DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
General Discussions => Current Talk Archive => Current Talk '24 I => Current Talk '05 I => Topic started by: dvlvan26 on March 09, 2005, 01:41:58 AM
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Hello All!
Name the things/characters to hate about DS.
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Actors who mistake touching their hair for emoting 8)
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Cheap, insufferable pigs. (http://www.dsboards.com/pig(sm).gif)
The way Roger treated David in the pre-Barn episodes.
The way Barn frequently treated Julia.
The way Barn frequently treated Willie.
The lengths Angelique went to whenever she perceived some woman to be a threat.
The fact that some of the bit players (Elizabeth Eis, Brian Sturdivant, etc.) were never given bigger roles.
The fact that a certain actor ([wink2]) was given TOO MANY roles.
John Yaeger's nose.
The 1795, 1840 and 1897 Trasks.
And last but certainly not least: an actor who touched his hair WAY TOO OFTEN!
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I hated the John Yeagers nose too.
Roger and Elizabeth in parallel time. It like they were asking Quentin for a raise on they're allowence.
[argue]
The actresses who had taken 'Vicki's' place...they just couldn't do it.
And that one guy who was always touching his hair.
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The way Barn frequently treated Willie.
[nono]....I was going to say THAT !!
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The way Barn frequently treated Willie.
[nono]....I was going to say THAT !!
And you just did. ;)
Just because someone else said it, doesn't mean another person can't say it too. After all, three of us have mentioned a certain hair touching actor. ^-^
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Carl's last episode.
>:(
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The way they rushed from one story to another
The lack of character development & background stories for some of our main kids, Willie, Julia specifically (where were they from anyway? Didn't they have their own relatives?)
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Now that you mention it, I can't recall what, if anything, was ever said about Willie's family.
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They never resolved the mystery of Vicky's origins.
Her character became less important as the series began to emphasize the supernatural .[Ghost00]
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adam...much of the 1968 story...how the vicki character deteriorates after 1795. [sadb]
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Chris Jennings' last episope
>:(
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Not a single stinkin' kiss between Barnabas and Julia!!!!!! Sorry, but 40 years later and I'm STILL %*$)# mad about that!
Countess (who can hold a grudge like no other.) ;D
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Chris Jennings' last episope
>:(
I couldn't have said it better. I still have issues with the writers letting Chris and Amy simply disappear into the ether, when we'd invested such time and concern in their plight. Just to have Julia comment, "Ah, Barnabas, isn't it great how Chris and Amy moved to that cute ocean-front split level in California, and can enjoy a full moon now, without fear of excess hair growth and visions of pentagrams?!"
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Now that you mention it, I can't recall what, if anything, was ever said about Willie's family.
This is iffy because Jason shared his friend's backstory off-camera :(, and he may have exaggerated the details anyway to gain Burke's sympathy, but Burke's response to hearing about Willie's past was something like, "He hated his mother and he carried a security blanket until he was 19." Of course Burke was being sarcastic, but I think the implication was that Willie had a terribly sad relationship with his mother. But we do know for sure that Willie already had a police record when he arrived in Collinsport.
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The lack of character development & background stories for some of our main kids, Willie, Julia specifically (where were they from anyway? Didn't they have their own relatives?)
Exactly...one of my gripes too. >:( Then again there's always fanfic... >:D
Anyway...
¢â‚¬¢ Again, the whiney *Jeff "hair fetish" Clark*
¢â‚¬¢ Not enough episodes featuring Julia in one of her lovely nighties... ^-^
¢â‚¬¢ Never getting a glance at one of Collinwood's posh bathrooms... ;D
¢â‚¬¢ Julia never getting any...ya know. >:D
¢â‚¬¢ And, I agree, Leaving Chris Jennings fate up in the air bugged me too...
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I don't think I hate anything. There were lots of things I wasn't wild about or didn't like as much as others, but I went with the flow of it and enjoyed everything to some extent.
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The loose, wobbling bannister at the Old House. That's all I hate. Sooooo unnecessary. ::)
;D
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The cheap use of cast members (ex. no extras, few characters used in episodes, no location shots with actors in them)
No romances for Elizabeth(Gee, they may have had to hire another actor)
The actor who touched his hair too much. Heck, he touched everybody too much.
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The loose, wobbling bannister at the Old House. That's all I hate. Sooooo unnecessary. ::)
;D
I read somewhere that the staircase at the Old House wasn't a complete staircase and that the actors had to use a chair to step up and down to get down on the other side, once they were out of camera range.
I guess that explains Grayson Hall's ability to step up and down so easy in that chair when she had her red notebook stashed away on top of the... I can't think of the name for what that type of closet is called.
I can't climb worth a flip. I'm like holding on for dear life when I have to use the step ladder to change a light bulb.
As for what I hate about Dark Shadows... I hate that it was canceled.
FireRose
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As for what I hate about Dark Shadows... I hate that it was canceled.
Me too.
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Downplaying Liz and Rogerin the story after Barnabas arrived.
A certain actor playing too many roles.
The abrupt ending of 1897.
Losing the live exterior shots
Losing the miscellaneous people in the background.
No backstory on Julia other that she and Dave Woodard were friends in medical school (she did make reference to her grandmother once though).
and..
losing a great opportunity to use Monty Hall in the Dream Curse. lol.
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I didn't like what they did to the Victoria Winters character character in regards to the Leviathan storyline.
Murph
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The breakup of Joe and Maggie.
Too many loose ends in each storyline (e.g. upon returning to the present from 1795).
[spoiler]Barnabas suddenly deciding he "loves" Angelique after all she did to him. [scratch] (Sorry, Terry308.)
Vicki getting killed by Jeb Hawkes. [hdscrt] [scratch][/spoiler]
ProfStokes
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It always seemed strange to me that both Vicki and Carolyn knew Barnabas was a vampire right after Vicki's return from 1795, yet they seem to forget it with no real explanation after Barnabas isn't one anymore. Carolyn just makes some weird comment like "Vicki and I were just too involved with Barnabas' problems," or something lame like that. And it's never clear when or if Vicki ever forgets, although she fails to mention it again.
It's just weird.
Another, albiet minor red herring: Willy plants some of Josette's earrings in Maggie's purse. When she finds them and puts them on, she seems to become possessed. She does this for a few episodes, then nothing ever comes of it.
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Too many loose ends in each storyline (e.g. upon returning to the present from 1795).
[spoiler]Barnabas suddenly deciding he "loves" Angelique after all she did to him. [scratch] (Sorry, Terry308.)
Vicki getting killed by Jeb Hawkes. [hdscrt] [scratch][/spoiler]
I agree with those, most especially the first one in the spoiler tags. I haven't actually seen that storyline, but the knowledge of it drives me absolutely crazy.
Also for me:
-The lack of use of the character of Willie, by far one of the best characters on the show
-The Adam and Nicholas Bair storylines.
-Not enough screen time for Barnabas and Josette as a couple in 1795
-The way it became less about the present day Collins family (Elzabeth, Roger, etc) and more about all the supernatural characters after 1795.
-The fact that good potential couples never got more development
-Peter Bradford/Jeff Clark
My own spoilerized pick:
[spoiler]Nicholas erasing Maggie's memory of her abduction by Barnabas. The writers really took the easy way out and that was completely disappointing for me. That would've been a better storyline to explore than the continuation of the Adam and Eve and Nicholas stuff.[/spoiler]
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It's between two things: Icky Vicki, or Yaeger's nose. Which ever would win, it would be by a nose.
Gerard
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No backstory on Amy Jennings.
Jeff Clark's treatment of Amy Jennings. Scaring little kids.
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barnabas'bride...i'm with you on your spoilerized pick.i'm watching those episodes now and what have been treated as earth-shattering(maggie's memories)was almost used as filler while the story really focused on the adam/eve business.it just seemed like they were giving willie and maggie something to do because neither of them were that directly involved with the rest of the story at that moment(which if you think about it was not even really about barnabas).
i did think that the "flashbacks" maggie had were pretty cool though.julia even wore the hairpiece she was wearing when the events actually took place which i thought was a nice bit of continuity.
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I read somewhere that the staircase at the Old House wasn't a complete staircase and that the actors had to use a chair to step up and down to get down on the other side, once they were out of camera range.
Undoubtedly. Except I remember one show where there was trouble with Adam I think? And they had Barnabas standing at the top of the stairs with a gun? Or was it Adam at the top of the stairs? My memory's all fuzzy on it. But that's the only time I ever remember them having the "top of the stairs" rigged up.
The stairs for the Old House basement were just a few steps and then nothing. You had to hop off. (Maybe they had something placed there to step down on during actual taping 'cause it was enough of a drop that you definitely made noise getting off of it). Then again....since when did they ever care about studio noise?? [lghy]
I guess that explains Grayson Hall's ability to step up and down so easy in that chair when she had her red notebook stashed away on top of the... I can't think of the name for what that type of closet is called.
LOL. ;D A woman of endless abilities!
I can't climb worth a flip. I'm like holding on for dear life when I have to use the step ladder to change a light bulb.
Me too! [lghy] If I need the step stool to change a bulb and don't have a wall or something to brace myself with, I'm yelling for one of the kids to come hang on to me. ::)
Signed,
Off-Kilter
[wavey]
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Joe Haskell's last episode
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As for what I hate about Dark Shadows... I hate that it was canceled.
Me too.
I was gonna say that--so I just did!! (Thanks, MB, for pointing out we can say it again, LOL.)
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Another, albiet minor red herring: Willie plants some of Josette's earrings in Maggie's purse. When she finds them and puts them on, she seems to become possessed. She does this for a few episodes, then nothing ever comes of it.
I always wondered about this until my husband and I discussed this at lengths. What you were seeing there was schizophrenia. The definition I found online is: {A mental disorder that causes a separation between the thought processes and the emotions. Consumers may experience confusion of reality with hallucinations and/or delusions and may become paranoid. A change in personality with bizarre behavior may occur.} While being held captive by Barnabas, Maggie was told constantly that she was Josette. Not only was she told this by Barnabas but Willie, as well. At one point, she even started to believe it. Soon, it got to the point where she either believed she was Josette or she'd die. No one wants to die. Maggie obviously clung to life in those days by a thread and would have been irrevocably traumatized if Julia hadn't numbed those memories for a while. Then when Maggie found the earrings in her purse and put them on, back came the Josette persona that was instilled in her during her stay at the old house.
I don't think this story between Maggie and Willie during the Adam storyline was just something for them to do. It made perfect sense. I guess they figured it would give the fans who wanted to see Maggie regain her memory a sense of satisfaction that she finally did. Unfortunately, she couldn't keep it, lest they'd have to get rid of either Maggie or Barnabas and perhaps even Willie. And I don't think they were willing to do that. I wouldn't. I think they're all great.
Here are the things I hate about DS:
1.) Jeff Clark
2.) Willie and Maggie never got together
3.) Lack of character development for the so-called smaller characters.
4.) Barnabas professed his love to Angelique... why?
5.) THEY KILLED RACHEL!
6.) They killed Carl... :'(
and last but not least:
7.) I wasn't on it.
~DJ
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Carl's last episode. >:(
Yes I agree! Barnabas should not have done away with the only Collins with a sense of humor! I believe Carl would have listened to Barnabas, he would have understood and kept the family secret.
oh yes and that strange person with an even stranger attraction to his hair.
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I was gonna say that--so I just did!! (Thanks, MB, for pointing out we can say it again, LOL.)
[wink2]
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Yes I agree! Barnabas should not have done away with the only Collins with a sense of humor! I believe Carl would have listened to Barnabas, he would have understood and kept the family secret.
The most annoying thing about Carl's death was that it was just lazy writing. If they had to get JK out of the schedule, they really COULD have written it better.
But Barnabas wasn't really to blame for this one (make a note of this date, Pepe....I'm cutting Barn some slack here!)....it was Quentin who sent his own brother to his demise. [angry7]
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make a note of this date, Pepe....I'm cutting Barn some slack here!
It's been duly noted on the forum's calendar! [b003]
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[suspicious_figure]
MB....YOU crack me up.
Rainey...the above is titled "Suspicious Figure"....are you okay Rainey?? ;)
Patti
BTW...I saw Rainey's 'tenderness' for Barn not on the thread, but on the calendar!!
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Never thought I'd see the day when Raineypark cut Barnabas some slack. Surprise is too mild a word...shock, maybe? ;)
Let's see, hate may be taking things too far, however I strongly dislike the characters of Jeff Clark, Ned Stuart and Hallie Stokes.
Although Jerry Lacy does a fabulous job with the part, I really hate the character of Lamar Trask. He just icks me out. Sorta love to hate the other Trasks. Does that count?
Makes me sad that Joel Crothers left the show - he was excellent. Would have really liked to see him play another bad guy on DS - he was so good at it.
Also dislike that they didn't do more with some of the minor and secondary characters, actors. Would have loved to have seen more of Elizabeth Eis, Jane Draper, the Powell "siblings" (both Addison and Lovelady), whoever that chick was that played the most eeeeeeeeeeeevil woman of the 18th century (Danielle Roget), and some others.
Really don't like the 1841PT storyline. I've tried and tried, but it just leaves me kinda blah!
Oh, I have one. I hate that Tony Peterson and Sky Rumson never took their shirts off!
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Well, I hate how bored and tierd JF looked during the dream curse/ Adam story.
I hate that Josette was never given the opportunity to confront her enemy Angelique.
i hate that, with all the time traveling, Barnabas did not return to 1795 to live out his life as he should have done married to Josette and raising a family.
I hate that they introduced warewolves.
I hate that they made Dr. Hoffman fall in love with Barnabas. She lost all her edge after that.
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I hate that Josette was never given the opportunity to confront her enemy Angelique.
Well...I like to think that the scene in 1897 [spoiler]when Josette's reincarnation, Kitty Soames, meets Angelique for the first time, shrieks at her, "You! You were watching me, you've always watched me!" and proceeds to wring the witch's neck is just such a belated confrontation scene. Somewhere in Kitty's unconscious, Josette was determined to get her revenge. >:D There's a nice still frame of this scene somewhere on the Caption This! board.[/spoiler]
i hate that, with all the time traveling, Barnabas did not return to 1795 to live out his life as he should have done married to Josette and raising a family.
I hate that they made Dr. Hoffman fall in love with Barnabas. She lost all her edge after that.
Agreed. Once Barnabas mastered the I-Ching wands, why on Earth did he not hop back to 1794 to prevent all the bloodshed and tragedy caused by his affair with Angelique? And, I do think that Julia became a doormat once she fell for Barnabas (please have mercy on me, Graysonphiles!) The only other times where I could recognize the original iron Julia was in the early Leviathan period when she and Barnabas were at odds and during the haunting of 1970. Julia had many other fine moments throughout the show, but on the whole she was much more deferential and prone to hysterics after Barnabas than when she was just beginning to treat Maggie. :-
ProfStokes
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I hate that Chris Jennings never found a way to break his curse.
I hate that Joe Haskell wasn't cured from his madness and got back with Maggie.
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Really don't like the 1841PT storyline. I've tried and tried, but it just leaves me kinda blah!
I *think it's because we know it's the end.. :'(
Oh, I have one. I hate that Tony Peterson and Sky Rumson never took their shirts off!
lololol Good One!!!
Patti
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Speaking of 1841 PT....I hate that the show didn't end in the present time, with the characters it first intruduced to us, the characters audience knew and care about. That just really bugs me.
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Speaking of 1841 PT....I hate that the show didn't end in the present time, with the characters it first intruduced to us, the characters audience knew and care about. That just really bugs me.
i wonder if the show's cancellation was abrupt?perhaps if they had known about it months in advance they would have returned to the present and tied up the lose ends.it does seem odd that they ended the show in another time period(and a p.t. one at that).
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i wonder if the show's cancellation was abrupt?perhaps if they had known about it months in advance they would have returned to the present and tied up the lose ends.it does seem odd that they ended the show in another time period(and a p.t. one at that).
They did know months in advance that it was going off, and they deliberately chose to end it in 1841PT.
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I would have preferred an ending in present time, but given that they had started 1841 PT, they needed to do something with it. I think it would have been better had they not started that story at all (I guess they had to in order to give Jonathan Bramwell instead of Barnabas). It did have one good aspect to its existence:
[spoiler]Lamar Trask from regular 1841 disappeared into PT and became a minor complication in their lives. It was rather funny from both aspects.[/spoiler]
But, since they DID have the story started, it always seemed rather fitting that they returned to the present long enough for us to see that all was well and then went back to tie up the loose ends of the PT story - the only "other time" story without a present day character's presence.
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AMANDA HARRIS and that everyone thought she was so pretty UGH!
Gregory was really in hell stuck with her picture for all time!
also adam!
jennifer
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It's possible that I never saw Lamar in his final absurd moments back then, transitioning his bad self between our plain old regular time, and that "parallel time"---but, his transition between regular 1840 and parallel 1841 was magical. One moment, he's contending with being about to die, the next, he's contending with some alternate universe...JUST BECAUSE HE WALKED INTO SOME TINY LITTLE ROOM IN COLLINWOOD!!!
[spoiler]Then, he dies.[/spoiler]
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also adam!
Lots of folks seem to dislike the Adam storyline. Why is that? I kind of liked that storyline. It wasn't my favorite, but it had lots of great moments. I truly pitied Adam. Robert Rodan did an excellent job of playing the chidlike, misunderstood Frankenstenian "outsider" qualities in the character IMO. Marie Wallace also did a great job playing the evil and nasty Eve.
Interestingly, two of the most disliked storylies among fans are the Adam and Leviathan storylines. Both of these followed the immensely popular 1795 and 1897 stories. These two followup stories had some big shoes to fill and seem to have left many disappointed. I guess it's kind of how a sequel to a great movie might be pretty good or ok, but rarely equals of surpasses the greatness of the first film.
The first time I watched the series as a youngster and as a teen (from Barnabas' intro up until 1/2 way through 1970 PT) I wasn't fully aware of fandom (I discovered DS fandom at some point while channel 58 in Cape Cod was running the sydicated episodes). I really enjoyed all of the series I had seen up until that point, and once I started getting the 'zines (and nowadays, especially on the internet), I was pretty surprised to find so many hated the Adam and Leviathan stories.
Now that I've seen the whole series (except for some parts of Pre-Barnabas which I'm just getting to now), I'd say the low point for me was probably 1841PT. I certianly didn't hate it and I thought the Lottery storyline was pretty darn twisted and cool. It was just that it seemed more like a DS "spinoff" since all the main characters were left in Real Time and we wound up watching and trying to connect to these parallel characters without an anchor to real time (as we had with Barnabas, and later Julia, in 1970PT). It was DS though, so IMO, it was still good stuff nontheless. :)
~Penny Dreadful~
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Lots of folks seem to dislike the Adam storyline. Why is that? I kind of liked that storyline. It wasn't my favorite, but it had lots of great moments. I truly pitied Adam. Robert Rodan did an excellent job of playing the chidlike, misunderstood Frankenstenian "outsider" qualities in the character IMO. Marie Wallace also did a great job playing the evil and nasty Eve.
I liked the beginning of Adam. It seemed to have lots of possibilities as he began learning things, and given the way he was being treated. His early relationship with Carolyn and especially the developments once Stokes became involved with him were very interesting and showed lots of promise. But, once Nicholas Blair got involved and the way he changed the situation, it really ruined the whole thing. And, while I liked Eve, once she was on the scene the story became quite repetitive.
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i feel like i've already written a book here about why i dislike the adam storyline(i'm sure some of you feel that way as well ;)).
aside from being campy the darn thing goes on and on!if it had been a 12 week story arc(like some others)it would have been a minor annoyance but it lasts for nearly a year!
aside from that i guess that my biggest problem with it is this.during the show's first year and a half it establishes a core group of characters.in a remarkable bit of storytelling this entire cast portrays different people living in a different time(1795).when the story returns to the present adam and an ever increasing array of supernatural characters relegate the main cast to the sidelines and they are often given weak storylines,usually portrayed in a victimized mode.even barnabas plays second-banana throughout much of the story.being especially fond of vicki and elizabeth i felt that they suffered worse during this time than others.
once the story is over the show begins to yo-yo back and forth in time with increasing regularity so one sort of loses sense of who these original people were.
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I agree completely with mostly everything you said, and that's why I loathe the Adam storyline. It's funny because when I first watched it, I didn't really hate it, I just didn't care for it. I suppose when I went back and watched the earlier storylines they cemented my intense dislike of it.
It was with Adam that the show strayed too far from the Collins family and the core characters. I didn't even care for Barnabas during that time and he's my favorite character. When my favorite character drives me crazy that's a good indication of how very little I like what I'm watching. ;) It's a crime what they did to Victoria and how they misused the Collins family like Elizabeth, Roger...and Willie. Definitely Willie. I didn't care about Adam, or Eve, or Nicholas. Too many supernatural characters that were all camp instead of three demensional. IMHO.
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I agree completely with mostly everything you said, and that's why I loathe the Adam storyline...........
.......It's a crime what they did to Victoria and how they misused the Collins family like Elizabeth, Roger, and Willie. Definitely Willie.
Well, yes. But John Karlen probably had more fun playing Willie during THAT segment than any other. The whole "Willie babysits Adam" thing was hilarious!! I'll bet he routinely fell on the floor laughing when the tape stopped rolling. ;)