Unless Roger is obsessed with Burke's return, he's in a pretty comfortable place. After all, the trial and Burke’s imprisonment were over a years ago. Painting Roger as an angry xenophobe may be the only sour note here. It's one to be revealed under the skin of the story, but it's more profound than any of the others. That is a quieter mystery than Vicki’s quest. When we consider that Liz is the one who has been isolating herself for 18 years, this situation becomes intentionally absurd. Meanwhile, Roger is preoccupied with the danger of bringing a stranger into the house, while Liz seems determined to do so. That singular need makes her oft-repeated mantra of, “I just don't understand” feel more grating for her to say than for us to hear. It gives a clear view of his priorities… and what did or did not hook audiences.Īs the episode begins, Vicki is introduced as someone in search of meaning, Having to find out as much as she possibly can about… everything. It's fun to watch how Art Wallace deploys the characters, sets, and information that viewers will need. But what’s analysis without a little internal contradiction, right? And yes, I am violating my own rules by looking at this as more of a slice of real-world production than the first piece of a 1225 piece puzzle. And yes, I know it's all one big text and it's one big story. And without that, we would have had no Dark Shadows. And pure atmosphere is what powers the entire story as we learn about Victoria Winters and her quest for home and meaning and identity, so yes, it’s the 56th anniversary of the first episode of Shadows on the Wall. It takes two cities to tell this story and uses abundant flashbacks, thus told over multiple days even though it's also just a tiny slice of one endless night.Īs the next episodes go on, they will all be taking place over this “day.” And yet this day begins after dark, and if that's supposed to be in early to mid June, during some of the longest days of the year, how long is that evening? That strange timelessness creates a wonderfully surreal slice of pure atmosphere. It takes place on trains and at the Blue Whale and at Collinwood and in New York and in the Collinsport Inn lobby and at the attached diner and even on a lonely street corner. It has 11 characters which is over twice the norm of the program. Yet, it’s an expansive episode, almost an epic by comparison to the rest of the series. It exists at night, with small ghostly characters surrounded by vast swaths of darkness. And yet it’s still a marvelous piece of television storytelling. This sets a certain atmosphere, but I'm not certain it's an atmosphere that works with the ultimate point of the show. How to introduce Dark Shadows? I mean, really. That doesn't make the pre-Barnabas episodes inferior, but I do see them as a separate series I think it's helpful to look through that lens. After all, if Art Wallace had any idea that the show would’ve wound up like it did, there’s no way that this would have been the pilot. It's the 56th anniversary of the first episode of Shadows on the Wall. Okay, so technically it's the 56th anniversary of the first episode of Dark Shadows.Įxcept that it really isn't. A charismatic diner waitress, Maggie Evans, joins in the chorus of those who warn her away from Collinwood. Along the way, she meets a brooding business tycoon, quietly obsessed with her future employer’s isolation. Victoria Winters ventures from Manhattan to Collinsport to assume the position of governess in a forbidding mansion whose owners are ambiguous about her arrival. Will she find colorful locals and a talking pig… or terror? Mr. No one on the show could explore the humanity and range of that journey like David Selby.Ī sophisticated New Yorker gives up big city life for the charm of rural America. It’s a quiet acid that can never completely destroy him. Quentin’s suffering comes from his regret of some very relatable mistakes. But he suffers from comparably cartoonish tragedies. Even though he is, literally, the picture of handsome, the actual picture depicting the consequences of his actions can never be destroyed. Even a reformed sinner can fall off the wagon, and it’s clear that the wagon backed up and ran over him more than once. Yes, Quentin is dolorous and mature by then, but his immortality clearly led to decades of greater risk. It is an EC Comics portrayal of the worst of syphilitic dissolution and decay. When he re-discovers the painting, it is not of a 99-year-old man. When we see him in the 20th century, Quentin will be one year shy of one hundred. A living testament to his animalistic urges, it will also record a decay divorced from age.
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