i'm really on the fence with 1897...

i'm watching the quentin storyline which means 1897 is coming up fast.i always like to have a storyline going to watch when i have some down time or need some visual comfort food.

however 1897 is sooo long and unweildy i'm not sure i can commit to it again right now.

should i go back and watch laura collins or jump ahead and do leviathan or parallel-time?decisions.

it's interesting how two different actresses approach to the same material yielded such different results.

can you imagine betsy's vicki finding herself thrust two hundred years into the past?talk about hysterical.alexandra's somewhat bland acting style ended up giving the character some nice levity.

over the weekend i watched the final betsy episode.under the circumstances i found barnabas' marriage proposal to not only be clumsy and inappropriate but also unnecessary plotwise.why bother if the vicki character was leaving anyways?

i also thought that the scene lacked emotional impact.not only because it was not alexandra(who had nice chemistry with frid)but also because the two characters had not been on the same page storywise for months.it seemed sort of random.

vicki #3 is coming up...

lydia,

i'm fine with a character causing radical change on the show if the character is thoughtful and well written...as barnabas was for instance.

adam was none of those things.he,and the plot,was boring and stupid and adolescent.

your remarks make me think you care little for the original cast.i like them.i thought they deserved better than they got for most of 1968.for me there are more important things than how a particular plot affected ratings.i don't really care how "favorably the audience responded" to the adam storyline...i thought it was stupid.

i was glad when the primary cast was returned to front burner status with the quentin storyline.

the show's previous three supernatural characters...laura,barnabas and angelique...worked within the existing framework and tone of the show.even with the time travel element of 1795 it was still gothic melodrama.

adam and company changed(violently)the tone.suddenly it's not gothic melodrama but a full fledged "spook show" with the main cast relegated to the sidelines and monsters the focus.they'd spent the previous two years telling us that these are the important people then suddenly they're not the important people these are?does that make sense?

with the start of the quentin storyline that rights itself i think.

i agree with magnus' comments about adam's constant threats.as a plot device they grew extremely boring.ironically the more grandiose they got the more hollow.while killing vicki was somewhat achievable once it became the entire collins family it became an empty threat with no suspense.obviously they were not going to kill off most of the primary cast and viewers knew that.

well put magnus,

i think adam would have bothered me less later in the series' run...sort of a last gasp.

but coming on the heels of the show's high points and plunging it into the abyss was a bummer.despite all the "gimmicks" the show actually works best as a character study.

and it went on waaaay too long.

when i first watched the show through a few years ago i skipped ahead of the late 1968 fake-vicki episodes.
being extremely fond of alexandra moltke(as if you guys needed reminding)i just couldn't take them and i didn't care enough about the adam storyline to watch it's conclusion.

so now i'm finally watching this part of the series and needless to say i have some thoughts on besty durkin's take on victoria winters...

i don't mean to be unkind but as vicki ms. durkin crashed and burned spectacularly.

it's not entirely her fault.the scripts written for her were for the most part preposterous.

for starters why did they give besty such a stiff,dated hairdo?it's very 1966.by 1968 the hairstyles were longer and looser(witness carolyn's groovy new center part)so she's already starting at a disadvantage.

funny but i had always thought that by the time the quentin storyline got underway that maggie had already been ensconced at collinwood so i was surprised to see that the plot was well underway with vicki in the governess role.vicki and quentin in the same episodes? far out.

but really under betsy's shrill acting style the character comes across not as naive,or even "clueless" as alexandra's take is often described,but rather as completely insane.again it's not entirely her fault given the scripts she was handed.but i wonder if alexandra's placid,even somewhat flat,acting style would have left a different impression given the same material?the character's just too hysterical under betsy even considering what she was going through at the time.despite the ever present "dumb" lable alexandra's vicki actually kept a pretty level head most of the time.

still the betsy episodes are weird.i didn't get the impression that they were winding the character down at first.she was given new storyline openings and lots of screen time.more in fact than vicki had had for much of 1968.so her final departure is sort of abrupt.

and alexandra's rather aristocratic bearing gave the character a complexity(yes,i said complexity)and presence she lacked under the one-note betsy.

other thoughts on this period...where were barnabas and julia for this part of the show?the story is heavy with the other characters for a change(were frid and hall on vacation?).it's weird how easily roger can be written out of the proceedings(all those pesky trips to boston and london).he's one of the "core" characters at collinwood right?i had hated carolyn for much of 1968 and the adam plot so it's nice to like her again.i had forgotten she was once a favorite character.liz's tedious fear of death/being buried alive takes a strange pause here and doesn't come up at all for several weeks.it must have been strange for joan bennett to play her "maternal" vicki scenes with someone other than alexandra.the chemistry's just not there.but liz does get a nice quilted black coat here and i love seeing her on the front burner again.nice to see david hennesy too...where the heck had he been for most of 1968?didn't he have a contract?

so anyways even though i was never a fan of the "magtoria" compromise(i like maggie as a seperate character with a seperate storyline)i suppose it's for the best that a familiar and well-liked face was brought into the fold at collinwood and poor besty sent into the ether.

funny but ever since ms. durkin started attending fests a few years ago and turned out to be such a sweetheart public opionion about her time on the show seems to have softened a bit.i don't see "betsy wetsy" or the "icky vicki ' quite so much as i used to.she's nice.she's pretty.but she was wrong as vicki.

i've never seen the 2004 pilot but i have caught a few episodes of the 'eleventh hour' and nothing at all about ms.shelton seems remotely victoria-winters-ish.

i can't see her as vicki at all.