The Good: Plot begins to progress
The Bad: Absolutely terrible acting, Low character development, Medium issues, Plot does not resolve, Repetition.
The Basics: The rising action of Dark Shadows plods forward in "Volume 16," which finally seems like it is going somewhere . . . when it ends!
As I wend my way through Dark Shadows, the 1960s supernatural soap opera, I find myself more and more disappointed by how drawn out the series is. As I look to praise the show, I have to be honest in that it spends far too much time melodramatically extending scenes and repeating information in order to sell the slowest possible viewers on what is happening in the show. That is where I am with "Volume 16" of Dark Shadows.
"Volume 16" actually returns the focus to the winning elements of the show, namely Barnabas Collins, the vampire who is masquerading as his own decendant in Collinsport. Unfortunately, at this point in the series, viewers have seen him with his fangs, we have seen him control other people and we know he is the same as the Barnabas in the painting in Collinwood. At this point, the revelations are only there for the characters in the story and while they might have to plod along to figure things out, in "Volume 16" one of the characters clearly knows and she goes through excrutiating lengths to prove it. The result is a rather tired week with a ton of information being repeated well beyond the level of interest for a show of this type.
"Volume 16" features episodes seventy-six through eighty and it has a fairly bland storyline. This basically picks up right where ”Volume 15” (reviewed here!) left off, with the a storm sweeping over Collinwood and Victoria Winters falling more under the spell of the vampire Barnabas Collins!
Episode seventy-six finds Victoria Winters taking shelter from the storm at the Old House. Eager to spend the night in Josette's room, she retires there when she becomes tired. She is woken, however, by the sound of singing. When Willie tries to convince Victoria to flee the Old House in favor of Collinwood proper, Barnabas intervenes. Willie is shocked to discover a ball in the house that he suspects came from the little girl and Victoria once again retires to Josette's room, unaware of the danger looming there for her!
In the seventy-seventh episode, Barnabas creeps into Victoria's room and prepares to turn her into a vampire, but sees Josette's portrait and changes his mind. The storm breaks and Victoria awakens the next morning to meet with Willie, who is shocked that she is all right. Victoria returns to Collinwood, where Elizabeth is telling Dr. Hoffman to bug off, and she explains to Elizabeth where she was the prior night. Dr. Hoffman goes to the Old House and meets with Barnabas, attempting to extort him with knowledge of the Collins family.
In episode seventy-eight, Dr. Hoffman digs deeper into the Collins family and David Collins provides her with a book of the family history. In it, he finds a picture of Sarah Collins, whom he recognizes as the girl he played with. This makes Dr. Hoffman suspicious and she decides to take the album to the Old House. While Victoria and Burke talk about the night she spent at the Old House, Dr. Hoffman encounters Barnabas and has him look through the portrait book. While he does that, she tries to catch his reflection in her mirror . . . and fails!
Episode seventy-nine finds Victoria terrified because she sees someone outside her window during a storm at night. Barnabas Collins sneaks in while she is sleeping, but Victoria awakens before he can do anything to her. Awake in the early morning, Carolyn, Dr. Hoffman and Victoria talk and have coffee, with Dr. Hoffman becoming more and more suspicious about the gifts that Barnabas has bestowed upon Victoria that are related to Josette. Overhearing Willie and Barnabas talking, Dr. Hoffman descends into the bowels of the Old House to spy upon Barnabas!
In the eightieth episode, Dr. Hoffman confirms what she suspected by finding Barnabas asleep in his coffin. When Maggie Evans' doctor confronts her later in the day, Hoffman begs him for a little more time to put the pieces together. After a pointed discussion with Barnabas and a brief conversation with Victoria, Dr. Hoffman gets the drop on Barnabas and threatens to expose him!
Dark Shadows is, at its heart, a soap opera and in accomodating the conceits of the genre, there is a LOT of information that is repeated before and after where commercials would go. Because they are not present in the video version, the stories seem frequently problematic in their repetition and the characters all seem especially dim as a result.
But the story problems are not limited to the writing. Grayson Hall, who has her biggest week yet as the nosy Dr. Hoffman has awkward starts and stops in many of her deliveries. Her character is weakened because she never seems to know what she is saying. Hall constantly delivers lines that fall flat because she might have memorized them, but she memorized them as a collection of words, not as a full thought which ought to be presented. The result is a character who is supposed to be smart sounding almost robotic. Hall's deliveries are especially terrible in episode 78.
There are technical problems galore in this volume as well. For example, in episode seventy-six, a shot with Victoria in Josette's room is framed so the edge of the set is visible! The film quality is low in many scenes and there is often burnout on the black and white film where things like candles are glowing. The result is that "Volume 16" looks pretty bad as well.
Also, because this is on video, the replayability is physically low, which is problematic for a work where the content is hard to want to sit through more than once. Ultimately, this video may have some appeal for the diehard Dark Shadows fans, but for those looking for great television, they will need to keep looking after this video! There are no bonus features on this video, so most fans would do better to pick up the DVD instead.
[For a much better value, check out Dark Shadows Volume 2 on DVD, reviewed here, as it has over forty episodes on the currently dominant medium!]
For other works featuring vampires, please check out my reviews of:
Blade: Trinity
Breaking Dawn, Part 1
Underworld: Rise Of The Lycans
3/10
For other television reviews, please be sure to check out my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2012, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |
No comments:
Post a Comment