This can be really good!  I just want to echo the hopes that they do not redo HODS.  What a long-running series like dark shadows needs is not to start at the beginning and introduce characters, but start when things are already in progress, already established, and build a story that is strongly inside the world using whatever characters from the entire length of the show that they desire to.  Personally I think a story with the non-adam/eve elements of 1968--Chris, Nicolas, and Angelique, thrown together with some seances, storms, ghosts, enchanted paintings, and reference to the Barnabas/Josette relationship would really make a good film. 

I really liked a lot of 1970 Paralell time, and found that I did care for the characters; especailly Carolyn and Maggie; the former being so heavily emotionally scarred, and the latter just living a very sad, sad life.  Angelique, however, was a whole lot worse than her RT counterpart.  She was unhinged, and was keenly interested in torturing people (as evidenced by how she tried to make quentin call maggie back just so that she could ruin her life; RT Angelique, I'm sure, would have been just fine if Josette had gone back to Martinique.)  A lot of her story is just creepy (the fate of Dameon Edwards comes to mind); and she seemed to have intense (and intensly sexual) relationships with almost everyone.

What I really wanted to see was Hoffman fired, and Claude North given more of a story.  I personally really like Roxanne and her choice of boyfriends.  I think people at this message board seem to forget that if Barnabas had become involved with Julia, she would DIE.  He is cursed, and none of the cures for vampirism that took place (i.e. Adam, Julia's tinkering with his blood, Angelique's doppleganger) ever dealt with the issue that anyone who loves him will die.  Angelique (x4), Josette, Rachel, Kitty, Roxanne (x2,) Viki...are all dead, and Julia would die too if they had an affair. 

I really like Sebastian Shaw.  He has an amazing wardrobe, and is not only able to decipher the truths found in the stars to predict the future, but to live off of those skills in a creative way while maintaining his own values and integrity.

I think he and Roxanne were quite fascinating characters that really could have taken part in a good, nonrepetitive storyline if they were given a chance instead of just being pawns for the sequal to 1897. 

I too must say that I loved the way Nicholas could accesorize!

On the original topic, though, I agree that HAA could have been used more; he was notably absent from both paralell time streams, and this was unfortunate.  I loved Nicholas Blair so much when he appeared, and while I also think Evan Hanley is a great character, I found Charles Dawson very forgettable.   He should have been able to play completely different roles, especailly because only Nicholas was really ever a landmark villain. 

I do not like the leviathin storyline.  It was to me first of all quite unnessecary as a way of concluding the 1897 arc; there were already many interesting possibilities to build on from that in the present time without going back to 1795 and having Barnabas abducted by a cult.  I never will understand the seemingly suicidal anxiety with which those later storylines were stacked onto each other.   Ultimately, though, after being hooked to seeing dark shadows every day on scifi, I stopped watching during the leviathin episodes, because it all became extremely boring.  For instance, the episodes that dealt with Jeb's younger incarnations just dragged on needlessly; like those 1968 episodes that only featured Adam in his room in the west wing, but worse.  I also think some of the show just declined in quality; compare any of the dream sequences in 1987 to the leviathin dreams (such as the ridiulous one which turned Liz over.) If Jeb had just come along as an isolated character who happened to be able to turn into a monster when the box was opened but, like Chris the werewolf, didn't act as the obsession of every other character around him, it would have been interesting.   But there is an entire feel that the storyline has which is so off that it really is no surprise this was the beginning of the end. 

I would have loved to see PT Nicholas Blair.  Judging from how sexy those scenes were where he hypnotized Carolyn and brought her into the basement of Collinwood to summon Daniel Roget, I think the two of them had a really nice chemistry that could have worked out well in PT, perhaps after [spoiler]Willie was killed by Angelique[/spoiler]

I think she genuinely beleived that she would get away first; and given her developed love for Barnabas, she more than likely wouldn't have let a cross anywhere near her bedroom.  But yes, it was spur of the moment and therefore must necessarily not have been logical in the first place.  I don't think the scene should have been drawn out with Julia brandishing a cross and Barnabas having to chase her down, either.