THOUGHTS ON DARK SHADOWS

Now that I changed my Netflix membership so I can get disks in the mail as well as streaming shows on my computer, I was planning to revel in my joy at being able to watch Dark Shadows again after 40 years or so. I have been in love with Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins since I was 9 years old, & was heartbroken when the series suddenly went off the air in 1971 with no explanation or warning.

I've finished Collection 5, which I think is where the Barnabas/Josette/ Angelique triangle culminated in the witches curse causing Barnabas to become undead.

Now that I'm halfway through Collection 6, I feel less inclined to revel in the recovered joy of Barnabas than to mourn for the moral dissolution of Barnabas. It's all so sad.

Barnabas when he was alive was an extremely decent guy by 18th century standards

His indiscretion with the maid of his fiance's aunt would not have raised eyebrows in the 1790's, nor in the 1960's, for that matter. Being ahead of its time Dark Shadows had something of a 1970's sensibility, by which the fact that the maid was willing & the whole scene took place in a looser moral and warmer physical climate than stodgy, chilly Collinsport, did not excuse the gentleman's taking advantage of the situation, as so many gentlemen did in those days.

None of this means Barnabas deserved his horrible fate, of course. But no matter how willing the woman or how tropical or voodoo-savvy the locale, the moral seems to be you just don't know what the consequences of the mildest indiscretion will be.

Once Barnabas had become undead, he began the journey from uncommonly decent 18th century gentleman to evil undead monster.

Part of that journey seems to be to allow himself to indulge a little, and then a lot, in the few or many, depending on how you look at it, pleasures & advantages of his situation.

It seems like whatever happened between him and Angelique was the only time Barnanbas the living man got to indulge in lust. He never got to have married lawful lust with Josette. And that was it, while he was alive. But once he was undead, he got to indulge in blood lust.

The way he looks at the living, pulsing necks of his intended victims -- that's lust. And that's why 200 years later, he spurned Julia's offer of herself with some spurious excuse about how he needs her to have a will of her own so she can be his doctor, and settled on Carolyn. He wants to suck the blood of a young nubile woman.

But it's not only about pleasure. At first that stake through the heart was all he wanted, as it would end the curse. But Angelique would not allow that to happen. After that, he began to take extreme measures to protect his undead existence. And that's where he began to resort to murder. He began to resort to taking advantage of his vampire powers, as well as the one power he had while alive. The power to make women like, or even love him.

He tried to be good. He tried to warn all these women away from him. But we all know the consequence of an overwhelmingly attractive man saying "no, no, stay away from me, I'm no good for you." They pretty much throw themselves at him, and end up dead. All except Josette, who survived her bite. This must have been how he learned he could bite without killing, as 200 years later he did with Willy, & then Maggie. I guess his love for Josette led to the restraint that allowed her to survive, & eventually during all those years chained in his coffin he was able to learn how to do that on purpose, when Willy broke the chain & unwittingly let him out.

Jonathan Frid is 1 of 2 actors I've seen portray extreme benevolence & extreme viciousness in a single character. The other one is Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Echo in Lost. (I think of him as the wonderful actor with the unpronounceable 2 names.) Barnabas, whether alive or undead, has the power to inspire uncommon affection, loyalty or love. And Jonathan Frid has uncommon power as an actor. That's ultimately what made Dark Shadows such a persistent success, regardless of how good the early pre-Barnabas episodes were.