Idle Thoughts--Farewell, Amanda (Episodes 848-853)

Fashion notes first . . .

I want Kitty's jewelry. I just do. I realize it's costume, but it looks so cool.

Holy Mother of God. I'm just watching FutureQuentin in that canary yellow shirt and it's giving me retina burn. And that tie--that Woolworth's on sale, clearance rack tie. What were they thinking?

Finally a semi okay dress on Amanda (green skirt/suit thing). Pink edging around the jacket was kind of ick and I've noticed that most of her skirts have cutouts and doodads and weird patterns on them that are a detraction.

Kitty's broken into the purples--Edward had better watch out. Lady Hampshire's husband hunting. I loved this dress even more. The wrap and the fringe and beads. It looked great on KLS too. I do have to say though that it never ceases to amaze me the outfits these characters choose for their "walks." I mean, yeah, I'm going out in the middle of the night on an unlit and probably unmarked path in the middle of the woods, an area that I'm unfamiliar with too) and I'm going to wear an evening gown dripping with bugle beads? No. And yet somehow these women always come back looking immaculate.

Onto the show . . .

It occurs to me to wonder about the boundaries of the deranged Mr. Tate's talents. Obviously, he can create people as well as inanimate objects. What about houses? Or what happens if he paints a landscape? If he drew, say, an imaginary landscape, would it pop into being somewhere? What would happen if abandoned realism (well, chocolate box art anyhow) and ventured into impressionism? Or if he was ahead of his time and delved into abstract expressionism? What would his creations look like then?

And yes, I'm bored.

Tim was being a first class ass there. Frankly, I don't get the appeal Amanda seems to have on all these guys (4 of them, mind you, in a locale swimming with pretty young women). Maybe she's great in the sack?

But then CDT comes along and proves he's an even stronger contender for creep of the year.

"She belongs to me because I created her."

Golly. Well, there's logic for you.

Soooo, anyone else get the feeling that these guys (speaking here of Tim and CDT) have a hard time getting laid? Maybe that's being overly crude, but it's the only thing I can think of to explain all this Amanda-possessiveness. She's attractive, but I look at her and I don't say, wow, raving beauty. Her features are kind of small--her face looks flat in profile. Nice figure, but nothing to write home about.

Speaking of Amanda, wow, way to pack there. No hat boxes. Doesn't bother to fold anything, just dumps it all willy-nilly in a trunk (in an upcoming storyline, we see another pretty job of travel preparations, but at least that character lives in an age of permanent press and washing machines).

Back on the subject of Miss Amanda "Crest Makes My Smile Gleam" Harris. I'm even more mystified by the pairing of Quentin and Amanda. I know they do this on soaps all the time (some idiot producer on AMC has been introducing a series of wildly untalented actors to play teenagers in some really dull stories just this past year), but here I am the viewer and I like to come up with rationales for these things. You can give me all the real life excuses you want, I'm still going to try and work it into the narrative for my own satisfaction--it's the way I am.

So please, this isn't rhetorical. Someone want to explain to me the point of pairing Quentin and Amanda together. He's been presented to us all along as a relatively unsentimental guy. Likes the ladies, but is more cynical than romantic and definitely knows the score. Suddenly after a couple of scenes, he's all over Amanda--that's fine, but now I'm supposed to believe he loves her???

Meanwhile, back at the bat cave, still wearing that rather unattractive dress, Beth is just clueing into the fact that Petofi is nuts.

Watching Trask manipulate everyone, I get the feeling that he learned everything he needed to know in the 19th century equivalent of high school as far as bullying and group dynamics go.

We know Charles is crazy because it's clear he honestly believes that he ever stood a chance with Amanda with or without Quentin's "interference."

Another question. Was there ever a reason why Angelique decided she had to have Quentin, 'cause that's another relationship that makes me throw up my hands in confusion. I mean, in many respects, he's not much different than Nathan Forbes as a type and she had absolutely no use for Nathan.

I do, however, want to say that I was applauding as Angelique kept Quentin from bringing back Amanda. It was almost like that wonderful time when she killed Eric Lang. I kept hoping she'd do the same with Amanda, just because, but no such luck.

Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill! or Go, Kitty, Go! That was worth it just to see the expression on Angelique's face.

The wedding announcement. Two things struck me:
1. That it got absolutely no response from Edward. He wasn't mad about it. He just clearly could care less.
2. That upon hearing that it would be happening that week, that Edward didn't look speculatively at Angelique's stomach and start counting on his fingers.

Okay, soooo bored now . . . I admit that I enjoy Angelique on occasion. I really do, but a little of her goes a really long way. It would help if they'd given LP some better lines and oh, I dunno, some sort of reason for being so interested in Quentin--anything.

They really, really missed the boat with turning Kitty into Mush Girl. Aside from being supremely yucky to watch, it's such a waste. It's a waste of KLS' talents and it's wasted potential. There were a couple of directions in which they could have gone, even if they wanted to keep the reincarnation of Josette thing.

I'm one of those fans who never really cared for Josette. Mainly because there were about two minutes of normal Josette and then we were off and running as Angelique started messing with her mind. The result of that was that I never really had anything invested in the pairing of Barnabas and Josette.

Okay, well, we're in the 1897 story and they've got a good start. KLS is having a grand old time playing a gold digging, smart woman. She's good at it.

Have her be Josette's reincarnation, but why not have her be Josette reinterpreted. Josette as she might have been if she'd been born poor and unpampered. We may be born with certain genetic givens, but our life experiences shape our character and our outlook.

I think they could have done soooo much more with this.