December 16th - The Best Of Times, The Worst Of Times

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I was just checking out the current slideshow and talk about contrasts!! 

The Best Of Times, as exemplified by December 16, 1968's introduction:

1968: Ep #646 - The spirits of Beth and Quentin appear to the children.

 

But then only a year later, December 16, 1969 is the Worst Of Times when:

1969: Ep #906 - Carolyn meets Philip's 'nephew' Alex.

 

[MagnusTrask]

I was just thinking yesterday about how much happens in 1969... all the present-day stuff leading up to 1897, all of 1897, which went on a long time, fortunately, so long that they had to create new enemies and new threats to extend it... 1795/6/7 again, then a slow build-up to the emergence of Jeb, which apparently didn't happen yet in Dec. 1969 but was about to.   This what I think about when P Stoddard looks at his 1969 calender.

Megan Todd is some compensation for that storyline.    The first time, I was interested until it suddenly hit me that there's no way on Earth that they could possibly show the monster that they'd been teasing us with all that time.     If then they'd actually surprised us with a very well-designed and made monster at the end, even if was just for a few moments, this might be remembered as a good storyline.    I'm not one of those who say that suspense is enough, and that often it's better not to show anything, or that mystery is enough, and that many mysteries in stories should be left unresolved.   Good suspense is a goal in itself, but I require a payoff or I feel manipulated and cheated.   Lack of a payoff leads me to not trust other makers of shows and films, and this hobbles my ability to feel such suspense.

[loril54]

The obelisk was bad enough. I don't know how they could have made a paper machet monster.

Look what Hitchcock did with suspense.

Dec 16th I believe is Beethoven's Birthday.  Some people could say that was good and bad.

[MagnusTrask]

The obelisk was bad enough. I don't know how they could have made a paper machet monster.

Look what Hitchcock did with suspense.

Dec 16th I believe is Beethoven's Birthday.  Some people could say that was good and bad.

I really like the obelisk.   I think that was an interesting design.

Creative, dedicated people can do a lot with little money, sometimes.   That storyline was a lot cheaper than 1897 since the clothing and sets were contemporary... so they could have sprung for one effect.    Hell, I could figure out how to do it.     At least an occasional glimpse of a tentacle or something in the shadows might have been enough.

Hitchcock was great with suspense, obviously.   He knew you couldn't cheat the audience and fail to deliver a payoff at the end, and filmgoers knew that and trusted him, and so the suspense was credible.    Leviathans just ran out of steam and fell apart, and we never saw the main threat.

[michael c]

i think i must be one of the rare viewers who really enjoyed at least the first two thirds of the leviathan storyline.yeah the kids were annoying and the whole thing does fall apart towards the end(in my opinion 1968 falls apart,1897 goes on much too long and by late 1970 the whole thing runs out of steam)but the first several weeks had an atmosphere quite unlike anything else on the series.

i also really liked 1970 parallel time too.go figure.

[Patti Feinberg]

also really liked 1970 parallel time too.go figure

(psst...don't tell, but so do I!!)

Leviathans just ran out of steam and fell apart, and we never saw the main threat.

Well said, I agree.

Good topic MB!!

Patti

PS...where's the slideshow?

[Bob_the_Bartender]

In the "Words I Learned From Watching Dark Shadows Department," I enjoyed it whenever Jonathan Frid would wax dramatically about the cairn located on the path between Collinwood and the Old House.

According to Webster's Collegiate Dictionary: Cairn - A heap of stones piled up as a memorial or as a landmark.

By the way, don't get me started on elan vital, Cerberus or "gadjo" (sp?)!

[arashi]

That's funny because I was thinking almost the same thing yesterday while looking at the slideshow! The amount of story that get's told and the progression of the show in just one year is incredible.

Later viewings (and the understanding that NOTHING pre-1897 gets resolved after it) have really endeared the Leviathans storyline to me. It's like nothing else they did on DS and that makes it all the more fun to watch.

A problem DS had with most *coughallcough* of it's storylines is it's frantic pace. New storylines are introduced before the old ones are concluded and most of the time we never get a satisfactory ending.

[Gothick]

I agree of course about both the Leviathans and Parallel Time 1970.  Both heralded a very different shift in tone and atmosphere and for at least awhile the shows they gave us explored new horizons for the series.  I can actually recall being intrigued by the whole set up of the Leviathans, Barnabas' icy demeanor towards Julia and fake solicitude towards others, etc., back in '69-'70.  It's such a wonderful story for the Yule season and the theme of encroaching darkness--and of course, the birth of a mystical child.

It would be interesting to see the original outline for the story, which I think was supposed to last five or six months, before DC panicked because of the dropping ratings and hate mail and made them do the "everything including the kitchen sink" routine with the plot.  (Although, I still love the episode where we go from Bruno orgasmically flogging the werewolf to Barnabas "conferring" with Megan.   Also love, love, love the scene where Julia finds out that Barnabas has "talked" to Megan and her reaction--this stuff is better than heroin!  Why, it's better than two sticks of Land-o'Lakes, lashed together in a rough-hewn manner!)

But I digress...  (btw, PT 1970 may have given us the finest performances for two of my top favorites--Grayson Hall and Thayer David--both had such wonderfully understated, nuanced characterizations in those shows.)

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I'd just like to say that when I started this topic, it was by no means meant as a comment regarding the lead-up to 1897 vs. Leviathans. I was simply contrasting the introduction of two wonderful characters on December 16th one year with the introduction of a, well, not so wonderful character on the same date in another year. The storylines they appeared in were immaterial. 

However, that being said, I love 1897 and I don't believe it went on too long. In fact, I wish it had gone on longer. Anything to have kept the wonderful dialogue and especially to have kept Thayer David's incredible performance as Petofi and Petofi's interaction with those characters around longer!

I also really enjoy the first half of Leviathans. As others have said, it was very different from what DS had done before it and in many ways it was extremely atmospheric and mysterious. It's understandable but at the same time unfortunate that TPTB caved to fan pressure and basically threw out everything that made it so interesting in favor of mind bogglingly swift about-faces and plot twists that are truly impossible to swallow no matter how much one might force themselves to try to suspend disbelief.    Like Gothick, I would have loved to have seen Leviathans play out the way it was originally intended. Other soaps have certainly stuck to their guns in the face of fan disfavor and have ultimately been rewarded when those fans finally realized the writers actually knew what they were doing all along and had crafted a very satisfying plot. Who knows, a miracle (especially given how the DS writers disliked the plot) may have actually taken place and Leviathans may have ultimately turned out that way too? But we'll never know... (And given how the DS plots often turned on a dime based on fan reaction/dissatisfaction, I can't even begin to imagine how DS would fare in this day and age of instant Internet unrest, what with the all too quickly impatient knee jerk reaction to lambast shows with little or no knowledge of where plots are actually headed and an unwillingness to allow shows to kraft plots that might require an audience to go with the flow because they trust the writers to have a really good payoff coming down the road.   )

And considering how often I've said it, it goes without saying, but I'll say it again anyway: I LOVE 1970PT!!

[Nancy]

Why, it's better than two sticks of Land-o'Lakes, lashed together in a rough-hewn manner!)

I'll never be able to pass that brand of butter again without thinking of G.'s comment! 

[katrinavantassel]

I believe it was the Leviathan story where I first started watching DS. Can't remember much of that storyline now till I rewatch the episodes 

I hear you about incomplete story lines. I'm finding that the writers are introducing all new characters and stories that some seem to go by the wayside. For instance, though bear with me as I'm just watching this story arc, we are introduced to Quentin then haven't seen him again, at least not by episode 650 (I think). And, where did Adam go? Vacation? He hasn't made an appearance at Collinwood for a long time now. I"m sure that gets resolved as it also involves Barnabas and his vampirism, but to just leave the viewer hanging...

Still in all, I remember the days when if you missed one show you were completely lost the next day!

We had a bunch of snow over the weekend. Did someone else here keep Mrs. Johnson busy with the shoveling? I was hoping to find her outside doing my driveway 

[MagnusTrask]

We had a bunch of snow over the weekend. Did someone else here keep Mrs. Johnson busy with the shoveling? I was hoping to find her outside doing my driveway

Mrs. Johnson is too busy relaxing under the shade of a nice tree for any shoveling.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Oops - I forgot to explain that...

PS...where's the slideshow?

...the slideshow is on the forum's first/main page (the BoardIndex) - the one that lists all the categories/boards. Click on the arrow buttons to cycle forward/backward through the captures/captions. 

[Gerard]

How was the Leviathan plot suppose to originally turn out?

Gerard