Discuss - Ep #0652_0653

[Watching Project]

Robservations #652_653

And if you'd care to look back, the first WP discussion topic for this ep:

Re: Discuss - Ep #0652_0653

And remember:

Wednesday, March 5: No Episode, originally Wednesday, December 25, 1968 was Christmas

  MERRY CHRISTMAS 1968!! 

[MagnusTrask]

Liz is back at Collinwood, after having gone to some mausoleum, her own, Barnabas's, someone's.  Eagle Hill has now officially been moved to next door to the estate?  I think there's a family cemetary on the estate (though I may be getting that from the 1991 series map).  Liz's new mausoleum, within walking distance for Liz AND Amy... could be in an adjacent family cemetary.  If it was THE Mausoleum, Barnabas's, then maybe we're saying there's no Eagle Hill anymore, it was on family land all along.  (Eagle Hill is five miles north of Collinsport.)

DS is about mood again, not plot plot plot... thankfully.  I like the moment when we see Amy captivated by the Moon, and we cut to Chris about to change.  Maggie becomes Magtoria without batting an eye.  Does the family even know Maggie, apart from three or four chance meetings?  If the job was just someone to watch over the kids, fine, but she's supposed to tutor them. 

WereChris attacks Joe at Maggie's place.  Alex and Crothers manage a good action sequence, alarmingly violent, with nothing really happening physically besides one guy shaking the other a little, and the other yelling.  Joel C is really good, when the actually give him something to do... You really feel a limb may be about to be torn off...

[DarkLady]

I've always liked it that Amy is sensitive to the phases of the moon and vaguely aware that a full moon means trouble, but like Sarah, she doesn't really understand why her brother is so miserable. Very touching when she tries to protect Joe.

Maybe Maggie was only waitressing while attending the local college--otherwise it’s hard to imagine how she’s qualified to teach two young children.

Barn is very sweet with Amy. I always like these scenes.

At the cottage, neither Maggie/Magtoria nor Joe seems to notice that the painting that Nicholas Blair bought has found its way back to the cottage and is on display.

The attack scene is very scary, very well done.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Maybe Maggie was only waitressing while attending the local college--otherwise it’s hard to imagine how she’s qualified to teach two young children.

One can only hope she was better qualified than it appeared. 

At the cottage, neither Maggie/Magtoria nor Joe seems to notice that the painting that Nicholas Blair bought has found its way back to the cottage and is on display.

Well, you see - like many artists, Sam painted multiple versions of the same scene/thing. How else to explain how several of his paintings seemingly turn back up in the cottage? 

[dom]

Is a teaching degree required of home-schoolers?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

   Surprisingly, it isn't: Homeschool Teacher Qualifications. But still, just what were Maggie's qualifications? And shouldn't a family with the prestige of the Collinses have gotten the best person qualified for the job? If that was Maggie, the pickings must have been awfully slim in Collinsport.

But then, we know why in reality the choice was Maggie - because she was a character who was already on the show, so DC didn't have to hire another actress as the new governess - particularly considering how that didn't exactly work out too well with Betsy Durkin. 

[dom]

The Collins' generally seemed to be the type to offer employment as a means of rescuing someone. And they've already proven that they are not typical. A New governess would have freshened things up a bit though. But the Vicky era is gone. Now it's Gods & monsters. Looking forward to Leviathans. Also hoping to remember where in 1897 I started watching full time. Selby, I wonder who approved him for the role? You think Dan?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Well, we can look at things this way - at least they didn't bring in the nearly catatonic Sabrina Stuart early (talk about the Collinses rescuing someone if the show had) and give her the governess job!! 

[DarkLady]

"Gods and monsters"--I like that, dom! It's a good, pithy summary of the next couple of story lines!

I think Barn went along with Elizabeth's choice of Maggie because he wanted to keep her happy and stop her from thinking so much about death. Plus, Maggie is a known quantity and already knows David and Amy. AND how would the family have explained to any other candidates that Elizabeth was in a hurry because she was sure she was about to be buried alive?

[alwaysdavid]

Maggie comes to Collinwood and Collinsport and it's once great sets is pretty much left behind.

[KMR]

My god, I've never seen such a heartbreaking display of distress from a child actor before!  What did Lela Swift do to poor little Denise Nickerson?!?  Did she study directing under Norman Taurog?  (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Cooper)

[MagnusTrask]

Welcome to the WP, KMR.  Good to have you here......

[KMR]

Thanks, MT!  It's taken me a while, but I've almost caught up with y'all (pant, pant)...  just a little bit more to go (pant, pant)...

It is so much fun rewatching DS, which I haven't done since it originally aired.  The characters, sets, and music (of course), and the most basic aspects of the storylines, are all familiar.  But each episode plays as something brand new to me.  Of course, we're talking about a moving picture that lasted hundreds of hours, watched nearly 50 years ago...

And I can't believe how young so many in the cast are!   

[MagnusTrask]

I've been noticing how mature these characters in their twenties sound.  These days, adults seem to carry a bit of a teenage attitude and vocabulary with them throughout adulthood, compared to then, anyway.  Of course the writers were probably a bit older than some of the actors.