I thought that was a pretty good storyline too, except towards the end the writers seemed to lose interest in it.  The conclusion deserved a bit more emphasis than it got, IMO.

 [spoiler]Liz walks into Collinwood and everybody's like "Liz, you're alive!  Great!  Now what were we talking about?"[/spoiler]

Stokes:  "Come now Julia, as somewhat of a student of the human condition, I can tell you with certainty that the surest way to get Barnabas to notice you is to make him jealous.  And I'm right here, ready and willing."

Julia:  "I've...uh uh uh...got a headache."

Tony:  "Hmmm, glad I'm a defense attorney and not a prosecutor like that guy!  Still, I feel oddly uncomfortable..."

For me it's mostly about the plot.  I can really like any charcter if they're at the heart of an interesting plot.  Or I can not really care for them much if they're in an uninteresting plot.  I love Angelique, but never cared for her much as Cassandra.  Barnabas is great, but if the story isn't interesting, he isn't either.  I even liked Adam in a few scenes, here and there.  A couple of exceptions are Nicolas Blair and Professor Stokes, they're almost always interesting.

The 1970 episodes may look really odd in B&W, but there were a couple of kinescope episodes back in 1795 that I thought added a certain extra "scariness" to the ep's, so I guess it all balances out.  Personally, just like the flubbed lines and often less-than-perfect video quality, it just reminds you that you're watching an old show, and really adds to the charm.  Not only does it take you out of your day-to-day life with the drama, but even takes you to a different time all together.

Sort of like my Battlestar Galactica DVD's;  I remember watching that show sitting on the floor of my Grandma's house in town (we didn't get that channel at our house).  It's all part of the experience.

I've always admired her excellent acting ability.  She was superb in just about every role she played, no matter if it was the poor unappreciated housekeeper or the detestable Abigail or even Minerva Trask.  She brought a real depth and believability to any character she portrayed.

I remember that show.  I had totally fallen for Fallon    Have to check out KLS sometime.  Ah, another DVD set on the wishlist...