Can DS possibly come back from the dead one more time after diasterous Depp Film

[KMR]

Given that the Watching Project is now beginning 1968, it could prove very interesting to pay close attention to see if there are any other things about it that correlate with the Depp/DS film...

I wish I could catch up with the WP!!  I've only now just reached the Julia's-rushed-experiment-goes-awry point, on my way to 1795 in a couple weeks (I think)...

[Cousin_Barnabas]

What's interesting about it is that it means the film is even more of a tribute to the original show than most of us ever realized.

There is no doubt in my mind that the film is a total tribute to one narrative of the original series.  They wanted to capture the "tone" of that narrative, and they excelled.

The Barnabas "smoke" scene is one of the biggest tributes to said narrative.  Prior to the scene, tension has been building.  Arguably, the most dramatic moment in the film has just occurred and something bigger is about to happen, when, all of a sudden, Barnabas catches on fire.  Everyone stands around, trying to pretend that nothing is wrong.  It takes a bit for anyone to really react.  The "tone" of the scene completely parallels the tone on the set of the original when an actor flubbed a line.  All of this drama is occurring and then this totally random blooper takes place and pulls the viewer out of the moment, but all of the actors do their best to ignore it and continue on, sometimes unable to pull it off convincingly. 

[Cousin_Barnabas]

Also:  Willie and the water bucket could be viewed as a tribute to other actors who tried to cover for the flub, but ended up causing more of a problem.   

[Patti Feinberg]

Uh, oh...I just cured MB...he said he loved Eve....

On a different note, I don't think the 2012 movie is bad; it's just not the exact TV show we watched in late sixties (then again, if we were lucky, we saw it in the 80's, the re-do in 90s), then we all (I hope most) got to see the entire run on SciFy c. 1998-2004.

That's when alot of us became friends!!!

I just got through watching the 2012 movie the other night; it makes the 4th time I've seen it.

I own multiple copies (NEW) of it; it's the first movie/show/any DVD I ever pre-ordered.

Patti

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Uh, oh...I just cured MB...he said he loved Eve....

Yes, I love Eve - and I'm willing to shout it from the rooftops because, not only is Marie Wallace an absolute hoot and a half in the role, she clearly had a field day playing her. 

it's just not the exact TV show we watched in late sixties

And it never could have been - not even if it had been 100% faithful to the original - and for one very good reason: the original can never be duplicated because it's completely a part of its time and place - just as the '91 DS can never be duplicated either because it's a part of its time and place. And no one should ever expect any new version of DS to be exactly like the original, or the '91 DS. Such hopes can't help but be doomed to great disappointment.

[MagnusTrask]

Tim Burton makes Tim Burton movies.  He's not like Ron Howard, who's sort of anonymous and recedces into the background.   There was never a chance it would be done in the same spirit as the series, except very loosely.  It was always bound to have a very individual slant.

[Patti Feinberg]

Tim Burton makes Tim Burton movies. There was never a chance it would be done in the same spirit as the series, except very loosely.  It was always bound to have a very individual slant.

Very well stated Magnus!!!

[MagnusTrask]

Thanks, Patti.

[Uncle Roger]

Dark Shadows may end up having as many comebacks as Cher. '

[Patti Feinberg]

I don't think there can be a 'come-back'. Dark Shadows is a TV show from the late-60s.
It is also a show (short-lived) from early 90s.
It is also a numerous movies franchise.

I love Dark Shadows. I don't think it's ever 'gone away', to come back.

Patti

[David]

No matter what we do, DS is never going to be as big as Star Trek or Star Wars--I've accepted that a long time ago.
But it has never gone away--the original is on DVD (where it sold rather well) and on Hulu.
Love it or hate it, the Burton film, outrageously over-budgeted, still turned a profit.
DS comic books, novels and audio dramas are now being issued regularly. They are also profitable.
DS is a regular winner at the annual Rondo Awards for excellence in horror entertainment.

DS is hardly a dead issue.

[Gothick]

MB, I love Eve too.  Marie is just so compulsively watchable as the character, and the idea of this artificially created woman whose personality is some 18th century mass murderess sashaying around the estate in an evening gown and high heels is just so outrageous.  I would have liked the character better though [spoiler]had they not introduced that ghastly thing about her following Peter Bradford to the ends of the earth.  UGH! [/spoiler]

I also don't agree with those who think of the entire 1968 storyline as a trainwreck.  I think every storyline has its shining moments and its unsatisfying passages.  1968 WAS more extreme than anything that had gone before, but it also produced some elements that were IMO *better*--one some level--than anything that had gone before.

I'd still argue that the original 1967 Laura Collins storyline is probably THE narrative high point of the series--as STORYTELLING. 1897 was probably the best in terms of all the characters and different threads that were interwoven.  Parallel Time 1970 had the fun of the murder mystery and some great roles for Edmonds, Hall, Thayer, etc.  And so on and so forth...

anyhow I'm going WAYYY off thread here... expecting a wrist slap...

cheers,  G.

[michael c]

1968 had some fun moments and characters(certainly Cassandra sashaying around Collinwood in a series if puke green shifts was always worth a look)but as an overall narrative I found it to be the most singularly poor period on the series until the whole enterprise starts to run out of steam in 1840.


with the boorish and boring adam as the period's set piece character I found it interminable and almost insufferable. to say nothing of the way the original cast was relegated to the hinterlands in his favor. and what was the whole plan...a "master race dedicated to serving satan" c'mon.


all that said and in spite of it eve was a fun byproduct of the period. until she hitched her wagon to peter bradford that it.

[michael c]

when the series starts to overreach, when it starts to go outside of the boundries of this particular town and family, as it did with the Adam/Nicholas plot and it's satanic "master race", or with the leviathans(although it too has some fun moments), to take on the entire earth, it quickly starts to derail for me. the magic and fun go out of it and it just starts to become nonsensical and silly.


and at the end of the day there's really no suspence either no matter how much it's implied. I mean angelique really did turn barnabas into a vampire. laura went up in flames. there were real stakes for these characters and the audience. but the leviathan people and the satanic master race were never really going to take over the world. the viewer knows that so there really aren't any emotional stakes.


the series was a gothic, and when it dipped it's toes into full blown sci-fi, it missed it's marks badly.

[David]

I thought Angelique as a vampire was a delicious twist!