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matt_zimmerAlso reviews for the latest episodes of Iron Man: Armored Adventures, TRON: Uprising, DC Nation, MAD, and Futurama.
Upcoming reviews include Batman: The Brave And The Bold: Season 3, Transformers Prime: Season 1, The TRON Legacy Blu-Ray, Once Upon A Time: Season 1, The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones Volume 2: The War Years, The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones Volume 3: The Years Of Change, and Heathcliff: Season 1 - Vol. 1.
Please read my Dark Shadows review. I worked really hard on it and I need people to bash Tim Burton with.
Iron Man: Armored Adventures "Doomsday"
Good to get back to the Mandarin stuff finally but I think both he and Tony beat Doctor Doom too easily here. In his first appearance this version of Doom was next to unstoppable. Oh, well. At least they haven't watered down the Ghost yet.
Unsure of what to make of Tony and Howard reuniting. I'm no comics expert, but I believe Howard is dead in pretty much of all Iron Man's cartoons, movies, and comics. I'm wondering how having him back will play here.
We'll see next week. ****.
TRON: Uprising "The Renegade: Part 2"
Very cool episode. I'm not really digging any of the side characters but Beck escaping with Lance Reddick was VERY exciting and watchable. And I WILL give the show credit for colliding both story points at the end which usually isn't done in television. I'm starting to enjoy this show. The question is whether or not kids will. ****.
MAD "Betty White And The Huntsman / Ancient Greek Mythbusters"
Nothing really funny happened in this episode. They can't all be winners and at least none of the sketches were outright bad or stupid. I've seen better, I've seen worse. **1/2.
Futurama "The Bots And The Bees"
"There is NOTHING that is too horrible for my son!" - Bender.
I was wondering how they could possibly end this without it being a total cop-out OR completely change the dynamic of the show (the second option being VERY unlikely). I think I can live with how they ended it. They sort of pulled a less devastating version of TNG's The Offspring except instead of dying Ben just completely forgot who Bender was.
I like that Ben's middle name is "Vending". Sometimes I think there are no accidents in this show.
Are Labarbara and Barbados Slim having an affair? Or did they and Hermes just finish a threesome?
Fry and the glowing Slurm was funny even if they didn't actually resolve THAT. I loved him playing Rudolph.
Very funny episode. ****1/2.
Futurama "A Farewell To Arms"
I laughed for a good five minutes when Fry asked Scruffy if he had any "varmit grease" with him and Scruffy asked him what kind of viscocity he was looking for. Scruffy is AWESOME.
Last episode I wondered how they could completely mess with the mythology of the show but they actually went and did it this episode by destroying Mars. Does that make Mr. and Mrs. Wong destitute and homeless or do they have some money on Earth too? Because Amy's trust fund drying up could yield some VERY interesting stories in the future.
The last shot of Fry and Leela's arms was disgusting and somehow touching simulaniously. The show mananges that trick a LOT and I'd love to know how they always know exactly how far to go without going TOO far.
I want to actually see Fry and Leela get to have sex. C'Mon, producers, throw us shippers a bone!
This was just as good as the first episode. ****1/2.
DC Nation
DC Nation Demonstrations: "Nightwing's Movement": I can do that, but I don't want to. ****.
Dark Shadows: The Revival - The Complete Series
The early 1990's were dark times for fans of genre television. After the success of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the networks tried to get into the sci-fi/fantasy game. Along came a TON of great supernatural series that would have been real crowd-pleasers if given half the chance. I look back at that time and moan because some of my very favorite shows came and went during this era. Quantum Leap, Twin Peaks, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Stephen King's Golden Years, and The Adventures Of Brisco County Jr. were all shows that general audiences would have loved had they actually seen them. With the exception of Twin Peaks, whose declining quality was partially responsible for it's cancelation, each of these series had the potential to be HUGE and groundbreaking had the networks given them a chance. Quantum Leap actually made it five seasons before it was dumped by NBC before it could actually deliver us a REAL series finale, but the rest all debuted on NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox to great fanfare only to be placed in Friday and Satruday night death slots, and continuiously preempted with increasingly masturbatory network news coverage of the Gulf War. To quote Dinosaur's Roy Hess (no stranger to bad time slots during this era): "Gee, what a great distraction from complicated domestic issues". The fact that The X-Files debuted around then and made it nine seasons was a miracle. But it succeded in SPITE of Fox and its bad time slot, and not because if it.
The most criminal of these cancelations was probably Dark Shadows, the remake of the 60's cult horror soap opera, which starred Ben Cross as the reluctant vampire Barnabas Collins and was a big budgeted lavish affair that broke ratings records when it debuted. But not only did NBC shuffle it off to Fridays right when it started to develop a following, but it too was constantly pre-empted for war coverage and fans had no idea when it was actually going to air due to erratic scheduling. The series' cancelation is part of the reason I was so furious with Tim Burton's box office dud reboot, which showed the material the level of respect accorded to The Brady Bunch Movie. Dark Shadows is one of those properties that could be INSANELY huge if done properly as it was here. And considering that Gothic vampire stories are so hot right now due to True Blood and Twilight, I STILL think the networks should give it another shot sooner rather than later.
I'm not naive. I know that success for network genre shows is STILL a gamble especially on Fox which ALWAYS puts it's sci-fi shows on Fridays and then acts completely shocked when they fail. But with the exception of say, Firefly, most network genre shows live and die by their quality and their ability to gain a loyal audience even if it's small. DVD sales mean that even if the ratings aren't SUPER high, there are still financial incentives for networks to keep them going. Yes, Heroes, V, and Dollhouse all got dumped early. But that was because they were either terrible (Heroes, V) or off-putting to all but the most hardcore genre fans (I'm looking at you Dollhouse). Fringe, Alias, and Chuck never got great ratings either but each lasted five seasons and were able to give fans series finales because people actually LIKED them and they gave the networks buzz. Another reboot of Dark Shadows, a PROPER reboot, would almost certainly at LEAST do as well as Fringe and have the potential to be as big as Lost or The X-Files (or if it's on the CW, Smallville).
But this particular series is fantastic. The Collinswood sets are the most amazing I've ever seen on network television and the cast is great too. It's definitely not perfect. I think Dan Curtis blew through about five seasons of the original series' mythology in only twelve episodes and I can't help but feeling that the time travel arc was a BIT too crazy to attempt in the first season, but otherwise everything about it clicks. It's super gory for a network show too. When the vampires bite, unlike Buffy The Vampire Slayer, there is, gasp, BLOOD and staking a vampire is almost as crazily violent as anything the vamp does. Nobody just dusts of their jacket and goes home here.
The cast is great too. Besides Cross (who is probably now better known to sci-fi fans for playing Sarek in J.J. Abram's Star Trek reboot), the series also starred Joanna Going, one of those beautiful actresses in the early nineties who KEPT starring again and again in failed series until producers just decided to stop casting her (Delane Matthews, Mary Page Keller and Alison La Placa are other good examples), as well as Serious Actress Jean Simmons as Collins family matriarch, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard. You'll probably recognize some of the other faces too. Micheal T. Weiss (The Pretender, The Legend Of Tarzan) had his first big primetime role on this show hot off his success on Days of Our Lives, and cult actor Roy Thinnes (The Invaders, The X-Files) played Roger Collins. This is also one of the first series for a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt who it seems was in practically EVERYTHING in the 90's (he played young hellion David Collins here.)
Oh, and did I mention that practically everybody played TWO roles? Because of the time-travel / reincarnation arc, the cast often found themselves playing two VASTLY different characters. Roger Collins may be mind-mannered and likable, but Thinnes REALLY sinks his teeth into the role of the insanely evil Reverend Trask who is almost as Big of a Bad as Barnabas's spurned witch lover Angelique. By the way, has there EVER been a fictional character named "Trask" who wasn't irredeemably evil? It's such an evil sounding name and once you hear it you know that person is bad news. I feel the same way about the name "Flagg" although to be fair, that scary moniker is only ever used by Stephen King.
Speaking of Angelique, Lysette Anthony who plays her, is another one of those insanely hot actresses (along with Going, Ely Pouget and Barbara Blackburn) who always seemed to be headlining supernatural serialized shows. Twin Peaks started the tradition and it continues today in shows like Lost, Fringe, Smallville, and Dollhouse, and their ridiculously good-looking casts. It's crazy.
By the way, anyone who thinks Angel invented the tortured Vampire act on TV needs to watch this series or the Classic NOW. Barnabas Collins is the ORIGINAL emo vampire and because he can't control his actions, is one of the few vampires who DESERVES to be emo.
One question I have that will NEVER be answered satisfactorily to me regards Sarah Collins and the young actress who played her, Veronica Lauren. Why on EARTH was she made a series regular? Not only did she not appear in the series as often as many of the guest cast, but how could they possibly have kept her on the series had it continued because of her inevitable aging? Buffy and Angel had to kill off The Annointed One / The Girl in the White Room when their actors grew too big, but those were both guest roles. How did they plan to explain a little girl ghost growing up especially if she was in the main cast?
Any bad things about the set? Yes, they formatted it in widescreen even though the series was filmed full-screen, which means that they cut the top and bottom off the picture to make it fit widescreen TVs. That's just as bad as pan-and-scan movies on DVD, just in the opposite direction. I'm also bummed that we didn't get the extended versions of the Pilot and Finale available on the VHS releases. That would have been nice.
I'm going to review the individual episodes but I don't feel right about doing a Best/Worst list for this series because every episode seems to be part of the larger whole. Yes, I did a Best/Worst list for Twin Peaks, which was also a soap opera, but it's spotty record made that easy. This is more like one twelve part episode than any else. Series Overall: ****1/2.
Episode 1: The first episode had a TRULY shocking ending. Throughout the episode you are seeing Barnabas as completely and unrepentently evil (face it, despite the revelation, there is NO way Willie Loomis deserved that beating) and Ben Cross yelling into the night makes you realize that he can't help it but wishes he could. Fans of the original knew that was coming but for a newbie like me, back in the 90's that was a great twist. Blooper alert: in this episode and the next, scenes that clearly take place outside in the daylight are said in the episode to occur at night. You can actually SEE the sunlight hit Barnabas in several shots. *****.
Episode 2: I think it may have been a little too soon in the series' run to have Julia Hoffman propose a cure for vampirism. I'll get into that more below but I think it may not have worked as well as it could have had they saved it for later in the season. By the way, the staking of Daphne was absolutely gruesome and awesome. Oh, if ONLY she would have turned into a pile of dust instead of spurting bloood everywhere. I need a shower. Speaking of needing a shower (in this case a cold one), Ely Pouget in the see-through white top? Yowza! ****1/2.
Episode 3: The reason I never fully bought Hoffman treating Barnabas for a vampire cure this early in the show's run, is that she has no reason to do it. In the original, it took a while before Hoffman had her suspicions of Barnabas' "condition" confirmed (and it was hinted that she may have developed feelings for him along the way) but here once she finds out, she offers to help him. It makes no sense. Barnabas is responsible for at least three murders and is still extremely dangerous, willing participant or not. And I don't believe she is possibly deluded enough to think that something that fantastical could ever be published in a science journal, so doing it for "science" seems a bit far-fetched too. And she just met the guy. She doesn't have ANY feelings for him one way or the other. It makes ZERO sense. Why does she do it? Perhaps it's one of those things that we may have learned had the series lasted for several more seasons but I don't understand it as it is. Still, the concept of a vampire cure is a great one, and even though the whole thing seems a bit preposterous for Hoffman to be suggesting, it's STILL very interesting and watchable. Note: this episode establishes that on this show Vampires don't have to be invited inside to enter other people's homes. ***1/2.
Episode 4: Woodard is a TERRIBLE Vampire and deserved to be staked. The reason Barnabas is so successful at what he does is because he does it in secret. The film that the cops took would only have implicated BARNABAS, not Woodard, so attacking three authority figures as they were about to leave, was the height of stupidity. Never seen "too stupid to live" actually apply to the monster before. I also want to say how much I love the relationship between Barnabas and Willie and that it is a TRUE bromance. It's obvious how much Willie loves Barnabas and wants to protect him. And he just seems so GRATEFUL to him for turning his life around. And there are zero homoerotic overtones to his love. Willie seems quite straight to me, just based on the fact that he is always bumbling around pretty women. No, his love is pure admiration and gratitude. That kind of love between men is VERY rare on television (Agent Cooper and Sheriff Truman from Twin Peaks are another good example but that was more of an equal partnership). ****.
Episode 5: I understand Julia's betrayal as much as I do why she was helping Barnabas in the first place, i.e. not at all. Here it seems there MIGHT be some jealousy going on, but it's completely out of the blue. Still a good episode though. ****.
Episode 6: The Ouiji Board scene was awesome for a scene that would probably be completely irrelevent in real life. You can't prosecute killers by Ouiji Board even by Maggie Evans. The seance was boss too. I'm saddened that this is the last full episode set in the present but the time tripping stuff WAS pretty wild. ****1/2.
Episode 7: Roy Thinnes is practically unrecognizable as the monstrous Reverend Trask and even if he isn't as scary in his first appearance as he was in the finale, you STILL see right away how completely evil he is. I can't figure out if this show follows Gargoyles time travel rules or not. I'm guessing not. Even though everything that was pre-ordained wound up happening, the fact that Barnabas was able to read Victoria's new writings in her journal in the present means stuff CAN be changed even if the Collins family was completely unsuccessful in doing so otherwise. Note: This is Lysette Anthony's first episode as a series regular. ****1/2.
Episode 8: If there is a more unpleasant character on this show than Abigail Collins, I can't think of one. I hate every second she's on screen and she is only slightly less loathesome than Harry Potter's Dolores Umbridge. Look for Highlander: The Series' Adrian Paul playing Barnabas' doomed brother Jeremiah. By the way, Lysette Anthony's acting is over the top here and borderline bad but it's to her credit that she can play crazy and completely innocent equally well. I blame the silly writing here more than her. ***1/2.
Episode 9: I jumped when Julia Hoffman looked in the mirror to see Angelique staring back at her. Twin Peaks pulled the same trick with Leland/Bob and Cooper/Bob in that show and the gag NEVER fails to give me the willies. SO effective. Ben Loomis' "memorial" words for Angelique were awesome, hilarious, and well-deserved as was him spitting on her grave. Loomis is funny in ALL of his incarnations. *****.
Episode 10: What is interesting to me about this series is how it sort of goes full circle from the beginning of the season to the end. We actually get to SEE all of the family history and how it actually went down as it was described in the first couple of episodes. Even how Barnabas was chained in his coffin is shown. Dan Curtis was superior to David Lynch in ONE way at least: he knew what he was doing. ****1/2.
Episode 11: I was shocked when they killed Joe Haskell. I had never seen a TV series kill off a major character that way before. It's actually commonplace nowadays but back then it was unheard of. Doubling the sting was the fact that they killed off Joe's Doppelganger, Peter Bradford, in the next episode. That I was not as enamoured with because it seemed unnecessary. It seemed like they were just REALLY making sure there was no way Micheal T. Weiss would be back for season two. ****1/2.
Episode 12: I'm less impressed with the final scene of this episode since I recently learned that the producers were going to retcon Victoria learning Barnabas was a vampire in the season two premiere. Still, the rest of the episode is excellent. And even though it ends on a cliffhanger (besides Barnabas and Vicki, what will happen with Angelique and Maggie Evans?) it makes the season feel like it tells a complete story from beginning to end. It even gave us some closure in 1790 by Daniel Collins awakening alive and well by his father. This climax was the most exciting and fast paced thing the show ever did. It was fantastic. Even though I was appalled they killed off Peter (Boooo!) the cutting back and forth between the past and present was remarkably effective. And screw Barnabas/Victoria; I am now officially a PETER/Victoria shipper. Which made him dying all that much worse especially since Joe is dead too (which made his parting words all that much more ironic and tragic). Ben and Barnabas walling up Trask alive behind brick and concrete was a fitting end for the old b****** and the funniest part of the episode was Barnabas forcing him to write that confession. Ben Cross' delivery and Thinnes' reaction are what made it so great. And Cross' frightened look as the camera panned up to his eyes to close on the executive producer credits was memorable too. Cross, (along with Harry Potter's Alan Rickman) does the best creepy glares in the genre. Excellent. *****.
Stephen King Presents Kingdom Hospital Preview: I want to know what genius had the bright idea to release this miniseries on single disc DVDs. I'll get the complete series eventually but I would never even THINK of touching it if I had to buy four releases for a twelve episode series. ****.
DVD Menus: Not that great, to be honest. It doesn't help that there are no special features. 1/2.
Upcoming reviews include Batman: The Brave And The Bold: Season 3, Transformers Prime: Season 1, The TRON Legacy Blu-Ray, Once Upon A Time: Season 1, The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones Volume 2: The War Years, The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones Volume 3: The Years Of Change, and Heathcliff: Season 1 - Vol. 1.
Please read my Dark Shadows review. I worked really hard on it and I need people to bash Tim Burton with.
Iron Man: Armored Adventures "Doomsday"
Good to get back to the Mandarin stuff finally but I think both he and Tony beat Doctor Doom too easily here. In his first appearance this version of Doom was next to unstoppable. Oh, well. At least they haven't watered down the Ghost yet.
Unsure of what to make of Tony and Howard reuniting. I'm no comics expert, but I believe Howard is dead in pretty much of all Iron Man's cartoons, movies, and comics. I'm wondering how having him back will play here.
We'll see next week. ****.
TRON: Uprising "The Renegade: Part 2"
Very cool episode. I'm not really digging any of the side characters but Beck escaping with Lance Reddick was VERY exciting and watchable. And I WILL give the show credit for colliding both story points at the end which usually isn't done in television. I'm starting to enjoy this show. The question is whether or not kids will. ****.
MAD "Betty White And The Huntsman / Ancient Greek Mythbusters"
Nothing really funny happened in this episode. They can't all be winners and at least none of the sketches were outright bad or stupid. I've seen better, I've seen worse. **1/2.
Futurama "The Bots And The Bees"
"There is NOTHING that is too horrible for my son!" - Bender.
I was wondering how they could possibly end this without it being a total cop-out OR completely change the dynamic of the show (the second option being VERY unlikely). I think I can live with how they ended it. They sort of pulled a less devastating version of TNG's The Offspring except instead of dying Ben just completely forgot who Bender was.
I like that Ben's middle name is "Vending". Sometimes I think there are no accidents in this show.
Are Labarbara and Barbados Slim having an affair? Or did they and Hermes just finish a threesome?
Fry and the glowing Slurm was funny even if they didn't actually resolve THAT. I loved him playing Rudolph.
Very funny episode. ****1/2.
Futurama "A Farewell To Arms"
I laughed for a good five minutes when Fry asked Scruffy if he had any "varmit grease" with him and Scruffy asked him what kind of viscocity he was looking for. Scruffy is AWESOME.
Last episode I wondered how they could completely mess with the mythology of the show but they actually went and did it this episode by destroying Mars. Does that make Mr. and Mrs. Wong destitute and homeless or do they have some money on Earth too? Because Amy's trust fund drying up could yield some VERY interesting stories in the future.
The last shot of Fry and Leela's arms was disgusting and somehow touching simulaniously. The show mananges that trick a LOT and I'd love to know how they always know exactly how far to go without going TOO far.
I want to actually see Fry and Leela get to have sex. C'Mon, producers, throw us shippers a bone!
This was just as good as the first episode. ****1/2.
DC Nation
DC Nation Demonstrations: "Nightwing's Movement": I can do that, but I don't want to. ****.
Dark Shadows: The Revival - The Complete Series
The early 1990's were dark times for fans of genre television. After the success of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the networks tried to get into the sci-fi/fantasy game. Along came a TON of great supernatural series that would have been real crowd-pleasers if given half the chance. I look back at that time and moan because some of my very favorite shows came and went during this era. Quantum Leap, Twin Peaks, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Stephen King's Golden Years, and The Adventures Of Brisco County Jr. were all shows that general audiences would have loved had they actually seen them. With the exception of Twin Peaks, whose declining quality was partially responsible for it's cancelation, each of these series had the potential to be HUGE and groundbreaking had the networks given them a chance. Quantum Leap actually made it five seasons before it was dumped by NBC before it could actually deliver us a REAL series finale, but the rest all debuted on NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox to great fanfare only to be placed in Friday and Satruday night death slots, and continuiously preempted with increasingly masturbatory network news coverage of the Gulf War. To quote Dinosaur's Roy Hess (no stranger to bad time slots during this era): "Gee, what a great distraction from complicated domestic issues". The fact that The X-Files debuted around then and made it nine seasons was a miracle. But it succeded in SPITE of Fox and its bad time slot, and not because if it.
The most criminal of these cancelations was probably Dark Shadows, the remake of the 60's cult horror soap opera, which starred Ben Cross as the reluctant vampire Barnabas Collins and was a big budgeted lavish affair that broke ratings records when it debuted. But not only did NBC shuffle it off to Fridays right when it started to develop a following, but it too was constantly pre-empted for war coverage and fans had no idea when it was actually going to air due to erratic scheduling. The series' cancelation is part of the reason I was so furious with Tim Burton's box office dud reboot, which showed the material the level of respect accorded to The Brady Bunch Movie. Dark Shadows is one of those properties that could be INSANELY huge if done properly as it was here. And considering that Gothic vampire stories are so hot right now due to True Blood and Twilight, I STILL think the networks should give it another shot sooner rather than later.
I'm not naive. I know that success for network genre shows is STILL a gamble especially on Fox which ALWAYS puts it's sci-fi shows on Fridays and then acts completely shocked when they fail. But with the exception of say, Firefly, most network genre shows live and die by their quality and their ability to gain a loyal audience even if it's small. DVD sales mean that even if the ratings aren't SUPER high, there are still financial incentives for networks to keep them going. Yes, Heroes, V, and Dollhouse all got dumped early. But that was because they were either terrible (Heroes, V) or off-putting to all but the most hardcore genre fans (I'm looking at you Dollhouse). Fringe, Alias, and Chuck never got great ratings either but each lasted five seasons and were able to give fans series finales because people actually LIKED them and they gave the networks buzz. Another reboot of Dark Shadows, a PROPER reboot, would almost certainly at LEAST do as well as Fringe and have the potential to be as big as Lost or The X-Files (or if it's on the CW, Smallville).
But this particular series is fantastic. The Collinswood sets are the most amazing I've ever seen on network television and the cast is great too. It's definitely not perfect. I think Dan Curtis blew through about five seasons of the original series' mythology in only twelve episodes and I can't help but feeling that the time travel arc was a BIT too crazy to attempt in the first season, but otherwise everything about it clicks. It's super gory for a network show too. When the vampires bite, unlike Buffy The Vampire Slayer, there is, gasp, BLOOD and staking a vampire is almost as crazily violent as anything the vamp does. Nobody just dusts of their jacket and goes home here.
The cast is great too. Besides Cross (who is probably now better known to sci-fi fans for playing Sarek in J.J. Abram's Star Trek reboot), the series also starred Joanna Going, one of those beautiful actresses in the early nineties who KEPT starring again and again in failed series until producers just decided to stop casting her (Delane Matthews, Mary Page Keller and Alison La Placa are other good examples), as well as Serious Actress Jean Simmons as Collins family matriarch, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard. You'll probably recognize some of the other faces too. Micheal T. Weiss (The Pretender, The Legend Of Tarzan) had his first big primetime role on this show hot off his success on Days of Our Lives, and cult actor Roy Thinnes (The Invaders, The X-Files) played Roger Collins. This is also one of the first series for a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt who it seems was in practically EVERYTHING in the 90's (he played young hellion David Collins here.)
Oh, and did I mention that practically everybody played TWO roles? Because of the time-travel / reincarnation arc, the cast often found themselves playing two VASTLY different characters. Roger Collins may be mind-mannered and likable, but Thinnes REALLY sinks his teeth into the role of the insanely evil Reverend Trask who is almost as Big of a Bad as Barnabas's spurned witch lover Angelique. By the way, has there EVER been a fictional character named "Trask" who wasn't irredeemably evil? It's such an evil sounding name and once you hear it you know that person is bad news. I feel the same way about the name "Flagg" although to be fair, that scary moniker is only ever used by Stephen King.
Speaking of Angelique, Lysette Anthony who plays her, is another one of those insanely hot actresses (along with Going, Ely Pouget and Barbara Blackburn) who always seemed to be headlining supernatural serialized shows. Twin Peaks started the tradition and it continues today in shows like Lost, Fringe, Smallville, and Dollhouse, and their ridiculously good-looking casts. It's crazy.
By the way, anyone who thinks Angel invented the tortured Vampire act on TV needs to watch this series or the Classic NOW. Barnabas Collins is the ORIGINAL emo vampire and because he can't control his actions, is one of the few vampires who DESERVES to be emo.
One question I have that will NEVER be answered satisfactorily to me regards Sarah Collins and the young actress who played her, Veronica Lauren. Why on EARTH was she made a series regular? Not only did she not appear in the series as often as many of the guest cast, but how could they possibly have kept her on the series had it continued because of her inevitable aging? Buffy and Angel had to kill off The Annointed One / The Girl in the White Room when their actors grew too big, but those were both guest roles. How did they plan to explain a little girl ghost growing up especially if she was in the main cast?
Any bad things about the set? Yes, they formatted it in widescreen even though the series was filmed full-screen, which means that they cut the top and bottom off the picture to make it fit widescreen TVs. That's just as bad as pan-and-scan movies on DVD, just in the opposite direction. I'm also bummed that we didn't get the extended versions of the Pilot and Finale available on the VHS releases. That would have been nice.
I'm going to review the individual episodes but I don't feel right about doing a Best/Worst list for this series because every episode seems to be part of the larger whole. Yes, I did a Best/Worst list for Twin Peaks, which was also a soap opera, but it's spotty record made that easy. This is more like one twelve part episode than any else. Series Overall: ****1/2.
Episode 1: The first episode had a TRULY shocking ending. Throughout the episode you are seeing Barnabas as completely and unrepentently evil (face it, despite the revelation, there is NO way Willie Loomis deserved that beating) and Ben Cross yelling into the night makes you realize that he can't help it but wishes he could. Fans of the original knew that was coming but for a newbie like me, back in the 90's that was a great twist. Blooper alert: in this episode and the next, scenes that clearly take place outside in the daylight are said in the episode to occur at night. You can actually SEE the sunlight hit Barnabas in several shots. *****.
Episode 2: I think it may have been a little too soon in the series' run to have Julia Hoffman propose a cure for vampirism. I'll get into that more below but I think it may not have worked as well as it could have had they saved it for later in the season. By the way, the staking of Daphne was absolutely gruesome and awesome. Oh, if ONLY she would have turned into a pile of dust instead of spurting bloood everywhere. I need a shower. Speaking of needing a shower (in this case a cold one), Ely Pouget in the see-through white top? Yowza! ****1/2.
Episode 3: The reason I never fully bought Hoffman treating Barnabas for a vampire cure this early in the show's run, is that she has no reason to do it. In the original, it took a while before Hoffman had her suspicions of Barnabas' "condition" confirmed (and it was hinted that she may have developed feelings for him along the way) but here once she finds out, she offers to help him. It makes no sense. Barnabas is responsible for at least three murders and is still extremely dangerous, willing participant or not. And I don't believe she is possibly deluded enough to think that something that fantastical could ever be published in a science journal, so doing it for "science" seems a bit far-fetched too. And she just met the guy. She doesn't have ANY feelings for him one way or the other. It makes ZERO sense. Why does she do it? Perhaps it's one of those things that we may have learned had the series lasted for several more seasons but I don't understand it as it is. Still, the concept of a vampire cure is a great one, and even though the whole thing seems a bit preposterous for Hoffman to be suggesting, it's STILL very interesting and watchable. Note: this episode establishes that on this show Vampires don't have to be invited inside to enter other people's homes. ***1/2.
Episode 4: Woodard is a TERRIBLE Vampire and deserved to be staked. The reason Barnabas is so successful at what he does is because he does it in secret. The film that the cops took would only have implicated BARNABAS, not Woodard, so attacking three authority figures as they were about to leave, was the height of stupidity. Never seen "too stupid to live" actually apply to the monster before. I also want to say how much I love the relationship between Barnabas and Willie and that it is a TRUE bromance. It's obvious how much Willie loves Barnabas and wants to protect him. And he just seems so GRATEFUL to him for turning his life around. And there are zero homoerotic overtones to his love. Willie seems quite straight to me, just based on the fact that he is always bumbling around pretty women. No, his love is pure admiration and gratitude. That kind of love between men is VERY rare on television (Agent Cooper and Sheriff Truman from Twin Peaks are another good example but that was more of an equal partnership). ****.
Episode 5: I understand Julia's betrayal as much as I do why she was helping Barnabas in the first place, i.e. not at all. Here it seems there MIGHT be some jealousy going on, but it's completely out of the blue. Still a good episode though. ****.
Episode 6: The Ouiji Board scene was awesome for a scene that would probably be completely irrelevent in real life. You can't prosecute killers by Ouiji Board even by Maggie Evans. The seance was boss too. I'm saddened that this is the last full episode set in the present but the time tripping stuff WAS pretty wild. ****1/2.
Episode 7: Roy Thinnes is practically unrecognizable as the monstrous Reverend Trask and even if he isn't as scary in his first appearance as he was in the finale, you STILL see right away how completely evil he is. I can't figure out if this show follows Gargoyles time travel rules or not. I'm guessing not. Even though everything that was pre-ordained wound up happening, the fact that Barnabas was able to read Victoria's new writings in her journal in the present means stuff CAN be changed even if the Collins family was completely unsuccessful in doing so otherwise. Note: This is Lysette Anthony's first episode as a series regular. ****1/2.
Episode 8: If there is a more unpleasant character on this show than Abigail Collins, I can't think of one. I hate every second she's on screen and she is only slightly less loathesome than Harry Potter's Dolores Umbridge. Look for Highlander: The Series' Adrian Paul playing Barnabas' doomed brother Jeremiah. By the way, Lysette Anthony's acting is over the top here and borderline bad but it's to her credit that she can play crazy and completely innocent equally well. I blame the silly writing here more than her. ***1/2.
Episode 9: I jumped when Julia Hoffman looked in the mirror to see Angelique staring back at her. Twin Peaks pulled the same trick with Leland/Bob and Cooper/Bob in that show and the gag NEVER fails to give me the willies. SO effective. Ben Loomis' "memorial" words for Angelique were awesome, hilarious, and well-deserved as was him spitting on her grave. Loomis is funny in ALL of his incarnations. *****.
Episode 10: What is interesting to me about this series is how it sort of goes full circle from the beginning of the season to the end. We actually get to SEE all of the family history and how it actually went down as it was described in the first couple of episodes. Even how Barnabas was chained in his coffin is shown. Dan Curtis was superior to David Lynch in ONE way at least: he knew what he was doing. ****1/2.
Episode 11: I was shocked when they killed Joe Haskell. I had never seen a TV series kill off a major character that way before. It's actually commonplace nowadays but back then it was unheard of. Doubling the sting was the fact that they killed off Joe's Doppelganger, Peter Bradford, in the next episode. That I was not as enamoured with because it seemed unnecessary. It seemed like they were just REALLY making sure there was no way Micheal T. Weiss would be back for season two. ****1/2.
Episode 12: I'm less impressed with the final scene of this episode since I recently learned that the producers were going to retcon Victoria learning Barnabas was a vampire in the season two premiere. Still, the rest of the episode is excellent. And even though it ends on a cliffhanger (besides Barnabas and Vicki, what will happen with Angelique and Maggie Evans?) it makes the season feel like it tells a complete story from beginning to end. It even gave us some closure in 1790 by Daniel Collins awakening alive and well by his father. This climax was the most exciting and fast paced thing the show ever did. It was fantastic. Even though I was appalled they killed off Peter (Boooo!) the cutting back and forth between the past and present was remarkably effective. And screw Barnabas/Victoria; I am now officially a PETER/Victoria shipper. Which made him dying all that much worse especially since Joe is dead too (which made his parting words all that much more ironic and tragic). Ben and Barnabas walling up Trask alive behind brick and concrete was a fitting end for the old b****** and the funniest part of the episode was Barnabas forcing him to write that confession. Ben Cross' delivery and Thinnes' reaction are what made it so great. And Cross' frightened look as the camera panned up to his eyes to close on the executive producer credits was memorable too. Cross, (along with Harry Potter's Alan Rickman) does the best creepy glares in the genre. Excellent. *****.
Stephen King Presents Kingdom Hospital Preview: I want to know what genius had the bright idea to release this miniseries on single disc DVDs. I'll get the complete series eventually but I would never even THINK of touching it if I had to buy four releases for a twelve episode series. ****.
DVD Menus: Not that great, to be honest. It doesn't help that there are no special features. 1/2.
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Date: 2012-08-02 04:50 pm (UTC)DC Nation - What the heck is Nightwing's Movement? I haven't been watching the block since GL and YJ went into reruns.
Dark Shadows: The Revival - The Complete Series - Hm, I'm not sure about the 90's. I mean, you're right of course because of the short-lived series you named, but I feel like in between TNG and the X-Files was a magical, experimental time when anything could happen. SyFy and cable really hurt science fiction/fantasy shows on network, and these days, I feel like each network is just looking to get a certain type of show, make it popular, and replace it with something similar without being too experimental. Can't say I ever watched this Dark Shadows, but you're TOTALLY right about people named "Trask". Ha!
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Date: 2012-08-02 10:57 pm (UTC)Dark Shadows: X-Files didn't air until 1993 and then it became a gamechanger for genre television. I'm not talking about it actually. With the exception of Brisco County Jr. every one of those shows I mentioned was made and canceled before The X-Files changed everything. I'm specifically referring to all of the promising series that were cut down in their prime after Next Gen became a hit but before The X-Files proved that network genre shows could be a success.
Trask is SUCH a hard sounding name that it lends itself to evil. Flagg (with two g's) is the same way but I'm betting Stephen King must have that one copyrighted.
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Date: 2012-08-04 11:49 pm (UTC)Dark Shadows: By "in between", I meant the time between when TNG premiered but before the X-Files did. Yes, it's sad they were cut down, but it was magical because there were so many of them!
Doesn't Rick Flagg from the Suicide Squad spell it with two g's also?
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Date: 2012-08-05 02:26 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2012-08-07 02:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-09 01:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-09 12:32 pm (UTC)