To those who have inquired after me, sorry, week from hell and all sorts of nasty papers and presentations were due (and it's only going to get worse until May 3rd
), but I'm okay and have not fallen under a bus or anything . . .
Fashion notes first . . .
These were rather lean episodes for fashion commentary. Poor Joan Bennett had a rather bad makeup day--her lipstick wasn't completely on and it drove me nuts. Then Nathan's seemed to be missing an epaulet and that was bugging me too . . .
Collinsport's newest import to the oldest profession is another story and my sole grist for the fashion mill. The dress was great. I do love those stripes and she looked suitably tarty. I wish they had made a greater effort to match up her wig with her real hair, but you can't have everything. I also liked her mobcap, although I believe that was more suited to indoor use, but Maude being what she was, I guess we can cut her some slack.
Onto the show . . .
The trial.
Forgive me for not caring. It's not entirely Roger Davis' fault. He wasn't the turkey(s) writing this schlock. Although I've noticed he's begun his trademark "let's toss and manhandle my co-star around as much as possible." How the actresses he worked with on the show stood it, I don't know. I would have clocked him.
I am mystified at the approach good ol' Peter "I learned the law from working at the gaol" Bradford took in the end. Good grief, even Vicki questioned him!
And then they were surprised when she got convicted! Dumb and dumber, personified--I'll leave it to you all to decide which is Vicki and which is Peter. I suppose it's tacky of me to pick on these too idiots, but I can't help it. I get the feeling that if God himself came down and pronounced Vicki innocent, she and her dork of an attorney would find a way to muck it up. Frankly, I am ready to shoot the two of them myself.
Where are Art Wallace and Francis Swann when you need them? They did not write dumb women.
Yeah, it was a soap and nobody on it thought that anyone would remember these things, but I'm sorry, I don't buy it. Viewers remember this stuff. On AMC, I vividly remember a story that took place at least five (probably more than that) years ago the Tuesday cliffhanger, Brooke was in a car with Derrick and they were racing to rescue Edmund from a certain death at the hands of an unscrupulous realtor (who was planning to drown Edmund in quicksand
).
Then on Wednesday, Brooke, who is still in the same car with the same guy, and still on the way to Willow Lake, now had a completely different hairstyle and color that must have represented at least three hours of work in the salon. Well, my point is that it's still with me. I don't think I'm alone on this either.
And while I'm talking about AMC, let me just say that they have done Erica Kane stories with more realism to them than this trial crap (and yes, that includes the beautifully cut prison uniforms La Lucci wore for months).
Okay, I'm calmer now.
Liked the scene between Trask and Naomi. Bennett's makeup may have been awful, but she was on target, as was he. Bennett and Lacy always did click together (as we will see when they do the 1897 episodes).
Brief pause while I say that I love the black & white. The color on DS often seemed very garish to me. The beauty of the B&W was that it gave the show more of an edge and a definite creepiness to it.
And then along came Craig Slocum
. I don't think much of his acting, but he did bring a certain seediness to his roles. Like John, I agree there's a definite gay subtext to his interaction with Nathan, that certainly makes everything a bit more interesting, particularly in light of Nathan's rather complicated character.
He's (Nathan) intriguing me. We're now firmly into tragedy territory here, but he's still not a cardboard cutout villain. He may make villainous choices, but he does have a conscience of sorts. If he'd been kept in the Regency farce they started him out with, he'd be one likable rogue, a Mr. Wickham as it were, but now he's approaching deeper, darker waters.
I absolutely adored the scenes between Ben and Maude and then Ben and Noah. I suspect that Thayer David tinkered with his dialogue a bit, because in light of the abysmal writing we're getting with the trial, well, it makes sense.
Was rather bored with the moral righteousness of Barnabas. He alternates between psychotic rage and structured psychotic rage. I am taking into light Nancy's thoughts on the subject, but the character's all over the place emotionally and mentally and it drives me nuts to watch it.
On another note, I think the statement he made about making Trask feel remorse was particularly telling. All along, it seems Trask has either been underestimated or misunderstood. Remorse is something that Nathan might feel--Nathan after all knows that he's done something wrong. Trask wholeheartedly believes that Vicki is a witch. It's not hypocrisy as witness Trask's reaction to the mind fanging (the hand bit comes from "The Beast with Five Fingers"). The witch is doing this to him; he doesn't believe it's punishment at all. What, after all, is he guilty of? He is on God's side.
You have to wonder what makes someone like that. Fear maybe?
Maude
. What a piece of work
. From the accent that totally did not fit the supposed New Bedford origins, to her higher standards, to her chi chi abode "above the feedstore" (I laughed for like five minutes after Thayer David delivered that) she was a hoot and a half.
Thayer David was marvelous with this stuff. While Slocum was going gamely on about needing work and wanting to be a gardener???, there's Thayer David talking about running away to sea, because, "I never get enough tea."
Luciaphil