Dark Shadows has arrived!

[darkshadows38]

he is my favorite Doctor Woodward, ya know i've always thought it was funny that Dennis Patrick played both Jason McGuire and Paul Stoddard. so you could say he is pulled a fast one over himself lol. but than you look at any soap really who have done the same thing as well ya know? i'm sure they left it in Frid isn't the only one who have done that. in some episodes crew members didn't realize it either and it got left in i dunno why they just didn't use the shot instead of filming a new one each time i mean if it's a different shot for each day fine but if it's not just use the same shot it would have been cheaper you would think

 

[tommie]

Ooops! Burke's dead and I'm pretty sure he's gone from the Dark Shadows canon despite all his initial exciting storylines.

 

[darkshadows38]

yeah he's gone and i never got why they killed him off either he was such a good character

 

[tommie]

God, Carolyn is Barnabus latest bloodslave (I guess that explains the plot in the 1991 revival series!) and Julia is running around like a mad woman. When are we going to the 1790s?

 

[tommie]

What the hell is episode 361 - Julia is basically just acting like a complete nutcase through the episode. It's amazing and so far the best episode of Dark Shadows ever - I love Grayson Hall so much!

 

[darkshadows38]

Grayson Hall could be good but her acting scared is terrible i think and it's partly not her fault as the way one of the directors used to do i dunno about all of them is they'd rate their performance on how over the top they can go. be patient though you will get their soon enough

 

[tommie]

Man. The dream curse is the absolute worst. I can see why when you're producing five episodes a week with a limit of six speaking characters per episode this seems ideal, but The. Worst. Damn you Angelique!

 

[Daniel Avery]

I absolutely hated the Dream Curse story arc. The overwrought behavior of the characters during and after the dream itself made one think they'd never had a scary dream before. And on a scale of one to ten, the scare factor of the dream was about a -4. Skull With Eyeballs was slapstick funny; a simple guillotine falling (with no one in it) hardly rates as terrifying; and Skeleton Bride looked like something one would find in the bargain bin at a Spirit Halloween store. But like I said, the way the actors were overselling their fright over the dream was eyeroll-worthy even in the hands of a decent actor. Rather than building suspense, it just got really repetitious.

This was one of the show's attempts at creating their own horror tales (rather than ripping off...I mean borrowing tales from others) but it ended up being a major time killer without a resolution worthy of all the hand-wringing and screaming. After the groundbreaking 1795 arc, which re-set so many of the stories and relationships on the show, the Dream Curse didn't build on the momentum.

What the hell is episode 361 - Julia is basically just acting like a complete nutcase through the episode. It's amazing and so far the best episode of Dark Shadows ever - I love Grayson Hall so much!

Without looking it up, I assume you are speaking of the Julia-centric episode where Barn had the "Ghost of Dr. Woodard" driving her insane. All the bug-eyed reactions, those screams that resembled a donkey braying (sorry, GH...) would be what today's soap fans would call "Emmy Bait"--an episode purposely written around one actor to give them a chance to showcase their talent. Since there were no Daytime Emmys back then (thankfully?), this wasn't their excuse. Perhaps they just thought it would be interesting to have her carry an entire episode, and if it worked well they might have given other actors similar opportunities.

 

[darkshadows38]

i don't mind the dream curse but seeing those at the time top notch effects even those didn't age well it did get tiring but leaving the dreaming part out of it i don't mind it. i don't really know what my least liked story arc is to be honest. it's kinda surprising that some of the cast didn't make it into bigger Stars such as Lara Parker for example. when asked what her best role was she admitted that her career wasn't what she wanted it to be but said i guess my 1st Job Dark Shadows cause it was a good part for her all the ones she played, while movie wise she didn't get as lucky sadly

 

[tommie]

i AM fInbally at the ending of the DREam curse (I think)

(I hope)

 

[Willie Oleson]

I still don't know who killed somebody.

 

[tommie]

I still don't know who killed somebody.

You'll run into trouble watching the show around 480-ish - you should really buy the DVD collection if you want to be a true Dark Shadows fan.

 

[Daniel Avery]

As luck (?) would have it, I happened upon two of the more intriguing episodes of the Dream Curse arc on Pluto last night. Carolyn was the unlucky one about to have the dream, and though I can't recall the exact details, her contribution was not going as planned (as if the attempt at file-transfer protocol failed because the file was corrupted or something). Yes, she was doing the usual wailing (Man, Nancy Barrett can sell anything) about how terrified she was but for some reason Professor Stokes was able to interject himself into her dream. So there was Stokes, refusing to do this or that and making an absolute mockery of Angelique's hard work. Great fun to watch someone finally call the little twit's bluff. The only thing missing was Stokes telling Angelique to go to the kitchen and make him a sandwich.

But again, the treat of those two episodes was Nancy Barrett/Carolyn. Even when she's supposed to be horrifyingly tortured and victimized, Barrett never makes Carolyn feel like a victim in the vein of Maggie or Vicky. "Kitten" has claws.

 

[tommie]

But again, the treat of those two episodes was Nancy Barrett/Carolyn. Even when she's supposed to be horrifyingly tortured and victimized, Barrett never makes Carolyn feel like a victim in the vein of Maggie or Vicky. "Kitten" has claws.

I mean, Carolyn fights. Literally. All scenes with Adam she's just tearing away.

 

[Daniel Avery]

There is one episode where they imply that he raped her off-screen. I know I could probably look it up to find out if that was indeed what was written to have happened, but I feel better off not knowing, somehow. Leaving it as an implication and not dwelling on it was probably all they could do, censors-wise, what with the show being followed so closely by children, and I don't like the idea of the show ever getting that 'gritty'.

 

[darkshadows38]

i don't remember that but than i could be wrong as it has been a long time since i last watched the show to be fair. i think all Dark Shadows fans should have the entire series on dvd there are #32 volumes and #1 -26 except the last Volume have 40 episodes per set though Volumes #1-6 of the Beginning that would be episodes #1-209 have i think #30 or #35 i forget which

 

[Daniel Avery]

I don't really follow episode numbers. In the plot, Nicholas Blair had found where Adam was hiding in the west wing. He kept telling Adam he needed to be more assertive and to "take what he wants" (manipulating Adam into becoming more dangerous). Carolyn had been taking food to Adam and trying to keep him at arm's length, but after Nicholas's "pep talk" Adam grabbed her and would not let go of her as they faded out to commercial. They picked up much later, where Carolyn had returned to the main part of the house looking upset and a bit disheveled as she interacted with others at the house. But soon after this, she told someone (Stokes?) that she was not going to go visit him any more, prevailing upon Mrs. Johnson's nephew to take Adam his food. They played it as if something must have happened that was drastic enough to make her stop wanting to be near him.

 

[tommie]

I don't really follow episode numbers. In the plot, Nicholas Blair had found where Adam was hiding in the west wing. He kept telling Adam he needed to be more assertive and to "take what he wants" (manipulating Adam into becoming more dangerous). Carolyn had been taking food to Adam and trying to keep him at arm's length, but after Nicholas's "pep talk" Adam grabbed her and would not let go of her as they faded out to commercial. They picked up much later, where Carolyn had returned to the main part of the house looking upset and a bit disheveled as she interacted with others at the house. But soon after this, she told someone (Stokes?) that she was not going to go visit him any more, prevailing upon Mrs. Johnson's nephew to take Adam his food. They played it as if something must have happened that was drastic enough to make her stop wanting to be near him.

It's episode #549.

 

[tommie]

How quickly the show changes... first Barnabus wanted to solve all of his problems with killing someone and now he's refusing to kill anyone because he's human.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Those producers sure knew what side their bread was buttered on.
"Let him go around killing people; we'll get rid of him in 13 weeks."
"The viewers like him--sign him to a contract!. Make him a hero."
"The viewers hate him being nice. Make him a villain again."
"The viewers object to his being mean to people. Make him a hero again."
Lather, rinse, repeat....

I caught another instance of how the show did not have Barnabas's back-story mapped out in advance. I recently rewatched the episodes where Julia confronted Barnabas with her knowledge of "what he was" (no V word yet) and she kept saying he was about 130 years old. Later they of course pushed it back to 1765 or so (they depicted him as thirty-ish in 1795), which meant he was 200 years old.