Idle Thoughts--Spare the Rod, Spoil the Leviathan Messiah (4/28-4/30)

Fashion notes first . . .

Elizabeth's Electric Kool Aid Acid Test dress, I continue to dread its appearance. Maybe it's the obvious polyesterness of it. Maybe it's the fact that my grandma wore clothes like that. Also might have something to do with the fact that it does nothing for her figure, but I hate it, hate it, hate it.

Very nice, very tasteful gray dress on Julia. Grayson Hall really looked pretty good for this plot.

Ugh. Lime green polyester. Liz. Bad combo. Maybe they really did raid my Grandma's wardrobe for her clothes. The black dresses though, I like very much. And did anybody catch how she's now sporting snake jewelry?

Why do they keep putting Nancy Barrett in these extremely pale colors? They do nothing for her, but wash her out.

Onto the show . . .

I want to begin right now by saying that the acting for the past several episodes (excluding the very painful performance of the lisping tot playing Alexander and my bete noire, Roger Davis) has been excellent. From Frid on down. Even Don Briscoe, who is often not the greatest actor in the world, was exceptional. It's really been quite impressive to see everyone pulling together like this. Makes me a lot happier when I watch the show too . . .

It was even quite impressive when the writers made the choice to have David freaked out by the appearance of Quentin. One of the things I've been liking about the Leviathan possession deal is that the existing personality of the possessee is still intact.

On the other hand, I don't think a lot of thought was given to the role of David Selby on the show. My sense is that his popularity led them to integrate the character into the real time story line, but that they had no real game plan. This stuff with Amanda is all well and good, but it's really not enough. I did enjoy his drunk scene immensely though.

Hypothetical situation: You are a responsible adult. You walk into a store. It and the residence attached are empty save for a child under the age of seven. Said child informs you that his caregivers are "out." What do you do?

a) Promptly inform police/social services/child endangerment.
b) Indicate by some manner (words or facial expression) that you find this situation out of the ordinary and appalling and then contact the caregivers that this situation cannot happen ever again.
c) Remain oblivious that anything about this situation is  wrong and only become concerned when a child over the age of twelve and his ten-year-old going-on-forty-year-old playmate come on over.

You be the judge.

Tate's portraits look like early advertisements for soap and Coca-Cola"(TM).  Why exactly is Stokes calling him "talented?"

"I am the great and powerful Oz." Freak.

Having some trouble with this sensitive Roger business. Real problems. See, this is one seriously messed-up man. His kiddie is equally screwed-up too. For the past three years, we've seen them have real, genuine difficulty even managing to have a conversation. They talk, but there's no communication. Roger's efforts in the parent department have always been, forgive me (and I love the character) half-assed at best. He's been oblivious to a lot of danger signals before. Suddenly he's noticing something's wrong with his son. He's reaching out to David. He's making efforts. Efforts that inconvenience him. It just doesn't add up continuitywise.

Okay, less serious here. I love how David's reading the book, happens on the prophecy and we get this marvelous "Oh, crap, I had no idea I had a dentist's appointment" feeling. Have to run now and go pay homage.

Very much appreciate the next SORASed product. Michael is suitably creepy and quite the improvement over his predecessor. Has that "Children of the Damned" image down.

David's punishment. My first inclination when I watched this was to make fun of it (anyone ever see Murder by Death?) but deer heads and all it had a disturbing feel to it.

Heh. Julia is asked to take off so Roger and Liz can go yell at each other and she goes straight for the closed door and the keyhole. The woman has no shame 

Any MST3K fans here? I get the strong feeling that they got the inspiration for Brain Guy from Oberon.

It's funny really. Oberon tells Barnabas outright he's pretty much an outsider and it occurs to me that it's something that holds true for the character on the whole. Barnabas has always been the outsider. Didn't quite fit into the world of his father in 1795 and ever since then he's always been really on the outside looking in. And really much of the Leviathan plot is about outsiders and the question of inclusion.

So do you think that there are any local hookers? I get the feeling that the local talent is too smart to work the docks and they let the "foreigners" risk certain death.

Elizabeth's quite the ruthless soldier for the cause, isn't she? And at least she lies fairly well most of the time (although she's made a few doozies on occasion). I love that bright-eyed enthusiastic expression "Look at what's come for you! Isn't it splendid? Oh, do open the box, Julia" and then two seconds later she's the ice queen.

Ye Gods. What are they doing to Paul? I get the feeling that the doctor wrote a script for Valium and Elizabeth's been getting creative in adding her own supplements. He looked like he was coming off a combination of Mad Dog 20-20, heroin, and maybe a couple of anti-psychotics.

Nice to see Mrs. Johnson again, however briefly.

Line of the day: "What made you think, for even one moment, that I wanted you back." Pure venom.

The thing is, I suspect that only a fraction of that is Leviathan-based. If you watch her in the 1966 and 1967 plots, that ruthless side is still there and it surfaces and vanishes at Elizabeth's convenience. While I doubt she would have been shoving drugs down Paul's throat and planning to lock him up if she wasn't under the influence of the Leviathans, let's not forget she was planning on running the man out of town on a rail.

If you stop and think about the other Leviathan-zapped characters, most of them are either acting like an amoral version of themselves or enjoying power that they would like to wield.

Look at David. He's felt put-upon and at the mercy of outside forces most of his life (half of his actions for the first two years of the show are geared toward avoiding been "sent away." He's a child in a household of adults who really have no idea how to take care of him. Now, he's dictating what happens (at least to a certain extent).

Barnabas. Well, he likes to be in control. Always in control. Which considering the fact that he is completely out of his time does make some sense. Now he's calling the shots.

Don't know too much about Megan and Philip prior to their Leviathan days so maybe this theory would fall apart, but I think it makes sense to me.

Luciaphil wrote:

On the other hand, I don't think a lot of thought was given to the role of David Selby on the show. My sense is that his popularity led them to integrate the character into the real time story line, but that they had no real game plan. This stuff with Amanda is all well and good, but it's really not enough.

I agree with you here.  It's like they wanted to bring his character back but had no idea what to do with him.  Frankly, I could have done without this whole Amanda/Olivia Corey bit altogether and would have liked to have seen Quentin have something else much more interesting to do.

Hypothetical situation: You are a responsible adult. You walk into a store. It and the residence attached are empty save for a child under the age of seven. Said child informs you that his caregivers are "out." What do you do?
a) Promptly inform police/social services/child endangerment.
b) Indicate by some manner (words or facial expression) that you find this situation out of the ordinary and appalling and then contact the caregivers that this situation cannot happen ever again.
c) Remain oblivious that anything about this situation is  wrong and only become concerned when a child over the age of twelve and his ten-year-old going-on-forty-year-old playmate come on over.

Exactly!!  Thank you!  And Alexander was left alone also on a few occasions and he was much younger than Michael!!

"I am the great and powerful Oz." Freak.

LOL!!!  As soon as I heard CDT speak up through those loudspeakers I thought the same thing!!  They definetely must have gotten this one from The Wizard of Oz!!

Very much appreciate the next SORASed product. Michael is suitably creepy and quite the improvement over his predecessor. Has that "Children of the Damned" image down.

He's downright scary!!  He almost makes David look like a saint!

Ye Gods. What are they doing to Paul? I get the feeling that the doctor wrote a script for Valium and Elizabeth's been getting creative in adding her own supplements. He looked like he was coming off a combination of Mad Dog 20-20, heroin, and maybe a couple of anti-psychotics.

The poor guy. He spends most of his time during this timeline either half insane or flat on his back from being drugged too much.
I do feel bad for Carolyn though as she really wants a chance to finally get to know her father.  It's too bad they didn't let them have a few more "normal" scenes together before Paul's mental state detioriated to this stage.

Nice to see Mrs. Johnson again, however briefly.

Yes.  I was wondering when she was going to appear!


Thanks Luciaphil!!


Cassandra

I have to ask:


What does SORASed mean/stand for?

It's funny really. Oberon tells Barnabas outright he's pretty much an outsider and it occurs to me that it's something that holds true for the character on the whole. Barnabas has always been the outsider.

Im not to sure but was that suppose to be Oberon?  How come Barnabas didn't know him then?  He asked him who he was when he appeared to him.  Plus it didn't look like the first Oberon at all, but they could have easily replaced him since he doesnt have such a big part.

I like these comments of yours. Just found this part of the forums board too and I really enjoy these!

Deb

I have to ask:
What does SORASed mean/stand for?

SORAS=Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome

It's when a soap takes a character, a child particularly, and the child suddenly appears several years older. You know one minute they're being used as the cute toddler who has a hard time when Daddy is trying to date someone other than Mommy, the next they're back from summer camp and they're 25 and now they're trying to date the same person as Daddy.

 

Any MST3K fans here? I get the strong feeling that they got the inspiration for Brain Guy from Oberon.

Hee hee!  My friend and I were discussing this just the other day.  In the long run, both were about as equally (in)effective in their goals for domination.  And aren't the Observers also supposed to be an ancient, all-powerful race?

Excellent analysis of how their roles in the Leviathan conspiracy empower the characters!  I had never thought of that before, but now it's given me a better appreciation of this storyline.    Great column, as always!

ProfStokes