I'll click on my soapbox icon for this.
The revival had its good points and bad. I was impressed with the new Willie and his relationship with Mrs. Johnson. Joanna Going is an extremely talented actress who, IMO, has not had anywhere near the career she deserves. Ben Cross had some nice moments, but frankly he played a vampire as little more than a collection of snarls. Lysette Anthony is a good actress, but Angelique was a more interesting character when she had some grey to her, rather than unrelentingly evil worthy of
Basic Instinct (but with magic).
I had two real problems with the show. First, it was in essence nothing more than a remake of the original stories but in a rushed sort of way. As a result, it felt rather like a stitched-together collection of highlights from the series and the first movie. Methinks this was also something wrong with the first new TREK series, which so often seemed like a retread of something from the 1960s rather than a modern show aired as the same time as BABYLON 5 or after milestones like BLAKE'S SEVEN. For example, in 1969 we might believe a vampire would kill someone and just leave their corpse lying around somewhere. But isn't that in fact rather stupid? Almost as stupid (and this one really bugged me) as leaving the door to the room where you keep your coffin
UNLOCKED DURING THE DAYTIME?? ?? ?? ?
My other problem was some of the changes which I disliked. Does that seem a contradiction? Well, simply, I didn't want change for the sake of change. I wanted
good changes. Having Victoria and Josette reincarnations of each other did not work, IMO. One of the wonderful initial conflicts within Barnabas was always his longing for the past versus living in the present. This was so wonderfully made clear by how he tried to turn a girl into someone she isn't (Maggie), as opposed to his attraction to a real woman right there, in the present (Victoria). The whole reincarnation thing didn't seem to mean anything at all.