Dark Shadows has arrived!

[tommie]

I was so happy to see them bringing back the actor who played Matthew. Did not expect them to, I did like that Victoria was startled by him - considering how they continued to play multiple roles on the show in various timelines eventually that "you look like..." disappeared and they just stopped acknowledging it (probably for the best).

 

[darkshadows38]

they do that to a couple different characters, the actor's name who played Matthew Morgan #2 as it's listed as lol is the late and Great Thayer David who sadly died in (1978) he also was in of all things Rocky (1976) i think he played the manager i want to say? a Brilliant actor and you will see him play a number of characters some good and some evil. i think i have 2 favorites Ben Stokes and Elliot Stokes those are my favorites of his

 

[tommie]

One of the annoying things that they've started doing where I currently am in the series is that they have characters talking directly to the camera - first I thought they had placed the teleprompter in a bad spot, but it's pretty obvious now that it's completely delibirate.

 

[Daniel Avery]

considering how they continued to play multiple roles on the show in various timelines eventually that "you look like..." disappeared and they just stopped acknowledging it (probably for the best).

In the 1897 plotline they had Kathryn Leigh Scott play two separate roles at different stages. Barn seemed rather indifferent to her Rachel Drummond role since Rachel mostly interacted with Trask and some others. Yet when KLS turned up in the "extended" part of 1897 as Lady Hampshire, Barn was on her like white on rice, going on that whole "she's the reincarnation of Josette and I must have her" kick, even pulling out the old music box to help in his plans. Julia had joined Barn in 1897 by that point and she was of course rolling her eyes and sighing at every turn once he started rattling on about Josette (not this $hit again...). So he wasn't 'set off' by Rachel's resemblance, but was totally set off by Lady Hampshire's....it's all kind of uneven (ya think?).

Speaking of which, Lady H was one of the characters I recall talking directly to the camera the most, as you mention. I guess the director thought they needed to shove her manipulative, gold-digging characterization into our faces since it was such a departure from KLS's usual doormat-ish roles.

 

[tommie]

Great, now instead of just trying to keep up with them all looking identical to their ancestors, Barnabas looking for a vampire Megan in the East Wing has sent him into parallell time (which Julia explains to the audience). No wonder they keep that part locked down!

I guess the Leviathan storyline is over at least.

 

[Willie Oleson]

This was surprisingly shocking (by Dark Shadows standards) because I didn't know it was a dream/semi-dream/trance or whatever.


Angelique is not as smart as I thought she was, sometimes her magic tricks don't work at all and then she has to rely on Ben (of all characters) to find a new angle.
Countess Natalie Du Prés witnesses Josette and Jeremiah's secret rendezvous and she's convinced it is the work of an evil spirit because....that's the most logical conclusion? Not because Josette is a Joslutte?
Grayson Hall is the Queen of Ham, both brilliant and terrible, and with a very demanding screen presence.
I had hoped to see more of Abigail Collins because she reminds me of the wicked Isabel Hazard from North & South, and from what I've seen so far Clarice Blackburn has proved to be consistently entertaining in all her scenes in Dark Shadows.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I find myself rooting for both Grayson Hall and Jonathan Frid, not because I like their characters (though I do), but because I feel kind of sad for them having to prop up some pretty crazy plotlines and attempt to keep a straight face as they plow through. They are determined to make this stuff work, and you will be entertained, damn it!
Frid as Barnabas sometimes reminds me of some minor royal family member who has shown up at a supermarket opening or something equally degrading, desperately trying to maintain his dignity even as he's operating the giant, glittery scissors to cut the ribbon. Hall is a riot, even when Julia is at her most serious; once Julia fell for Barn and stopped trying to expose him, she lost any seriousness/agency she might have had. She might have been dressing like Mrs. Doubtfire's frumpy sister, but at her heart she was just as much a Barnabas Groupie as the other girls in town.

Clarice Blackburn's characters on the series always provided extra "color" to the plotlines without her actually stealing too much spotlight from the leads. Those types of characters are sorely lacking on modern soaps, where penny-pinching producers think they are unnecessary expenses. I wonder if the DS writers were in on the joke when they named Mrs. Johnson's ne'er-do-well son "Harry," because DS never struck me as the type to do D-jokes (intentionally, at least).

 

[Willie Oleson]

I find myself rooting for both Grayson Hall and Jonathan Frid, not because I like their characters (though I do), but because I feel kind of sad for them having to prop up some pretty crazy plotlines and attempt to keep a straight face as they plow through.

And also how those plotlines translate into their scripts, they've got some pretty awful dialogue to work with.
Louis Edmonds often gets the best material, script-wise, and maybe then it's a little easier to be better than the others.

Of course, it wouldn't be the same without his talent and flair. Even a good script can be ruined.

 

[darkshadows38]

Louis Edmonds was easily one of the best actors on that entire show, David Selby was another as well Mitch Ryan and Frid as well. but my question is why didn't Louis become a bigger star? after DS ended in March of (1971) he stayed on soaps i have nothing against him wanting to act on a soap since that's is what DS is of course. but as good as he was he should have been doing A list movies not daytime tv he was just to good for it i think. plus Soaps have always been a starting ground on where to start your career as anyone who has done soaps in the past or still is doing them James Earl Jones even was on a soap for example. so was Martin Sheen as well among hundreds others with some of them with their episodes no longer even existing anymore sadly.

but i've always wanted to know why he didn't do more film? there's a guy who wrote a book in the early 2000's i think the book was called Big Louie and the guys name was Craig something i forget his last name. back when IMDB had a board i would talk to him every now and than and he was a really nice guy as well he loved the show and had his own site he died sadly i don't remember what he had i think it was maybe aids i can't remember. but he is missed not only by me but by the cast and Crew of DS who had grown to really respect and admire him. i don't remember how old he was when he died but he was far to young when he died i think he was in his i want to say 30's maybe?

 

[darkshadows38]

at some point in the show you will see less of Clarice Blackburn now i don't know if she got tired of the show but at some point you don't see her for ages than she shows up in (1995) which i think is the year she died in real life. the only guess work i can think of is she spent more time doing theater than the show at some point but i really have no idea. i know near the end of the series you don't see David Selby the last handful of episodes i think? his appendix burst and he was forced to have to have surgery so he missed the end of the series and he's missed i think. he should have been there at the end but he had no control over that nor did anyone for that matter

 

[Daniel Avery]

Clarice Blackburn moved into writing for soaps, most notably for All My Children.

 

[Willie Oleson]

This was surprisingly shocking

Joshua's re-transformation also happened very unexpectedly (and with a mini-explosion) and it's funny that this had to be witnessed by Abigail Collins. Joshua doesn't remember where he's been but there are more important things to discuss.
If Angélique can put love spells on Josette and Jeremiah then why doesn't she simply bewitch Barnabas? I guess it's more fun to do it the convoluted way and I hope they'll show lots of bitterness between the unfortunate newlyweds who, btw, are ordered to live in the family mansion. That's my kind of soap!
Another loony villain has made a hammy entrance: Reverend Trask. I hope there's going to be a romance between him and the Countess.

p.s. my keyboard is acting very strange - well, it shouldn't even be acting in the first place.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Angelique is sticking pins in a clay model of your keyboard as we speak.

Jerry Lacy (two Trasks, also Tony Peterson in recent eps) is a puzzler to me. I've seen him doing "regular" acting roles on other shows and seems like a good actor. Yet on DS he always seemed to be overdoing it. Even Tony, who was supposed to be a "civilian" came off as a cheesy 1940s detective-movie refugee. And Trask....Jeez, Louise that is an acquired taste. I can't tell if he's being directed to be that hammy, or if he's doing it willingly and just having fun with it. Half the sets must have had bite marks on them once he was done chewing all that scenery.

Not sure when it happens, but there is a scene where Lacy as Reverend Trask has this long-winded speech about hellfire and brimstone, with his nostrils flaring and voice booming....and a persistent fly buzzing around his face, threatening to fly right down Trask's throat. The show must go on...

 

[darkshadows38]

i think the reason she doesn't put a spell on him cause she wants him to willingly to come to her she only put the curse on him out of spite and than regretted it right away. as for why Barnabas ignores one Character by the great Katherine Leigh Scott and than see Lady Hampshire i think it was? my guess is that she reminded him more of Josette than the one he didn't think to much about. i had forgotten to post a reply on that, as for Clarice Blackburn oh okay i don't know much about her life to be fair.

 

[Daniel Avery]

There is a situation in @Willie Oleson 's future viewing where Angelique does decide to dip deeper into her bag of tricks to "be with him forever" but the situation also serves to give Barn a taste of his own medicine WRT how he treated a character earlier in the series. The shoe was on the other foot, so to speak, which might have been intentional...or not. Who knows?

It's fresh in my mind because I was just watching it play out on Pluto's repeat cycle last night. And no, Victoria didn't understand, and she let us know it.

 

[Willie Oleson]

And no, Victoria didn't understand, and she let us know it

I wish there was a fanmade youtube video of Victoria being an iconic queen for 10 minutes of "not understanding"

 

[darkshadows38]

i think that Alexandra Molke isles i forget how to spell her last name lol i think she would agree with you that's why she left cause she even has said that the character was pretty dense and i think she even said that she started out as a pretty strong character and she's not wrong on that that for whatever reason they dumbed her down quite a bit. i have no doubt when she read the script she always said to herself nobody's this stupid. Willie you should make one yourself she easily could be the audience and not be dumb as a pile of dog shit i dunno how else to put it but she was pretty stupid

 

[tommie]

I only have 200 episodes left

You know, while I'm sort of enjoying parallel time I also see a fundemental problem with it, which is that it doesn't really seem to be any particular reason this happens. Since apparently now Barnabas and Julia can switch back-and-forth if they just stay in Angelique's room long enough, there's no reason why they should stay there beyond... convulted reasons that Barnabas cares for Parallel-Maggie for whatever reason and now the "Sleeping Beauty" that's keeping Parallel-Angelique alive.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Yes, when they decided to visit 1795, it was to undo Barnabas's villain status. By showing he was a victim of Angelique's curse, it gave them permission to write him as a hero of the piece since they must have gotten a lot of grief from the network about having a vampire as the main focus of the series. Then they set up (quite well, I will add) the circumstances where Barn had to go back to 1897 to save the Collinses from Quentin's Ghost. All his other subplots in 1897 were probably too much, but at its core he went back in time because David---arguably the future of the Collins family---was at death's door. Parallel Time just comes across as another excuse to have the actors playing different parts, subverting the status quo and not having to buy a lot of period costumes. It's fun, but it introduces an element of "What is it about Collinwood that allows them to shift into parallel universes?" The time shift stories were due to a seance gone awry and those nifty I-Ching wands, either of which could in theory happen anywhere. Having a part of the mansion where one can just walk into another universe sort of confirms all those hand-wringing scenes where Mrs. Johnson swore that house was cursed. Up to that point, the wacky goings-on were caused by Angelique, Laura, Nicholas, Adam, Sarah, Leviathans, Count Petofi and yes Barnabas....all of whom were outsiders who showed up to cause trouble. With the Parallel Time plotline(s) they changed tactics to say that it wasn't just outsiders bringing the supernatural to Collinwood---it was already there. Not that the writers thought that much about it, of course.

 

[tommie]

Yes, when they decided to visit 1795, it was to undo Barnabas's villain status. By showing he was a victim of Angelique's curse, it gave them permission to write him as a hero of the piece since they must have gotten a lot of grief from the network about having a vampire as the main focus of the series. Then they set up (quite well, I will add) the circumstances where Barn had to go back to 1897 to save the Collinses from Quentin's Ghost.

Yes, that's exactly it - it completely seems to have severed all the ties to "our" Collinwood in the space-time continuum. At first I assumed it might tie into the subplot of "curing" Chris (and Barnabas), especially with the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde plot but then the actor who played Chris left the show due to, ahem, "issues" (glug, glug) and all that was just lost. So now they kind of have to make up a contrived reasons for Barnabas and Julia to be there to tie up everything they started.

I am enjoying it, sort of, but it seems more like a too long dream/fantasy sequence that doesn't really matter in the long run. I guess it could be best compared to the dream season on Dallas and why it pisses everyone off.