yes.

julia smiling...being coy.evasive.duplicitous.it's just grayson hall at her creamiest.

in some later storylines where julia simply functions as barnabas' assistant and time travel companion she's not that interesting.

some deviousness on her part brings out the best in the character.

i love how conveniently carolyn and vicki  just "forget" that barnabas is a vampire and until two days ago both were under his control.that certainly was easy on the scriptwriters.this allows them to forge on with barnabas' repositioning as the show's guilt-ridden anti-hero without any messy loose ends.

spoiler...
we will see however that not everyone's memory banks are so easily wiped clean of this frightening fact.

the effect with the rain against the collinwood windows was cool.they should have gone for that more often.

yes vicki and julia arrive at the collins mausoleum bone-dry.as usual during "storms" on d.s. we don't want mascara running or hairdo's drooping.and what was with this show and wool coats.no matter what the season or weather the ladies are always wearing boxy wool coats.
jeff,if i recall however,is wearing a "wet" rainslicker and has weird fake drops of rain in his hair.i guess guys are allowed to get wet.

yeah b. learns to drive at some point because...

Spoiler:

what can i say here.the 'car crash' episode.

i'm not doing the "watching project" but this episode left me speechless when i watched it.

first vicki is acting really,really weird.i know she's under barnabas' control but alexandra played the character in a way she never had before and never did again.she seemed strangely "in control" and actually bended barnabas to her wishes and was quite manipulative even.

then the sight of jonathan and alexandra squished into this tiny fake car was just too much!

then the drama of the crash.a car crash on dark shadows.a show that had just sent it's heroine two hundred years into the past and the best they could come up with was a car crash.at the same time i loved the bizzare "ordinariness" of it.like everyone shopping at 'brewster's' during the leviathan storyline.

remember how i said the week or so of shows leading up to the 1795 storyline had been something of a "red herring"?they threw in alot of stuff that didn't really effect the storyline as a whole or the continuity of the show.this week of shows had the same quality for me.there was something in effect "false" about these episodes.

they're picking up threads of the moments leading to the seance but they're not really "real" because none of it is going to matter from this moment on.everything and everyone is going to change in their essential function on the show.julia's haircut is more monumental than one thinks.

the business with barnabas biting vicki in these episodes really bugs me.not only because his reluctance to bite her was a pivotal part of the storyline but more because ultimately it was unnecessary.it doesn't really go anywhere.nothing really interesting or permanent becomes of it.it's a big,fat red herring.

but i absolutely love this episode!

yes mysterious,

i've been watching the 1991 version of the series and trying to figure out that it was missing and then it hit me...

it's the PEN PLOT than's missing.it's so amazingly fascinating and complex that i think they should have devoted at least a full season to it before moving on the the barnabas plot.

in fact if viewers in 1991 had had the opportunity to get caught in the PEN PLOT'S sticky web of intrigue no doubt the show would have been a phenomenon and cultural touch-point in a way similar to the whole "who shot j.r.?" drama on 'dallas' or "who killed laura palmer?" mystery on 'twin peaks'.dan curtis made a huge mistake not including this masterpiece of storytelling in the 91' version.

today's slideshow reveals a few notable moments in the show's set-dressing.

in 1967 roger's former office at the cannery becomes suddenly...and without explanation...the office of collins family attourney frank garner.

the slideshow also features a shot of the nicely detailed 'kitchenette' part of burke's suite of rooms(a.k.a 'room twently four'/a.k.a 'the presidential suite')at the inn.

sadly this part of the set takes a powder during 'room twenty fours' subsequent use.

gerard,

i hear you.cute as some of them are i don't really have a "crush" on any of the male actors on the show but i'm totally smitten by alexandra moltke.

again,go figure.

as a small child in the late 1970's and early 1980's i was hooked on soap operas(my parents should have guessed right then and there i played for the lavender team)and "all my children" was a fave.

this was during the phoebe and langley era(and monique!nina!liza!)so i was well aquainted with louis edmonds long before i had ever heard of dark shadows.

sorry i missed this.