i think all of the people who are saying the original barbara was "lively" are insane...and im not defending the new barbara because she isnt great either, but the fist one showed literally no emotion.. in one episode she tells livia "Nice going ma, carmela's been so good to you" and it sounds like she is reading it right off the script, its awful. and the dead tone when she is telling janice "don't worry you'll get your cut"..."lively" might literally be the last word in the dictionary to describe her...sorry for the rant lol

I actually prefer the original Barbara.

And yes, "lively" is a much better description for the "new" Barbara, at least when compared to the original. However, I feel that Barbara v1.0 was much better as someone that almost seemed shellshocked. I don't agree that she had "no emotion" I just felt that it fit with her character that, in a house with people like Johnny, Livia, Tony and Janice, she probably kept to herself for years. She was probably an introvert up until she hit eighteen and got the fuck out of that house.

definitely a good point Pope...maybe chase wanted her to play a downbeat type i just didnt like her acting and when i feel like i can tell someone is acting it bothers the sh*t out of me especially on a briilliant show like sops... in fairness to her though its hard to look like a good actor/actress when you are alongside gandolfini, edie falco and mike imperioli

I never liked the new Barbara, the old one had a very understated acting style, which could definitely be seen as boring or stiff. However, I guess I always that was her direction and point in the show. I imagined her as a kid just keeping her head low during all the Soprano's in-fighting and arguments. And the best way to do this is by making yourself uninteresting or just blending in with the wallpaper. This is also why I didn't like the Barb, it seemed to be a completely different character than the one we had seen.

The original Barbara is nice to look at, though. :)

JLTucker wrote:The original Barbara is nice to look at, though. :)

I thought I was the only one who thought she was cute.

The new Barbara seemed far too lively for my tastes. And when you compare the old and new actresses, it lends itself to a bit of discontinuity in "Where's Johnny?" When Tony flips out and leaves over Junior's repeated assertions that he never had what it takes to be a varsity athlete, Barbara starts freaking out herself, asking "What's going on?!" Maybe it's just me, but between the way the old Barbara was portrayed, and the fact that we are talking about the Soprano family, I don't think some yelling and storming out at Sunday dinner would cause her to act so frantic. After all, this is a kid who witnessed her father put a bullet through her mother's beehive hairdo.