Shadows Doesn't Have Enough Bite
March/02/1991 Filed in: TV Guide
TV Guide
March 2 - 8, 1991
Vol. 39, No. 9
Page 48
Review Section
Shadows Doesn't Have Enough Bite
By Marvin Kitman
"Fangs a lot," loyal fans said when NBC exhumed Dark Shadows with a four-hour TV-movie in January. The Dan Curtis resuscitation of his original Gothic soap opera (which ran from 1966 to 1971 on ABC) had to be the major cultural event of the second season: I hear it got virtually 93 percent of the sets in use in vampires' homes.
A couch-potato vampire myself, I gave the revival four stakes. The remake, I thought, was well done, if you like vampire stories. It was a slice of surreal life, technically superior to the original. The cast actually memorized their lines.
Every cliché of every vampire story filmed was here -- the casket, the chains, the mist on the moor, the thunder cracking. You could fill in every word of dialogue and howl with laughter.
But the new, improved Dark Shadows didn't have the addictive quality of the original. I saw it once that Sunday night in January and had no real inclination to watch it anymore. One bit and you've seen them all.
Still, I watched the tapes out of morbid curiosity. The regular weekly episodes on Friday nights at 9 (ET) have been disappointing. Maybe it's because of Ben Cross, who plays Barnabas Collins in a potentially dangerous career move. Love his orthodontia and those sexy red eyes. But he is not campy fun, like Jonathan Frid.
One disconcerting twist is seeing Barnabas walking around in the daylight. It's amazing what a dab of No. 15 sunscreen can do.
And how about the Collinsport Police Department using crosses and a wooden stake to drive into the heart of Barnabas's undead victim Daphne (Rebecca Staab) (R.I.P.)? The police in Maine are so open to the latest scientific technology.
The series did pick up with the arrival of Angelique (Lysette Anthony) and the return to 1790 in the seventh episode (Feb. 8). Almost everybody took on a new role, adding a new meaning to the show's most immortal line so far, uttered by Willie (Jim Fyfe), Barnabas's Jeeves: "Jeez, Barnabas, what's going on?"
It's goofy. But not goofy enough. Neither is it strange and weird like early Twin Peaks. The police, for example, in the first five killings never once check the fingertips to see if there are any letter B's under the nails of the victims. What kind of cops are those?
Maybe it's because I, unlike Barnabas, have aged. I'm no longer 13, when I last really dug the show. I'm just not going batty over the new Dark Shadows. Blame it all on tired blood.
March 2 - 8, 1991
Vol. 39, No. 9
Page 48
Review Section
Shadows Doesn't Have Enough Bite
By Marvin Kitman
"Fangs a lot," loyal fans said when NBC exhumed Dark Shadows with a four-hour TV-movie in January. The Dan Curtis resuscitation of his original Gothic soap opera (which ran from 1966 to 1971 on ABC) had to be the major cultural event of the second season: I hear it got virtually 93 percent of the sets in use in vampires' homes.
A couch-potato vampire myself, I gave the revival four stakes. The remake, I thought, was well done, if you like vampire stories. It was a slice of surreal life, technically superior to the original. The cast actually memorized their lines.
Every cliché of every vampire story filmed was here -- the casket, the chains, the mist on the moor, the thunder cracking. You could fill in every word of dialogue and howl with laughter.
But the new, improved Dark Shadows didn't have the addictive quality of the original. I saw it once that Sunday night in January and had no real inclination to watch it anymore. One bit and you've seen them all.
Still, I watched the tapes out of morbid curiosity. The regular weekly episodes on Friday nights at 9 (ET) have been disappointing. Maybe it's because of Ben Cross, who plays Barnabas Collins in a potentially dangerous career move. Love his orthodontia and those sexy red eyes. But he is not campy fun, like Jonathan Frid.
One disconcerting twist is seeing Barnabas walking around in the daylight. It's amazing what a dab of No. 15 sunscreen can do.
And how about the Collinsport Police Department using crosses and a wooden stake to drive into the heart of Barnabas's undead victim Daphne (Rebecca Staab) (R.I.P.)? The police in Maine are so open to the latest scientific technology.
The series did pick up with the arrival of Angelique (Lysette Anthony) and the return to 1790 in the seventh episode (Feb. 8). Almost everybody took on a new role, adding a new meaning to the show's most immortal line so far, uttered by Willie (Jim Fyfe), Barnabas's Jeeves: "Jeez, Barnabas, what's going on?"
It's goofy. But not goofy enough. Neither is it strange and weird like early Twin Peaks. The police, for example, in the first five killings never once check the fingertips to see if there are any letter B's under the nails of the victims. What kind of cops are those?
Maybe it's because I, unlike Barnabas, have aged. I'm no longer 13, when I last really dug the show. I'm just not going batty over the new Dark Shadows. Blame it all on tired blood.