Has anyone else taken advantage of this last year of pandemic to watch the entire series of Dark Shadows? My daughter and I started watching the 1966 occult soap opera last February. “If ever there was a time to binge watch a soap opera now is it! I can’t think of another time I would ever allow the time to do so.” I’m so grateful for this extra time with my daughter - this whole last year we have enjoyed this family, The Collins, with salad lunches on the porch, warm soups inside… We laugh about it when we aren’t watching it and I know that decades from now we will both still remember this experience we are having. When we began watching, we loved the anticipation of meeting Barnabus, the vampire. (Something that, to our surprise, would take a few months.) We loved the production, the writing, the acting…It’s inspiringly enjoyable and it is a good way to take our mind off of quarantine, Plus, the show is entertaining - we often feel like the “behind the scenes” crew is just a big a part of the experience. They only used one take for their scenes and so keep all the mistakes, blurry focus, coughing on set…it’s genius and we often witness actors needing to improvise an obvious gaff. The boom is almost always in the shot and the crew is sometimes visible. The music is a big part of the story and sets the scenes before we hear any dialog. Their low budget also forced them to be creative in filming. Many of the techniques used are familiar from my days in art school. Plus, my 11 year old has been drawing momentos from scenes that stand out to her on her iPad. They are some of my most favorite art she has made to date.

Alas, after hundreds (and hundreds) of episodes we are starting to feel that drag that so often happens with soap operas. The plotlines moved so quickly until now, And now…UGH! It’s lingering on and on and on and on….But we hear there’s a werewolf appearing soon, so we will stick around and see what happens! We hope that the witch-hunter priest gets turned…and that they can all go back into the future …