Originally posted by Vlad on the Dark Shadows: General Discussion Forum on February 12, 2002 at 18:25:07:
Here is my personal ranking of the major DS storylines, from favorite to least favorite. Some might not like the idea of a ranking, but I found it an interesting exercise - I really had to think about and evaluate each story, in accordance with my personal preferences. The categories are pretty much my own devising ¢â‚¬¦ others would categorize some storylines differently than I have. There is overlapping among various storylines, of course, so things don't always fit quite perfectly into little boxes like this. The "Dark Shadows Almanac" breaks down some of the storylines into smaller fragments than I think is necessary - e.g., they have "The Ghosts of Daphne and Gerard" as a separate storyline from "1840." I've also omitted a couple of storylines that were too minor for me to put in a ranking like this - e.g., "Return to 1796" and "Quentin and Amanda" (see the Dark Shadows Almanac).
1. 1840. Includes 1995 and Summer of 1970, as one cohesive unit.
2. 1795. (Coming up soon, newbies!)
3. Introduction of Barnabas. Includes kidnapping of Maggie, intro of Julia Hoffman.
4. 1897
5. Introduction of Quentin
6. Laura the Phoenix
7. 1841 Parallel Time
8. Introduction of Victoria Winters. Includes Burke Devlin story.
9. Cassandra and the Dream Curse
10. Leviathans
11. 1970 Parallel Time
12. Creation and Education of Adam
13. Jason McGuire/blackmailing of Elizabeth
14. Nicholas Blair, Introduction and machinations of. (Includes Eve story.)
Some further notes:
I group 1995, Summer of 1970, and 1840 as one storyline. It's an integrated story unit even though it spans three time periods. I find this to be the most intricately plotted AND cohesive storyline of all.
Some of my favorite moments from the series are undeniably in 1897. However, as a whole, I found the storyline to lose direction as it began to expand exponentially.
Perhaps the most traditional (classical, tasteful, whatever) storyline was 1795, but the taut jigsaw puzzle that was 1840 really kept my mind at work on several levels simultaneously!
Long-time posters might be surprised at my relatively high ranking of the Leviathan storyline. Although I found a stretch of episodes near the end of this storyline to be the worst executed of the entire series, as a whole I found it a fascinating and creative concept, and defended it as such on this board up until the very end. Taken as a whole, I still prefer it to several others.
-Vlad
