I'd just like to say that when I started this topic, it was by no means meant as a comment regarding the lead-up to 1897 vs. Leviathans. I was simply contrasting the introduction of two wonderful characters on December 16th one year with the introduction of a, well, not so wonderful character on the same date in another year. The storylines they appeared in were immaterial.
However, that being said, I love 1897 and I don't believe it went on too long. In fact, I wish it had gone on longer. Anything to have kept the wonderful dialogue and especially to have kept Thayer David's incredible performance as Petofi and Petofi's interaction with those characters around longer!
I also really enjoy the first half of Leviathans. As others have said, it was very different from what DS had done before it and in many ways it was extremely atmospheric and mysterious. It's understandable but at the same time unfortunate that TPTB caved to fan pressure and basically threw out everything that made it so interesting in favor of mind bogglingly swift about-faces and plot twists that are truly impossible to swallow no matter how much one might force themselves to try to suspend disbelief.
Like Gothick, I would have loved to have seen Leviathans play out the way it was originally intended. Other soaps have certainly stuck to their guns in the face of fan disfavor and have ultimately been rewarded when those fans finally realized the writers actually knew what they were doing all along and had crafted a very satisfying plot. Who knows, a miracle (especially given how the DS writers disliked the plot) may have actually taken place and Leviathans may have ultimately turned out that way too? But we'll never know... (And given how the DS plots often turned on a dime based on fan reaction/dissatisfaction, I can't even begin to imagine how DS would fare in this day and age of instant Internet unrest, what with the all too quickly impatient knee jerk reaction to lambast shows with little or no knowledge of where plots are actually headed and an unwillingness to allow shows to kraft plots that might require an audience to go with the flow because they trust the writers to have a really good payoff coming down the road.
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And considering how often I've said it, it goes without saying, but I'll say it again anyway: I LOVE 1970PT!!