DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
General Discussions => Current Talk Archive => Current Talk '25 I => Current Talk '08 I => Topic started by: Watching Project on February 18, 2008, 04:49:43 PM
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Robservations #481
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I wish another actor had been found to play Dr. Lang. He's an interesting character. He believes in totally crazy stuff. but he doesn't believe in supernatural forces. A better actor could have made him into a three-dimensional loony, but instead, whenever I see him, all I can do is laugh which bothers me, because I'm not a member of the "Dark Shadows is great camp" school. What is missing in Addison Powell's performance? I'm not good at figuring these things out. All I know is that it seems to come from the surface, not from inside him - but I don't know why.
I'm always bothered by how careless Barnabas and Dr. Lang are with Professor Stokes's talisman. Stokes made it clear that he didn't want to lose ownership of the talisman. But when Barnabas handed the talisman to Lang, he didn't say, It's on loan from somebody and it's valuable, so that makes it especially important that you keep it on you. And even though Barnabas hadn't said that, surely Lang could have seen that, whether or not it had any practical use, it was valuable. It was from the thirteenth or fourteenth century, right? I don't remember any scene of Dr. Lang telling Barnabas, "Tell me how much you paid for it so I can reimburse you."
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At least, with the exception of one episode in 1840, DC never brought Addison Powell back again to DS.
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This episode had a big blooper. [milestone] It's the one when Barnabas said, "Remember someone." Then Dr. Lang prompted him to say, "Dr. Woodard" - and, as far as we know, Dr. Lang didn't even know Dr. Woodard! [snow_wink] That was funny! [snow_laugh]
Julia's concern for Barnabas while they were talking on the terrace was touching. [snow_smiley] Also, Barnabas showed that he cared for Julia when he stopped Dr. Lang from pulling out the gun, and by telling her he would leave his money to her. Ooh! Another milestone! It's the first time Barnabas demonstrated that he cared for Julia. [milestone]
I loved it when Barnabas caught Casselique spying on him and Julia! [snow_cheesy] But I hated it when Tony stole Dr. Lang's talisman. [snow_angry] Dr. Lang sure was careless. I wonder how Casselique could hold the talisman? [snow_huh]
----- Sally -----
[snow_bigglass] [hippy2]
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Lydia said:
What is missing in Addison Powell's performance? I'm not good at figuring these things out. All I know is that it seems to come from the surface, not from inside him - but I don't know why.
He didn't care. I think it's that simple. He had no respect for the material. Certain actors would have made a decision to use their skills to bring some sort of reality and life to parts they didn't think much of.
EmeraldRose said:
This episode had a big blooper. It's the one when Barnabas said, "Remember someone." Then Dr. Lang prompted him to say, "Dr. Woodard" - and, as far as we know, Dr. Lang didn't even know Dr. Woodard! That was funny!
I posted on that one right after seeing it for the first time. I couldn't believe it! Even for DS, that seemed too ridiculous a mistake to leave in, and I half-felt as if I must have misheard.
I must admit that Mr. Frid's line-memorizing capabilities are many times better than mine. I'd need a month to memorize a scene.
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He didn't care. I think it's that simple. He had no respect for the material. Certain actors would have made a decision to use their skills to bring some sort of reality and life to parts they didn't think much of.
That isn't what I meant, though I can see that I didn't make myself clear. What I meant was: what physically is missing? Because that's all we see. It seems to me that Dr. Lang is acting like a sincere but mad scientist. What is telling me that this is laughably unreal? He's not winking at the camera or anything. I'm starting to think that I'm being very, very dense.
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Lydia: It's been awhile since I saw these episodes, but I'd guess it has to do with lack of variation in facial expression, and tone of voice. We experience a lot of that instinctively. It may not be so much that he isn't a convincing mad scientist, specifically, but that he's not a convincing human being.