Robert Rodan really played the part of Adam well

 Lately I've been watching the episodes where Adam has been created. Robert Rodan played that part so well even though he had very few lines at first. You can feel his pain,the pain that a child would feel after being rejected by a parent. I find myself thinking,come on Barnabas just give Adam a hug will you.   Elmont...

Well, I'm not sure that a "hug" would have been a good idea, considering how powerful Adam was, and how little he understood that power.  But yes, Barnabas could have been a better "parent" to Adam.

Unfortunately, neither Julia, nor Barnabas had ever been a parent, and it shows in their treatment of the "child".    What loving parent in their right mind would leave a child in the "care" of Willie Loomis?

Frankly, Adam was never their first priority.  They were always more concerned about what the existance of Adam meant for Barnabas, rather than what it meant to Adam himself.

I find it interesting that when we discuss Adam, we always seem to be talking about how he was treated and the failings of those around him, much more often than we seem to discuss the actions and plot points that were taking place around him in the story line.

I wonder why that is?....

I think the memorable relationship was a product of excellent ensemble acting, each performer reacting off of the other.  And, after all, what feeling person isn't affected by the mistreatment of a misunderstood child?  Rodan played Adam from his strength - innocence(at least in the early days).  He was frightened by a world he didn't understand, and he had the misfortune of being "born" into the events at Collinwood!  Adam's later loss of innocence through the inevitability of "growing up" and the machinations of Nicholas Blair gave Robert Rodan a great deal of material to work with.  I thought he did an exemplary job of letting us see Adam's anguish and wonder.  I rarely if ever got the sense of an actor's effort behind Adam's eyes.  It's a shame TPTB didn't choose to use Rodan more in subsequent stories.

Petofi

I agree that Rodan was great in the role - even when Adam's petulance wore thin (not to mention that overworn green sweater), Rodan's characterization was strong and captivating. They should have brought the actor back to play Sky Rumson (Angelique's new hubby) in the Leviathan storyline... he would have done the role some justice.

In retrospect, the Adam storyline is distinctly at the bottom of the list for me; it wore thin very quickly, and I never cared for the inclusion of a Frankenstein in the saga. Yet I admire the performances all around in so many instances during that period, and Robert Rodan often made the whole ludicrous thing work admirably. He was definitely under-utilized in the show.

Yeah, the Adam story-line bored me a bit as well, but it had it's moments. I enjoyed Willie's interactions with Adam -

I never had a problem with Rodan himself. Like others, I wouldn't have minded seeing him in a different role on the show. I just didn't like the storyline - I had a hard time feeling sorry for Adam because of how I felt about the plot, though I did feel a bit for him when he was interacting with Carolyn.

Though I was ecstatic to see him back, I didn't like what they did with Willie upon his return. A lot of potential there, but they didn't capitalize on it.

Unfortunately, neither Julia, nor Barnabas had ever been a parent

This is true of course, in the literal sense.  But really, Barnabas was VERY "fatherly" to Sarah and actually was more of a father to her than Joshua was.  He certainly doted on her and worried about her like a father would.

I agree w/everyone who said it's too bad RR wasn't brought back in a subsequent plotline.  Especially w/Joel Crothers leaving the fold, it would have been good to bring him back just for the 'eye-candy' value.  A PT Adam would have been fascinating to see, especially Barnabas' reaction to him.    But I'm guessing RR wasn't interested?

I agree.  Robert Rodan made me feel really bad for Adam.  I felt a great deal of sympathy for the character.  Adam was actually a lot closer to the Shelley version of the Monster than many of the film versions of Frankenstein.

In addition to Rodan's performance, I actually liked the Adam storyline too.  While it wasn't my favorite plotline by any means, it definitely had lots of great moments.  I wish they had brought Adam back at some point, even for just a few episodes. 

I have to disagree with everybody - I never found Adam the least bit sympathetic.  He'd attack anybody and everybody, as Julia pointed out, he tried to kill every single person he met.  He killed poor old Sam Evans for little or no reason, and he always hated Barnabas because he beat him, but he conveniently forgot that the reason Barney beat him was because he was in the middle of killing Willie.  When Nicolas started filling his head with bad information, Adam took to it like a duck to water.  Force Carolyn to love me?  Awesome!  I'll get right on that!  I might have had some sympathy for him if there had been the least bit of hesitation before he attacked Carolyn, but there wasn't.  And it certainly didn't help that he was always whining to Barnabas about how nobody loved him.  He was going to kill Vicki to take away the woman Barnabas loved, but of course she had dumped Barney and gotten engaged to Jeff Clark.  Not to mention Barney's earlier problems in the romance department, involving becoming a member of the undead for two centuries.  Adam whining about his lack of a love life - to Barnabas of all people - struck me as utterly pathetic.

I'm undecided about Rodan.  The script would have probably needed to be changed in order to make his character sympathetic, but on the other hand, he didn't do what little he could to make Adam anything but a cold, scheming beast.

I have to disagree with everybody - I never found Adam the least bit sympathetic.

Thank goodness for THAT!!  How boring would it be if we never disagreed with one another!!
Let's hear it for differing opinions!! 

i guess i hated the adam plot and all it represented so much that i never really thought about whether or not rodan played the part well...

i'll have to give that some thought. :-

I found most of dream curse/Adam storyline depressingly dull except for the dapper Nicholas Blair and his relationship with Maggie Evans. Though some of the earlier Adam/Willie scenes are disturbing and have a real grittiness about them. A total sibling rivalry gone out of wack. Barnabas and Jonathan Frid sticks out like a sore thumb throughout most of it but ... Robert Rodan played Adam like the thug he was and I admired that he never made any false bids for sympathy and also didn't use his good looks to make Adam more glamorous. His portrayal was extremely honest and if it weren't for the ridiculous storyline, Robert Rodan could have really made something of the role. He was the only "monster"or DS bad guy that actually seemed dangerous to me. Not sad or tragic like Barnabas, or suavely ticked-off like Quentin, but a cold and unpredictable killer.

I'm probably a minority on this one, but I wasn't even that into Nicholas Blair...nothing wrong with Humbert Astredo, I suppose there were just too many supernatural beings running around during the Adam storyline. Maybe I would have enjoyed him more if there had been no Adam and Eve subplot and it had just been Cassandra & Nicholas vs. Barnabas & the Collins family. He had too many scenes with Adam & Eve, and they both drove me up the wall.

stefan - that's an interesting way of putting it about Barnabas in this storyline..... This isn't one of the character's best, which is probably another reason why I don't like it.

i felt exactly the same way about nicholas blair when i was watching the adam storyline.

when the door of collinwood opened up and there he stood i was like "here we go.another one".
i felt like i was doing the monster mash.the show just gets much too silly for me around this time.

but looking back on it humbert astredo brought alot of nuance to the character of nicholas blair and his scenes with lara parker were often excellent.
as barnabas' bride pointed out if the storyline had focused on him and cassandra and their various plots against the collins family and not all the adam and eve nonsense i might have enjoyed him alot more.