Tell us what you really feel about Barnabas, dom!!
And I totally agree with you about Pennock and Gabriel. I may have mention this one or twice, but I never liked Jeb - and I was pretty much indifferent to Cyrus/Yaeger and Sebastian. But once Gabriel came along I finally sat up and took notice of Pennock because he's so fantastic in the role. It is definitely the perfect pairing of actor and role.
But I'm afraid I must disagree about Vestoff and Samantha because I love the way Vestoff plays Samantha and I love Samantha's place in the storyline. Even given how much I love to watch Pennock/Gabriel, I wouldn't enjoy watching 1840 half as much without Vestoff/Samantha. Samantha is the perfect bitch, and she really hasn't even gotten started yet...
With characters like Gabriel and Samantha on hand, a perfect tag line for 1840 could easily be:
EMBRACE THE BITCH!!