Ooh! new Grayson and Thayer David photos? now I'm curious.

G. (off to play in the remote countryside way off the grid for a week--see y'all on Labor Day!)

Hey Brandon, great post.  I personally think Lara Parker's performance as Angelique had much more subtlety and psychological layering than any of the others I have seen.  In the case of Lysette Anthony, who I do think is a very accomplished actress, it seems obvious that she was hampered by the script and the direction, not to mention that awful accent somebody insisted she put on.  With the other two (can't recall who played Ange in the 04 pilot), the projects were much shorter and, particularly in the '04 pilot, there just wasn't enough time to allow Angelique to be presented as a fully fledged character.

One of the reasons why Leviathan is still one of my favorite storylines is that we get to see a mature Angelique reflecting on the events of the past.  In one episode, she tells Julia about finding "The View of South Wales" in a painting gallery in NYC when she was working as a model and how she would go and look at the painting and think about the past, all the madness, all the deaths... there's a sense of genuine regret in Parker's voice in how she plays this scene. 

One of my theories about Angelique in 1840 is that they felt it would be easier to write her as an out and out villain and so she did not have any memories or understanding of the events in her life in the 20th century.  It was a cop-out to make the task of writing the show a bit easier, in other words.

G.

as a well-known bitchy queen, my inner response is, "if the readers of America are fortunate, perhaps it will be delayed indefinitely."

Nevertheless, I do hope those of you anxiously awaiting her latest tome get clarification on the actual pub date. Perhaps there will be news from her next appearance in Atlanta with KLS.

cheers, G.

In the stills and clips I have seen, the 2012 Vicki's look seemed more like Maggie in her Collinwood governess phase.  Those awful little-girl outfits could have been a nod at the twilight world of "Junior Sophisticates."  (I always wonder... what kind of women wore those clothes?)  The hair again seemed more like Mags than Vick.

Just my two drachmae.

Carolyn as a werewolf seems tres Scooby-doo, particularly as played by Chloe.  Those drawings were unbelievable.  What were they thinking?

G.

David:  I presume you are talking about Angelique in the original series.  I did think Angelique in the 1991 version was possibly psychotic, or at the very least someone with "borderline" personality disorder and very likely a born sociopath. 

In the clips I have seen from the Burton/Depp film, she's so cartoon-like, and the sequence recounting her original love affair (if one can call it that) with BarnaDepp is so curtailed, that I hesitate to comment. 

I was disappointed in the Video Watchdog roundtable to see someone who apparently had seen either the entire 1795 storyline, or at least some substantial episodes from it, claim that Angelique was "obviously insane."  I don't agree.  I thought one of the best parts of that story (and I am talking about the ORIGINAL telling of it, not the 1969 re-tread)  was how layered and nuanced Angelique's character was and how complex her motives were.  It seemed clear that she was romantically obsessed with Barnabas, but there was also a side to her determination to get him to marry her that was about her need for status, privilege, and all the things that "Mamselle Josette" had and she didn't.

After her "death," she does seem gradually to go off the deep end and become more straightforwardly malevolent.  An interesting facet of her evolution as a character is that in the original story, her powers came from her understanding of herbs, of the laws of sympathetic and contagious magic, and, I think, from the sheer force of her own will.  When she reappears as Cassandra in 1968, all of a sudden there's talk of the Devil and how her powers come from him.  That wasn't part of the original 1795 narrative.

G.

Happy Birthday Midnite!  It must be BUNNIES!

xo Steve

Hey Cousin, that's very cool about Diabolique.  Can you post a review of the DS feature when you've read it?  I think the Harvard Coop, which is where I found VW, may also stock Diabolique.  They have a section of film mags.  Because VW is a smaller-sized digest format, it isn't shelved with the regular mags, but on a lower shelf where it won't get lost.  (When I say digest, I mean a size similar to an old-time TV Guide mag.)

Best,  G.