Newbie with some storyline questions - anyone care to help?

[MagnusTrask]

I didn't care for what the actor playing Adam did with the character, he was just too arrogant and therefore unsympathetic.

The lines were that way... I don't think there was any other way to read them.

After seeing 1968 for the first time since 1968, recently, I'm still reeling a bit from losing that classic great middle-period DS that I had known was waiting for me to see again... I didn't remember specifics, but I "knew" 1968 was going to be great when I got it.   It wasn't.   It's as if someone I Chinged back to 1968 and forced them to do DS differently, than the 1968 DS I saw as a kid.    That classic period doesn't exist.

After this, I have had to reappraise the storylines.    I just went through to the end of DS, and not only is 1841 PT no longer my least favorite (that's 1968 now), but if judged by different criteria, with different expectations than we generally have for DS, it's pretty good.  1841 PT is like the start of a new series, more a romance with supernatural undertones.   They may have planned more adult content for later storylines... it seemed they were headed that way.    If they'd changed the music it would have helped... R Cobert's celloes are inappropriate in many of the romantic scenes, when someone's bitterly jealous or feelings are involved rather than supernatural threats.    It was like a new show, set in the same two houses with the same cast.

I can't fight the "camp" accusation anymore, after seeing 1968.    And the writing hit bottom.   The voiceovers often seem written at the last minute by anyone who was around.      Events and lines don't make sense and are awkwardly written. 

SPOILER



Barnabas breaking into Blair's house to kill Eve with a hypodermic?   Why even do it, and he's a one-man burglary and assassination squad now?

No disrespect intended to anyone who likes this era.  I hope I find things to like in it someday.  It starts out great.

[Brandon Collins]

I have to agree with you, Magnus, in the respect that when I just recently rewatched 1841 PT, I gained a new appreciated for it. I rather like it now, having been able to watch the whole series without interruption curtosey of the SciFi channels frequent movements and episode mixups. 1841PT was certainly better, IMO, than 1970PT, and ranks up there with some of my favorite moments.

Brutus' ghost was just a HOOT, I say H-O-O-T, to watch!

[michael c]

i bitched about the 1968 episodes endlessly when i first watched them so i'll try not to repeat myself too much here.

one thing i will say is that with the adam storyline the writers for the first time very actively began to court those proverbial "kids that ran home from school" as it's target audience.the previous three storylines(laura,early barnabas,1795)had supernatual characters at their center but where in many ways plotted like traditional soap operas and with a more adult sensibility.this stuff is extremely adolescent.the tone is shrill,the plotting ridiculous,the pacing off and as has been said it is with these episodes that the show aquires it's "camp" reputation.i also find it terrible the way the original characters are handled here and it's no wonder many of the are gone by year's end.

i said when i first watched them i would never watch them again.i tried to give them a second chance recently thinking i might have softened on them but i haven't.adam stinks as far as i'm concerned.

[David]

i bitched about the 1968 episodes endlessly when i first watched them so i'll try not to repeat myself too much here.

one thing i will say is that with the adam storyline the writers for the first time very actively began to court those proverbial "kids that ran home from school" as it's target audience.the previous three storylines(laura,early barnabas,1795)had supernatual characters at their center but where in many ways plotted like traditional soap operas and with a more adult sensibility.this stuff is extremely adolescent.the tone is shrill,the plotting ridiculous,the pacing off and as has been said it is with these episodes that the show aquires it's "camp" reputation.i also find it terrible the way the original characters are handled here and it's no wonder many of the are gone by year's end.

i said when i first watched them i would never watch them again.i tried to give them a second chance recently thinking i might have softened on them but i haven't.adam stinks as far as i'm concerned.

and yet, Quentin & the haunting of Collinwood was pretty spooky stuff, and a lot of 1897 was
rather sophisticated in it's storytelling.

All this after 1968.......

David

[michael c]

i agree.

i love the quentin storyline and 1897 and am even quite fond of leviathan and 1970pt...my comments were specific to the adam storyline.there are just too many monsters and it's just too silly.

[MagnusTrask]

I always think of Nightie-Fest '68, held outside Collinwood, attended by Angelique and Eve, in white and black respectively.     Each had been three or four different "creatures".

[David]

I always think of Nightie-Fest '68, held outside Collinwood, attended by Angelique and Eve, in white and black respectively.     Each had been three or four different "creatures".

I have to admit that the thought of Angelique & Eve paradng around a small, desolate fishing village in those gowns & heels is a laugh riot!!!

David

[Gothick]

This is in response to the original post from testokes:

Since you say you're new, you may not be aware that *a lot* of how the Dark Shadows storylines evolved (or failed to evolve) was directly dictated by Dan Curtis.  There's an interview with Sam Hall from the 1980s that is cited in a lot of the books available on the history where Sam recalls saying to Dan more than once, "Dan, please, can we NOT do x, y or z" and Dan would respond:  "Are you writing the show or not?  If you don't want to do it, I can get other people to write this show, you know!"  Odd though it may seem today, Adam apparently generated lots of positive fan mail from the kids who had become a big chunk of the show's audience back in 1968.  I remember reading about this at the time and thinking it odd although I was only ten years old myself in '68.

According to Robert Rodan's reminscences out at the LA Festivals, Adam's abrupt departure from the show occurred when the actor requested a raise.  (The same thing happened to Lisa Richards, too.)

I still think the 1968 storyline with Adam, Cassandra, Nicholas, the Dream Curse and Eve included some of the best moments from the show.   I won't bother to do a laundry-list here because I've already done so in MANY other threads that bash this period of the show's history.  I do find it interesting that people who detest this period of the show are more than willing to cheerfully ignore the longueurs and imbecilities of other periods in the series.  As I have said before, I regard Dark Shadows as a patchwork of shining moments and lacklustre misfires--sometimes this was the case even within a specific episode!

G.

[Joy Collins]

Welcome, testokes! I'm new here myself. 

I really liked the Dream Curse - it was a little silly, I thought, but I couldn't help but love it.
I also really like the Adam story. I will admit that it went on a bit too long, but overall I enjoyed it. I couldn't stand Eve, though. After she got there was when that story started to really go downhill, I thought.
Dr. Lang was a hoot! I was sort of sad when he got killed.
I think Barnabas and Julia kept hanging around his house just to finish the experiment. Once Adam came to life they stopped going there, I believe.
I think all Stokes new about Cassandra/Angelique is that she was a witch. He may or may not have know that they were the same person. It's been a while since I've seen these, so I don't really remember.


Joy.

[MagnusTrask]

Not knowing the book Frankenstein, as a kid I think I liked the Adam story because it was the first time I'd seen the Frankenstein story done without his being a "monster" and where he was (said to be) intelligent and sympathetic. 

Now, I actually start liking things a little when Eve shows up.   For one thing, it stops the Adam-Barnabas arguments.

[Devlin66]

Eve was so hot looking in that black nighty thing she wore and i loved the scenes with her and Blair......at times i think she was getting Nicholas hot to trot...too bad he had an agenda.

[loril54]

I wondering if they were trying to get the young boys to watch with all those "Nighties"? 

[David]

 
some of those young boys may have wanted to wear those nighties!

David

I wondering if they were trying to get the young boys to watch with all those "Nighties"? 

[MagnusTrask]

Someone must photoshop nightied Eve onto a sidewalk scene that could pass for Collinsport...