The Complete First Season Of Pointless And Contrived: Dharma And Greg Season 1 On DVD!

The Good: (Very few) Moments of humor, Moments of character
The Bad: One of the most obvious one-trick ponies out there, Lackluster DVD bonuses, Overdone sitcom plots.
The Basics: When Dharma - daughter of hippie parents - meets Greg - son of yuppie parents - generic mismatch comedy ensues in a bland DVD release.


Often when relationships end, it's a good time to look at life, what you've shared with someone and your general outlook on existence and take stock. After living with someone for over three years, when that relationship dissolved, I looked over my DVD and music collections and it got me thinking. My DVDs were almost entirely devoid of comedy, my music shelf suddenly came to lack all the quasi-Goth music and the raspy drawl of Tom Waits. In the year and a half since that departure, I realized the only works I've looked to replace are U2's Zooropa (still looking for a copy) and Twin Peaks (reviewed here!). Now my permanent DVD collection spans 113 volumes (many of which are boxed set seasons of television series) and of those, only 10 are straight out comedies! Most of those are Kevin Smith's View Askew movies and Family Guy DVDs. In fact, more than comedies that are in the collection, I have dramedies, the series' that straddle the line between comedy and drama. My point with all of this is that sitcoms are incredibly difficult for me find the value in investing in; they might be worth a viewing, but very few are so good or indispensable as to make it into my permanent collection (see the end of the review for some). Far more often, with situational comedies that make it onto DVD, I find myself watching them and wondering "why?!"

Your average sitcom is what syndication is made for. Seriously, most people who will sit down and watch a comedy will tend to be indifferent to the actual episode and more enjoy the general experience of watching characters they like doing stuff. So, for example, According To Jim and The George Lopez show are not being rushed to DVD because they'll never be phenomenal sellers because they are strictly average (at best) television. At worst, they are hokey rip-off of other sitcoms. Sure, average shows get rushed to market. I suspect 'Til Death - Season 1 was brought out to capitalize on the potential cross-market of Everybody Loves Raymond fans who were out buying the last boxed sets of that series. So, I was more than a little surprised when I found Dharma & Greg Season 1 on DVD recently. Of all the sitcoms from the 1990s, it struck me as one of the ones that would fall into the category of surviving on in syndication rather than desperately attempting to get picked up by DVD fans. Especially in its first season, Dharma & Greg was, at best, an average laugh-track sitcom with a basic "Ethnic Mismatch" premise with only a slight twist. And yet, here it sits before me.

As young children, Dharma, a free spirit girl of hippie parents, was visiting New York City and she exchanged glances with Greg, the son of a wealthy businessman and his socialite wife. Now, almost twenty years later, Dharma tracks Greg down and convinces him to uproot his life and begin a relationship with her. They marry on their first date and try to live with their decision in the episodes that follow. What follows is Dharma and her artistic, freedom loving, money shunning parents and friends trying to get to know Greg's uptight, business-oriented, highly capitalist and goal-oriented parents and friends.

The first season finds Dharma and Greg navigating early misunderstandings in their relationship, like Dharma buying Greg a shower and making Thanksgiving dinner for the families. As well, Dharma convinces Greg to start working at a fast food restaurant and she takes Kitty to a porn shop. Their family and friends join the somewhat predictable series' of conflicts arising from the artist vs. businessman divide when Dharma and Greg join a dance competition at Kitty and Edward's club and the women deal with Kitty turning 50 while the men go skiing.

With 23 episodes on three discs, Dharma & Greg- Season 1 is a monument to the ridiculously average. I understand that this is intended as a comedy, but the concept is so ridiculous in its simplicity as to be utterly insulting to a viewer. So, for example, Dharma is only moderately employed, yet looks like she just stepped off a model's runway in virtually every scene she is in! Greg, supposed uptight businessman, drops everything to be with her. So, from the beginning, the whole purpose and concept is somewhat skewed; Dharma is never as poor as reality would have her be and Greg is never as dogmatically pragmatic as everyone characterizes him as.

But, we're supposed to overlook such things as the conceits of comedy. The problem is, when one bases a whole series on the idea that the comedy is based on a mismatch, the mismatch needs to work. Moreover, the characters need to actually make sense. From the beginning, Greg does not make as much sense as a foil/complementary character to Dharma because by the end of the first episode he is already making a giant impulsive life change. But more than that, outside the fabulous sex that Dharma and Greg have off-screen, there's nothing to indicate exactly what would attract Greg to Dharma other than her assertions that fate has led them together. This seems especially ridiculous when one considers that he is supposedly a practical, goal-oriented businessman with laser beam focus to take over the company he is working for.

And outside the basic concept, the episodes fall remarkably along the lines of virtually every other relationship sitcom and buddy comedy. Greg's parents do not like Dharma, which is a common comedic foible and Dharma's parents are open to Greg, which makes him somewhat uncomfortable and causes him to question what his love for Dharma could be, which is a pretty standard plot/character idea in sitcoms as well. Moreover, Greg's friends interact with Dharma in the comedically obvious way and they end up much more as "types" than genuine characters. Indeed, instead of popping with originality, Greg's friends seem like cookie-cutter sidekicks. The first season has almost no scenes that do not contain either Dharma or Greg (subsequent seasons find whole episodes focusing on Greg and Dharma's respective parents doing their own thing or interacting with one another) and the scenes that find Greg with his friends are often far more bland than one might want them to be.

"Typical" is a good way to describe the plots of Dharma & Greg, with "one-trick pony" describing the characters and the basic sense of comedy to the series. In general, the characters embody types much more than a collection of experiences and a realistic sense of personality. The result is episode after episode with essentially the same jokes, involving the culture clash between the art and business worlds. And it's not terribly funny and certainly not as audacious as it could have been.

Still, it helps to know the principle characters and in the first season of Dharma & Greg, the essential characters include:

Dharma Montgomery - She is a wacky, new age nymph with a belief in fate and the essential goodness of the world and a disdain for the culture of money. She is drawn to Greg by a sense of inevitability and grand design that leads her to pursue him romantically, soon she is with him in every meaningful way and looking to spend her life with him, despite the fact that he has many of the trappings of wealth,

Greg Montgomery - A businessman working in the uncreative world of law, he allows himself be led away by Dharma who intrigues him. Getting used to her attitudes of life, liberty and lack of commitment to a future with plans, Greg finds himself uncomfortable and growing through much of the season,

Kitty Montgomery - Greg's wealthy, often-drinking mother, she is generally unhappy in her stable, uncommunicative relationship with husband, Edward. She loved Greg, but is concerned at his attraction for Dharma which she sees as a distraction from his career and society tracks,

Edward Montgomery - Kitty's husband, Greg's father. He is a successful businessman but is often dominated at home by Kitty. He seems to prefer a stiff drink to her company and he enjoys all his wealth my buy him. He loves Greg, though he would not tell him unless prompted by Dharma,

Abby - Dharma's flaky hippie mother. That's pretty much all she's characterized as,

Larry - Dharma's flaky hippie father, he is a slightly overweight, pot-loving bohemian who lives as if the countercultural revolution never ended. He's spacey and easily confused, though he generally accepts Greg into his life,

Jane - Dharma's annoying girl friend, she is supportive of Dharma, though she often reduces the attraction to a matter of simple sexuality and she pretty much hates men. Frequently at odds with Pete,

Pete - Greg's laid-back friend who arrives just in time to make the punchline observation and/or to be verbally beaten on by Jane.

Dharma & Greg quickly establishes the characters and the actors who portray them establish them with little spark or zeal that is not in the bland scripts. This is generic ABC laugh-track comedy and it is baffling to me who the target market of buyers might be. Even the talent that does exist in the cast is sublimated for bland stupidity or dull characterization. So, for example, when Mitch Ryan appeared on Star Trek: The Next Generation as Kyle Riker in "The Icarus Factor" (reviewed here!) he took a brief role and made it emotionally relevant and interesting, even as he infused it with a sense of chemistry and loss. But as Edward Montgopmery, he is devoid of any traits that make us want to care about him. Instead, viewers sit, wait for his perfectly timed, understated insult of his wife and her wants and needs in a situation and are unimpressed when he delivers the bare minimum to get a reaction.

Thomas Gibson plays Greg and he highlights the cast of Hollywood-good-looking, fairly bland white men with his completely average portrayal of the often monolithic Greg. Gibson's performance does not make the viewer question the character's motives or wonder about his backstory. Instead, he is very much a character who appears on the surface and what the character appears as on the script page is exactly the flat, underdeveloped performance Gibson delivers.

It is Jenna Elfman as Dharma who is charged with selling the series, though. She is a perky-eyed hollywood beautiful blonde who plays Dharma as perky and pretty much the 1990s interpretation of the 1960's sexually liberated woman. The problem with the series and Elfman's performance is that once that type is established, the show does not do anything extraordinary with it. Okay, Elfman plays a character who is kind and loving and forgiving and happens to be the societal archetype of beauty. Next week (next episode, next disc) it's more of the same and the series quickly gets a repetitive quality to it that never genuinely stretches Elfman past her original starting performance.

On DVD, Dharma & Greg- Season 1 suffers as a minimal bonus release. It's hard enough mustering up the enthusiasm to play these episodes, it's surprising Jenna Elfman and other cast members would take the time to do commentary tracks. Then again, what has Elfman been up to lately? In addition to commentary tracks, the "vanity cards" from the end of the episodes are available for viewing so they may be read clearly. There is also one fairly basic featurette from the series creator. On DVD, Dharma & Greg does not have all of its original incidental music, though what has been changed specifically is not noted nor did such apparent changes make any significant (or noticeable) difference in the program. All in all, it's a pretty mediocre release.

Who will like this release? I'm not sure. I suppose anyone who has the obsessive need to watch the same one-trick pony over and over and over and over again. Otherwise, this boxed set does not retain its value and need not plague anyone's shelf as part of their permanent collection.

For vastly better comedies on DVD, I'd like to recommend viewers check out any of the following:
Arrested Development
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Clerks The Animated Series

4.5/10

For other television and movie reviews, be sure to visit my Index Page for organized listings!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Not Much Of A Story, But At Least It Goes Somewhere: Dark Shadows Volume 10!

The Good: Final episode actually goes somewhere.
The Bad: Generally meandering and stalled plot, No real character work, Acting issues, Medium issues.
The Basics: Another disappointing volume of Dark Shadows, "Volume 10" succeeds only in its final moments at bringing the audience back.


Time and again, I find myself surprised by what becomes a hit and what is passed by in the realm of television and movies. Dark Shadows was a cult hit that lasted for years at the same time when the original Star Trek was canceled twice. I'm not sure I'll ever truly understand that. Perhaps the difference was prime time versus daytime, but the sheer camp factor of Dark Shadows should have easily insured that a socially-relevant show like Star Trek remained on the air. Regardless, Dark Shadows survived and as a result, it now appears on VHS volumes like "Volume 10."

"Volume 10" of Dark Shadows is an especially dismal week (five episodes) of the television show and all that truly saves this video from the reviewing wrecking ball is that the last episode is actually full of movement and story progression and that makes it better than several of the preceding volumes. Unfortunately, outside that there is little that is in the supernatural horror vein and even less that is not painfully soap operatic in "Volume 10" of Dark Shadows. However, because the main plot is so slow in these episodes, it is very easy for new viewers to pick up and jump right in with the story.

"Volume 10" features episodes forty-six through fifty and is more like a soap opera than anything from science fiction or fantasy. This basically picks up right where “Volume 9” (reviewed here!) left off, with Maggie Evans captured and Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard being blackmailed by Jason McGuire.

In episode forty-six, Maggie Evans awakens in her prison to see a little girl outside her cell singing "London Bridge" eerily. The little girl does not respond to Maggie's pleas and walks off before Willie arrives. Willie brings Maggie food and laments how he would like to be able to help her, but is as powerless as she is to defeat Barnabas. As soon as Willie leaves, the creepy girl returns. Back at the main house, Victoria and Carolyn discuss Carolyn's plans with Buzz while David goes outside to swing and he encounters the creepy girl, Sarah, near the old house!

In the forty-seventh episode, Buzz arrives to visit Carolyn and is greeted coldly by Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Jason conspire to get rid of Buzz, but Jason finds Buzz if virtually impervious to bribery. This leaves Jason in a tenuous position with Elizabeth.

Episode forty-eight opens with Maggie in her prison calling out for the little girl and Sarah Collins appearing within her cell! She is heartened to think that there might be a way out of the secret room and Maggie tries to reason with Sarah, but becomes frustrated by the cryptic answers and circular logic the girl uses. Maggie becomes protective of the girl and traumatized again when she disappears abruptly. No one is more surprised than Barnabas Collins, who arrives to find Maggie singing Sarah's song. He once again offers Maggie the chance to live as his Josette. But, when Maggie reveals she has a "secret friend," Barnabas fears she has lost her mind and he decides he will have to kill her.

With episode forty-nine, Carolyn is in an accident and arrested, prompting Victoria and Elizabeth to debate about how best to help her. Elizabeth, having not left Collinwood in eighteen years, finds herself terrified to leave the house. Encouraged by Victoria, Elizabeth leaves Collinwood, but finds Carolyn angry at her at the police station. When Elizabeth stands up to Jason McGuire, it leaves her in tears and Victoria comforts her. In the process, Elizabeth finally confesses to Victoria.

Episode fifty finds Willie in pain as Maggie's last hours approach. Desperate to stop Barnabas Collins from killing Maggie, Willie refuses to let Maggie drink the poisoned drink Barnabas sent him down with. When Sarah appears to her with a riddle, Maggie tries desperately to reason her way out of the prison. Meanwhile, Sarah appears to Sam and tells him exactly where to find Maggie that night.

Dark Shadows seems much more like the average soap opera in these episodes. Indeed, I am sure in the history of All My Children or As The World Turns there have been people locked up and others who are blackmailing women to marry them for money. These five episodes seem annoyingly common as a result and they hold up poorly over multiple viewings making for a lowered value even on VHS.

Much of Dark Shadows was done in one take and as a result, these episodes include acting flubs, though none of them surround the child actors, most notably the girl playing Sarah Collins. Instead, adult actors seem frequently clunky or distracted and the gaffs are included in the primary programming making the tape seem more like a blooper reel at times than an actual broadcast episode. Similarly, the production quality is frequently terrible. Barnabas Collins lights much of the Old House with candles and they appear on these grainy videos as burn out spots in the black and white and this is unfortunately dated, if not outright campy.

What is the true death knell of these episodes is the fact that there is no real character development, save with Elizabeth finally leaving Collinwood. The main plot does not advance Maggie or even Barnabas's character and the result is a stiflingly dull sense that the plot is moving the characters, instead of the other way around.

On the plus side, the final episode does have movement and it is good. The stories both finally unhinge and Elizabeth moves toward reconciling with her daughter and Maggie Evans has her chance to escape thanks to a ghost. But the time spent building up to that is dead space.

And on VHS, the show looks terrible and the medium holds up poorly, especially as the tape ages. In other words, even for those still trapped on VCRs, there is little incentive to pick up "Volume 10" of Dark Shadows. Even for fans, it is tough to recommend these episodes, though there is a sense of rushing toward resolution finally and that makes it a closer call than most volumes of the series.

[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:
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part I
Blood & Chocolate
Underworld

4/10

For other television reviews, be sure to check out the Television Review Index Page!
© 2012, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Dark Shadows Volume 9 Is Pretty Much A Dead Spot In The Series!

The Good: None that I can find
The Bad: Clunky acting, Disappointing storyline, Medium issues, Plot dies fast and horribly.
The Basics: Five episodes that pretty much go nowhere gut Dark Shadows Volume 9 on VHS!


The key to every soap opera is audience retention. Keeping people watching week after week is all that keeps soap operas on the air. In the case of Dark Shadows, a gothic horror soap opera from the mid-1960s, the series survived as long as it did because people were intrigued, mostly by the setting. And, outside the fact that the last frames of the prior week finally revealed that Barnabas Collins, a mysterious stranger in the preceding forty episodes, was a vampire, it is a complete mystery to me how Dark Shadows survived the week encapsulated on “Volume 9.”

“Volume 9” of Dark Shadows features a particularly weak week of Dark Shadows and the story has taken a decidedly soap operatic turn. The introduction of Buzz Hackett makes the show look dated and silly, especially by today's standards. This collection of episodes is less supernatural and, unfortunately, plainly stupid in far too many places.

Episode forty-one features a recap of the prior week's episodes, setting up the conflict between Maggie Evans and Barnabas Collins. This basically picks up right where “Volume 8” (reviewed here!) left off.

Episode forty-one has Maggie Evans preparing to kill Barnabas Collins in his coffin when he awakens, he is revealed to be a vampire! Maggie tries to convince Barnabas that she is Josette, but he realizes she has resisted his mind control powers. Interrupted by a visit from Victoria Winters, Barnabas prepares to kill Maggie for her betrayal, promising her pain before she dies. Desperate to save her life, Willie steps up and tries to convince Barnabas he can still be of use and not to kill the girl. Barnabas seals Maggie in a hidden room before visiting Victoria at the main house.

In the forty-second episode finds Carolyn deeply suspicious of why Elizabeth, her mother, is willing (eager even) to marry Jason McGuire. Carolyn and Elizabeth fight about the engagement and Carolyn tries to enlist Victoria and Roger to figure out what Jason has over her. Inspired by Roger's remark that everyone is free to ruin their own lives, Carolyn goes out and picks up a motorcycle biker (Buzz Hackett) who is the archetype of a bad influence.

The plight of Maggie Evans is continued in episode forty-three with Barnabas arriving with the music box he tries to enchant Maggie with. Maggie tries to manipulate Barnabas, but his cunning allows him to see through her obvious plan. But Maggie soon finds a way to get her message out, giving her ring to Willie Loomis. And David Collins once again finds his way to the old house and the lair of Barnabas. Willie throws him out to try to save his life. In the process, David inadvertantly thwarts Maggie's attempt to get the ring out to her father,

In episode forty-four, Collinwood is once again split by Carolyn over her mother's plan to marry Jason. Jason McGuire shows back up and threatens Willie, insisting Willie cut him in for a piece of the action. Carolyn goes out with Buzz again and runs into Jason at the Blue Whale and has a verbal altercation with him. And, seeing no other way to get back at her mother, when Jason announces the wedding date, Carolyn declares she and Buzz will be married the same day!

Episode forty-five has Maggie Evans still trapped in the secret room in the Old House by Barnabas, who is struggling with Maggie's resistance. Sam Evans, drinking heavily, heads to the Old House to deliver his portrait of Barnabas, which he has completed. While Willie works to keep Maggie alive, the three are shocked when Sam arrives and Barnabas torments Maggie by keeping her nearby forcing her to listen to Sam lament. Joe arrives and lets them know that a body has been found which police suspect might be Maggie's and Barnabas returns Maggie to her subterranean prison.

The plots in these five episodes are distinctly the type of story that is common in soap operas. There is the captured damsel in distress and another plotline involving both a blackmail situation and a rebellious teenager. Even in the 1960s, there were hundreds of this type story already on the air. Today, these episodes look even more silly.

This peaks with the introduction of Buzz Hackett, a walking 50s and 60s anachronism of a biker who is laughable for his beatspeak and loose body language. His part is particularly silly and drags the flow of these already dubious episodes down even more.

Sadly, even Jonathan Frid is not given a very good role in these episodes as Barnabas is barely featured. The result is a black and white soap opera that feels both old and ridiculous and is pretty much impossible to watch. On VHS, there are no bonus features or incentives to buy this outside the programming. Considering how the tape medium is becoming more brittle, it is impossible to recommend “Volume 9” even to the fans of Dark Shadows. In truth, they can skip these five episodes and be no worse for it. Everything vital in them is repeated in subsequent episodes.

[For a much better value, check out Dark Shadows Volume 2 on DVD, reviewed here, as it has these five plus an additional thirty-five episodes cleaned up for the digital presentation!]

0/10

For other television reviews, 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.
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More Soap Opera Than Supernatural, Dark Shadows Collection 2 Completely Disappoints.

The Good: Cleaned up for DVD
The Bad: Campy, Acting problems, Light on DVD bonus features, Soap opera conceits, Bulky packaging, Dull plot.
The Basics: Dark Shadows Collection 2 is unfortunately more preoccupied with traditional soap opera conceits than it is the supernatural.


The more time I spend in the world of Dark Shadows, the more overrated I begin to feel the show actually is. While many people want to hail it as groundbreaking, Dark Shadows had stretches where it was not a gothic horror series filled with supernatural beings, but instead was just a daily soap opera. Sadly, the bulk of "Collection 2" of Dark Shadows is just that. While the set has to resolve some issues from "Collection 1" (reviewed here!), the series does not remain focused as tightly on Barnabas Collins in these episodes which immediately follow the revelation that Collins is the same Barnabas Collins from the old portrait in Collinwood and is, in fact, a vampire.

Instead, these episodes become melodramatic and follow annoyingly obvious soap opera conceits and the show feels like a black and white soap opera with little real panache of its own. Instead, the show meanders and tries to find its legs after the big reveal and it stumbles to include other, far less interesting characters. The result is an erratic collection which is not worth picking up at all.

"Collection Two" contains episodes 41 through 80 of the "post-Barnabas" episodes, the numbering beginning with the first episodes Barnabas arrived in and where the DVD manufacturers believed was the optional point to start selling the episodes at.

Having discovered Barnabas is a vampire, Maggie Evans is unable to kill him and she is reincarcerated by Willie Loomis and Barnabas. Barnabas soon figures that Maggie is more trouble than she is worth, whatwith refusing to become his new Josette. Barnabas decides to kill Maggie and as he makes his plans to do that, Maggie is visited by a mysterious girl who sings "London Bridge" constantly and is given the secret to escaping her basement dungeon. Maggie flees, is found by her father, but her memory is erased. So, Dr. Woodard convinces Maggie's father to help him fake Maggie's death and send her away to a sanitarium to recover and unlock her lost memories.

While Maggie is presumed dead and recuperating, Jason McGuire continues to blackmail Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard and now his plan is to accumulate the vast Collins wealth through marriage. After Carolyn and Victoria try to uncover the secret Jason is lording over Elizabeth, they find no proof of the murder Elizabeth allegedly committed eighteen years prior. With the marriage looming, Elizabeth confesses to Victoria and faces the tough choice of coming clean or marrying McGuire. When that is resolved, Barnabas convinces the group to recreate a Collins ball and the residents of Collinwood become possessed by the Collins family of the past.

Dark Shadows is irritatingly soap operatic in this season. Following the revelation of Barnabas's nature, the viewer might have hoped to see his fangs again, but alas, we are treated to more than twenty episodes of boredom before that occurs again. Instead, the episodes have Maggie pleading with Barnabas and the ghost of Sarah Collins without ever actually addressing the vampiric nature of Barnabas. And throughout, the episodes make ridiculously melodramatic work of the Elizabeth and Jason plotline, making it thoroughly unwatchable.

As well, "Collection 2" has some very dated episodes of Dark Shadows. Buzz Hackett arrives to swoop Carolyn off her feet and he is an anachronism of a late-50s, early-60s beat poet and motorcycle punk. The result is laughable now.

The acting is mediocre at best as most of the performers are forced to make dramatic pauses before the spot where there would have been commercials. As a result, much of the DVD content is characters repeating lines and reframing conflicts in ways that seem quite silly now. Ryan Mitchell left midway through these episodes, which forced Burke Devlin to be recast and none of the acting stands out as memorable.

Even the characters seem limited in these forty episodes because so little actually happens with them. In these forty episodes, the main characters are:

Barnabas Collins - A vampire who is over two hundred years old. He captured Maggie Evans in an attempt to recreate his love, Josette Collins, but failed. Following that, he sees Victoria Winters as his next potential Josette and tricks her into wearing her enchanted dress, an act which has serious consequences for the residents of Collinwood,

Burke Devlin - A good friend of Victoria Winters, he assists Roger and Carolyn in trying to uncover Jason McGuire's secrets. Otherwise, he helps Sam and mourns with Collinsport over the apparent death of Maggie,

Willie Loomis - The enslaved servant of Barnabas, he tries to do what he can to help Maggie, but discovers Barnabas owns his will. Reluctant to see Victoria enslaved by Barnabas,

Dr. David Woodard - A local doctor who tries to figure out the source of Maggie's memory loss and works to keep her safe after she is returned,

Roger Collins - Brother to Elizabeth, he works hard to stop Jason McGuire from getting more in the Collins family treasure. He is dismayed when the truth comes out, but still works to protect Elizabeth. Father of David,

Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard - The matriarch of Collinswood, she is mother to Carolyn. She is blackmailed by Jason McGuire and makes moves to marry him. She becomes enchanted with a Collins family myth about unhappy women who killed themselves and becomes preoccupied near the cliffs of Collinwood,

Sam Evans - An artist and father of Maggie, he obsesses with finding Maggie and keeps her safe when she arrives back with memory loss,

Carolyn Stoddard - The daughter of Elizabeth, she is upset when Elizabeth announces her marriage plans. She makes plans to marry a biker named Buzz Hackett,

David Collins - The young charge of Victoria Winters, he is the son of Roger and he is intrigued by Barnabas. He meets the ghost of Sarah and is uninterested in her,

Joe - The white bread boyfriend of Maggie. He struggles with keeping the secret of her return when she pops up alive,

Victoria Winters - The governess of David, she is enchanted by Barnabas and loves listening to his tales of the Collins family. She is happy to play-act and pretend she is a Collins for Barnabas's party, unaware of his true agenda,

Jason McGuire - A slimy businessman, he is blackmailing Elizabeth, as he witnessed Elizabeth killing her long-gone husband. His machinations lead him to force Elizabeth to marry him when the Collins family business forces him out,

and Maggie Evans - A nice waitress who has ended up imprisoned by Barnabas, she struggles with maintaining her sanity after he locks her up in a basement dungeon. Saved by the ghost of Sarah Collins, she suffers memory loss!

Over the course of these forty episodes, Dark Shadows unfortunately mortgages its originality - save the seance near the "season's" end - and becomes an annoyingly traditional soap opera for many of the episodes.

On DVD, this four-disc set comes in an annoyingly bulky case (halfway through the series, the Collections started to come in slimmer cases) which makes it seem more substantial than it actually is. Each of the four discs ends with an interview of one of the cast or production members discussing their Dark Shadows experience and it is not at all limited to just the episodes in this boxed set. Dan Curtis talks about starting the show and his first visit to the set. Nancy Barrett talks about how all the best stories are inside jokes which aren't worth relaying. Dennis Patrick discusses his tumultuous exit from the show and he is frank about loathing how much the writers produced for his character of Jason McGuire.

Still, it is not enough to justify picking up this soap opera, even on DVD. Dark Shadows Collection 2 might set up some later plot threads, but it is a bear to get through on its own.

For a more thorough understanding of the plotline, please check out my reviews of the individual episodes at:
Episodes 250 – 254
Episodes 255 – 259
Episodes 260 – 264
Episodes 265 – 269
Episodes 270 – 274
Episodes 275 - 279
Episodes 280 - 284
Episodes 285 - 289

For other television series featuring vampires, please check out my reviews of:
True Blood – Season 1
Angel
Buffy The Vampire Slayer

2.5/10

For other television reviews, 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.

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Possibly Going Somewhere? Dark Shadows Volume 7 Leaves Viewers With Little Hope!

The Good: Plot is progressing
The Bad: Slow and drawn out plot, Soap operatic qualities, Acting problems, No character development, Medium issues.
The Basics: A very typical soap opera experience, despite the darkness and gothic feel to it, Dark Shadows Volume 7 is a real letdown on VHS!


As I continue working my way through Dark Shadows, I continue to find myself stymied as to what the hype surrounding the show is all about. Unlike some shows from the 1960s, like Star Trek, where the originality was matched with enduring social allegory, Dark Shadows seems creative in its concept and setting, but little else. In fact, with Volume 7 of Dark Shadows, the series seems very much like any other soap opera and that makes it tough to sit through and impossible to recommend.

For those unfamiliar with Dark Shadows, the series was a soap opera that was set in the gothic mansion of Collinwood, an old New England estate with a dark history. Supernatural events occurred around Collinwood and the adjacent port of Collinsport. In the storyline that has progressed since the first video, a stranger named Barnabas Collins - who bears an uncanny resemblance to the portrait of a Barnabas Collins from hundreds of years prior - has arrived in town and strange occurrences have been happening since. The problem with this black and white soap opera now is that these episodes seem especially campy and "Volume 7" is notable for how it barely progresses any of the plotlines the show has been developing. In short, it is boring.

"Volume 7" of Dark Shadows is very much a soap opera story in progress. It picks up where "Volume 6" (reviewed here!) left off and it continues plots with about a dozen characters trying to piece together the current mystery in Collinwood, which is not much of a mystery at all.

The video of Dark Shadows "Volume 7" contains episodes thirty-one through thirty-five, without any bonus features or additional programming to make the video a better value. Here is how the stories go:

Opening with David Collins encountering his Josette (Maggie Evans, brainwashed by Barnabas), episode thirty-one find David imploring Josette to keep appearing to him moments before she disappears and Victoria, Roger and Barnabas arrive. After chasing the others off, Barnabas returns to Josette's room where he reinforces that she is Josette now, not Maggie. Barnabas finishes his reinforcement moments before Sheriff Patterson arrives to interrogate Barnabas about the disappearance of Maggie Evans.

The thirty-second episode opens with Burke Devlin interrogating Dr. Woodard about the blood samples he took from Maggie Evans. As Dr. Woodard tells Burke that the blood tests have resulted in mysterious and unscientific conclusions which require him to ship the samples to a specialist, Roger confronts Elizabeth about Jason McGuire. Roger suspects Elizabeth is blackmailing her and, feeling threatened, Elizabeth confronts Jason. When Burke and the doctor return to the office, they find it ransacked and all of Maggie's samples gone.

Episode thirty-three has Doctor Woodard hunting Willie Loomis down at the Old House to try to get a blood sample from him. Willie refuses and Barnabas insists he cannot force Willie to give it up. Woodard returns to Collinwood where Elizabeth and Jason are conversing. As they try to put the pieces together, Jason leaves to visit Willie and encounters Barnabas instead. Upon returning to Collinwood, Jason comes up with an interesting solution to his money problems.

Jason insisting Elizabeth marry him opens episode thirty-four. After attempting to coerce Elizabeth into marrying him, Jason seeks out Carolyn and attempts to sew seeds of discord between the two of them. After Elizabeth tries to tell Carolyn about how life with her father was, Carolyn runs out and back into the manipulative presence of Jason McGuire!

Episode thirty-five has Barnabas insisting Willie give Woodard a blood sample. After Burke and Woodard try to figure out what might be wrong with Willie and Maggie, Woodard visits the old house to get the blood sample from Willie. Burke takes Victoria to the Blue Whale to try to relax her and relax with her. Dr. Woodard studies the slide and Barnabas reveals to Willie how he has protected his servant.

In this week of episodes of Dark Shadows, very little happened on the plot front and even less happens on the character front. Well before now, Willie Loomis has clearly been the servant of Barnabas, though how or why remains a mystery. By this point, it is just hard to care.

Part of the deficit of interest has to come from the fact that this volume of Dark Shadows is particularly marred by mediocre-at-best acting. Episode 32, for example, features some absolutely terrible deliveries by Burke Devlin (Mitchell Ryan). Ryan flubs his lines, then speaks the ones he makes his way through with a stiffness that is inappropriate and then melodramatic. It is hard not to watch these episodes and wince at that.

Finally, this volume is a video tape and as the medium has been more or less buried, it is tough to recommend resurrecting it for the purpose of these few episodes of Dark Shadows. The lack of endurance of VHS tapes is a severe detraction, though it is hard to imagine anyone wanting to watch these five episodes more than once, even if that.

[For a much better value, check out Dark Shadows Volume 1 on DVD, reviewed here, as it has over forty episodes on the currently dominant medium!]

For other supernatural television episodes, please check out my reviews of:
Buffy The Vampire Slayer - "Welcome To The Hellmouth"/"The Harvest"
Star Trek - "Wolf In The Fold"
Twin Peaks - “Pilot”

2/10

For other television reviews, be sure to check out my Index Page for an organized listing of all the shows I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Little Variety Is All That Saves Dark Shadows Volume 6 From The Scrap Pile!

The Good: Some directoral creativity, Story is progressing
The Bad: Medium issues, Still soap operatic, Much of the acting is poor.
The Basics: A disappointing five episodes of Dark Shadows, "Volume 6" at least includes some rare outdoors shots as the story limps forward.


Dark Shadows is a gothic horror soap opera and while many people recall it for its originality - it aired in the mid to late 1960s and was unlike anything else on television (sort of) - encountering it now, I am astonished more that it has the following it has and how it made it onto VHS (and now DVD) at all. Dark Shadows might be original for the level of mystery and the use of a creepy gothic setting for its stories, but it is still a soap opera and in many ways, it is a poor one at that. With "Volume 6," though, the creepy story actually advances some and the viewer is left feeling like they are not completely wasting their time.

However, it is tough to come to "Volume 6" straightaway. The video is a video (not a DVD) and as a result, it wears out quicker than the new dominant mediums and buyers might be buying a tape which is already brittle from age and heat. Beyond the obvious issues of VHS as a medium, "Volume 6" is plagued by some production difficulties, clunky acting and a story which is already in progress. Indeed, "Volume 6" picks up right where "Volume 5" (reviewed here!) ended and the story goes forward with minimal recapping. In other words, if you're not on board by now, the story isn't slowing down for you.

The video of Dark Shadows "Volume 6" contains episodes twenty-six through thirty, without any bonus features or additional programming to make the video a better value. Here is how the stories go:

Episode twenty-six finds Maggie disappeared and as soon as the doctor reveals her absence, Joe flees to the cemetery in hopes of finding her, leaving her father to fight with the doctor. Joe and Burke go hunting Willie on the hopes that he might be able to help them and they encounter Barnabas, who offers his help in finding Maggie. When the others leave, Maggie comes out, completely under the thrall of Barnabas! He gives Maggie a room and begins calling her Josette and he expresses his love for her.

The twenty-seventh episode has Victoria frantic over Maggie's disappearance and the local sheriff arrives with Burke to talk with her about her disappearance. As the sheriff deduces that Willie Loomis made the call to tell Victoria where to find Maggie the first time, Jason works to cover Willie's tracks. Still, Sheriff Patterson tracks down Willie at the old house and interrogates him. Meanwhile, the doctor, Victoria and Burke talk about Maggie and Victoria realizes that Maggie's symptoms were similar to Willie's! Jason hunts down Willie, threatens him in hopes that Willie will leave town and departs, getting a surprise when he does.

In the twenty-eighth episode, Carolyn and Victoria are feeling cooped up so they walk over to the old house. With a little arm twisting, Victoria convinces Carolyn to accompany her around the house. They find Josette's room and marvel at its femininity until Willie finds them. As they leave, they encounter Barnabas and Victoria interrogates him, suspecting a connection between the room, Josette and the story he told them during the storm.

In episode twenty-nine, Sam and Joe commiserate over the loss of Maggie. At the old house, Barnabas brings Maggie to dinner, calling her Josette the entire time. Willie waits on them and when Sam and Joe show up, Barnabas is forced to improvise. After secreting his "Josette" away, he bluffs the pair, while Willie takes care of Maggie.

Episode thirty opens with young David Collins going over to the old house to go look for Josette. David calls for Josette and makes it up to the room Barnabas has made up for Maggie before Barnabas finds him. After a protracted conversation, Barnabas convinces David that Josette is not there, despite what he thinks he saw through the window. Returning David to the house, Barnabas and Roger discuss the disappearance of Maggie.

Dark Shadows might sound interesting on the plot front from these synopses, but the truth is, they are clunky in their direction and often cringeworthy in the performances. Of note is Episode 27 which features one of the most fake fight scenes of all time as Jason McGuire beats Willie Loomis. The fight is so poorly filmed that while Jason does not look like he is even exerting himself, it is clear he also never makes contact with Willie!

What saves these clunky performances from the complete trash pile is that these episodes are mildly more visually interesting than the prior episodes I had watched. So, for example, Episode 28 features rare outdoor shots, which is not something that happens frequently on Dark Shadows. This makes it mildly more visually interesting, at the very least.

But, largely, this is a soap opera and viewers ought not to expect much more than a very basic black and white soap opera, save that the sets are neat and look vaguely castle-like. That, however, is nowhere near enough to use to recommend this video.

[For a much better value, check out Dark Shadows Volume 1 on DVD, reviewed here, as it has over forty episodes on the currently dominant medium!]

For other works with Mitch Ryan, be sure to check out my reviews of:
The West Wing - Season 5
“The Icarus Factor”

4/10

For other television reviews, please check out my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing of all that I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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An Especially Soap Opera-y Collection, Dark Shadows Volume 5 Completely Disappoints!

The Good: I've got nothing on this one; sense of mood?
The Bad: No character development, Light on plot, Terrible acting, Technical problems, Medium issues.
The Basics: Arguably one of the worst five episode weeks of Dark Shadows, "Volume 5" is a complete bust on VHS!


In the history of the soap opera, one would be stretched to find a show where every week was a great week. In fact, with my generally low opinion of the soap opera medium, it would be hard to believe that every major soap opera has weeks where the show is entirely adequate television. In the case of Dark Shadows, one of the few soap operas which made it onto VHS and now DVD, some weeks were better than others. Unfortunately for fans, the week of episodes encapsulated on Dark Shadows Volume 5 was arguably one of the worst.

With "Volume 5," the show takes a turn into the droll. This is a week which ends essentially where it begins with not much happening in between, save the viewer being teased. Maggie Evans rolls around, the doctor looks perplexed, the technical merits of the show are particularly campy and poorly done. This is a week when one suspects the writers were bored, the actors were tired and the people working the camera equipment just didn't care to check anything.

This is, however, very much a soap opera and as a result, it picks up right where Volume 4 (reviewed here!) left off. Sadly, this is week of storytelling which serves more to make explicit what has been implicit up to this point, as opposed to actually giving the viewer new information.

The video of Dark Shadows "Volume 5" contains episodes twenty-one through twenty-five, without any bonus features or additional programming to make the video a better value. Here is how the stories go:

Episode twenty-one begins with Maggie at her home, wounded with a bite to her neck. Her father becomes suspicious by the way Maggie reacts as the dogs outside bay. The doctor finally arrives and gives Maggie a once-over, concludes that she has lost a lot of blood and he orders a transfusion. The doctor concludes Maggie was sleepwalking and he leaves Sam to stand guard over his daughter, but he falls asleep as the dogs start baying again and Maggie rises to go to them!

In episode twenty-two, Joe visits Maggie in the morning and informs her of her sleepwalk attempt. As Joe tries to console her, Maggie becomes agitated and dumps him. This forces Joe to call on Victoria to try to help with watching Maggie. Victoria rushes out, despite Jason's attempts to keep her, on the cusp of a storm which is sweeping over the ocean toward Collinsport. Jason confronts Willie and is surprised Willie might have actually helped Maggie out. While keeping watch over Victoria, the storm comes in and Maggie becomes more agitated.

The twenty-third episode finds Victoria continuing her vigil with an increasingly annoyed Maggie, who keeps trying to escape her room. When the door breaks open from the storm, a figure appears and disappears in the doorway and Maggie is even more traumatized. Victoria returns to Collinwood and keeps Carolyn company during the storm. While there, the two are stalked by the same mysterious figure and soon Barnabas arrives and keeps the pair company. Barnabas tells Maggie and Carolyn the story of Josette Collins' violent suicide as the climax to an old Collins family love story. Jason returns to Collinwood to confront Barnabas and he tries to put a wedge between Barnabas and Willie.

In episode twenty-four, Barnabas beats Willie Loomis for calling to alert everyone to Maggie's location in the cemetery and he tasks Willie with dealing with Jason Mcguire. With the storm finally breaking, Maggie wakes up feeling better and day comes, even as Barnabas is unable to get her back. After the doctor checks in on Maggie, Victoria visits and Maggie begs the other woman to not leave her alone. But as night falls, the dogs return while Sam is painting for Barnabas and Maggie pushes Victoria away once again.

The twenty-fifth episode opens with Victoria being locked out of Maggie's room and Burke arriving to break in. The doctor arrives to reveal that Maggie has lost a lot of blood again through the wounds on her neck. Maggie awakens with her friends surrounding her to describe her experiences as a terrible nightmare and the doctor becomes increasingly concerned about her. As the night goes on, Sam and Joe wait outside Maggie's hospital room, preparing themselves for Maggie to die. And when Maggie stops breathing, the nurse rushes out to get the doctor and the two return to discover that Maggie has disappeared!

Dark Shadows, especially the episodes on "Volume 5" have a very soap opera feel to them and the interplay between Joe and Maggie seems especially canned and generically melodramatic. Moreover, actors in these episodes seem to be continually forgetting their lines, cutting off abruptly or cutting into statements other characters are making. Instead of being haunting like many of the other videos, this volume seems particularly laughable, which certainly was not the intent of the creators.

In black and white on VHS, Dark Shadows Volume 5 also suffers from a grainy appearance and there are no bonus features. Anyone still tied to this outdated medium would do well to avoid this volume; it doesn't matter how soon the medium wears out, it is hard to imagine anyone getting their money's worth out of this tape, the episodes are so poorly done.

In a series on the verge of being incredibly original, sometimes Dark Shadows took a turn to all of the worst conceits of the soap opera. "Volume 5" is a video where the show does just that. The episodes are melodramatic, the performances are campy and the plot goes nowhere, though the music swells leading into the next commercial. Even fans can safely pass this one by until the next, better episodes, become available!

[For a much better value, check out Dark Shadows Volume 1 on DVD, reviewed here, as it has over forty episodes on the currently dominant medium!]

For other campy television shows, please check out my reviews of:
V: The Television Series
VR-5
Quatermass

.5/10

For other television reviews, be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Campy Horror Soap Opera Continues With Dark Shadows Volume 4 On Video!

The Good: Story does seem to be going somewhere . . .
The Bad: Truly campy acting, Pacing issues, Medium issues, Light on character development.
The Basics: A campy gothic horror soap opera, Dark Shadows Volume 4 illustrates remarkably little progression, outside the character of Willie Loomis.


As I watch more and more episodes of Dark Shadows, more or less waiting for it to become interesting enough to justify itself, I am caught by how hit-or-miss the soap opera genre can be. I recall a few years back when Port Charles started running promos during prime time, highlighting their supernatural storylines and while it seems like Port Charles was just following in the footsteps of Dark Shadows, it seems they both suffered a common fate. It's hard, it appears, to be creative in the soap opera genre. Strangely, though, that means that endurance is partially based upon how closely a show follows the soap opera formula.

To that end, Dark Shadows Volume 4 continues to disappoint viewers hoping to find something truly different in the gothic horror soap opera as the five episodes on this video are remarkably formulaic. Dark Shadows, like most soap operas, plays to the commercials, revealing key information moments before the cut to commercial and repeating the information when the show returns. This sense of repetition fares quite poorly on video as fans watch now. Without the break, the characters involved in the annoyingly fractured story seem especially dim. "Volume 4" picks up where "Volume 3" (reviewed here!) left off and for those who have not tuned into the prior episodes, there is no recap to prepare the viewers for what they will be seeing, only Victoria Winters' opening monologue which declares that things are strange at Collinwood.

The video of Dark Shadows "Volume 4" contains episodes sixteen through twenty, without any bonus features or additional programming to make the video a better value. Here is how the stories go:

Episode sixteen replays Maggie's nightmare before she awakens, terrified. Maggie's boyfriend, Joe, takes Maggie out to the Blue Whale. Joe and Maggie are recovering from her shock when Barnabas and Maggie's father, Sam, arrive. The four begin to talk and an uncomfortable Maggie discretely slips to the other side of the bar with Joe, Burke arrives. Surprised by Barnabas's claim to have tamed Willie, Burke becomes fascinated by Barnabas's cane. And as the night ends, Maggie is visited in her home by an unexpected visitor.

In the seventeenth episode, Maggie's nightmares continue, arguably brought on by Barnabas Collins, who enters her bedroom with a sinister intent. Maggie is awakened late by her father, but she discovers she is exhausted and upset. She does not notice the ring on her finger and she insists she must get up and go to work. At work, she is short tempered with Joe and soon collapses. But as night nears, Maggie begins feeling much better and she accompanies Sam to the old house when Sam is called to work there. Barnabas encourages Maggie to return home and there, she opens the door to allow him in once again.

Episode eighteen finds Jason and Elizabeth arguing about the family business. Roger arrives, upset to have learned that Jason has been made the family representative with the press. Carolyn is also upset by Jason's continued presence and she goes looking for a key to a secret room in Collinwood which she believes has possessions from her dead father.

The nineteenth episode opens with Sam finding Maggie ill and asleep late into the day. Sam brings in a doctor, who reveals that Maggie has lost a lot of blood, while Victoria fills Burke in on the current happenings at Collinwood. When Joe comes to visit Maggie at night, she awakens and she throws him out without any real reason, opening her door once again to the night. When Joe arrives at the Blue Whale and tells the others of how Maggie is acting, Sam returns home to find Maggie missing!

In episode twenty, Sam begins searching for Maggie. Maggie, out in the night, arrives at the Collins cemetery. As Sam, Burke and Joe go out in search of Maggie, Victoria remains at Maggie's house to wait for Maggie to return. Willie shows up and learns that Maggie has disappeared and he flees, calling Victoria anonymously to tell her where to find Maggie. Burke arrives and Victoria fills him in. Barnabas arrives to find Maggie, but before he can do anything with her, Willie arrives to warn him that others are on their way! Having lost Maggie, Barnabas realizes Willie has betrayed him and he punishes him violently. And when Maggie collapses, Burke and Joe get a look at her neck and a real shock!

Dark Shadows deserves credit for being creative. It was a soap opera that utilizing the gothic horror setting of Collinsport, Maine to tell stories involving the supernatural. Unfortunately for impatient viewers, "Volume 4" is still Barnabas Collins before the revelation of his true nature. As a result, this video - in addition to being hampered by being an outdated medium - suffers from a storyline which is weird for the sake of weird. The clues are there, but this is a mystery in progress and as a result, there is little catharsis for the viewer.

As well, the acting is quite bad. Frequently, Dark Shadows seems like it must have been shot in one take as the black-and-white soap opera features several acting flubs where actors clearly forget their lines, stutter through them and are given leading questions by the actors they are playing with to try to get them back on the right track. Combined with technical problems like camera washouts from changing cameras that catch the wrong lights or burnouts from the candles that are lit in several scenes, Dark Shadows is very much b-rate soap opera material on this volume.

What saves this volume from complete dismal territory in the depths of "avoid it" is that the mood is interesting. Dark Shadows maintains a good level of intrigue which makes curious viewers who like science fiction and horror have some faith that the show is going somewhere. Moreover, despite appearing campy at times - especially how some of the actors play to the camera - the show works surprisingly well at keeping things moving and the feeling that dark forces are working in Collinsport makes for fun viewing.

Also, in this block of five episodes, Willie Loomis finally steps up as an interesting character. Willie is clearly under Barnabas's control, but he tries to resist him here and that works nicely to make him develop some.

It is not enough to recommend "Dark Shadow" Volume 4 on VHS, though. These episodes might carry the all-important abduction of Maggie, but given how this gets resolved, one could skip them and be no worse off for where the story is going.

[For a much better value, check out Dark Shadows Volume 1 on DVD, reviewed here, as it has over forty episodes on the currently dominant medium!]

For other horror works, please check out my reviews of:
A Nightmare On Elm Street
Repo! The Genetic Opera
Friday The Thirteenth

3.5/10

For other television reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Hokey Gothic Soap Opera Continues, Dark Shadows Volume 3 Continues The Story Of Barnabas Collins!

The Good: Moments of intrigue and mood
The Bad: Very clunky acting, Repetition, Soap operatic nature, Medium issues
The Basics: Fun, campy and very much a soap opera, the third volume of Dark Shadows finds Barnabas Collins exerting more influence over Collinsport!


It seems, whether I want to or not, I am finding myself more and more immersed in the series Dark Shadows, a 1960s gothic horror soap opera which my mother was a big fan of. The series was released on VHS in five episode (essentially a week's worth of episodes) installments and with "Volume 3," the show continues to be a strange oscillation between creepy and original and formulaic and blase. The originality comes from the fact that the daily soap opera had a unique setting and was going for a serialized gothic horror story as opposed to most soap operas about common relationships being made larger than life through affairs, treachery and lust. Sadly, the negative aspects of the show resound; the stories are often clumsy, the acting is clunky and frequently painfully awkward, and the nature of the medium requires that the stories be told around commercial breaks for which there are frequently melodramatic moments preceding said breaks and the repetition of information when one returns. This holds up poorly on video.

Volume 3 of Dark Shadows picks up where Volume 2 (reviewed here!) left off. At this point in the story, Collinwood has been visited by Barnabas Collins, a mysterious figure who seems to know his way around. Willie Loomis, a grave robber, has fallen severely ill and Jason McGuire continues to try to exploit Willie and their mutual hostess, Elizabeth. Victoria Winters has, for the most part, been an observer.

The video of Dark Shadows "Volume 3" contains episodes eleven through fifteen, without any bonus features or additional programming to make the video a better value. Here is how the stories go:

Episode eleven, Willie Loomis awakens at night, feeling better, where he is confronted by an incredulous Jason McGuire. After insisting to Jason that he is well-enough to leave, Willie says his good-byes, even apologizing to Elizabeth for all of the problems he has caused. Barnabas drops in on Elizabeth and Victoria where Elizabeth decides she will let Barnabas take up residence in the old house. Barnabas lets Victoria know that he will be renovating the old house and she is actually excited by the prospect. Barnabas wanders over to his new residence where he finds Willie and he orders Willie out on a mysterious new task, clearly in control of the young man.

While cleaning up the local diner she works at, Maggie Evans is startled by the appearance of Barnabas, which opens the twelfth episode. During a conversation while Barnabas has a cup of coffee, Maggie learns about the staff he carries and the value it holds both to him and because of its composition. When Barnabas leaves, a protective Joe - her boyfriend - arrives and then Maggie notices Barnabas left his cane behind. Finding Barnabas in his new residence, the overly polite Barnabas begins spying on Maggie and possibly preparing to do something worse, which is what Willie - still under the thrall of Barnabas - fears.

The thirteenth episode has Victoria visiting the old house and discovering Willie there, with Willie begging her to get out as quick as she can. Willie manages to get Victoria out before Barnabas arrives and insists that Willie go out and fulfill his task. Maggie, at her apartment, is visited by Barnabas. Terrified that she might have been followed home, Maggie lets Barnabas in and shows him some paintings by her father. Her father arrives and accepts a commission from Barnabas to paint a portrait of him. Sam Evans goes with Barnabas to the old house at Collinwood where they begin the portrait. Sam is shocked, though, when Barnabas disappears as dawn breaks through the windows at the old house.

In episode fourteen, Victoria reveals to Elizabeth that she saw Willie at the old house with Barnabas. Elizabeth goes to speak with Barnabas and has to console David, who comes along and dislikes what Barnabas is doing with the old house. Upon returning to the main mansion of Collinwood, Elizabeth is met by Burke Devlin, who is offended that Elizabeth sold off some property he wanted without giving him a chance to buy it. After their meeting, Burke talks with David, who wants the portrait of Josette that Barnabas had moved, which sense David back to the old house.

Episode fifteen opens with young David Collins trapped by dogs within the old house, when he is rescued by Barnabas. Jason McGuire returns to encourage Elizabeth to deal with Willie once and for all and he visits Willie, meeting Barnabas there. As Maggie falls into a nightmarish sleep, Willie goes on his "errand" and Sam Evans arrives in the parlor of Barnabas Collins where he continues work on the portrait.

The black and white episodes are filled with painfully awkward acting, most of it centered around the child actor who plays David Collins. The boy forgets his lines and when he remembers them, he delivers them without any real emotion. On the flip side, Jonathan Frid, who plays Barnabas, continues to come into his own in these episodes. He does spooky exceptionally well and there's not a moment where he is hammy in these episodes, though he does have a tendency to play to the camera in the worst tradition of soap operas.

In this set of five episodes, the repetition of information before and after the commercials seems excessive (especially given as there are no commercials on the video!). One has the sense that the writers had created a situation, knew where they wanted to be at the end of the week, but then did not know quite how to get to there.

What saves this volume from the scrap pile entirely? That's easy; even in these episodes, the moments Barnabas Collins is on screen, he is electric and engaging. He draws the eye and, even though I know where the series is going with the character, the way his character's backstory is unfolding is interesting and surprisingly well done. And in this set of episodes, the viewer actually comes to care some for Willie Loomis, who is clearly under Barnabas's control, but is fighting for his own humanity.

Sadly, on VHS, there are no bonus features and while MPI transferred the film to video, they did not clean it up. As a result, Dark Shadows looks as terrible on video as anything from the 1960s would unretouched. Dark Shadows is similarly plagued by the fact that it was frequently cursed with technical problems. Candles in the crypts and people lighting matches for their cigarettes (characters are frequently seen smoking on the show) cause burn out and when characters move across the sets, frequently the actors get washed out by the lights. So, even if the images weren't fairly grainy, the quality of what was on the film was frequently problematic. There's no reason I can think of for anyone still tied to VHS to settle with collecting these episodes on that medium.

[For a much better value, check out Dark Shadows Volume 1 on DVD, reviewed here, as it has over forty episodes on the currently dominant medium!]

For other shows with soap opera qualities, please check out my reviews of:
Gilmore Girls
Dawson's Creek - Season 1
Rome

3/10

For other television reviews, 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.
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Less Value, Less Story, Dark Shadows Volume 2 On VHS Is Inappropriately Dreadful!

The Good: Episode 10 is actually engaging
The Bad: Soap operatic style, Frequently clunky acting, Medium issues, Technical problems, Nothing happens
The Basics: Fairly boring and without a strong sense of purpose, the episodes of Dark Shadows on "Volume 2" continue to build mystery around Barnabas Collins, without doing much else!


As I trundle through my mother's collection of Dark Shadows videos, it occurs to me that with all of the television shows in DVD, the daily soap opera remains one of the truly unexploited realms for the medium. I suppose most soap operas are written hoping the audience forgets the past and just sticks with the current storyline unconcerned with how allegiances change with characters and how there is no real overall narrative. Dark Shadows, a gothic horror soap opera from the early 1960s seemed to want to buck that trend and with the second video, "Volume 2," the show seems to be going somewhere. The fundamental problem with "Volume 2" is that it doesn't get anywhere, so it's essentially two hours of filler and at least the viewer isn't cheated out of a whole week to make the lack of story make sense.

Picking up where "Volume 1" (reviewed here!) of Dark Shadows left off, it is worth reiterating that Dark Shadows was released on VHS not at the true beginning of the story. Instead, what we refer to as episodes 6 - 10 on "Volume 2" was actually something like the two hundred and sixth episode upward. The reason for this is simple; Dark Shadows began as a gothic horror soap opera which was not building an audience or keeping the audience it had sufficiently intrigued until it brought in a character named Barnabas Collins. Introduced on "Volume 1," this became the most solid place to build a home video enterprise (from a marketing stance), so MPI Home Video started there.

But even as Barnabas Collins became a prominent figure on Dark Shadows, posing as a "cousin from England" at the Collins Estate of Collinwood, there were other plotlines which still needed resolution and part of the problem with episodes six through ten on "Volume 2" is that they allude to events not presented in any way on this video. Instead, this is a building set of episodes and, frankly, the only thing that made me care about any of them were elements in the tenth episode which seemed to be setting up the next volume. For those who know what is coming next, an unfortunate revelation which is ruined by the back of the VHS box, these episodes are still building up to the big surprise. I shall not ruin that surprise here, but anyone who has their finger on the pulse of pop culture is likely to see what the series is building to and, unfortunately, with these five episodes, it feels like it is taking the long way to get there.

The video of Dark Shadows "Volume 2" contains episodes six through ten, without any bonus features or additional programming to make the video a better value. Here is how the stories go:

The sixth episode finds Maggie waiting for Joe at the Blue Whale. Burke keeps Maggie company, until Jason (whom Burke had had a prior conflict with) arrives. Jason confesses that he has no idea where Willie is and he makes a truce with Burke. Shortly thereafter, Joe arrives for his date with Maggie in shock. He's just come from his family's farm where a calf has been exsanguinated! Still reeling from learning that, Burke and Jason are surprised when Willie shows up, completely in shock, with no recollection of where he's been since he went missing!

The seventh episode, Burke warns Willie that he never wants to see the young man again and Jason takes him back to Collinwood to apologize to Carolyn and Elizabeth. Willie does not want to return and upon seeing the portrait of Barnabas Collins, he collapses. While Jason tends to him, after extorting Elizabeth once more to allow Willie to stay longer, Jason notices a wound on Willie from which he appears to have lost a lot of blood.

In the eighth episode, Willie lies tormented in his bed as night falls and Jason becomes baffled by his blood loss from so small a wound. Tricking Jason, Willie flees in the night, back to the Collins mausoleum.

Episode nine has Jason searching for Willie at the mausoleum to no avail. Returning to the mansion, Elizabeth confronts him having learned Willie has left his room. Roger and Barnabas meet about Barnabas setting up with the local shipbuilders and he surprises his cousins by proposing he take up residence in the old house. While Elizabeth resists the idea, Roger welcomes it. Barnabas and Jason meet and Jason becomes determined to find where Barnabas is staying.

In the tenth episode, Willie returns to the mansion near death and Jason confronts him about where he has been. Determined to return to sleep, Willie gets to his room where Roger comes to evict him from Collinwood once and for all. But when Roger and Jason confront one another, a call comes from the sheriff and Roger goes into Collinsport. There, he learns that the Collins' farms are suffering as cattle are being found dead, exsanguinated apparently by a human! Roger returns to Collinwood to hear from Jason that the doctor's diagnosis for Willie is massive blood loss and Roger suspects a connection!

This black-and-white soap opera is presented as half-hour (less space for commercials) episodes and each episode tends to be shot rather sparsely with one or two cameras usually on two to three sets per episode. There is often a rather theatrical presentation of lines and while none of these episodes feature anything as tacky as a visible boom mike, the lighting department is frequently plagued by washouts as characters move from one light source to another on set. There are also clunky edits which have cameras shifting to different characters and putting the speaking character in profile.

Despite those technical problems, Dark Shadows is shot on a pretty convincing set, which features a castle-like interior of the mansion, Collinwood. The Blue Whale is a small local bar and it, like the Collinwood sets, has the feel of being a stage with one side completely open for the cameras to move around in. The problem is the cameras seldom move and as a result, the actors tend to play to the camera, most notably Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins, who gives several knowing glances to the audience.

This volume of Dark Shadows is also hampered by the fact that the acting is not the greatest. To be fair to actors like Dennis Patrick, who played Jason McGuire, the scripts do appear pretty dialogue-heavy and the actors has a lot to memorize each day. Patrick stands out in this volume for making it through all of his lines, while being in each episode. Patrick plays off Joan Bennett (Elizabeth) rather well and he makes for an entirely convincing recurring villain. In these episodes, Patrick is able to soften the extortionist as Jason becomes baffled by the mysterious events surrounding Willie Loomis and the boy's illness.

In the end, these episodes are more hokey than entirely unlikable, but being on VHS does not help them out. The old medium makes it tough to justify purchasing these and as a result, they fall on the line between "below average" and "avoid it." While the soap opera may be going somewhere, it doesn't happen in these episodes and it is only a trust that there is information in these episodes that is helpful to have as one goes on that keeps this from being a complete lemon.

[For a much better value, check out Dark Shadows Volume 1 on DVD, reviewed here, as it has over forty episodes on the currently dominant medium!]

For other weird, mysterious television shows, please check out my reviews of:
Veronica Mars
Twin Peaks
Fringe Season 1

3/10

For other television shows, be sure to visit my Movie Review Index Page for a listing of all films and shows I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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