mrs. johnson's early days at collinwood were truly brilliant. some of my favorite scenes ever come out of these weeks.

[spoiler]mitch ryan and conard fowkes are an interesting chapter in the DS history. a relic from the brief period when a lawyer, a cannery owner or a fisherman could serve as the show's male "leads". from 1967 on nearly all of the male characters are some sort of supernatural being.[/spoiler]

no i haven't seen it yet.

i just can't wait to see what happens next...

zack your knowledge of and enthusiasm for the 'gold key' books is quite impressive...

that said i know and care very little for comic books so i guess i'm not really qualified to comment on them except to say that for me they don't do it. they're too silly and juvenile and i'm interested in them only as a piece of kitsch memorabilia. they're written from a completely adolescent sensibility. for me they don't remotely capture the mood and atmosphere of the series and it's the series i'm fond of. a few of the names are the same and the town is called collinsport but otherwise they could be another random comic series. nothing about them says DS to me. if you take the romance out of DS, which this series does, then it's just goofy. and IMHO the drawings are too wierd.

but like i said i'm not a comic enthusiast so other people's enjoyment of these is great. they're fun if nothing else and like the ross novels they're kind of a kick in their own right.

mcqueen is certainly fitting for the gothic nature of DS...

and green looks GORGEOUS as a brunette...i wonder why burton chose to make everyone in the movie a blonde?

i'm a very visual person so for me this series has the potential to feel somehow more "real" than the audiodramas do.

i've only listened to a couple of them and yes they do feel like some sort of parallel time universe despite the presence of so many OS actors. it didn't seem "real" to me if one can accurately use that word to describe a completely fictitious situation.

in fact after the initial "goosebumps" from hearing those iconic voices together again i promptly drifted away from the series. i actually couldn't tell you a single plot detail of them.

i didn't catch the "pyromania" reference the first time around. although it wouldn't properly correspond to the 100 year life cycle of the pheonix i wouldn't be surprised to see mrs.roger collins make her presence known. in fact it would be great.

i'm not catching any references to the 1991 series either. in it's tone and sensibility this story seems firmly planted in the traditions of the original series. as for any references to "depp shadows" it's impossible to say since we haven't seen it yet but i suppose they could try and tie the two together somehow. that doesn't seem likely though given the presence of quentin and the references to maggie and hallie who will have no presence in the movie.

at least via this first effort it would seem that the "canon" of the original series is the launching pad for the series much more than other recent offshoots like the audiodramas and certainly fiction by lara parker which seem to exist in their own DS universe.

as few more thoughts about the period and in particular quentin...

as soon as the storyline shifts completely to parallel-time and quentin is introduced as the protagonist the character comes to life(as annoying as parallel-time quentin can be).

in fact in any other time period besides the "present" quentin can easily be written into the lead and the character makes sense. yet in the "present" i always am struck how poorly written and integrated the character seems. he's never given a compelling raison d'etre. to me he just sort of sticks out like a seven foot tall piece of dead wood.

perhaps because by the time her showed up at collinwood as a real flesh and blood character the show had already been on the air for nearly four years. the tone at collinwood had been established and to me he never fits in. he's an awkward presence standing around with julia and liz. i don't "get him".

but in any other period he makes sense. he can be written as big as they want him to be. he's by nature a protagonist and just doesn't work as a supporting character.