Dark Shadows: The Beginning – Collection Four (MPI DVD)
Picture:
C- Sound: C-
Extras: D Episodes: D
Dark
Shadows was
everything but what I’d expected. The soap opera murder-mystery thing got
old after a few episodes and the show as a whole failed to hold my interest
slightly. This may be due to the facts that a) I’ve never been a fan of
the visual and textual style of the soap opera, and b) that we, as a nation,
have been spoiled by huge advances in television style in the past forty years to
the point where I find little to no reason to pardon the camera work of the
soap opera.
From the
few episodes I sampled to get a glimpse of the show (which were three out of
the DVD set’s thirty-seven episodes), it’s very much a serial style soap opera
that’s hard to follow if you’re not familiar with the earlier episodes.
Since this was Collection 4, it was
hard to catch up with the story.
The 1.33
X 1 black and white picture was good for what it was, considering some footage
had been lost and/or unable to be restored, but compared to modern TV or film,
it’s severely lacking. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono sound was about as good
as the picture, but still had the effects of being forty years old.
I can’t
really recommend this or warn against this show because I find myself lacking
the knowledge for judgment. If you’re interested in what Dark Shadows
is famous for, like I was, stay away from the beginning and check out the later
episodes instead.
- Jordan Paley
