Thursday, October 7, 2010

Where Have All the Good Ones Gone?

So, I was right. Poking both a vampire and his monster-loving accomplice with a big stick during the dark of night when they are strongest proved to be a bad idea. Dr. Woodard is with us no more. Sad really. He was a smart, likeable character. The actor always knew his lines and had what felt like a genuine rapport with the other characters.

And then there is Burke Devlin. The first actor, who burned with a quiet rage, was reportedly fired because of a drinking problem. It took me a while to get used to the new Burke, but then I warmed to him. He was very sweet with Vicky, seemed to have dropped all his hatred for Elizabeth, showed great interest in David , and was even grudgingly civil to Roger. He too always knew his lines. I respect that. I mean if you have a job to do, then do it well.

And if you do your job well, you’ll be rewarded, right? Burke went off on a business trip and his plane has gone down over the Amazon and he is presumed dead. And Willie? The psychopath turned minion of Barnabas turned champion of Maggie? Willie is in an asylum for the criminally insane.

Oh well. So much for keeping the talent.

Now Barnabas, in order to regain his youth, has bitten Carolyn and controls her completely. A once vacuous character, Carolyn now shows some depth. She is devoted to Barnabas and wants to give him his fondest wish: Victoria as a bride. Carolyn is sweet to Vicky, coaxing her to visit with Barnabas and accept his offer of help in rebuilding the west wing of the mansion. She is fierce, however, when dealing with Dr. Hoffman. She desperately wants to shove Hoffman out of the picture…and I’d be thrilled if she could.

I cheated and looked at IMDB to see if Grayson Hall, the actress, got killed off any time soon. Sadly, she is with the show until the bitter end. She is just not a very good actor. She forgets lines and has long pauses where she tries to remember. And even when she does know her lines, she overacts. Dramatically. But someone must have thought she had talent. So I checked. Hmmm…her husband, Sam Hall, was a writer for the show. Interesting. He also did a documentary piece on this last disc.

Near the end of his fascinating monologue, he said that he learned not to write a story that had Grayson playing the final scene. He said it was because she always overacted. Given a line about someone almost being killed and when the camera cut to her, she “looked like Lillian Gish”.  Ouch.

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