As it is probably not a surprise to you, I grew up reading books, watching movies and TV shows; taking in everything my greedy little eyes could grab hold of. Some of the earliest memories during my formative years are of sitting in front of the TV watching a soap opera with my Mom. That’s right… a soap opera. But not just any soap opera, oh nooooo. The one we’d watch had vampires, werewolves, witches and crawling hands. The show? “Dark Shadows.” Those not familiar with “Dark Shadows” (and shame on you if you aren’t) should know that it used to be one if ABC’s most popular soaps during its 1966 - 1971 run. Nowhere else on daytime TV could you find this great assortment of ghouls and ghosts, weaving themselves within the soap world of romance and deception. I still consider it to be one of the best soaps ever. In comparison, “Passions” is a second rate imitator.

What surprised me the most when doing my homework on the show, which I had to do as my most vivid memory (having not seen it in over 30 years) is the theme, is how insanely popular it still is. It’s been running on the SciFi Channel, and there are as many fan clubs, conventions and websites as any other show has ever had.

My hat’s off to MPI Home Video for being the keeper of the “Dark Shadows” flame. For quite a while now they have been thrilling fans with videos of the old episodes, but as of last year they began releasing the show on DVD. And these sets are terrific. Collection 1 hit stores in May 2002, and as of this writing they have 8 volumes available, each with 40 episodes. For some reason they started the first volume with 210th episode which featured the arrival of vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathon Frid – who would become the show’s signature character). Fortunately they included a clipped recap of what had transpired during the show’s initial 209 episodes.

We left off in Collection 7 with Barnabas nearly being cured if his vampirism. Unfortunately Angelique, the witch responsible for turning him, had other plans and everything went awry. As the experiments continued they culminated with the creation of a new life, Adam. (Don’t ask how, you just gotta watch!)

In Collection 8 (episodes 493 – 533), we see Adam slowly ‘age’ mentally as he becomes further entrenched into the lives of the Collins family. Barnabas continues to try and find a way to defeat Angelique. When the spirit of Reverend Trask is summoned for this purpose, the plan backfires. Trask would rather seek his revenge on Barnabas. Yes, it’s a soap opera, but it’s a soap opera with bite!

These 4-disc sets are awesome. Every time I sit down to watch a new set, I’m pleasantly surprised to see how well the quality of the video and audio has held up after all these years. The episodes really look great. There are a few minor glitches here and there, but so far all the episodes have been very easy on the eyes and ears. The picture is much sharper than I imagined it would be.

No set would be complete without a few extras and Collection 8 is no slouch. They generally fall into the realm of interviews with cast and creators. The best two interviews on this particular set feature the show’s creator Dan Curtis and actor John Karlen (Willie).

Last year I was impressed with the packaging, but now I question the decision to go the way they did. MPI kept away from the ‘box set’ look (cardboard cover with individual keep cases) and chose to go with a wide plastic 4-disc snap case. These cases look great and keep the discs in order, but they take up a lot more room than individual super slim cases would.

MPI was releasing these sets at about the rate of one every 3-4 months, but it looks like they might be speeding up the process. As a matter of fact, as I’m writing this review, I believe Collection 9 may already be available. I don’t mind though, it just means I can keep up with “Dark Shadows” without waiting a long time between episodes. I’m just trying to figure out how many sets there are going to be when all is said and done. Let’s see… at 40 episodes per set, and 1225 episodes total, that’ll be about uhhhh…. well…ahh forget it. You can do the math. I’m watching “Dark Shadows!”

Starring: Joan Bennett, Jonathon Frid, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Louis Edmonds, Thayer David, Lara Parker, Nancy Barrett, Roger Davis, Clarice Blackburn, Joel Crothers, Grayson Hall, Jerry Lacy, David Henesy, and Alexandra Moltke
Extras: Interviews with Creator/Executive Producer Dan Curtis, Former Network Executive Leonard Goldberg, Actor John Karlen and Video Producer/Publicist Jim Pierson
Specifications: Full Screen
Studio: MPI
Release Date: Available
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give Dark Shadows Collection 8 a B.