Idle Thoughts--It's All About Me (6/6)

No fashion notes today . . . well, I lied. There is one. Was Frid really going grey or was that some sort of misguided artistic effect?

I was watching Friday's shows last night and it occurred to me that this is really a watershed moment for me. We're on the road to nowhere so to speak. Oh, sure there are a few notable points where we get to pull off and take a look at some nice scenic overlooks, and that's great, but the destination doesn't change.

So. For those of you who already consider me hypercritical and aren't exactly big fans, consider this your warning. 'Cause you ain't seen nothing yet.

Okey doke. Still with me? Last chance to go read something else.

I hate 1970PT. I really do. I don't hate it quite as much as the Wuthering Heights as Interpreted by Ed Wood mess that passes for 1841PT, but this is way down there on the list. I realize that half the cast was off making a film and they needed to work around that. Fine. This is what they come up with??? Too bad someone couldn't have spiked DC's coffee with some Ritalin.

Don't know what's worse: the wrap up for the Leviathan mess or 1970PT. Sloppy, sloppy writing all around. Roger's got the right idea about Jeb, no question. But I love how suddenly he's the stern uncle and Liz is the lax mother. Since when? Bennett and Edmonds managed to give the scene a bit of punch--their last go at what was once a really well-constructed, written, and acted sibling relationship, but it's not what it could have and should have been.

I used to watch Dr. Who. I liked it just fine. I would watch it if it was still airing on U.S. Television. But let's give it a rest, okay? This quasi-SciFi plot is so not a solution and it's symptomatic of the chronic problem they had with writing on this show: they write themselves into a corner or lose interest in what they were writing. They then switch over to another time period and write the same sort of stuff that they were doing before and so on and so on.

Clean up the dangling plots you already have. Instead of going for this really, really lame [spoiler]Rebecca with Martha Stewart in the title role[/spoiler] ripoff, do something with the actors that's a little bit fresh in the here and now.

Okay, last time I checked vampires were sensitive tonatural sunlight. Flashlights and electric lamps were not a problem. I notice that Barnabas manages just fine in an electrically lit environment.

It's a bit late in the game to apologize to Megan, don't you think? Besides, what life does she have to go back to? The antique shop is a pile of ash. Her husband is considered a murderer and he's dead now. Of course, Megan just articulated this even as I scrawled my notes. (Jinx).

[rant]In any case, I am so not buying this eternal regret schtick that Barnabas goes into every damn time he screws up. I just don't. You can apologize all you want. If there's no meaning behind it, no sincerity, then it's just hot air. When you've acted rashly for the umpteenth time, and then once again, start bemoaning your actions and your very existence, it's empty and it's a waste of everybody's time.

This, of course, is the point where people usually point out that see, Barnabas can't help himself. I might accept that were it not for the fact that at the time he was chomping down on Megan, Julia was running to and fro with syringes.

Barnabas never, but never accepts accountability for his actions. He blames Angelique. He blames the curse. He blames anybody but himself and he never, ever really tries to suck it up (figuratively speaking) and do the non-selfish thing. So absolutely no sympathy from yours truly (and do what you will to my Karma totals for that  ) [/rant]

Again with the aversion to electricity. Enough already.

Oh, God. Poor Willie. Last week he had his life together.  He was engaged. He had a future. He was happy. Now he's back again with Mr. Responsibility and Dr. Someday He'll Love Me and he's shaking like a leaf.

Let me get this straight: you can't trust Sky to kill Angelique, but you can trust him to reveal her coffin location. Uh huh. Said together in the same minute.

I really, really hate the stylized dialogue between Hoffman and PT Liz. I realize that the ambiguous and emphatic indefinite pronouns are meant to keep the suspense going, but it's like watching Kabuki drama or something.

Meanwhile, Barnabas is screaming "Let me in!" WTF? The man is just totally addicted to drama.

Well, at least Roger's looking pretty happy. Heh. Poor Megan though. All the other vampires have nice shiny coffins and she's stuck with the equivalent of an orange crate. You know, the kind the family buys and says "well, it'll be covered with flowers."

[rant]All right. That's it. Julia. Done with her. Barnabas, well, never really liked the guy, but I am so, so done with him. Everyone's written like a caricature. The writing sucks. Absolutely reeks. The plotting. Don't get me started on the plotting. I just don't care anymore about the welfare of any of these characters. The only one left with any humanity is Willie and that's it. And we're about to embark on a plot where absolutely bloody no one is likeable. I just do not care.

I'm watching for the trainwreck value alone or out of habit or something, but it becomes very easy at this point to turn off my TV. That's where I am right now. Maybe I'm alone at this point. I don't know. I'm just saying.[/rant].

"I must take that chance. Something draws me there. I don't want to stay away!"

Jeez, Louise, it's not rocket science, Julia. The man's addicted to being at the center of a big messy drama. He's got to be involved front in center in every damned thing going down. That's why he lies all of the time. That's why he can never explain what's going on to any of the so-called normal characters. He's got a pathological need to marginalize everybody else no matter what. Now he's bored 'cause the crisis is over and he's looking in on a whole new world of people he can dominate.

1970PT creeps, look out.

I never saw Leviathans before this....I'm afraid I have to agree that it didn't amount to much.  Jeb Hawkes is about as badly constructed as a character could possibly be.  They kept changing everything about him as they went along....was he powerful?...pitiful?...evil?....decent?  In the end it was too exhausting to care.

In the mean time I'll try to keep an open mind about PT despite your warnings.

But didn't you at least get a giggle out of the funniest line Willie Loomis ever uttered?....."Roxanne....she might think I'm weird or somethin'!"   Even I laughed out loud at that one, and we all know how I dote on that boy.

In the mean time I'll try to keep an open mind about PT despite your warnings.

As well you should (because, as I've mentioned already, I LOVE 1970PT ). But I will say this, when it comes to both 1970PT and 1841PT, it seems there's not much middle ground - fans tend to either accept the concept and enjoy the ride or they reject it outright.

In the mean time I'll try to keep an open mind about PT despite your warnings.

As well you should (because, as I've mentioned already, I LOVE 1970PT ). But I will say this, when it comes to both 1970PT and 1841PT, it seems there's not much middle ground - fans tend to either accept the concept and enjoy the ride or they reject it outright.

i never got into  the PT thing! just too weird for me
maybe i'm afraid my PT counterpart would be 20 lbs thinner,
rich and well....
jennifer

Don't apologize for you attitude, Luciaphil! I like the bitterness.
And I do think it's justified.

I must admit the show is not making sense to me at all these days. I've pretty much given up for now on following each thread and just try to enjoy certain scenes.

Okay, last time I checked vampires were sensitive tonatural sunlight. Flashlights and electric lamps were not a problem.

I think Megan was just hungover. Aiiii! That's how I react on those bad mornings.

Meanwhile, Barnabas is screaming "Let me in!" WTF? The man is just totally addicted to drama.

LOL! You're right. But I think Mr. B. is only at his best when he's upset about something. I hate to say it but he looks so cute when he's confused, shocked or worried. All his smiling at the beginning of Leviathan was just disturbing.

Another great installment!

You know, I used to know this Italian lady who absolutely adored this stuff that sort of began where blue cheese left off. I remember coming across her in the kitchen one afternoon slavering over a plate of this very odd looking substance that was a rather lurid shade of aquamarine crooning, "Rrrrotten cheese... theee more rrrotten eet ees, theee more I LUFF eet!"  It was like a scene in a Hammer film.

What you say about the current phase of Dark Shadows makes me wonder if I have something in common with Stella.  Some of my favorite moments on the show are still to come.  I think Parallel Time was a great concept and an ingenious solution to the logistical difficulties posed by having most of the central characters taking a 6 to 8 week hiatus from the series.  I personally feel that PT 1970 holds up better than 1840, which started out so well and then seemed to sort of unravel halfway through.

Definitely agree with you about Barn's obsession with entering the PT world.  I think we were supposed to be reading between the lines and presuming him to be in some sort of fugue state because of things going wrong with the drugs Julia was pumping into him. Sedative, anyone?  (which reminds me, one of my favorite lines in the entire series is coming up very shortly)

I'm very, very clear that I wouldn't want to be anywhere near enough to touch Barnabas or Julia with a barge pole at this point in real life. But I LOVE watching their antics on the Tube.  It is a strangely refreshing escape from the hijinks indulged in by some of my near and dear ones in RL.

Gothick

No fashion notes today . . . well, I lied. There is one. Was Frid really going grey or was that some sort of misguided artistic effect?

I think that was done to make him seem more ravaged by the vampirism this time around, especially now that Julia's treatments aren't working.  But say what you want about all that, you know you will.   

[rant]In any case, I am so not buying this eternal regret schtick that Barnabas goes into every damn time he screws up. I just don't. You can apologize all you want. If there's no meaning behind it, no sincerity, then it's just hot air. When you've acted rashly for the umpteenth time, and then once again, start bemoaning your actions and your very existence, it's empty and it's a waste of everybody's time.[/rant]

Or how Barnabas makes such a big deal about "I must get back to my coffin before sunrise!"  "I must hurry back!"  Then he reaches his coffin and proceeds to deliver a long sermon, "And now I return to my prison, to my ever-lasting darkness, yadda yadda yadda......"
Sometimes he's talking to Julia and starts getting into his speeches again, and I just want to picture her shaking her head and walking away when he turns his back.   

Oh, God. Poor Willie. Last week he had his life together.  He was engaged. He had a future. He was happy. Now he's back again with Mr. Responsibility and Dr. Someday He'll Love Me and he's shaking like a leaf.

"Dr. Someday He'll Love Me"!! 

Meanwhile, Barnabas is screaming "Let me in!" WTF? The man is just totally addicted to drama.

Lol.  As much as I love the guy, he really is a drama queen.

I love your rants, and even though I'm a little bit more of a Barnabas person than you, I find many of your Barnabas rants very funny.

Keep them up.

But didn't you at least get a giggle out of the funniest line Willie Loomis ever uttered?....."Roxanne....she might think I'm weird or somethin'!"   

I almost fell off the couch when he said that.  I had to rewind the tape so my husband could hear it.  It was even funnier than the time he said the skeleton in the basement gave him the "Willies" 

Don't know what's worse. The wrap up for the Leviathan mess or 1970PT. Sloppy, sloppy writing all around.

The ending got worse and worse.  I hated how they just finished the whole thing off but nevertheless, I was glad it was finally over!

Oh, God. Poor Willie. Last week he had his life together.  He was engaged. He had a future. He was happy. Now he's back again with Mr. Responsibility and Dr. Someday He'll Love Me and he's shaking like a leaf.

The poor guy should have left when he had the chance!  But as usual, he's still loyal to Barnabas, which is sad because it sounded like he had finally found the happiness he deserved.

Meanwhile, Barnabas is screaming "Let me in!" WTF? The man is just totally addicted to drama.

I suppose he thinks that he would be "cured" in that time frame since he doesn't have a counterpart but still, before you go jumping the gun, do a little research for goodness sakes!  He has no idea what could happen to him in that other time.
And what happened to Adam?   He was suppose to be the sole purpose of Barnabas being cured?  How fast they all forgot about that!

Thanks again Luciaphil!  These are wonderful to read!


Cassandra

Luciaphil wrote:

Barnabas never, but never accepts accountability for his actions. He blames Angelique. He blames the curse. He blames anybody but himself and he never, ever really tries to suck it up (figuratively speaking) and do the non-selfish thing. So absolutely no sympathy from yours truly (and do what you will to my Karma totals for that  )[/rant]

Luciaphil, you have hit the nail on the head. When I'm in a particularly bad mood, I can go on an anti-Barn rant for hours and hours. Sorry to say, I'm in a pretty good mood, mostly because your comments were sharp and clever and made me laugh. Thanks for that! And for understanding in your heart of hearts that Barn is nothing but a selfish self centered SOB - and he never will be anything else in my book.

Maine Girl