Well, that's all folks! For the original show, anyway. For my first watchthrough, anyway. I don't have a complete rewatch planned for any time soon, but I'll enjoy dipping back into the show from time to time. For now, I have to write up my final 100 episode review! This time it's half the usual amount of eps, but I still found a lot of thoughts to jot down.
All of these recaps have been pretty rambling, but I've enjoyed doing them as a way of journaling my progress through the show, and to give the massive marathon built-in breaks. I do miss the character charts I did for the first half of the recaps, but doing at least two whole cast of characters for each one really took it out of me. Perhaps I'll revisit the idea now that I've finished the whole thing.
Anyway, my thoughts are under the cut!
On one of the Dark Shadows blogs I dipped my toes into, I think I read some negative opinions on the 1840-41 Parallel Time arc, partly because it ended the show without returning to the present day and the characters we knew and loved. If I watched the show blind, that probably would've pissed me off too, but that's one of the reasons I'm glad I watched it with one eye on the Dark Shadows wiki. Knowing the shape of the plotlines definitely improved my experience. Although with that said, I stopped reading the wiki early into this final arc because it suddenly started spoiling plot points with more regularity.
But anyway. The arc wasn't anything particularly special, but I enjoyed it well enough. Bramwell's brooding obsession and Catherine's divided affections really compelled me to begin with, though they lost my sympathies quite a bit once they were both married and breaking poor Daphne's heart. Still, the final episodes won me round to loving them and hating Morgan again. What can I say, I'm not above being emotionally manipulated by a soap opera. After Barnabas and Angelique's final last-minute love confessions failed to resonate with me, it was nice to end the show on a relationship for the actors that felt more earned.
I like how the plot started off with it not being clear whether Morgan or Bramwell would be better for Catherine—I've always enjoyed it when the shows sets up rivalries between equally bastardly characters. But when Morgan's bastardry became quickly more apparent after the marriage… Well, after one and a quarter thousand episodes of dealing with the gender values of the '60s to a greater or lesser extent, I actually got a solid bit of catharsis from Morgan sliding down the slope from 'dickish controlling husband' to 'final antagonist with a dramatic death'. I actually cheered when he started doing an honest-to-god evil laugh a few episodes from the end.
Despite that love triangle (or quadrangle) keeping me at least fairly interested, the real heart of the arc for me was Melanie and Kendrick. It's so funny how the show accidentally stumbled into the romantic pairing of Nancy Barrett and John Karlen, but they really worked for me. Kendrick may have been a slight downgrade from Desmond, but Melanie was perhaps Barrett at her most sweet and lovable. I was fully invested in all her troubles, and (like their counterparts in the previous arc) her happy ending with Kendrick gave me the most joy.
Josette was another highlight of the arc, despite her being used sparingly. Her premature death was such a vital part of the show's lore, so seeing her alive was fascinating just on its own. Her reminiscing of her relationship with Barnabas, both the love and the faults, was refreshing and a fitting addition to the show's epilogue story. And I loved when she finally got pulled into the plot properly. When it came to the mystery of Melanie's mother, I'm happy to say that the show fully fooled me with its bait-and-switch implications that it was Julia, and I was delighted when Josette turned up instead. Just once, the show is allowed to have a fairy tale ending.
Julia made for an aggravating obstacle as The Gargoyle of Collinwood (did someone call her that or did I make it up? I can't remember), probably Grayson Hall's most unlikable character (for reasons other than brownface anyway). I would've liked to see more of her bonding and making up with characters like Melanie and Josette towards the end. But at least I got to see her and Kendrick put their differences aside for the final episode, and even team up with Bramwell once or twice, giving one last showing for The Old House Gang.
Who else? Brutus Collins wasn't the most memorable villain, but it was nice for Louis Edmonds to get a straight-forwardly villainous role for once. And it felt pretty fitting for the show's final problem to be a curse instigated by a Collins himself. This goddamn family, creating its own problems. I wondered if Flora was going to be revealed as Stella Young's killer, just as I was once excited about her distant descendant Elizabeth potentially being revealed as Angelique's killer, but she wasn't, and for one last time it felt like the show rather wasted Joan Bennett as a minor player. Still, it's fitting that Edmonds and Bennett are the two actors to be in the show's first and last episode.
Daphne was… a functional tragedy. I wasn't too invested, but I did feel real bad for her. And I was glad that at least she got that instead of a romance with Quentin. His introduction made an awful first impression, and sadly the rest of his appearances didn't leave much impression at all. And then David Selby had to bow out of the show slightly too early for medical reasons! This is a tragedy in its own way too. David Selby is such a good actor, but he was cursed to only play various carbon copies of Quentin at his least interesting, rather than any more out-there iterations. Ah well, what can you do.
I almost forgot about Gabriel! I was excited to see a version of the character without potential ableism, but then he spent a full half of his limited plot having gone crazy from spending half an hour in the haunted room. I find him a lot more interesting in his scheming and manipulative plots from the main timeline. But I did largely enjoy the lottery plotline; it's a good premise (even if its rules weren't as clearly established as they could've been) and I'm glad they milked as many lotteries as they could from the supposedly once-in-a-generation event.
RIP Parallel Gerard and Parallel Samantha, who got 2 episodes each before the arc realised that it was fine without them. Wow, after just now checking, apparently Parallel Ben Stokes only had 2 appearances as well. It was a shame Thayer David didn't get a stronger showing for the final story. But thank goodness he got a last minute addition to episode 1245. He and Grayson Hall being narrators for the final episode felt appropriate somehow. Guide us out, professor and doctor.
So… yeah! I have a lot of Dark Shadows media and personal projects still to get through, so this isn't the end for me. But it is an achievement! Thanks Dark Shadows, you thoroughly delighted me.
