Dark
Shadows Collection 17 Struggles with Storyline Changes
by
Kristin Battestella
After
spending the summer re-watching Dark Shadows from
the beginning, I'm back to Collection 17 and
this last leg in the 1897 storyline – an entertaining but
fumbling exit perhaps overwhelmed with Victorian horror, vampires,
and Lovecraft spells as Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) travels back
to 1796 with Kitty Soames, the reincarnation of his beloved Josette
DuPres (Kathryn Leigh Scott), after seemingly defeating the vile
Count Petofi (Thayer David) – who has switched bodies with the
werewolf Quentin Collins (David Selby) in order to travel from 1897
to 1969. Unfortunately, ancient leviathan interference upsets
numerous events past and present for Dr. Julia Hoffman (Grayson
Hall).
The
body swaps, mistaken identity, and abused I Ching hexagrams open
Episode 858 amid gypsy threats, bitter marriage alliances, magical
but stolen portraits, and good old fashioned blackmail. Enemies
become allies as characters must prove who they are despite witches,
seances, skeleton keys, chained coffins, and hooded figures. Cursed
people are packing, gold diggers are making plans – there's a sense
that 1897 is a wrap and 1969 is imminent thanks to psychedelic
sounds, astral bodies, time travel technicalities, and echoes from
another century. There are many threads to resolve with the Hand of
Count Petofi and buried alive threats coming back to haunt deserving
parties. Psychic visions see thru the mystical ruses alongside fiery
witches versus warlocks confrontations and kidnappings. Inner
monologues matching the real person in the wrong body curb confusion
as well as garner sympathy during the body swindles, however
Collection 17 takes a few
episodes to catch up on who cast what spells with some round about
half hours and straggling characters loosing steam before ghostly
apparitions, dubious lawyers, chloroform, and failed rituals.
Lookalike vampire encounters ramp up the scares in Episode 868, but
the 1795/96 chronology is shoehorned in with fudged dates and
Collins Family History books. New characters read Ben Stokes' diary
and suddenly everybody's an expert! Answers are dismissed as madness
amid suspicious relatives, antagonizing ministers, crosses, and women
in cahoots. Pulsing heartbeats, ill conceived marriage proposals, and
love triangles repeat themselves as Dark Shadows strays
from the high quality previously seen in 1897 thanks to
flashback explanations with witches excited a doppelganger ruse
worked when the same thing was accomplished against The Phoenix on
Collection 14. Lengthy reprises cut into the next episode, and
in the days of VHS, I would fast forward through the dull back and
forth partnerships telling each other what they don't know but the
audience already does. Fortunately, buried suitcases and risky I
Ching hexagrams make ready for the future as romantic duets and
dancing dreams turn into terror. Dark Shadows picks
up the intensity with will power over evil, cliff side
desperation, and deadly shockers in Episode 876 before 879 adds
double crosses, stranglers, poison, and fresh cement. Nobody's
surprised by the supernatural anymore, much less betrayals, home
invasions, and decoy burglaries even as people leap out Collinwood's
windows or pass brandy to the fainting women. Climatic scandals keep
the paranoia, graveyard chases, and taunting phone calls on track as
forgiveness comes to some, but not all.
Bitter
deaths and fast resolutions tie up each loose end, however, the main
characters are largely absent without one key storyline, and it's as
if Dark Shadows doesn't know
how to resolve yet more body switches as the nonsensical fantastics
unravel. Targets must stay awake lest spells over take them, and
fiery finales rush to a unbelievably easy end, leaving a sense
of confusion on whether 1897 is really finished as shocking twists
and suicides are glossed over before three odd episodes in 1796 with
admittedly atmospheric vampire brides, meddling witches, and
prophecies. This revisit to the further past, however, is also left
hanging in the balance for torches, snake altars, and a big WTF that
today would have audiences immediately tuning out and complaining on
Twitter. Actors who played two characters in 1897 also don their 1795
wigs before returning to their original 1969 roles in Episode 888,
and it's a lot to digest. If Dark Shadows had simply taken the
I Ching back to 1969 and immediately shown how some of our 1897
immortals show up in the present and then revealed the unusual
Lovecraft inspired leviathan abstracts, the intriguing rituals,
ancient motifs, and cult incantations wouldn't be off on the wrong
foot and may have garnered an entirely different reception. Although
their stilted speech and faux ritualistic moves may be bemusing,
those hooded leviathan minions are also terribly creepy folks!
Instead, characters meander over what has happened, bringing up the
forgotten werewolf plots before new players, pentagrams, locked
boxes, and one ominous antique store that led kid me to believe every
junk shop was evil. There's a moon landing reference, too – an
outside rarity on Dark Shadows alongside the Naga lockets,
necronomicons, and freaky dream sequence overlays as paranoid friends
become enemies. Chosen ones, enchanting evil gifts, traumatized
patients – one by one players old and new become part of some kind
of telepathic cult, and it hurts the series further when more time is
spent on compromised strangers rather than the regulars. How does
that antique shop do business when it's always closed while the
proprietors grow monsters in the dark upstairs room? Foreboding zooms
can't compensate as everyone speaks in riddles, “It's the time of
the leviathan people, and that time is now!” Such sweet nothings
make the mind control and fake baby bundles laughable, and by
Episode 898 Dark Shadows
appears even cheaper than usual with less cast, weaker effects, and
thin writing. The creepy doesn't capitalize on the surprising
violence much less talk of how only people in leviathan tune can see
their altar or mentions of an unseen village apothecary. Ultimately,
this leviathan yarn really should have been a shorter secondary plot
like The Phoenix rather than keeping other stories standing still for
scary rituals, shopkeeper frights, and seances that come too few and
far between.
Jonathan
Frid's Barnabas Collins is supposedly dead to start Collection 17
but we know better! Barnabas reinserts himself at Collinwood yet
seems one step behind without much to do in the 1897 finale except
effectively kill Kitty with his disturbing insistence that she is the
reincarnated Josette. When he gets to 1796, however, he forgets all
about her to join a cult. Dark Shadows shoots
itself in the foot by making its hero a minion of a pretty box –
he's not honest with Julia and flaky when acting like a jerk does
nothing to endear this leviathan plot. Barnabas actually
claims the brainwashing weirdness going on is due to his electricity
experiments when the Old House still goes by candlelight! Grayson
Hall's Madga also disappears for no reason when the gypsy aspects
would have been quite useful with the doppelgangers and body
switches, and her voiceover dropping some 1897 gossip is a cop out
after the fact as Julia Hoffman plays catch up, carrying several
episodes while Barnabas calls her nosy. He blows her off by saying
she sees the paranormal in everything (Hello!) and Julia
stumbles alone in pursuing what happened to Tate and his paintings.
This uneven division between Dark Shadows' go-to
team adds to the off balance storytelling, and Kathryn Leigh Scott's
gold digger Kitty Soames isn't exactly sympathetic even if she is
losing control to this Josette possession. Transitioning the
entire storyline through this dragging back and forth when Barnabas
doesn't even want her just Josette is anti-climatic – especially
when the appearance of the Ghost of Jeremiah Collins will only
resonate with audiences who've seen the original 1795 storyline.
Surprisingly, Lara Parker's witch Angelique doesn't seem to care
about Barnabas marrying Kitty and initially doesn't notice the
Quentin/Petofi switch despite still trying to trap Quentin for
herself. As portrayed by Thayer
David, Quentin Collins is sympathetic, desperate and innocent against
his handsome, dangerous self. Once he's back in his own body, David
Selby's Picture of Dorian Gray Quentin
loses his portrait and again fears his werewolf curse, remaining
guilty over the part he's played in all that has happened to the
people he supposedly loved – thus completing his journey from evil
ghost to tormented immortal. Donna McKechnie's Amanda has
bittersweet plans to meet Quentin in New York, and her late
appearance as the suspicious actress Olivia Corey sets up one of my
favorite later series moments on Collection 18.
Likewise,
Terry Crawford as Beth Chavez is packed and ready to whisk away with
Quentin – however she's largely forgotten until it's important,
used and abused by Petofi as Quentin until it's too late. As
inhabited by David Selby, Count Andreas Petofi is angry and sparing
no expense in traveling to the future. Any life is expendable, and he
uses his devious charms to string along all the ladies and cover his
tracks when he slips up – like playing Mozart on the gramophone
instead of Quentin's Theme! Thayer David's Petofi almost succeeds in
his plans, but his magic both works or doesn't work just because the
writing says so. While Michael Stroka's Aristede can't be seen at
Collinwood with Petofi as Quentin, he foolishly expects the Count to
take him to the future. He runs away several times, gets laughed at
or tricked, but Aristede isn't a significant enough character to
draw out his end over five episodes of prison history and rent boy
winks. It might have been neat if the Garth Blackwood vengeance
actually orchestrated by Petofi had been chasing Aristede all along
but such chills are wasted this late and detract from more important
happenings. Dark Shadows grande
dame Joan Bennett has a dramatic entrance as fresh from the
sanitarium Judith Collins Trask, tricking Jerry Lacy's
Reverend Gregory Trask out of her money and placing Collinwood back
under her rule. Trask is caught red handed in his lies, but claims
the devil is at work in Collinwood as he plots more ill gotten deals.
Fortunately, Judith masterfully orchestrates his punishment, going
from the stuffy old maid at the beginning of the 1897 storyline to
fully embracing the Collins twistedness. He's gravely underestimated
her, and Trask finds himself trapped with one dwindling candle while
regretting all the times he locked his fearful students in a closet
when they were so afraid of the dark. Although often used for psychic
convenience that does prove critical to the plot, Nancy Barrett also
provides a multi-faceted performance as the once demure Charity Trask
who's now permanently second sight singer Pansy Faye. Naturally there
are obligatory “I'm Gonna Dance for You “ cues, but Barrett plays
piano and sings in Pansy's cockney accent. She doesn't like to be
lied to so tries being as honest as possible – one of the few
sympathetic characters trapped in all this supernatural crazy. She
won't take bribes but will except gifts for her insights and when
Quentin leaves, she gives him a “racy” photo so he'll never
forget Pansy Faye. Barrett spends a minute as ditsy Millicent Collins
as well before returning to Carolyn Stoddard who has a bad feeling
about the new antique shop yet works there nonetheless.
Don
Briscoe's Tim Shaw is mostly useless in the 1897 end, however Chris
Jennings is still an angry werewolf, and Carolyn wonders what his
secrets are while Barnabas tries to break them up for his own
leviathan motives. Whiny, drinking, and arguing with customers, Roger
Davis as Charles Delaware Tate is likewise as obnoxious as ever on
Collection 17. At once he complains about his terrible and
mystical talent yet begs Petofi to give it back to him before
stealing Quentin's portrait and making full moon jokes. He's said to
be near 100 years old in 1969, and his plot will still provide one
last annoyance on Collection 18 where
some of the dangling 1897 threads are finally resolved. Unfortunately
Louis Edmunds' Edward Collins gets ditched off screen, disappearing
early on Collection 17 after
asking Kitty to marry him with no resolution about how he feels
regarding his ex-vampire cousin stealing his lady. Denise
Nickerson's Nora also appears once to dislike her would be stepmother
before Amy is also suspicious late on Disc Four. As important as they
were to the haunting and the reasons for going to 1897, David
Henesy's Jamison is also only mentioned before young David is sucked
into underground snake lairs with only a few throwaway lines about
what he may remember of their ghostly possessions. Dennis Patrick's
Paul Stoddard also has some explaining to do as he snoops about the
Old House. He hangs around the leviathan altar and makes prank calls,
generally creeping around for several episodes before telling where
he's been for the past twenty years. Unfortunately, Dark Shadows
audiences who haven't seen the pre-Barnabas episodes of the
series won't really appreciate the leftover murder, blackmail, and
conspiracy much less recall Patrick as the ne'er do well Jason
McGuire. Marcia Wallace also returns briefly as the Ghost of Jenny
Collins before coming back to Collinsport with Christopher Bernau as
antique store entrepreneurs Megan and Phillip Todd. Megan's the more
vocal and pushy of the yuppie pair, over eager while Philip is
reluctant to accept the Naga box. They talk in abstracts about the
leviathan intangibles but it doesn't help the audience care. In fact,
it would have been more interesting if Barnabas had comeback to 1969
straightaway and then be corrupted into the cult by this new couple
in town and their suspicious baby.
The
colorful Victorian gowns peak on Collection 17 with satin,
lace, and ruffles alongside curly wigs and fancy jewelry. Although
Judith wears the same earrings Julia had on when she disappeared into
the future and there must have been a fire sale on purple satin
because every woman is wearing it. Dark Shadows juggles
three different time periods as well as creepy leviathan snake
motifs, and while I can feel that bright orange velvet colonial
dress, that belted purple sweater and plaid pants menswear is a no,
and I swear everyone is wearing some damn heavy eyeliner! Thankfully,
tolling grandfather clocks, shadow schemes, and gaslight ambiance set
off the abandoned rectory hideout's stained glass, red velvet, and
vintage décor – and I think I've subconsciously decorated my house
in Dark Shadows' faux Victorian gothic revival style. Great
antique storefronts, old fashioned knick knacks, clutter, and cradles
add to the telegrams and phone books of the 1969 present while
keeping the past spirit. Of course, the special effects are often
obvious with green screen mistakes and out of sync voiceovers. Jumpy
prints and innate camera flaws also make the magentas look garish and
reds turn pink. However, those distorted hues are terribly effective
amid ghostly greens, candlelight, and gauze around the lens for some
wild psychedelic dreams. Rattling chains, ominous knocks at the door,
storm sounds, and those familiar Bob Cobert music crescendos are
likewise chilling – except when they aren't right on cue. From the
1969 couch in the 1897 living room and rumpled carpeting substituting
for grass to prop guns that don't go off and a canvas portrait that's
rolled up like a poster, there are always fun bloopers on Dark
Shadows. The traveling afghan! That intrusive music box! A
gramophone that's in the living room after it's been walled up
in the sealed off west wing! Fortunately, artistic camera shots
through windows or reflections and quick cuts to match pulsing sounds
make up any difference along with foreground and background
photography where the audience sees the hidden attacker but the
victim doesn't. The Dark Shadows DVDs,
however, can get confusing, as Collection 17's
forty episodes are also on Discs 89 thru 92 on the Dark
Shadows: Complete Original Series
Sets 15 and 16. At least David Selby's bonus interview
wonderfully recalls the unique glint in Jonathan Frid's eye, Grayson
Hall's maternal style, Louis Edmunds' outspokenness, and how Dark
Shadows knew how to use their talent in an industry that
otherwise maybe didn't know what to do with such special
personalities. Lara Parker, however, Selby simply calls “moon
eyes.” While the DVDs may have such touching features, there is one
thing the streaming options have that video doesn't: subtitles!
Dark
Shadows still has a lot of good
to come, however much happens on Collection 17's
four discs and this is where the series begins taking on more
than it can chew. Up until the 1970 Parallel Time switch late in
Collection 19, one can even view this entire leviathan smoke
and mirrors as suspect. Did we really go
back to 1796 or is this an alternate time created by the heroics
in 1897? When watching with a critical eye such technicalities can
hurt the gothic immersion Dark Shadows does so well.
Fortunately, while the first half of
the set is not an introduction piece, fans looking for a fresh
Lovecraft inspired piece without any preconceived notion of what came
before can join the
fray here. Collection 17 isn't
totally terrible, and the supernatural time traveling escapades
remain perfect for a spooky marathon.
(It's Count Chocula!)
