What Acilius Thinks About Dark Shadows
Episode 999: It’s the same as it was, you were different then
Quentin Collins walks into the bedroom once occupied by his late wife Angelique, where Angelique’s identical twin sister Alexis is staying. Quentin arrives just in time to see sleazy musician Bruno Hess strangling Alexis. He interrupts this process. Bruno is convinced that Alexis is Angelique returned from the grave, and that she is responsible for…
Episode 998: What can one do to Cyrus Longworth?
Writer Gordon Russell has to give two characters plausible motivations today, and he succeeds admirably. One is Dr Cyrus Longworth, the apparently nice half of a Jekyll and Hyde duality. Jekyll and Hyde is a story about drug addiction, but Dark Shadows has so often featured villains whose crazy ideas have turned out to be…
Episode 997: How pretty your tears
We are in the fourth week of an arc set in a different universe than the one we saw in the first 196 weeks of Dark Shadows. This universe, which the show insists on calling “Parallel Time,” was originally introduced as a realm populated by Doppelgänger of the characters we have known. They are the…
Episode 996: His divided nature
The first expert in forbidden lore to join the cast of characters on Dark Shadows was Dr Peter Guthrie of Dartmouth College, parapsychologist. Guthrie was chief scientific advisor to well-meaning governess Victoria Winters as she assembled the forces of good and led them in battle against undead blonde fire witch Laura Murdoch Collins. In #184,…
Episode 995: Another slow Friday
Dark Shadows never followed the usual soap opera pattern of a week building to a slam-bang conclusion on a Friday. This one is a case in point. It aired on a Friday, and nothing new happens. The actors are all very good, and each makes the most of their time on screen today. As child…
Episode 994: I might as well be glad
Amy Collins twice sees the ghost of Dameon Edwards, whom she and others at the great house of Collinwood apparently knew when he was alive a year or so previously. At that time, Dark Shadows was set in a different universe than the one it has been showing us for the last few weeks, so…
Episode 993: She lacks the power to tell us more
The show has been keeping us in suspense as to whether Lara Parker is playing wealthy socialite Alexis Stokes or Alexis’ identical twin sister, the late Angelique Stokes Collins. Regular viewers know that the title “the late” is no impediment to a major part for a character on Dark Shadows. In the universe where the…
Episode 992: What form she has, I do not know
We meet Hannah Stokes, aunt of identical twins Alexis Stokes and Angelique Stokes Collins. Hannah is in the cottage on the grounds of the estate of Collinwood, home to sleazy musician Bruno Hess. When we first see her, Hannah is casting a horoscope. Later she reads tarot cards. Still later she sprinkles some bone meal…
Episode 991: It wasn’t all mushy
In December 1966 and January 1967, strange and troubled boy David Collins was unwilling to believe that a woman who had come to the estate of Collinwood was his long-absent mother, Laura Murdoch Collins. He had troubling dreams about her. In #150, we saw him asleep in his bed when Laura appeared in the corner…
Episode 990: Nothing ever goes well in this house
Most of this one is taken up watching people argue with each other about whether they should hold a séance. This puts longtime viewers on familiar ground. We’ve seen fourteen séances on Dark Shadows over the years, and have heard about others. Many of those we’ve seen have been preceded by the sort of wrangling…
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