Finally,
the inevitable has happened. The moment that my wife Alys
and I complete our Dark Shadows collection on VHS courtesy
of MPI, the DVD releases kick in. I'm sure that Jim Pierson
has a secret webcam hidden in our flat. I can hear the cry
now - "The Hayeses have completed their VHS collection...
Let's get going on the DVDs!" Us, paranoid? What was
that noise? Sounded like a click... Oh well, probably nothing.
I
have to say that there is an element of déja-vu to
these releases. Not only have we bought it all before, but,
in addition, most episodes on this collection are now being
released in their third edition. But hey, DVDs are special
things. Shiny, sparkling special things, loaded with extras
and most of the time presenting everything in absolutely stonking
fashion. It didn't take long before the thought was becoming
an exciting one. Aside from getting some of the very best
Dark Shadows episodes in the best possible condition,
we also realised that with forty episodes in a small box,
we'd be saving a heck of a lot of space. Give it a couple
of years and our video shelves would be able to enjoy an early
retirement, after serving us so well recently, bowing under
the strain of gothic soapiness...
After
the long wait from the announcement, I now have the Dark
Shadows DVD Collection 1 sitting in front of me, and,
as a package, it can't be faulted. Gone are the days of picking
up a Dark Shadows episode to watch would lead to a
mad attempt to catch a falling videotape as it slid out of
the - ahem - 'protective case' like a a bar of soap in the
bath. They don't call 'em slip cases for nothing! The cover
is adequate, though still smacks of MPI's inability to design
anything for Dark Shadows that doesn't look distinctly
cheesy. The spine, in particular, is reminiscent of the very
earliest MPI VHS volumes, issued in 1990. A mild disappointment,
but let's face it, it's what's inside, on the discs, that
counts.
It
is said that first impressions are important, and if this
is held to be true, then the discs draw the viewer in gloriously.
A quite beautiful motion menu [shown
right, click on the thumbnail for a larger image] has
the 'camera' panning across from a computer-generated spooky
woodland scene to land upon a classic shot of Collinwood at
night. Wow! This I was not expecting - particularly after
the wholly tacky menus on the Dark Shadows Special Edition,
complete with Barnabas' moving eyes making him look quite
laughable. Forget that one - fortunately, in this area at
least, MPI have moved on, and have presented a sequence that
is a joy to watch. Eventually, the disc contents show up,
and hovering over an episode number displays the date that
the episode in question was transmitted. Another nice touch.
So far, so very good... Let's take a look at episode 210...
Press 'Enter', and we zoom into the episode through one of
the windows of the dark mansion...
And
that's where it all falls down. At least a little. The video
quality is not as good as I had hoped or expected. The sheer
volume of material on each disc has meant that each episode
has quite a low bitrate, and the result is that regularly,
you can see digital artifacting and minor blocking on some
scenes. This is rather a shame, and wholly avoidable. If each
disc carried eight episodes rather than ten, each set of forty
episodes would be presented on five discs. For the extra breathing
space this gave the bitrate, I'd be happy to pay a fifth more
for each set. It's not as if they are particularly expensive
at the moment (it would actually cost a lot more to buy the
same number of episodes on VHS!).
Compared
to the VHS editions, these are indeed an improvement, displaying
higher resolution pictures and cleaner sound, but compared
to another DVD of a similar source, the limitations of the
discs are exposed. I don't want to go overboard on this one,
as the discs are immeasurably better authored than the previously
released abomination, the Dark Shadows Special Edition,
where artifacting was so bad as to render most of the material
completely unwatchable, but DVD should be a quality over quantity
format, in my opinion. MPI's opinion seems to be the opposite.
The
episodes themselves are undoubtedly some of the best in the
series' history. We see here the introduction of Barnabas
Collins, when he is at his least sympathetic. There are several
other memorable storylines going at the same time, but I won't
spoil them for anyone viewing these episodes for the first
time. You're in for a treat. Dark Shadows had, by this
time, really got up to speed and was practically bursting
with energy. The "spooko" that Dan Curtis so regularly
refers to is fully online by this time, unspoilt by smeary
colour cameras or excesses of camp (all that came later, guys
and gals). Highly recommended. My only disappointment with
the presentation of the episodes is the lack of the slates
at the start of each episode. These were intact on the "Collector's
Series" releases of these episodes. Why drop them now?
They are perfect for DVD.
Extra
material is minimal really - but it's just as well, as any
full-motion footage cuts into a discs available bitrate. There's
the Dark Shadows Introduction, salvaged from the first
ever Dark Shadows VHS release. This item tells the
story of the first 209 episodes in the space of a quarter
of an hour, and does so quite effectively. Unfortunately,
watching it only made me wish that this DVD series had started
from the first episode of the series, rather than the introduction
of Barnabas. I love those early episodes, probably more than
any other. They're by no means the best episodes, but they're
the first I ever saw, and have a special place in my heart.
The other extra material is accounted for by a single interview
on each of the discs, with Jonathan Frid, Kathryn Leigh Scott
and John Karlen. All of these are culled from the earlier
VHS releases, and their start points are poorly coded, so
you miss the first syllable of each (a minor point, but this
is completely avoidable). Hopefully we'll get the promised
'new interview footage' next time.
So,
overall, am I happy? Well, I have to say that, despite the
minor niggles with the picture quality (and I would stress
that they are minor - I'm a fussy sort), it's a great value
set, and I'm pleased to have it. Next time, hopefully, it'll
be better still. A decent start - I'm just upset to have to
wait for years before I can get the earlier episodes on disc...
Contrary
to previous reports on this site and elsewhere, this set does
not feature any region coding, and in theory should be compatable
with any DVD player worldwide
Order
this DVD set from Amazon.com
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