Idle Thoughts--Leaps of Faith 3/4 & 3/5

[Luciaphile]

Fashion notes first . . .

Natalie's robe/evening gown was quite becoming.  I do like that rust color.  The wig could have used  a little work though.

Josette's last dress.  I guess this is why we should always make sure we're wearing our best underclothes should we be hit by a bus.  Would you really want to be wearing that for the rest of eternity?  I think my problem with it is the way it sort of bunches about her.  

Barnabas.  The makeup.  Oh my God.    In the first episode, he looked (and I know I've made this comparison before) like an Edward Gorey flapper.  I don't know when I've seen that much kohl on one human being before (and this includes Cyd Charisse in Singing in the Rain).  

And then in the second episode . . . what did they do?  Take an entire tin of white shoe polish and spread it over his face??  He could have gone out an auditioned to be a mime!

Millicent's sackcloth and ashes.  I absolutely adored the little black bows in her hair.  They were perfect and whoever decided on them deserves kudos.  Like a foreshadowing of her future mental state.  Very Opheliaesque.

Rather liked Naomi's fur trimmed robe.

Onto the show . . .

Our Josette (on the board, I mean) brought up the question of what the character Josette actually knew about her intended future existence.  Having watched these episodes, my conclusion is that Loverboy told her squat, which under the circumstances hardly falls under the term "informed consent".

I grant you that Josette wasn't exactly clamoring for details, but given the situation, surely it behooved Barnabas to share these with her.  It's perfectly in keeping with his character that he didn't, but I still think it's a really lousy thing to do to someone you purport to love.  

Thayer David was quite wonderful in these episodes.  I have a tendency not to comment on his performances, mainly because the man was almost uniformly excellent (one exception, IMHO, was his Matthew Morgan).  But his Ben is wonderful--and I love how Ben has become the voice of human decency for the show.

Psycho Barnabas was out in full force (so much for the theory about confinement bringing out the insanity).

Angelique's apparition.  The head was cool and the evil laugh was well, evil.  I'm lost with the logic here though.  With Josette's death, she's now got a rival that she can never really overcome--she's created a martyr as it were.  I really think it would have been so much more an effective punishment for Josette to become a vampire--I can't think Josette would have thanked Barnabas for it, and I can't quite see Barnabas living with what he'd done.

While I'm on the subject of Josette.  I'm sorry.  What an absolute nitwit.  Possessed, not possessed.  It's all the same.  This is a first class twit.  Angelique wasn't lying.  That's what made it all rather interesting.  She was presenting a rather accurate image of what Josette was going to look like.   And y'know, if this were my choice, I might take the trip down the cliff too.  

Poor Millicent has left the drawing room (figuratively) and is venturing into the haunted castle/abbey territory.  Loved her particular monomania: she needs Barnabas so that he can avenge her honor  

It was interesting watching Joshua in these episodes.  I don't think it's so much that the character does not love; he just has no idea how to express it.  And now, it's all too late.  Really, in a way, it's not the witchcraft or the vampire or any of the mustache-twisting antics that are the tragedy-making agents.  It's that these people are trapped in some kind of dysfunctional hell that was there all along.

And now, although it is very painful for me to do so, I must comment on the trial.  

Anyone here ever see the movie of Peyton Place?  It's a wondrous piece of tawdry trash that's great fun and its denouement features what I once thought was the most absurd and wildly inaccurate depiction of our legal process.

Until now.

Apparently the Constitution never made it's way up to this part of the Massachusett's Commonwealth.  For that matter, basic Common Law didn't either.

Not that it would make a difference.  The most I can say for the legal aptitude of Mr. Bradford is that he's loud.  

Of course, screaming at the judges (who outnumbered the spectators!) probably would not have helped even if he had the legal expertise of Bobby Donnell.  

Vicki  well, I just give up on her completely.  I have seen grapefruit with more intelligence.  All I can come up with now as a rationale for that kind of stupidity is total shutdown of the CNS because there is nothing operational between her ears.  Of course, it doesn't matter much because her boyfriend doesn't have anything in that department either .



(sigh)

Luciaphil

[Nancy]

Sometimes your write-ups about DS make better reading than watching some of the episodes.   This was hilarious, and I agree with you about Thayer David.

Fashion notes first . . .
Psycho Barnabas was out in full force (so much for the theory about confinement bringing out te insanity).

Luciaphil

I don't believe the theory is regulated to being irrelevant at all by the recent show of Barnabas' losing it.  Since we are accepting the far-fetched premise that this guy was cursed and turned into a vampire, we need to look at his situation in a realistic way.   I have been told that having a brain tumor or other diseases can alter your chemistry, and I have to wonder what on earth would change about a person who died and then came back as a vampire?  He may look and act human, but he's not.   Barnabas underwent a significant physical and emotional change in the process of being turned into a vampire.  Sure, he retained some of the traits he had while human such as being impulsive and thick-headed at times, but he was not mean or cruel.  He never tried to hurt Ben until after becoming a vampire.

I think Barnabas' current state of mind is easy to understand, though his methology for dealing with it ain't great.  He just saw the woman he loved and wanted to be with run from him and jump off a cliff.  Witnessing something like this is traumatic.  If it was a real person we knew going off half-crazed after witnessing such a thing, I think most of us would give that person some slack, though we would gently try to curb the acting out to the extent possible.  However, this was only the most recent in a litany of life-altering events that happened to him.

In a very short period of time Barnabas experienced multiple traumatic events that would naturally alter one's outlook on life.   Barnabas saw his beloved and trusted uncle betray him in a most painful way (in his eyes), and shortly thereafter he comes to realize that he killed Jerimah ffor falling victim to a spell.   He marries Angelique because he promised he would, his father kicks him out of the house and family for doing so, and then Barnabas finds out that the woman he is marrie to - and has some feelings for - is the witch and triggered the cycle of events from happening in the first place.   He tries to kill Angelique, she calls in the bat patrol, and the end result is that  Barnabas dies a painful death (it sure looked like it hurt alot).  As if that were not enough, Barnabas wakes up in a coffin in a crypt, and is told that he is now a member of the living dead and will live forever.   Believe me, I would have done more to Angelique than just strangle her if II had gotten this news.   Barnabas not only is struggling to understand what his existence really consists of, he has to do it basically alone.  He is isolated from his family and for obvious reasons feels he can't drop in on them and share the news of his fate.  Obviously it is not a happy feeling knowing your parents and other loved ones think you are dead, but you're not and you can't tell them.  He learns that in order to sustain his life, such as it is, he need to drink blood. He's not just being told he needs to add 8 glasses of water to his diet, but go and drink blood from people.  While adjusting to being alternatively alive and dead, his young sister dies and he blames himself for that.  He can't go to her funeral and he can't comfort his mother.   I think this litany alone would send anyone, including a new vampire, around the looney bin.  But it doesn't even stop there.  

Josette basically says she will do what it takes to be with Barnabas even though he is dead.  He makes plans.  Sure, there is a lot of selfishness here, but how many people could face the fact they are cursed to be alone for all eeternity and not even try to change that?  Again, the methology leaves much to be desired in this instance but the desperation of Barnabas is not hard to understand.  He's not being consigned to spending two weeks in a house alone while the family is away in DisneyWorld, he's being told that he will be alone for all time.
 But instead, barnabas witnesses Josette falling to her death (he could have put the cane down).   Can it really be any surprise that Barnabas goes "psycho" given this series of events?   Having been repeatedly screwed, Barnabas is not likely to be a swell fellow.  People (even vampires) just don't behave like that when they are faced with so many life altering events at once.  Then instead of being staked as he repeatedly asked for, Barnabas is chained in a coffin and left to rehash all this unhappiness for a century and a half in his waking hours.   I don't think total and extended isolation has ever been recommended as a cure for intense anger and bitterness. Methinks it will only make things worse.

Nancy

[Josette]

I agree that Barnabas told her very little.  She seems to have no idea of what she's getting into.  That's why I questioned it.  If he had just "returned from the dead" and told her the vague things he has, I could understand this reaction.

But, he DID bite her.  Surely, she must have some idea of what he is and the kind of existence he has, and that she's to "become like him" - if she is as clueless as she seems to be after that, then I think she might be even denser than Vicki!!!!

Did I misunderstand?  I though you made a comment about Millicent's black bows on the discussion board and that it was quite negative - here you said you liked it.

By the way, I particularly enjoyed your use of all the "head bangings" today!!

[Josette]

Could you add a date or some identifier to your titles?  As new comments are added to various topics, the order of the commentaries keep changing, and upon looking up a new response, it's sometimes hard to tell which episode is involved.

[Luciaphile]

Did I misunderstand?  I though you made a comment about Millicent's black bows on the discussion board and that it was quite negative - here you said you liked it.

LOL, no, I'm not being contrary.  I said that Millicent's black bows were making my fingers itch, meaning that I wanted to write about them.  Not the most attractive accessories, I admit, but I liked them for the character and the scene.

And I will start adding dates

Luciaphil

[Birdie]

Actually, the black bows in Millicents hair would be in style now.  Has anyone notices "young women" tend to put small bows, butterflies, and other such things in their hair.  Maybe because I have a daughter who is 13 and have had several of these things left all over the house I thought wow Millicent is way ahead of the times.lol.  A real fashion setter.

I enjoyed both your Luciaphil's comments and Nancy's. Great points.

Birdie