more get the feel of what it was really like.
I think the producers or whoever could have managed to do better selections to get those who would really cooperate with the full spirit of the enterprise.
You make a very good point, Josette. I was vaguely thinking the same thing after last night's episode but hadn't thought out the implications to the extent you did. I think what you say may affect my enjoyment of the series somewhat, but you are right. I felt, too, that the one couple especially who voiced an anti-Christian bias and wanted to do their own thing on the sabbath were not keeping with the spirit and intentions of the whole colonial enterprise they were supposed to be a part of. I also felt that the governor was weak in basically saying that he wouldn't enforce the church attendance requirements. The authenticity of the experience really dropped out at that point, as well as with other complaints. While on the one hand, there have always been dissenters even in the colonies (some of them were later accused of witchcraft), this did seem like "well, we don't like it and we're not going to do it, even if that was the authentic way which was enforceable by law." I'm not making a judgment on their opinions for today's world, just within the context of the series.
And while obviously no one who experienced homosexual attractions would ever have dared to voice that, I guess in one sense it makes the show more interesting when there is some give and take between our world and the colonial world.
I wonder, too, if the producers might have DELIBERATELY been looking for just this sort of thing -- potential conflicts, strong-willed people, etc. -- in the interest of making the show more entertaining. Rather than a re-enactment, it looks like the producers have an eye for modern realism and concerns and more "dynamic" television.
Josette also wrote:
That did make me wonder about the Collinses - the non-secular example was a fishing town in Maine - we never did see any hints of religion (other than the Trasks) in DS.
I don't think that's quite accurate -- although I don't remember the details any more that I have accumulated and posted about some years ago, there are many references to prayer throughout the length of the original series, certain biblical references, references to church, reading the Bible, doing the Lord's work, etc. -- and I'm not talking about Trask in any of these cases. Several such references were in the 1840 storyline, but weren't limited to that storyline.
MB wrote:
And the earliest we ever saw Collinses was the 1680PT flashback.
Ooooo, I'd forgetten this. And unfortunately I can't remember it. I'm guessing that this must have been in the final storyline of the series ... which I missed the last time round on SciFi.