The Ice B*tch and the Lovelorn Lad

Today's shows had more great scenes.  I've always loved that little exchange between Willie and Liz in the Collinwood Foyer.  Liz is at her iciest (I was surprised that Willie wasn't chipping frost off his face after he beat a hasty retreat).  Karlen played Willie's reactions with such honest, beautiful realism.  Between them, the actors created an amazing little gem out of what could have been just a standard scene.

I also loved the exchanges between Willie and Barnabas in episode #2.  Even though their putative "great friendship" violates the established history between the two, the actors played the scene with a lot of depth.  I've noticed that Karlen often brought out the best in Frid.  He played his scenes today with beautiful skill and restraint, I thought.

I just love the moment when Willie is telling Barnabas how sorry he is to be deserting him in his hour of need, and he pouts up his lips in the cutest way, like a doting father turning down his favorite child's request for ice cream.  So sweet.  Karlen has the most wonderfully expressive face!  Makes me want to send him a big splashy birthday card, thanking him for making my day again today.

Oh, and Grayson was FABULOUS, of course, but you already knew that.

I'm sure the TLATKLS brigade appreciated how charming Katie looked in her boudoir ensemble.

Gothick

Today's shows had more great scenes.  I've always loved that little exchange between Willie and Liz in the Collinwood Foyer.  Liz is at her iciest (I was surprised that Willie wasn't chipping frost off his face after he beat a hasty retreat).  Karlen played Willie's reactions with such honest, beautiful realism.  Between them, the actors created an amazing little gem out of what could have been just a standard scene.

Heh. I liked that too. She was almost as chilly as the Gene Tierney character in Leave Her to Heaven. She didn't care one bit about Willie. His life. He was In. The. Way.

Very glad to see the return of John Karlen. He has been missed.

Very glad to see the return of John Karlen. He has been missed.

I forgot he turned up in this storyline!  Another plus just when I keep expecting things to go steadily downhill ... (although Willie is probably my least favorite of his DS characters).

And Marie Wallace is just starting her third character transformation, showing her versatility within one storyline.

Joan Bennett is just so good when she plays the nasty and evil.  She was absolutely delicious when she bricked up her hubby, the good Reverend, back in 1897, and she's so wonderfully diabolical as a Leviathan robot.

It's also rather cute to see Willie's still deep affection for Maggie in a schoolboy crush kinda way.  And how Maggie seemingly is touched and flattered by it.  When he held her as they waited for Jeb to turn them into canned Spam, and she held him back, it was all rather sweet.  When I first saw that scene as a junior high school kid with my mad, passionate love for TLATKLS, I so wished I was Willie.

Gerard

Sadly, I realized last night that I had missed this scene entirely ... I vaguely recall stumbling around getting ready to leave in the early morning and hearing the VCR come to the end of the tape five minutes into Wednesday's first episode.  By the time I got the thing rewound and checked back to start taping again, there were only a few minutes left of the first episode.  Darn!

But Tuesday's episodes were great!  I had forgotten about the "return of the pitchforks"!

This storyline is really a rollercoaster of highs and lows, IMO.