Fashion notes first . . .
Brought to you by the color
ORANGE. If we were unsure that the show had entered the seventies, the costumes are here to tell us that.
Eeek, it's the puke green carpet suit and hideous orange top on Julia. I do like the longer hair on her though and it's nice to see she's not wearing makeup applied with a trowel (well, except for the fake eyelashes).
Okay. Kathy Cody is a strapping young lass burgeoning on the brink of womanhood (actually, let's be honest, she's already there. You can put her in all the bows and frills in the world, we're in older teen territory and there's no denying it). It barely works to have her running around in mod attire suitable for a 10-year-old, but see, a girl of--I'll be generous and say 15--in the mid-Victorian period would have her hair up and would be looking a hell of a lot more grown-up in her clothing.
Love that flip on Daphne! Yeah, there's some accuracy right there. Sure . . .
Onto the shows . . .
This column may seem even more disjointed than usual. I haven't been watching the show in weeks and I found today's episodes rather like being underwater. Note to self: do not, repeat, do not jump in midplot like this again.
Oooh, pretty silhouette. So like how did
that get in Dippy Daphne's room? (You didn't really think I'd be a fan of her now, did ya? The only time I cared for a Kate Jackson DS character was in one of Arashi's fanfics). Knowing the backstory of Daphne and Gerard as I do, gotta wonder. Also does no one know how to shut up a room properly? You'd think there would be some dust sheets or something. 'Cause I have to say there are probably hovels in war-torn Iraq that are neater looking than some of the rooms in Collinwood.
Why, look! It's that same damn model ship they keep recycling. And it's not a "boat," Barnabas, that would be a model
ship. This kind of stuff kills me. Not that I really care whether it's a boat or a ship, but having been around people who get very passionate about the distinction, I know that any self-respecting scion of a shipbuilding dynasty (that would be Barnabas) should bloody well know the difference between a model boat and a model ship
Please. I am like the stereotypical awkward adult in the company of children, and even I do not come across as smarmily and/or as patronizing as Barnabas does with David. I think Roger has a better rapport with the kid.
How can you take a great character like Quentin and somehow turn into a lovestruck adolescent?
When Quentin possessed David in the prelude to 1897, it was creepy. This stuff with Gerard is almost on the right level, but the playroom takes us into the wrong kind of creepiness. David is how old now? Bit too old to be messing around with model ships and the Little Lord Fauntleroy duds (in fact, I would expect that there would be a huge inbuilt resistance to wearing cute little suits on David's part that a supernatural being would have to struggle mightly against to make it work).
God, I forgot how much I detest Hallie. She's like the poor man's
Lucille Bremer. Bremer, who had some talent, was pretty much the really poor man's Judy Garland, always sounded annoyingly sincere and earnest with her voice . . .
Maybe this reaction is because I haven't been watching the show in weeks and weeks, but allow me to paraphrase Willow from BTVS and wonder "did they all just do a bunch of drugs?" because these people are too freaky for words.
Again, these kids are how old? 14? 15? and they're messing around with stuffed toys, carousels, and rocking horses. Sure. They should be sneaking ciggies and trying to make out, not go all Dickie Moore and Shirley Temple. Makes even less sense for the historical characters, who would have been expected to grow up a lot faster than their modern counterparts.
And Daphne was hanging around Gerard's ship? WTF? I wish the writers had actually bothered to remember this crap when they took the characters back in time.
Dowsing! It's a game the whole family can play . . . or not. Didn't know you could exorcise a house with a forked stick (I realize Trask tried it, but I'd expect a former Satanist to know the difference).
Miss me?
