Dark Shadows: The Beginning: Collection 1 (1966)

I have officially been sucked into the world of Dark Shadows. If you've never heard of the series before it's a rather strange combination of soap opera and horror. The half hour daytime soap ran from 1966 to 1971 accumulating 1,225 episodes over it's six year reign. Ironically I first heard of the show on an episode of the sitcom The King of Queens where a supporting character named Spence was anticipating the annual Dark Shadows convention and the opportunity to dress up as his favorite character Barnabas Collins. That combined with recent talks of reviving the series in the form of a motion picture starring Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins lead me to see what all the hype was about and give this strange cult classic soap opera a shot.

What makes Dark Shadows stand out from your typical soap is its supernatural side. While not much is unusual in Collection 1 of this "Beginnings" series even these early episodes hint at the ghosts that haunt Collinwood and a series that will eventually transform into a show of vampires, witches and werewolves. Dark Shadows didn't hit cult following until the arrival of Barnabas Collins, the shows' star vampire, that's a little later on in the series I'm told but it's not pointless to view the Dark Shadows Beginning series to grasp the history of the characters and to understand the back-story. Beginnings: Collection 1 focuses on acquainting the viewer with the characters and some of their more recent history. The first character we're introduced to is Victoria Winters, a girl whose been an orphan all her life and is hired to come work for an Elizabeth Stoddard at the Collinwood mansion in Collinsport Maine. Victoria has no clue why she has been offered this position, she is not familiar with the Collins family nor are those at the orphanage. Reluctantly she agrees to take the position because of some connections between the surrounding area of Collinsport and a mysterious occurrence in her life, ultimately she hopes that Collinsport might somehow shed some life on the many questions of her past.

Within the walls of Collinwood reside some of the most strangest individuals Victoria has ever met. Elizabeth Stoddard the lady of Collinwood has not left the property in eighteen years following the desertion of her husband. She is entirely protective of her family (especially her nephew David) and the overwhelming number of strange circumstances Collinwood's past, present and future hold. Roger Collins is the brother of Elizabeth Stoddard and has just recently moved into Collinwood with his strange son David, Roger is a rather arrogant man who does as he pleases and doesn't like a whole lot of questions, he thoroughly dislikes his son, maybe even hates him and there is some mystery surrounding the whereabouts of his wife. Carolyn Stoddard is the daughter of Elizabeth and by far the most normal among the family, she's a beautiful young blond who is tired of living in Collinwood, continually referring to it as a dungeon, but also refuses to leave out of worry for her mother's well being. Nine year old David Collins, son of Roger, is the polar opposite of Carolyn and is by far the strangest of the bunch. David is constantly referred to as a monster by Carolyn, he's a habitual liar, eves dropper and trouble maker. Possibly permanently scarred by the way his father has treated him, David is an evil force to be reckoned with.

If those bizarre characters aren't enough for Victoria Winters to handle, she must witness the return of Burke Devlin. Burke Devlin arrives in Collinsport on the same evening as Victoria Winters and his arrival immediately sparks tension in the Collins family. Burke Devlin was a former resident of Collinsport who ended up going to prison ten years prior to his return for manslaughter, but Devlin feels he was setup by Roger Collins and at that time threatened to return and kill him. So begins Dark Shadows, a series with twists, turns and mysteries hidden behind every door. I've never watched a soap opera before in my life, but Dark Shadows truly is a much different style of what I think of most soaps to be. Also keep in mind the series is very corny and completely low budget, which actually added to the enjoyment for me. The actors misstate their lines and attempt to correct their error mid sentence, it's never edited out, which is a little strange to grasp at first but it actaully makes the show seem more realistic. There are noticeable occurrences happening on screen that you wouldn't normally see in a professional high quality show, such as flies buzzing in front of the actors faces, microphones peeping down from the ceiling, or crew members rustling around in the foreground of the screen, but it all adds to the unique and rather strange ambiance of the series.

Overall, I highly recommend checking out this series which is entirely available on DVD on Netflix all 1,000 plus episodes are offered on thirty-two sets of four discs each, rent the first disc of Dark Shadows Beginning and give it a shot. Disc one and disc three contain what I thought were the best episodes, the series does drag at points and this is mainly due to the fact that some of the more uneventful episodes seem to rehash conservations characters have had before, my main complaint of the series so far, certain aspects of the story get a little old after they've constantly been revisited, but if you stick with some of the slower episodes you'll still be rewarded, and if you get hooked watching disc one your more than likely not going to find the slower episodes too annoying.

7/10