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MPI Home Video
is continuing to treat fans of the series
“Dark Shadows” with DVD sets
featuring 40 episodes on 4 discs. As this
show was one of my favorites growing up,
I join legions of fans in thanking them
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. Collection
1 hit stores in May 2002, and as of this
writing they have 10 volumes available.
You may notice that I’m writing these
a little bit out of order, but I received
Collection 9 after Collection 10.
I was pretty excited when the very first
set hit my doorstep. At the time I was writing
for this little local paper (that I believe
is now defunct) but now I get to tell an
even larger audience just how great these
sets are. If they keep putting these sets
out at the rate they’re going, the
entire show will be out before you know
it. The only thing I found unusual about
that first set was that it started with
the 210th episode which featured the arrival
of vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathon Frid
– who would become the show’s
signature character).
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Fortunately they included a clipped recap of
what had transpired during the show’s initial
209 episodes, but I would really be curious to
know why they didn’t start at the beginning,
and if there are any plans to go back and do so
(Volume 0, -1, -2, -3, etc…)
These 4-disc sets are really impressive. 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.
In Volume 8, we were introduced to Adam, who was
created as opposed to born. He was made from the
body parts of corpses, much like Frankenstein’s
monster. As the story progresses in Volume 9,
Adam discovers that Carolyn does not love him,
and attempts to commit suicide. He fails in this
and become influenced by Nicholas to demand that
Barnabas create a mate for him. He kidnaps Victoria
in order to make Barnabas do his bidding. In the
meantime Barnabas must also deal with the witch
Angelique, who has been in disguise as Cassandra.
Nicholas saves Angelique from a timely death and
tries to keep Tom from revealing the secret of
Angelique’s casket. Angelique bites Tom
and Baranbas must then deal with him in the only
way he knows how.
Boy, reading back over that it kind of sounds
like a twisted soap opera doesn’t it? Well,
that’s because it was a soap opera for those
of who actually didn’t know. It actually
used to be one if ABC’s most popular soaps
during it’s 1966 - 1971 run. Nowhere else
on daytime TV could you find this great assortment
of ghouls and ghosts, weaving themselves within
the soap opera world of romances and deception.
I still consider it to be one of the best soaps
ever. In comparison, “Passions” is
a second rate imitator.
If you don’t believe there is a market for
this show, you’d be ‘dead’ wrong.
Even after the show ended, there were a slew of
novels written, two major motion pictures filmed
and released, and fan clubs and conventions started
to cultivate that still exist to this day.
As with all of the sets, there are a few extras
in Collection 9. They generally fall into the
realm of interviews with cast and creators. This
time around it’s all actors as we get to
hear from Alexandra Moltke, Robert Rodan, Lara
Parker and the venerable Jonathon Frid.
I’ve mentioned the packaging before, and
admittedly I was impressed with it. But lately,
I’ve been questioning 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. Unfortunately,
if they were to change now it would mess with
the appearance of the collection on viewer’s
shelves, but perhaps they can find a way to package
them in some slightly slimmer cases that would
still match up style wise, just not be quite so
wide.
If you’ve never seen “Dark Shadows”,
that’s a real shame. It was a great show
in its day, and even if it might seem a little
dated none of its overall quality has worn off.
(And if I can share a bit of good news, the “Dark
Shadows” LP that I’ve written about
in other reviews that disappeared through years
of moving finally resurfaced in a pile of albums
that I recently got back from a friend!! Excuse
me while go listen to Quentin’s theme…)
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 Alexandra Moltke, John
Karlen, Kathryn Leigh Scott and Matthew Hall (the
son of actress Grayson Hall and writer Sam Hall).
Specifications: Full Screen
Studio: MPI
Release Date: Available
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website
We'll give Dark Shadows Collection 9 an A.
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