Fashion notes first . . . on the sparse side, sorry, but slim pickin's today.
Good God. What was it with the makeup and Frid? Was the makeup person visually impaired? Too vain to wear glasses? I've read accounts of the tons of makeup actors had to wear for silent films, and all I can say is I think poor Jonathan Frid had them beat.
Hooker's blue cap. Yeech. It didn't match her dress and it was a scary nasty blue. Evil, scary, bad.
Ben. Okay, not someone I would ever care to date or even stand next to, because it looks like the character has a bath once a year if that, but the hair, the clothes, the whole air--literally and figuratively--seems quite accurate.
The bloody bow is back. Vicki's walking around with half her dress missing, but they found her a shiny new hair ribbon to wear for her execution? You've got to be kidding me.
Onto the show . . .
Barnabas' "why did she have to love me?" is really kind of a selfish and narrow way to look at Naomi's death. Yeah, it has something to do with Barnabas, but the world doesn't revolve around him and you would think that he would have known how unhappy his mother was. I would expect that attitude from a teenager, not from a grown man. Says much about the emotional maturity of Monsieur Collins.
Lord, but this family was dysfunctional.
And father and son don't truly understand that not being able to verbalize love doesn't necessarily equate to not loving.
Disposable Hooker #4 (you can call her a barmaid all you want in the credits, but we know the code). You know, this is the first time this occurred to me, but on Star Trek in all of its incarnations, there's this character who is sometimes called "the Useless Yeoman." This allows them to be able to kill off Ensign Jones or Yeoman Smith, create sturm and drang and angst and all that other good stuff so that Kirk or the hammier of the actors can look tortured. And of course, saves the main cast from getting killed. At least on Trek, it made some sort of logical sense that there was this inexhaustible pool of cannon fodder.
But here we have Collinsport, small seaport. Yeah, there would be hookers, but honestly, it's like there is this huge population of prostitutes--is there that much demand? And you would think that the word would get around to the working girls that the death rate for their profession than it is in war-torn Beirut and that maybe they ought to go find another Down East Mayberry in which they can ply their trade.
Really, not all that impressed with Barnabas getting revenge. Not that Nathan didn't deserve it, but after the wonderful subtleties of yesterday's episodes, the melodramatic thing just isn't working for me.
I do believe Nathan genuinely didn't expect for Naomi to kill herself. He seems to share some qualities with my beloved Mr. McGuire. Both assume that everyone is rather like themselves and have a hard time accepting that there are innocents or that some people do occasionally do the right thing simply because it is the right thing, etc. What's that rule about "never assume?" The good lieutenant would have been wise to remember that.
Had up until now considered Nathan a rather clever guy. What was he thinking running back to Collinwood and to Joshua? Hello? Like the man you've blackmailed, whose wife you've tormented, whose cousin you've tried to kill is going to be supportive? And that Joshua isn't is a surprise to him?
The wrap up between father and son. Interesting. The tension and emotions were seething under the surface. It's sad that the first time they communicate productively is when it's far too late.
As for Joshua's insistence about changing things for history--I can only say (and this hits especially close to home after doing this research project with archival materials) that he and his pride were damn lucky that all of the purported historians (Julia, Vicki, Eliot, etc.) obviously didn't have a clue as to how to do research and a probable aversion to microfilm.
I dearly want to know about that rooster. Okay, yeah, they probably kept fowl on the estate in the 1700s, but we hear Foghorn Leghorn quite a bit in the present and somehow I've just never seen Liz as the Martha Stewart type.
Confining Barnabas to chains and eternal incarceration, okay, I get that, but then Joshua saying that he hoped his son would find some kind of peace? Hello, um, Joshua, he's not dead. He'll wake up every night for the rest of his life and be immobile. Not exactly a peace-promoting experience.
Some good performances all around, particularly from Thayer David and Louis Edmonds. Roger Davis and Moltke weak as usual. I had a tape from the pre-Barnabas stuff in the other day as I was checking something for the virtual series and it's like night and day. Vicki with a brain, not a Rhodes scholar, mind you, but definitely something going up there.
The whole jail scene. What was the point? Does anyone care? I know DC liked Roger Davis, but did anyone else? He's sooooo annoying and the character is such a horse's ass. I'm telling you the only reasoning that makes sense for Vicki's relationship with him is mental instability on her part. Ugh, ugh, ugh.
It's been fun, but I'm always glad when they go back to the present. I'm looking forward to that, Eric Lang and all.
Luciaphil
