Dark Shadows

[Vee]

It definitely plays out, although only up to a certain point on one key issue. 1795 stays with Vicki til the end of her time on the show, let's put it that way.

Edited July 12, 2021 by Vee

[Broderick]

With everyone in his immediate family now dead -- Naomi, Jeremiah, Abigale, Barnabas, and Sarah -- the old patriarch, Joshua Collins, becomes a bit kinder, more compassionate, and more introspective.  He adopts young Daniel and makes the boy his official son & heir.  The present-day Collins family (Elizabeth, Roger, Carolyn, & David) are direct descendants of Daniel Collins.  

[applcin]

I made it to the end of the 1795 story. Admittedly, I did ff at times...once I got the gist of certain scenes, a lot of Trask, Abigail, Millicent, Nathan stuff seemed redundant to me. As mentioned, I did particularly enjoy Thayer David during this story. Joel Crothers made me get Miles Cavanaugh off my brain. And I really liked the work Louis Edmonds did from the point Joshua discovered Barnabas in the coffin. After experiencing frontburner Roger, backburner Roger and Roger on steroids (aka Joshua), seeing him play a tortured father agonizing over what he knew and what he would do about it...experiencing so much tragedy and horror, I really enjoyed watching Joshua in the last weeks of the storyline. LE was great in those scenes, even if I couldn't entirely buy actors nearly the same age as father and son.

I also enjoyed the way things were depicted in the past to explain the present: the altered parts of the Collins family history at Joshua's decision, how Barnabas ended up chained in his coffin, the significance of his ring and Josette's music box, the reason Josette killed herself. Although, in the present, Barnabas seemed to express hatred for Jeremiah but, in the past, he ended up more rueful than hateful over him once he knew why things happened the way they did.

Since I had seen the revival series, I expected the buildup to the resolution of 1795 would essentially play out the same, such as Victoria's relationship with Peter and her being transported at the moment of hanging. The big difference so far is that the 1991 series ended with Victoria having learned Barnabas' secret in the past and reacting to him with fear when she returned to the present, while in this series Vicky doesn't know his secret, at least not in a definitive way. 

So Julia got a haircut and, unlike Samson, seems to have gotten some fortitude back. 

Okay...Professor Stokes? LOL, love it. He "cleaned up." 
 

[Vee]

They almost certainly would've had Vicki's memory clouded and unclear about Barnabas had the 1991 show continued, just as they did when Vicki returned to 1968 in the original series.

[applcin]

Not crazy about the Dr. Frankenstein/Lang story and I find the actor, Addison Powell, a bit of a chore to watch. He's so over the top (which says something with this cast, lol) he puts Colin Clive to shame, plus his reading of the cue cards is so obvious. It's funny, watching DS and The Doctors simultaneously, to see how more obvious the DS actors are with the cue cards and how David Henesy seems to act circles around some of the adults.

Now that we have Dracula and Frankenstein and a witch, is the Wolf Man not too far behind?

Between Barnabas, Angelique and Julia, pretty soon all of the characters will have been under some form of mind control at some point. Not to mention they all seem to "fall under" within seconds.

Wow, in the span of a day, Julia and Barnabas visit Willie, she "evaluates" him, gets him discharged and they bring him home. 

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 Now that Barnabas' "influence" due to his semi-transformation has lifted, it's a bit bizarre how nobody questions their own actions. Like Vicky doesn't think "what the heck was I doing eloping with Barnabas?"  Or Carolyn not going "why did I spend so much time focusing on Barnabas?" Apparently, they are somewhat aware of what they did but don't question it, particularly Carolyn, who got to see Barnabas in action so much. Then again, Vicky, who refused to accept Burke's death, immediately fell in love with her warden. The pacing of this show is so weird. Certain things get played out a long time and others get rushed ridiculously fast.

So...at this point, it seems we are to think that Jeff is Peter in some form, either brought to the present, reincarnated, whatever, to explain the resemblance. But then, no explanation is given for Maggie/Josette, Joe/Nathan, etc. When you're backburnered, I guess it doesn't matter much!

 

Edited July 20, 2021 by applcin

[danfling]

I hope that someone will be able to help me.    I used to read (and read and read since it was a really thourgh website) about the beginnings of  Dark Shadows.    This told about things such as Mark Allen's sexual harrasment of the actresses, the firing of the original Matthew Morgan over his not being able to eat the eggs that the prop men gave him, etc.

I cannot locate that website any longer.    I hope that someone here will be able to tell me how to find it.   I have really tried!

[Paul Raven]

In a Variety article about Strange Paradise, it was mentioned that one of the motivations for going forward with the show was the the success of Dark Shadows as a 7pm serial in Cincinatti. The local ABC affiliate did not take the show so an independent station aired it in the evening to great rating success.

The ABC affiliate then took it back at first opportunity.

[DRW50]

 

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[applcin]

I'm up to June 1968 now. Professor Stokes has just interfered in the dream curse by controlling his dream. It's funny, I was kind of glad to see the end of Matthew Morgan and only started to appreciate Thayer David when he played Ben Stokes. Now that I'm seeing him as the professor, I'm finding him one of the more interesting actors in the cast to watch. I've come to appreciate his range.

This is also the Adam period. I have to say that, and I may be in the minority, even though I find it cringey at many times, and such a blatant Frankenstein ripoff (right down to Adam interacting with both a child and a blind man), I don't completely hate it, esp. since Lang is out of the picture.

Again, I may be in the minority, but I'm not into the ongoing Angelique/Cassandra story involving constant one-upmanship back and forth. I was really hoping she'd die when her portrait was aged. I'm pretty tired of her. And the dream thing? At the time after Stokes' dream, Joe said it was about a week since Maggie had hers. All those weeks of story, with one dreamer after another blathering on and on about it and it all happened in a week their time? So that means Adam escaped 3-4 times in a few days? Maggie must exist in a time warp, just like when she was presumed dead for "two weeks."

Episode 510: LOL at Thayer David coming into the shot during the end credits where it seemed like the cameraman alerted him and he beat a hasty retreat.

Edited August 22, 2021 by applcin

[DRW50]

This is my least  favorite Angelique era  - it goes on and on and often feels limiting and misogynist. I tend to think that other than the Leviathan story, where she kicked a whole lot of ass, Angelique was best left to past time periods.

[Chris B]

Here's an in depth interview with the writer of Dark Shadows: Reincarnation with lots of interesting details! Link: https://bloody-disgusting.com/exclusives/3679280/dark-shadows-reincarnation-mark-b-perry-reveals-sequel-series-may-still-come-life-phantom-limbs/

 

I know many were skeptical with it being connected to The CW, but just from the nuggets he shared, it sounds interesting and his deep knowledge of the show makes me comfortable with it whenever it happens. He did mention having to tailor it to CW's tastes, but the new script they're shipping has stripped those elements and is closer to the Dark Shadows brand. I hope that it gets a good streaming deal. I'm not sure what network I could place it on, but it definitely seems like something that deserves to at least get to the pilot stage. Time is also of the essence since he wants to include some of the original cast in this as well. I wonder if they'd recast Victoria since it seems like she could potentially have an important role down the line. 

 

[Chris 2]

Mark Perry is a pretty reputable writer. He was a staff writer on the early, superior seasons of “Party of Five.”

[Chris B]

That's good to know. Party of Five is one of my all time favorite shows. I see he also wrote Pasadena, a really good short lived primetime soap. He also has an Emmy for Picket Fences, so definitely a writer who seems to have a good reputation. After that horrible Tim Burton movie Dark Shadows deserves a shot as a good continuation so I'm going to keep my fingers crossed.

[Chris 2]

I always thought there was an opportunity for a revival with an adult David returning to the family home with his wife and kids to get a fresh start in life. And you could use some of the surviving cast like Kathryn Leigh Scott. But Perry’s idea could work too.

[applcin]

I'm at the point now where Nicholas has caused Angelique to become human and die. I'm glad for the end of that story, even if not permanent. I needed a break. Then again, now there's mustache-twirling Nicholas running amok. It's amazing how many characters end up back-burnered or on the periphery as they focus on the story of the moment. Elizabeth, David, Roger, Maggie, Joe, Vicky, JeffPeter. I guess Joan Bennett must have had time off at this point since Liz is institutionalized.

I wasn't surprised by Sam Evans' death since I was a little bit spoiler-ed with that one. Talk about peripheral. He had barely anything to do since the initial story of Burke coming to town for revenge. 

So Nicholas encourages Adam to be a brute, knowing it will alienate Carolyn. Sure, it was a good idea to hide him in a house full of nosey people, lol. I have to kind of chuckle when Adam laments about being ugly...at this point in time, I think Robert Rodan is the handsomest actor on the show...actually, probably the best-looking one I've seen so far, lol. 

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And I find him somewhat similar to Joel Crothers; in fact, I was having some trouble telling them apart while Adam was skulking around the woods. Stokes has just told Adam he was created.(Funny how many people knew where Adam was except the two responsible for his existence.) And now, Adam wants Barnabas to create him a woman. Cue The Bride of Frankenstein. 


 

Edited August 26, 2021 by applcin