Dark Shadows: Bloodlust - The Post Mortem Interview

BY JUSTIN PARTRIDGE

Our coverage of the epic re-release of Dark Shadows: Bloodlust might have wrapped up, but I still had a few lingering questions about the sprawling tale. Luckily, I was able to sit down with the impossibly nice and wildly talented Joe Lidster and get him to answer some of them! I figured with him being one of the company’s most prolific writers and directors he would at least have SOMETHING to say. Thankfully I was right! We talked about all sorts of great stuff, including the production of Bloodlust, the wonderful cast and characters of the franchise, and what we can expect from the upcoming sequel series Dark Shadows: Bloodline.

The Collinsport Historical Society: Just to start, how did Bloodlust come about? Was there a want on the production side to do more larger scale stories?

Joseph Lidster: It was a combination of things really. Stuart Manning decided to step down from producing the full cast series so we knew we wanted to do something to follow on from Kingdom of the Dead. David Darlington, my co-producer (the one who makes it all happen, basically) was very keen to do something that would re-capture the serial aspect of the television series and I was very keen to do something that didn’t just follow on from the cliffhanger at the end of Kingdom. There was a five-year gap between the two series and we’d spent a lot of time on the Dramatic Readings range trying to find ways to make the series more newbie-friendly so we didn’t just want the opening scene to be Carolyn and David in Collinwood possessed by Petofi. I also wanted to give the series lots of “wow” moments. If you know Dark Shadows then you know who the characters are but if you don’t then I wanted each of the supernatural characters to have a big entrance and so on. The House of Despair through to Kingdom of the Dead had lots of brilliant stuff in them but they kind of assumed you knew who everyone was and why the stuff that happened was important. I wanted to strip it right back – in a similar way to when Russell T. Davies brought back Doctor Who– so it was both a relaunch as well as a continuation. David’s idea of doing this as a 13-episode serial fitted with that perfectly so that’s what we pitched to Big Finish.

CHS: How did you go about choosing the characters that would be included?

J.L.: We knew we had to have the characters who were still there at the end of Kingdom of the Dead. So we had to have Isaiah Trask, David, Carolyn, Maggie Evans, Ed Griffin and his mother, Jessica. Although Quentin, Barnabas and Angelique had all been sent away at the end of Kingdom there was no way we wouldn’t be bringing them back. The main character we did bring back was Amy Jennings. We’d re-introduced her into the Dramatic Readings’ range and we’d fallen in love with Stephanie Ellyne who played her. We also wanted to create a “next generation” of the Collins family so we worked out that Amy was the character we could do this with. The 2003 audio Return to Collinwood had made it pretty clear that neither David or Carolyn had had children so we worked out how Amy could bring us some teenage characters. Soap operas rely on there being more than one generation but Dark Shadows – through a combination of the last couple of years of the television series being more about Barnabas and Julia travelling through time etc and Return to Collinwood being a reunion special rather than setting up new storylines – had stagnated with regards to continuing the present-day Collins’ family. We worked out that Amy was just old enough to have a baby and that if she was married then she could have a step-son. We quickly worked out that we wanted the husband to be killed off so she wasn’t tied to a man and that we could find some supernatural way to age up her baby so we’d have a nice family unit.

We then looked at exploring Collinsport some more. We wanted it to feel like a proper serial drama – with different family units in different locations in the community. As research, we watched how a lot of first episodes of soap operas did this, as well as watching the first episode of Twin Peaks – which was obviously a big influence on Bloodlust. We decided that we wanted to focus on the community and build up the supernatural elements so they felt big, so we created the Blue Whale group – Jess and her son Ed. We moved Trask into being a drunk who was often at the Blue Whale and brought back Ed’s wife Susan, as a ghost. We knew we wanted to look at how a murder affects a community so we knew we wanted to bring in a regular Sheriff, a doctor at the hospital, the editor of the Collinsport Star and so on. We wanted there to be a new everyman character – the new Joe Haskell – so created Frankie who also served as giving the editor of the newspaper a boyfriend. We also used Frankie to give Ed a friend as I’d always found his character to be a bit one-dimensional and non-sympathetic. We looked at the characters we could give children to and decided on the Sheriff and the Doctor. By doing all this, we could create a community of different generations living in different locations who would gradually start to interact with each other. It was actually quite a scientific process. One of the things I’m proudest of with Bloodlust is that I think it feels natural rather than extensively plotted but every character was designed to fulfil a specific purpose. There were a lot of Excel spreadsheets working out their interactions and what purpose they served.

One character I personally had to fight for was Kate Ripperton. I adore working with Asta Parry and felt she’d given an amazing performance in Beyond The Grave. Kate was pretty much the one character in that story who didn’t really get any kind of closure. The rest of the writing team were – quite rightly – worried about bringing back a character with so much baggage but I fought for her and I do think the character really works. Frankie was a hard character to get right, though, because when we were writing him, he was just coming across as nice and dull. I then remembered Roger Carvalho and realised he’d be perfect for the role so I sent his showreel to the other writers and said “This is Frankie” and we went through his dialogue and made it much more in Roger’s voice. Roger also meant we increased the number of people of colour in the series which I felt was very important. I also wanted there to be some out gay characters because I think representation is so important.

The original idea we had was that we would tell some kind of murder mystery and that it would all be a smoke-screen for what David and Carolyn were doing. We also knew that we wanted the series to open with a new character arriving in town and we would discover the characters and locations through them – as they did in Episode One of the television series. We decided that we’d open with Amy and her family arriving in town as she would have been away for ten years. We then started to work out who the murder victim would be and we kept coming back to Amy. The character you think is going to be the main character is the one who gets killed off at the end of episode one. But… we loved Amy. We loved Stephanie. We didn’t want to kill her off. Hence, the creation of Melody Devereux – who is so blatantly a Victoria Winters-type character. Melody arrives in town and then she becomes the victim. Then, episode two could open with Amy arriving in town.

With regards to making the characters more “wow” we then moved Angelique into a whispering cave because, again, I didn’t just want to cut to her in a house muttering about wanting revenge. It was all about building interesting soundscapes, making the supernatural characters seem big and exciting again, and creating a community that the listener would become invested in.

CHS:  Where there any characters that you wanted to include that you couldn't fit in?

J.L.:  I can’t think of any in particular. We didn’t want to bring back Cyrus and Sabrina at that point as they wouldn’t really have fulfilled a role in the series and we knew every character had to have a reason to be there. In fact, that’s why we killed off Isaiah Trask. We knew that Melody, Andrew and Deputy Eric would die (Melody would be our Laura Palmer, Andrew would be a baddie and his death would make the character of Amy stronger, and Eric was… cannon fodder). We pretty quickly decided that Kate and Frankie wouldn’t be long for this world as they were perfect “everyman” characters to kill off. Isaiah’s death wasn’t planned at all. We hadn’t fully worked out where he would go – in fact, I think the Excel spreadsheets for the later episodes pretty much had “Isaiah helps Angelique or something”. I was writing the episode and just found myself thinking “He’s served his purpose to the plot… he could just get shot now?” and I just wrote the scene and sent it to the others and they loved it. So sudden and shocking. I had also found the character slightly woolly – was he a Trask? Was he born there? Who were his family? Obviously, Jerry Lacy is an amazing actor so I knew we would bring him back in some way but that particular character just felt like he no longer had a function, now that we knew who the woman in the whispering cave was and so on. His death also served to highlight the madness that was engulfing the town.

CHS:  What was the discussion of how this particular story fit into the Big Finish mythos, or as I like to call it the Big Finishverse, like?

J.L.:  There wasn’t that much discussion really. We knew it would follow on from our Dramatic Readings and from Kingdom of the Dead and we knew that it was set roughly twenty years before Return to Collinwood. I’ve now got a huge a timeline of “things that need to be done.” So, the two “things that needed to be done” in this were to write out Angelique and to wipe Maggie’s memory of the supernatural. In the Dramatic Reading Path of Fate, Angelique is said to have lived in a cottage in the woods for ten years (c1993) and Maggie, in Return To Collinwood, has no knowledge of the supernatural at all. I also wanted to write out Angelique because I felt, in the previous full cast audios, she had become an easy way to end stories – she’s so powerful that basically she could just do a spell and that’s the problem resolved. Also, with Maggie, in Return to Collinwood it’s stated that Joe died ten years before after being happily married to Maggie – so we knew we wanted to get her out of town so she the marriage could take place and they could have a few years happy together. So, yeah, lots of continuity stuff that hopefully doesn’t feel too plotted.

CHS:  What was the hardest part to write for you? Was there as particular scene or episode that proved a tough nut to crack?

J.L.:  The hardest scenes to write usually involved the deaths of characters. We fell in love with Kate and Frankie and it would have been so easy for us to change our minds and let them live. Also, Andrew’s death was incredibly difficult because we couldn’t have too much time pass before the next episode and the plot had to keep going but we also had a teenage boy losing his father - so we really had to keep that in mind with Harry’s scenes. He couldn’t just forget his father had died but, at the same time, we couldn’t really spend too much time exploring the grief process. Anything involving the Petofi storyline was also difficult because we knew that – for new listeners – the character and his backstory would be new information, so we had to find ways to make him relevant to our characters rather than just “here’s an old villain from the TV series” – so the book about him came from Michael’s university days with Amy and Carolyn and so on.

Technically, possibly the hardest thing to do was to ensure that Barnabas was there as a character. He’s a vampire so can only be up and about at night, so we had to find ways to move time on so that episodes would quickly be set after dark – but it’s tricky to resolve an exciting cliffhanger by the next episode cutting to the following evening and having characters talk about what happened. One of the later episodes has David and Amy talking and he’s doing a spell so she doesn’t realise how much time has passed just so that we can quickly get to night and have Barnabas join in!

CHS:  I see that you are also directing some of these stories. Tell me about the transition from writer to director.

J.L.:  I’ve been directing for a while, really. It came about just because it was convenient really. So, with the Dramatic Readings, I would come in and just guide the actors while David (Darlington) does all of the technical stuff. It then became much more important with Bloodlust because it was so complicated and so few of the actors recorded at the same time, so my main job was just make sure everything fitted together performance-wise. And I think it does so I’m happy with that! Frankly, with actors as good as what we have there’s very little direction needed.

CHS- Were you pleased with the reaction to the story?

J.L.: We were so so thrilled. The way the story was released – two episodes a week – meant that people really got into trying to work out who the killer was. Everyone was talking on forums about the various clues and so on. It was really exciting to watch that unfold over the weeks it was released. And yeah, it seems to have really clicked with the audience. To this day, we still have people telling us how exciting it was and how well the series works. Which is nice!

CHS: Were you a fan of the show before getting the job?

J.L.: I became a fan through working on it, really. Stuart Manning introduced me to the show and I started to fall in love with it. I then wrote an audio for him and fell in love with it a bit more. Then I started producing the series and began to really realise just how glorious Dark Shadows is. It’s genuinely something so different to anything else there’s ever been on television and it’s genuinely a huge honour to be involved in keeping the series going. To actually have some control over the fates of these amazing characters is just really weird and brilliant.

CHS: Team Barnabas or Team Quentin? Or other?

J.L.: Oh, well I started with the 1897 storyline so it was all about tall, evil, silent, sexy Quentin so he’s always going to be my first love but they’re both just brilliant. But, genuinely, I’ve fallen in love with all the characters. It’s an over-used word these days but I think 90% of the characters in Dark Shadows are iconic – often because of the actors playing them.

CHS: Finally, is there anything you can tell us about Bloodline? And if not, is there a dollar amount you will take in order TO tell us something about Bloodline?

J.L.: Ha! Well, we’ve announced that it’s about the wedding of Amy and David and that whereas Bloodlust was a story about a mystery, this is a mystery about a story. What else can I tell you? I let slip at a Big Finish convention yesterday that Jessica Griffin and Sheriff Rhonda are back. This time next week we’ll have completed the UK recording – our final session is with two new actors playing the new characters of Bonnie and Jamie. Chris Pennock has revealed that he is back – which I’m SO happy with so… new fact – a character will be born who will have a huge influence on the town.

Dark Shadows: Bloodline releases in April of 2019, but is available for pre-order now, while Bloodlust, and all the other deliciously evil stories mentioned here, are available now in both digital and physical formats at BigFinish.com. 

Review: Dark Shadows: Bloodlust, Episode 13

By JUSTIN PARTRIDGE

SPOILERS AHEAD belong dead!

“Don’t turn from the light. It only burns a little.”

Dark Shadows: Bloodlust comes to a soaring conclusion in Episode 13. After last episode’s brava showcase of Lara Parker and Kathryn Leigh Scott, this episode once again becomes a rousing ensemble piece, gathering our heroes and monsters to stand for the Earth in the face of ultimate evil. An evil that has ensnared the Collins family and threatens to end the world in service of his own sadistic goals. End of the world stakes are a damn sight away from the simple murder mystery that we started with here in these pieces, but it has all lead to this moment and trust me when I say, it doesn’t come anywhere close to disappointing. Let’s get into it ... one last time.

Click HERE to get the episode.

So it has all come down to this. A scattered crew of monsters and humans versus an ageless, immensely powerful sorcerer. Just another day in Collinsport, amirite? Though I appreciate the creative team’s risky move with the last episode, making it essentially a two-person one act play, I am really glad they instantly get us right in the mix again with the whole cast as they plot and strategize just how best to best Pitofi and his thralls. Writers Joseph Lidster, Alan Flanagan and Will Howells have a metric ton of plot they need to get through during this finale, but I am glad to hear that they didn’t lose their handles on the character’s voices and their dynamics, keeping the serial’s streak of stellar character work alive until the bitter end.

This works wonders toward keeping the listener engaged through all the exposition, it also allows the whole cast to really shine through one last time. Andrew Collins’ Barnabas has really, really grown on me since his introduction and Episode 13 has solidified my love for his take on the iconic vampire. He is stodgy, but not without a sense of humor with an underlying ferocity that I really love. Stephanie Ellyne’s Amy also comes full circle, standing up for herself and her family even in the face of possible total annihilation. I have spoken endlessly here about my love of David Selby and Lara Parker and this finale episode is no exception. Both actors, along with their monstrous counterparts, reveal a raw emotion here at the end. The latter even going so far to sacrifice herself in order to save the town and world from destruction. A heroic end for one of Dark Shadows’ most infamous figures.

But all the great performances in the world wouldn’t save this episode had it not stuck the landing, but spoiler alert, it totally does! As the town starts to crumble, our heroes are subjected to illusions and attacks from Pitofi’s minions. It all leads up to a shocking “Drawing Room Scene” in the Collins mine where MIKE DEVEREAUX reveals himself to be the author of Collinsport’s pain. It is a really canny choice from the writer’s and one I truly, honestly did NOT see coming. The staff also give Mike a real Nice Guy like origin, having been spurred by Amy and Carolyn back at Salem College and then devoting his life to Count Pitofi in order to kill the world that cast him aside. Better still, the writers add an extra sense of grounded horror to this reveal by detailing how Mike staged all the monster attacks with some kitchen and garden tools proving the serial’s thesis that even the most unassuming among us can be monsters. It is a real nice gut punch from the story, one that is thankfully eased by the deep well of emotions that the staff draw from in the episode’s closing. Which finds all our characters finding some sense of closure in the walls of the great house of Collinwood, surrounded by their family and friends. Together, once again.

I honestly had no idea what to expect from Bloodlust when I started these. I thought I would have a few laughs and enjoy a few fun scares and then that would be that. But what I found in David Darlington, Ursula Burton, Joseph Lidster, Alan Flanagan, and Will Howells’ work was so, so much more. I found a story about fear and what that fear can do to a town. I found a story of outsiders and those considered the “other” arguing for their very existence. I found a story about the past and how it can hold power over you, even when you are trying your best to move forward. But most of all, I found a story that displays the power and presence this property still has and the kind of sagas it is capable of producing, giving the franchise a life beyond the screen and grave. Bloodlust was and is the best of Dark Shadows, distilled down to it’s very essence, and we are lucky to have it.

And I AM truly lucky to have listened to it and discussed it with your lovely people. I thank you so, so very much for going on this journey with me and making my first proper beat here at the CHS just a joy. I would also like to thank the patient and impossibly kind Wallace McBride for giving me this assignment, everyone from the production team that has offered kind words about the coverage, AND all the amazing listeners and readers who have made me feel so welcome in the fandom and here at the site. I hope you all have had as much fun reading these as I have had writing them. If you have any suggestions of what I should listen to next, please, please, please reach out! Bloodline is just around the corner! But until then…

Be seeing you. 

Justin Partridge has always loved monsters and he thinks that explains a lot about him. When he isn’t over analyzing comics at Newsarama or ranting about Tom Clancy over at Rogues Portal, he is building Call of Cthulhu games, spreading the good word of Anti-Life, or rewatching Garth Marenghi's Darkplace for the dozenth time. He can be reached at the gasping Lovecraftian void that is Twitter @j_partridgeIII or via e-mail at justin@betweenthepanels.com Odds are he will want to talk about Hellblazer.  

Review: Dark Shadows: Bloodlust, Episode 12

By JUSTIN PARTRIDGE

Legend has it that it was written by the Dark Ones. Necronomicon Ex-Mortis. Roughly translated, The Book of the SPOILERS HEAD…

Happy Halloween, fellow monsters! Welcome back to my exhaustively fun coverage of Big Finish’s Dark Shadows: Bloodlust, coming to you live from the center of a massive, and probably blasphemous Halloween party that is currently engulfing the Society HQ. Thankfully someone decided to use my “office” as the coat room so I pilfered a platter of shrimp from the buffet and a sixer of Old Peculier from the bar and decided to get some goddamn work done around here.

Click HERE to get the episode.

And since it is a very special night for us heathens, I decided to do something very special for this particular column. Both for sake of expediency and doing something fun with the penultimate entry. As I have been listening to this sprawling serial, I have been keeping a standing note file on my phone. Like a real time diary of my thoughts on the episode, as I listen, just to give me a rough idea of what I want to write about in this rambling Lovecraftian missives. I might publish the whole thing, if it isn’t deemed too “self-indulgent” (what does that even mean, GERALD ON THE SECOND FLOOR), BUT I thought it might be fun to just give you wonderful readers a look directly into my party addled mind about this thing we all love so dearly. Or I will asked to clear out immediately upon filing this. Gotta roll that dice though.

A bit of housekeeping before I hit play. When we last talked, the wonderful Call of Cthulhu party this serial has gathered was marching toward Collinwood to confront David and Carolyn, who are either in league with or being controlled by the zombie hand of Count Pitofi! Meanwhile, Ed Griffin is tired of the Collins family and aims to end them once and for all using the business end of a shotgun! Madness! Intrigue! Monsters! Hitting play NOW! (And follow along if you like by downloading the episode NOW at bigfinish.com for barely a tuppence! Or is it a shilling? I don’t really know how money works).

• I really cannot go on enough about the new theme tune and incidental music. David Darlington and his team have really outdone themselves with this score. It is so wholly it’s own thing while also being so obviously inspired and informed by Robert Cobert’s original scores and cues. God, I just love love love it. I would buy a score album of this in a heartbeat.
• I have also really, REALLY enjoy  the choice of getting a different character to narrate the opening. It gives it that same reverence toward the show that the score has but also gets us interacting more with the larger cast, it is a really cool choice. I could and would listen to Lara Parker speak for hours.
• OH HELL, this one is even doubling down on it! Having Angelique AND Maggie bring us into this episode. And who says fan service doesn’t work?
• "I can’t keep losing people.” It is nice to see Maggie really recognizing just how badly she has screwed this up. Kathryn Leigh Scott is really bringing it throughout this story.
• "As an opening gambit, calling me “creature” isn’t the most inspired…” But Lara Parker is just right there with her. I really love this new humbled Angelique. She is the Emma Frost of the Dark Shadows Universe.
• A Maggie/Angelique team-up is a potential winner.
• I also love how effortlessly the writers will just seed through some like crazy lore. Had I known these were so accessible I would have started them up ages ago.
• Pitofi has been mad since 1797. That is a Batman level grudge.
• But he’s afraid to sleep! Does he have a Freddy?
• I still can’t get over the fact that Carolyn is now just throwing around magick. She has come a long way from leaving her accessories around hotel rooms just to have excuses to see people.
• "You’ve made one fatal assumption.” “What’s that?” “That I WANT to help you…”. I love that even in the face of total destruction, Angelique will make time for a vicious burn.
• "Nobody was supposed to get hurt!” That’s what everyone thinks, Maggie. Angelique straight up calling out her species-ism is also Very Very Good.
• Jesus Christ, Scott and Parker are incredible scene partners. This scene in the cave is a dazzling display of their talents and white hot chemistry.
• "Go back FURTHER!” I am almost in tears here, guys.
• This episode seems a lot more focused that the previous installments. We have been on Maggie and Angelique for a while now. Usually we would have seen another character grouping by now. I am not mad at it.
• HOLY CATS THE END OF THE SUPERNATURAL?! Bloodlust’s stakes have stakes!
• The hook that only a supernatural creature can cast the spell ending all supernatural creatures is also a delicious twist. I sincerely love that this whole serial has been one big moral conundrum as much as it’s been a supernatural mystery. Like, it has gotten into themes of race and discrimination and mob mentality, I was NOT expecting that.
• Nobody lashes out like Angelique Bouchard.
• "This was murder by tyranny!” Where is the lie though?
• Oh, God, she summoned Trask’s dead body to lay at Maggie’s feet. Now she is showing him his WOUNDS! This took some TURNS, y’all…
• Man, I never thought in a million years I would care for Isaiah Trask but here we are... 
• "I...I keep thinking I am doing the right thing…”. Maggie’s heart will always win through. Her having this major fall (and hopeful turn upward) is really one of the show’s most masterful strokes.
• Angelique is having Maggie help dress Trask’s body. That seems a fitting punishment.
• "They’ve given up on God.” “Or He’s given up on us…” That should be Collinsport’s town motto.
• Scott retelling the poem from her father’s funeral is heartbreaking. The power these actors and characters still have is uncanny. 
• I love that Maggie keeps trying to appeal to Angelique as a woman. It is a neat microcosm of he show’s balance between the mundane and supernatural.
• 
  
• Maggie is revealing her abnormality! She could maybe cast the spell!
• "Maggie Evans, you are indeed a monster...because you are HUMAN!” Maybe the monsters inside us were the friends we made along the way. Wait…
• "So once again, you find yourself out of harm’s way…” Angelique has Maggie’s freaking number this episode.
• Maggie is still hung up on Joe. Gag.
• "I don’t pretend to look confused every time a man falls into my life.” CALL THE BURN UNIT.
• God, Maggie can’t get over herself long enough to just LISTEN to Angelique.
• Trask is getting a proper (ish) burial at sea. That makes me happy.
• "This town does not deserve to have him buried in its soil.” This episode’s script is friggin FILLED with stellar dialogue. 
• Holy crow, they are REALLY gonna kill all the monsters in town. I am aghast.
• I really love how this story has gone out of it’s way to humanize Angelique. She starts as like this booming, stock baddie, but she morphs into a truly engaging and sympathetic female lead. It is a really tremendous use of Lara Parker’s range. Same with Scott, this episode is pretty much just a out and out showcase of them both.
• ”I can’t imagine it would hurt more than life.” That is a big mood right there, people.
• ANGELIQUE HAS TO CUT OFF HER FINGER FOR THE SPELL?! That is gnarly. Even for Dark Shadows.
• “I need to know that we are together! I need to know that there isn’t any other option!” Growth, Maggie!
• Angelique just revealed that she blinded Maggie’s dad. And Maggie FORGAVE HER?! FORGAVE HER FOR EVERYTHING?! I AM LEGIT CRYING.
• David and Carolyn are confirmed under the control of Pitofi, which is a comfort. But Maggie and Angelique are getting closer to what his plan is!
• HOLY HELL THE MINE THIS HAS ALL BEEN DISTRACTION AWAY FROM THE MINE! I KNEW IT!
• ”He wants the end of...EVERYTHING!” oh man, that’s brutal.
• ”He loved it when I spoke French.” Whoops, crying again. I hope I don’t get tears on the coats.
• NOW PARKER AND SCOTT ARE SINGING! God, I can’t take this much longer…
• ”Let’s show Count Pitofi what happens when he crosses Maggie Evans!” “And Angelique Bouchard…” The Coven is strong!

The theme tune is playing and I am wracked with sobs because of the soaring script and performances of Episode 12. That was far more low-key than I was expecting, being that it was prelude to the finale, but man, was it ever satisfying. Lara Parker and Kathryn Leigh Scott are treasures and we should appreciate them every single day. Thank you for indulging me and I will return soon with a review of the 13th and final installment of Dark Shadows: Bloodlust.

NEXT TIME! The Finale! Collinsport Vs. Count Pitofi for the fate of ALL REALITY! Be seeing you! And Happy Halloween!

Justin Partridge has always loved monsters and he thinks that explains a lot about him. When he isn’t over analyzing comics at Newsarama or ranting about Tom Clancy over at Rogues Portal, he is building Call of Cthulhu games, spreading the good word of Anti-Life, or rewatching Garth Marenghi's Darkplace for the dozenth time. He can be reached at the gasping Lovecraftian void that is Twitter @j_partridgeIII or via e-mail at justin@betweenthepanels.com Odds are he will want to talk about Hellblazer.  

Review: Dark Shadows: Bloodlust, Episode 11

By JUSTIN PARTRIDGE

We just cut up our SPOILERS AHEAD with a chainsaw. Does that sound like “fine”?

“Maggie Evans must DIE! TONIGHT!”

Welcome back, dark sprites, to this our final week of Bloodlust coverage. When we last left everyone, things had gone positively pear shaped as the darkness that has been infesting Collinsport since Snowflake gathered and aimed itself toward our heroes. Episode 11 is another table setting episode for the serial, but this one moves at a much, much faster clip than the few before it. It also has the added novelty of gathering our cast up, both human and monster, all together and finding some really interesting dynamics in the process. On top of all that, you have another shocking death for the series, one that definitely proves no one in Bloodlust is safe, not completely. The darkness has a face now, dear readers, and nothing much a motley crew of monsters and mortals stands between him and Collinsport. Let’s see how they fare.

Click HERE to get the episode.

After last episode’s vampiric, magickally infused cliffhangers, this episode wastes little time capitalizing on last episode’s bloodletting. From the jump writer’s Will Howells, Joseph Lidster, and Alan Flanagan have done a really great job of keeping most everyone’s plots clearly defined and largely separated, aside from the few that crossed paths with one another like the Cunningham family drama and how the murders were contributing to the uneasiness of the town. But now that shit has well and truly hit the fan, they have to start gathering up the whole cast in order to get them fully working on the problem of the plot and working toward the finale.

This kind of spins the wheels of the main plot for a touch, aside from two major events that we will get into later. Though this episode doesn’t really have the same forward propulsion as some of the others did, the writers still really entertain by finally positioning all of our characters together in one large ensemble. The cast and crew really did a great job of making the whole thing feel pretty filled out just in the vignettes in earlier episodes, but hearing everyone gathered together and bouncing off one another is a real treat and makes the show feel all the more like a largish repertory company.

But hearing that company of actors comes at the cost of forward momentum. You can kind of see it all over the episode. A character or grouping heads off one direction or place, only to head somewhere else once the plot necessitates they do so. It isn’t altogether horrible and the show did this kinda stuff all the time for the purpose of stringing some tension along the serialized story. I also understand why the production staff takes this sort of two steps forward, one step back direction in this episode, but that doesn’t make it any less noticeable. At the very least it provides our wonderful cast some meaningful stage time with one another, resulting in some really showy acting and banter. I will forgive a lot of things thanks to a charming, talented cast and thankfully Bloodlust has one of the best.

But my structural nitpicking aside, this episode does drop two major bombshells on us heading into the show’s final episodes. One of which is the mercy killing of Kate Ripperton by the hands of Maggie Evans. This really is a gut wrenching sequence and both Asta Parry and Kathryn Leigh Scott lean into the tragedy and cold horror of the situation, making it feel and sound all the more real. The next is the naming of this serial’s big bad, none other than Count Petofi, who has been pulling the strings all along thanks to his surviving HAND! I should have expected such a big marquee villain for this piece, but I sincerely love how the staff have been pulling from the property’s deep bench of characters, from even beyond the grave.

My problems with the somewhat scattered construction of the episode’s narrative and slight breaking of its momentum aside, Episode 11 is still another richly produced and spookily entertaining entry from Bloodlust and Big Finish’s take on Dark Shadows. Now it feels like we are headed toward a proper huge ending and literally no one is safe. I know they are recording the sequel to this sprawling epic as I type, but for the life of me, I have no idea who could even be left in the cast for it! Time and the rest of these episodes will tell and I will be fine as long as I keep biting my nails and breathing into this paper bag.

NEXT TIME! Episode 12! The Penultimate Episode! A motley crew marches on Collinwood and I really hope my faves survive. Be seeing you.

Justin Partridge has always loved monsters and he thinks that explains a lot about him. When he isn’t over analyzing comics at Newsarama or ranting about Tom Clancy over at Rogues Portal, he is building Call of Cthulhu games, spreading the good word of Anti-Life, or rewatching Garth Marenghi's Darkplace for the dozenth time. He can be reached at the gasping Lovecraftian void that is Twitter @j_partridgeIII or via e-mail at justin@betweenthepanels.com Odds are he will want to talk about Hellblazer.  

Review: Dark Shadows: Bloodlust, Episode 10

By JUSTIN PARTRIDGE

1...2...SPOILERS AHEAD are comin’ for you. 3...4...better shut the door.

A Quick Mea Culpa Before We Start: So, last column I very dumbly misspelled Asta Parry’s name. Which is even more embarrassing as I was heaping praise onto her for about three paragraphs. So, my apologies to her and to you all.

“I was hungry…”

In so few words? Holy shit. Episode 10 of Bloodlust really aims for the throat. Literally. It has taken a while to get to this point in the narrative, but writers Joseph Lidster, Alan Flanagan, and Will Howells really go for the gusto in the series’ first double-digit episode. They and directors Ursula Burton and David Darlington deliver nothing but action this time around, sending certain characters spiraling toward doom and placing others in wildly precarious situations, ratcheting up the tension to an unbearable degree. I know I have been a bit hyperbolic in these reviews, but Episode 10 had me yelping in fear and delight throughout. And, yes, I mean yelping because that is the only accurate way I can describe the noises I was making.

Click HERE to get the episode.

So, okay. So much happens in this episode it is kind of hard to know where to start. Let’s start at the most interesting aspects, shall we? Aspects that concern my beloved Kate Ripperton. When we last saw her, she was on the receiving end of Barnabas’ fangs and her fate was unclear. But, thankfully, Episode 10 gives up that ghost early by opening the episode with Kate narrating. We then get a quick look at her trying to recover from her “hangover” which, of course, isn’t a hangover at all. Barnabas turned her and now she hungers for the sweet taste of blood!

This episode kind of takes it’s time really getting to this reveal, but whooooo, boy, once it finally comes out with it, it is a real bloodbath and adds another roving murder machine to the already panicked Collinsport. More on that in a bit. But before that, Burton and Darlington do a fantastic job telegraphing the reveal somewhat with eerie sound design based around the steady sound of a heartbeat. A sound that has established itself as an entertaining recurring motif throughout the serial. 

I have somewhat avoided discussing the pair’s directing at length in these reviews. Mainly because I don’t know the first thing about sound design. I was a theatre major and you all know what we are like. BUT Episode 10 is a wonderful showcase of the pair’s direction and design from the jump, even to a layman like me. There are several sequences, like the episode’s opening dream sequence centered around Tommy and the extra creepy reveal of just what kind of magick is happening in the walls of Collinwood, that really shine thanks to their effects and transitions.

But, back to the vampirism. All throughout this episode, the script keeps giving us minor check ins with Kate, who sleeps through most of the day and then awakes with a starling hunger. She then heads down to the Blue Whale in order to grab a meal and then try to talk with Frankie. And she grabs a meal alright. Two in fact, as she openly attacks Deputy Hanley AND Frankie, killing them both in full view of the patrons. Asta Parry really impresses again here in this episode. While before she was all snark and unexpected vulnerability, here she goes fully feral, showing only touches of her former humanity as Frankie tries to reason with her. It is a rollercoaster ride of a scene but Parry really sells the terror and confusion along with her newfound bloodlust (I said the thing!). RIP Frankie and Deputy Hanley. Y’all were...certainly characters.

The episodes other major set piece is a taut investigation in and around that great house up on the hill. Having gone through his first transformation, Tommy comes clean to his mother which prompts Quentin to finally spill his heritage beans to Amy. The trio then hook up with Angelique, who tells them of her discovery of Carolyn’s casting up in Collinwood. So, naturally they all want to go poke the mystery with a stick and see what happens. You can already assume that it doesn’t go great, but this grouping is really fun to listen to, thanks to David Selby’s impassioned performance and Stephanie Ellyne’s reluctant, but curious new emotional state. It also doesn’t hurt that Alec Newman’s David gets some more facetime in the story, reconnecting with Amy and providing a nice slice of backstory for us newbies to the Big Finishverse. His turn toward villany isn’t exactly shocking, but the way the episode’s script and Newman’s performance lulls listeners into a false sense of security, only to drop the magickal hammer on us is really, really fun.

The episode is rounded out with some movement on Maggie’s plot, but it is still kinda awful, just on an optics level. She goes forward this episode with her plan to blood test the town’s residents, which, of course, is a whole bowl of yikes. It only gets worse still when the script reveals that they already have people in custody for “anomalies”, one of which is merely a child. Though I expected a certain level of monster action in this story, I did not expect the uncomfortably timely and heart wrenching turn this plot took. Maggie Evans, the closest thing Collinsport has to a saint, is now a child detaining fascist and it kind of rules? I never in a million strange aeons would have thought that MAGGIE EVANS would be a villain, but Bloodlust Episode 10 really makes her a damn good one, even in the face of actual monsters committing murder and the town on the edge of destruction (which is one of my favorite Classic Doctor Who episodes).

Like I said, holy shit, right? And we still have three more of these bastards to go! My heart might not survive it.  But at the very least I will die having been thoroughly impressed and entertained by Episode 10 and the bloody, witchy, and goth as all hell climaxes this installment delivered. We are in the endgame now, fellow ghouls, and for the first time since I started these, I am genuinely nervous for our cast and the fracturing town. I cannot wait to see how this thing turns out.

NEXT TIME! Episode 11! It probably won’t have Matt Smith in it, but it will have some werewolves, a deliciously evil Alec Newman, and an alive(ish) Kate Ripperton. I am but a simple man with simple, monstrous tastes. Be seeing you.

Justin Partridge has always loved monsters and he thinks that explains a lot about him. When he isn’t over analyzing comics at Newsarama or ranting about Tom Clancy over at Rogues Portal, he is building Call of Cthulhu games, spreading the good word of Anti-Life, or rewatching Garth Marenghi's Darkplace for the dozenth time. He can be reached at the gasping Lovecraftian void that is Twitter @j_partridgeIII or via e-mail at justin@betweenthepanels.com Odds are he will want to talk about Hellblazer.  

Review: Dark Shadows: Bloodlust, Episode 9

By JUSTIN PARTRIDGE

Suzy Banyon decided to perfect her SPOILERS AHEAD at the most famous school of dance in all of Europe…

Episode 9 of Bloodlust gives one of it’s best supporting characters some much appreciated time center stage...before possibly making her a meal of Barnabas Collins’. Yes, my beloved Kate Ripperton really goes through it this episode, but that doesn’t make it any less fun to listen to. Even beyond Kate, most of the supporting cast gets a really fun turn this installment. We get a bit more action regarding the warding of Collinwood, the thunderous return of David Collins, and some choice monster action surrounding our Trinity, who still lie plotting at the base of Widows’ Hill. Enough of the preamble, let’s get to the getting, shall we?

Click HERE to get the episode.

Death has once again come to Collinsport and this time it has claimed the life of Isaiah Trask. Now the monsters the town faced a few episodes ago have a real deal motive for revenge, especially the mercurial Angelique. Maggie Evans first week as sheriff has certainly gone swimmingly, right? I talked a bit last column that I think it is a really bold choice for writer’s Joseph Lidster, Alan Flanagan, and Will Howells to make Maggie the human antagonist for this series. But this episode they take a different approach, detailing how Maggie is dealing with the badge and how it is directly affecting her, just on an emotional level. As a listener, this really softens Maggie’s new position in the town and in the story overall. Kathryn Leigh Scott really sells this too, harkening back to the maternal, yet steely Maggie that we all fell in love with, even as she continues the office’s march toward condoning racism against monsters. Monsterism. Occultism? I dunno. We can workshop it.

But the real star of this episode is Asta Parry's Kate Ripperton, who gets a really great turn in the spotlight, before maybe (hopefully not) getting it in the neck thanks to a blood horny Barnabas in the episode’s cliffhanger. Parry is a presence that really popped for me in the early installments and Episode 9 starts to peel the layers of her character away in interesting ways. The episode’s script picks up directly after the last’s cliffhanger, which found Kate facing down some uncomfortable questions from Rhonda. Though the revelations this scene brings aren’t THAT big a deal (Kate’s absences throughout this serial have been due to her getting soused and wandering around Eagle Hill Cemetery), it reveals a dark vulnerability to Kate that has slowly been eroding away at her over time. Parry absolutely nails this scene, presenting Kate as a woman on the edge, haunted by her brush with the supernatural and driven nearly to ruin in her quest for answers.

Parry even gets to double down on her intriguing characterization when she goes a’snooping. First she investigates the crime scene of Trask’s death, but then heads up to the Collins mine in order to finally get the story Andrew was suppose to before his eventual ganking. This scene provides our first real clues as to what is happening at the mine. As Kate Nancy Drews, she finds that all the filing cabinets are empty and there is absolutely no paperwork detailing the nature of the work. This naturally brings about David Collins, who gives her the heave ho and fires poor Frankie just to spite her. This scene is filled with some choice verbal sparring from Parry and Alec Newman (who I don’t think has been in this story NEARLY enough. You don’t bench the Maud’dib) and finally starts to move the mystery of the Collins mine forward. I am less enthused about the personal developments for Kate and Frankie, mainly because I think Frankie is kind of a drip, but I am really glad that if this is to be Kate’s last episode that she at least got a really juicy one before shuffling off this mortal coil.

Episode 9 also finds our favorite monsters getting some great material as well. While Kate investigates, Angelique, Barnabas, and Quentin all get some forward momentum in their respective plots. Quentin having to leave Tom in the Collins Mausoleum as he transforms is downright harrowing thanks to David Selby’s brokenhearted performance and the excellent sound design from directors David Darlington and Ursula Burton. That design spreads it’s spooky resonance into Angelique’s plot which finds her attacking the wards that have been set up around Collinwood. What she finds behind them is truly shocking and, should it be proven true and followed up on, could shake the very foundations of the great house and give a major TV character a dark new direction. Barnabas gets the short straw this episode, mainly because most of his action is centered around a tense reunion with Maggie Evans. But that said, I am really warming to Andrew Collins portrayal of the vampire and I am excited to see him become much more of a presence in the serial’s back half.

To be honest, I am kind of running out of ways to say “Bloodlust is Good”, but Episode 9 was an unexpectedly emotional turn from the series. One that put some characters into focus that I wasn’t expecting and better still, did so in a way that put their emotions and mental states first, giving the supernatural elements of the story a rest (for the most part). I have really grown fond of this whole cast, beyond the major players of the universe, and it is nice to see that the show isn’t allowing it’s pathos to get lost in all the murder, monsters, and magicks.

NEXT TIME! Episode 10! Double digits, creeps! We are in the home stretch now. Please let Kate be okay. Be seeing you. 

Justin Partridge has always loved monsters and he thinks that explains a lot about him. When he isn’t over analyzing comics at Newsarama or ranting about Tom Clancy over at Rogues Portal, he is building Call of Cthulhu games, spreading the good word of Anti-Life, or rewatching Garth Marenghi's Darkplace for the dozenth time. He can be reached at the gasping Lovecraftian void that is Twitter @j_partridgeIII or via e-mail at justin@betweenthepanels.com Odds are he will want to talk about Hellblazer.  

Review: Dark Shadows: Bloodlust, Episode 8

By JUSTIN PARTRIDGE

When there is no more room in Hell, the SPOILERS AHEAD shall walk the Earth!

“FEED, my love!”

Oh, dip, you guys. What I thought would be a table setting episode to solidify Volume 2’s new status quo quickly devolves into a further shaking up OF said status quo in Bloodlust Episode 8. Maggie Evans is the new Sheriff of Collinsport and the anti-monster panic that she stoked with her meetings has now graduated to full blown violence. There is also the little matter of Tom Cunningham now being a ticking clock to werewolf time as he shares Quentin Collins’ cursed bloodline. Oh, and somebody friggen shot Trask?! I have a weak heart, you guys, I might not be able to take this.

Click HERE to get the episode.

But I honestly have to applaud and admire writers Alan Flanagan, Joseph Lidster, and Will Howells for not letting listeners, or their cast, rest on their laurels. After last episode’s civic bombshell, the fallout is instantly rolling through the streets of Collinsport. I also have to applaud this story’s slightly controversial choice to basically make Maggie Evans the antagonist of this serial. Though Kathryn Leigh Scott certainly imbues Maggie with enough warmth and compassion to at least make her a compelling one. It is funny, last episode as she laid out her concerns (backed with reactionist barking from Ed), I said that at least on paper the platform was sound. But Episode 8 quickly shows how her good intentions are a very slippery slope toward small town fascism as she levels a curfew on the town (which again, isn’t an altogether horrible idea) and then doubles down on it by floating the idea for the town to take a BLOOD TEST to determine their humanity (Oh, Maggie, what you doin’, girl?).

Meanwhile, Quentin Collins has his own problems to deal with. Mainly that his ancestor, Tommy, is going to turn into a werewolf and he needs to get him somewhere safe. I like this development because it really gets David Selby active in a B-story that is directly personal to him. Selby’s best work on Dark Shadows has always been more intimate, family driven stories and it is nice to see Bloodlust taking advantage of this. I also really dig this because it further ups the stakes beyond the central mystery. Collinsport doesn’t just have a serial killer on the loose, but it also is about to have a werewolf stalking through the streets and that is my kinda extra. I am all about gilding the lily when it comes to monsters.

Other big story feints this time around are happening around the edges of Collinsport. Harry and Amy Cunningham have a sweet heart-to-heart as he recovers in the hospital. The script also makes sure to make him and Cody’s relationship explicit, which I think is brilliantly refreshing for the hetero-heavy nature of the cast. Collinsport is woke, y’all. We also get check ins with Kate and Frankie, in which new convert to vigilantism Rhonda Tate, blows apart Kate’s alibi for the murder of Melody Deveraux. It is really nice to see that the writers aren’t letting that plot thread go loose amid all the other new ones that have been introduced. And did I mention that someone shot TRASK?!

This development might be the biggest one of them all this episode. For one, his random shooting really speaks to the paranoid, panicked town that the writers have made Collinsport into. There is another throwaway line early in the episode that a man was stabbed simply because someone said he didn’t have a reflection. It is a nice bit of world building from the trio and one that adds extra punch to this Dallas-like plugging of a lead character. But, perhaps most dangerous of all, it finally spurs Angelique back into full villain mode. After the apparent death of her servant, she swears vengeance on the town and allows Barnabas to freaking feed from her, driving them both into a mad sexy sounding Blood Union. God have mercy on Collinsport, but hey! Angelique/Barnabas Shippers rejoice!

So, obviously a lot to unpack here, but Bloodlust Episode 8 makes it look easy thanks to it’s consistently stellar production values and dynamic cast and story. I said above that this episode was shaking up the show’s status quo, but now that I think about it, this installment might be aiming to break it as it moves characters into situations that will create the most delicious tension. Couple that tension with a couple of truly juicy unsolved mysteries and some soapy drama and you have something really special. And that is exactly what Bloodlust is turning out to be; really special.

NEXT TIME! Episode 9! Angelique and Barnabas aim to paint the town red. Be seeing you. 

Justin Partridge has always loved monsters and he thinks that explains a lot about him. When he isn’t over analyzing comics at Newsarama or ranting about Tom Clancy over at Rogues Portal, he is building Call of Cthulhu games, spreading the good word of Anti-Life, or rewatching Garth Marenghi's Darkplace for the dozenth time. He can be reached at the gasping Lovecraftian void that is Twitter @j_partridgeIII or via e-mail at justin@betweenthepanels.com Odds are he will want to talk about Hellblazer.  

Review: Dark Shadows: Bloodlust, Episode 7

By JUSTIN PARTRIDGE

No, tears. They are a waste of good SPOILERS AHEAD.

“This town doesn’t need the Collins family!”

Volume 2 of Big Finish Productions’ Dark Shadows: Bloodlust opens with some John Grisham-meets-the-Universal Monsters like theatrics with the serial’s seventh installment. A mere day after Quentin Collins, Angelique Bouchard, and a newly summoned Barnabas Collins stood against an angry mob of townsfolk, Sheriff Tate calls a town meeting in the hopes that cooler heads will prevail. What happens is decidedly...not that, but therein lies the super entertaining crux of this volume’s opening story. Centralized and focused on the show’s nerve wracking commitment to raising its own stakes, Bloodlust Episode 7 is a towering opening gambit.

Click HERE to get the episode.

Some big time junk went down last episode. We got the debut of Barnabas, played with a righteously seductive fury by Andrew Collins. He was summoned by his on-again-off-again rival Quentin to back up him and Angelique as the mob swells. A Trinity of monsters stood against the angry hoi polloi of Collinsport. This episode, again, smartly takes a day and allows the cliffhanger to breathe just a bit. I have talked before about how Will Howells, Alan Flanagan, and Joseph Lidster really know how to stage these episodes and their layout across the season and this “taking a beat” approach to some of the larger cliffhangers are really a big part of why they succeed.

This way we get to relish the story as it unfolds instead of being overwhelmed with twists and turns, because, dear readers, this thing has got so goddamn more in store just in THIS episode. After a quick meeting of monstrous minds at the bottom of Widows’ Hill, we then turn to the town as it prepares for a town meeting about the recent killings and their possible connection to the supernatural. First off, can we all just appreciate just how Dark Shadows having a freaking town meeting about monsters is? I am consistently impressed on just how true to the wacky, yet grounded spirit of the original show these audios are and this might be the serial’s greatest example of it.

But my kitchy delight aside, this centralization of the episode’s plot really gets some great stuff from the story. For one it allows for one hell of a scare in the attacking of poor Harry Cunningham, who gets stabbed (we HOPE just stabbed) once the lights are cut during a particularly heated exchanged. For another, the citizens of Collinsport engage in some Arthur Miller-esque courtroom banter, one side standing up for Sheriff Tate and the other with Maggie Evans, who is demanding her acknowledge the existence of the supernatural.

I am of two minds about this. On one hand, Maggie’s group has the right IDEA. They want the local authorities, who have been turning a blind eye to the monsters for years, to finally start taking it seriously and take steps to defend the town. On the other, the way reactionaries like Ed Griffin, who put the boots to old man Trask last time, are framing the argument is that Tate is incompetent and are starting down the slippery slope of fascism in regards to Collinsport’s monster community, given a voice by Quentin. This sequence kind of makes Maggie look like a bully and her group look all the more dangerous, but you can at least see where the fear and anger comes from, thanks to the script’s presentation of the platforms. Plus, the more Kathryn Leigh Scott the better as far as I’m concerned

The town meeting also brings about the return of Nancy Barrett’s Carolyn Stoddard! A development, I must admit, made me a touch misty. And I don’t think it is because of the mold in my “office” here at the CHS. Hearing Carolyn passionately speak toward the town’s hold on people and the things that it is capable of puts real heart into Maggie’s side, when it really needs it. Plus’ Barrett is another one of those presences in the show that I will always hold a soft spot toward, no matter how they are included in the story so hearing her again was a real emotional charge for me just as a fan and listener.

BUT ALL OF THIS leads up to the episode’s two major developments. One being the discovery of a voodoo doll in Amy’s purse and Rhonda Tate being deposed as sheriff and replaced by Maggie Evans, who is pretty much the picture of a Not a Police Officer. The latter of which is the episode’s biggest and closing gambit, but the first one is really interesting. Is Amy fully turning back to witchcraft and did she attack her OWN (step)SON to cover it up? Only time and future episodes will tell, but the idea of Maggie Evans being the Marge Gunderson of Collinsport is just officially Too Good. It could only spell disaster for the town, just from a logistical standpoint, but holy crow, is it the perfect capper to this civically focused installment of Bloodlust. One sure to have major lapping story ripples throughout this back half of episodes.

There is a new Sheriff in town so monsters beware. You know, just when I think I hit a ceiling on the kind of entertaining Bloodlust can be, it goes and brings back Barnabas Collins (played by a truly class actors), large portions of the original TV cast, and then plunges me deep into a story worthy of all those actors and characters. Episode 7 is just another example of how the serial keeps upping the ante on itself. It hooks listeners deeply with a consistently engaging, well produced story that utilizes the best aspects of the property and its talented troupe of actors. Volume 1 of Bloodlust was good, but I’ll be damned if Volume 2 might be even better. I can’t wait to find out.

NEXT TIME! Episode 8! We Need To Talk About Harry. 

Justin Partridge has always loved monsters and he thinks that explains a lot about him. When he isn’t over analyzing comics at Newsarama or ranting about Tom Clancy over at Rogues Portal, he is building Call of Cthulhu games, spreading the good word of Anti-Life, or rewatching Garth Marenghi's Darkplace for the dozenth time. He can be reached at the gasping Lovecraftian void that is Twitter @j_partridgeIII or via e-mail at justin@betweenthepanels.com Odds are he will want to talk about Hellblazer.  

Review: Dark Shadows: Bloodlust, Episode 6

By JUSTIN PARTRIDGE

Ah! Listen! The SPOILERS AHEAD of the night! Vat music they make!

“We are The Trinity and we will protect ourselves.”

Volume 1 of Dark Shadows: Bloodlust comes to a thunderous conclusion in episode 6. The town of Collinsport is ready to boil in the wake of the newest attacks. Attacks that have taken the life of Andrew Cunningham and landed poor Jessica Griffin in a coma. And to complicate matters further Quentin Collins is back in town, his arrival unfortunately coinciding with the attacks. Everything is primed to explode and whether she meant to or not, Maggie Evans just might have lit the fuse. Episode 6 really feels like a real deal conclusion and though we still have a whole other volume to cover in the coming days, but this episode really sticks the landing for this first part rocking the very foundations of Collinsport and the fandom that loves it.

Click HERE to get the episode!

Before we proper start though, I must apologize for the lateness of this installment. We were hosting the annual sister city barbeque with delegates from Innsmouth, Mass. One of their aldermen, who smelled weirdly of cod, had a few too many Old Peculiers and accidentally knocked out wi-fi for the town overcooking a chicken on the Society’s lawn. It was a mess but the mayor of Innsmouth apologized profusely and left like a oppressive amount of crab dip so everything is comin’ up Justin!

But enough civil politics, BLOODLUST! So when we last talked, Quentin Collins had just swept back into Maggie Evans’ life and whoever (or whatever) is attacking citizens had struck again. Writers Joseph Lidster, Alan Flanagan, and Will Howells waste little time capitalizing on these developments. First up is David Selby’s naturally powerfully integration into the cast. The script does a nice job of contextualizing his inclusion, dropping hints about his relation to Amy and his standing among the town, pre-Bloodlust. This attention to context and continuity, especially around bigger characters, is really a key selling point for this serial for me. I was really worried going into this that I would be somewhat lost, being as how most of my Dark Shadows knowledge comes from the show and film entries. But Big Finish has really gone the extra mile to make these both accessible and entertaining and it really really encouraging to see.

But seriously, holy crow, David Selby rules. Each original actor has really shined throughout this serial, and Selby is no exception. Though he may be older, Selby’s newfound wizened timbre of his voice really hones the edges of menace and charm that he used so well back on TV screens. His inclusion also really amps up the tension in the town and finally, THANKFULLY, gives Maggie Evans some more time in the spotlight as his main foil. We all know how great Selby can be and he doesn’t disappoint here, but finally hearing Kathryn Leigh Scott get some meaty material to chew on was a real joy. Which makes her unfortunate positioning as the woman who may have doomed Collinsport all the more tragic.

Yes, after all this time of people warning Maggie that her meetings at the Blue Whale would lead to some sort of anti-monster mob...her meetings at the Blue Whale transforms into a full tilt mob. This is the major set piece of the episode and the production staff smartly build and build up to it making it hit all the harder. While I am not the biggest fan of poor Harry being pressured into revealing Angelique’s lair, mainly because he’s precious and I don’t want anything bad to happen to him, this turn toward violence led by a grieving Ed Griffin instantly raises the stakes even more than they already they already were, pitting all the normals of the town against the heaviest hitters of the franchise, including a certain vampiric and Bryonic nerd that we all love.

Big, deadly things are in store for Collinsport and I don’t think everyone can survive it. But that is seriously half the fun of this serial. Especially now that the whole monster gang is back together and such delicious plot threads have been introduced. For example, Harry might be a monster and Tommy is fur sure one, cursed by Quentin’s curse! The Trinity has once again gathered and God help Collinsport.

NEXT TIME! We begin Volume 2! Barnabas is back and he sounds proper pissed!   

Justin Partridge has always loved monsters and he thinks that explains a lot about him. When he isn’t over analyzing comics at Newsarama or ranting about Tom Clancy over at Rogues Portal, he is building Call of Cthulhu games, spreading the good word of Anti-Life, or rewatching Garth Marenghi's Darkplace for the dozenth time. He can be reached at the gasping Lovecraftian void that is Twitter @j_partridgeIII or via e-mail at justin@betweenthepanels.com Odds are he will want to talk about Hellblazer.    

Review: Dark Shadows: Bloodlust, Episode 5

By JUSTIN PARTRIDGE

These are the SPOILERS. They are AHEAD. Drink full and descend.

“I forgot what normal was like a long time ago…”

Remember last column when I was moaning about how nothing happened during that episode and I kinda didn’t love it? Well, serve up the holiest of crows, fellow creeps, because holy smokes, does Episode 5 really come back with a vengeance. While everyone was poised juuuuust on the cusp of stories last time, THIS time writers Joseph Lidster, Alan Flanagan, and Will Howells fling every character off the narrative Widows’ Hill they have positioned them on, much to the show’s benefit and my immense enjoyment. Every plot thread hanging at this point is drawn taut, some are even broken, as the serial starts to kick into a higher gear and delves into the in canon pasts of some of our leading ladies. But enough of my preamble-ing, let’s get into it.

Click HERE to get the episode.

So fresh off the truly bugnuts crazy cliffhanger of Amy’s infant son Tommy, who has skirted around the fringes of this story because...ya know...he’s a baby, being dramatically aged up by Angelique, Episode 5 drops us right in the thick of the craziness. Amy Jennings, played with a brand new steel and resolve by Stephanie Ellyne, really takes center stage this episode and it is a delight to behold. After a long incoming confrontation with the philandering Andrew, who seems to have a PHD in gaslighting, she then takes it upon herself to clean up the mess he made down Widows’ Hill. By confronting the immensely powerful woman that wove this magick.

This scene between Lara Parker and Ellyne is the highest point of an episode that is pretty much all high points. The writers give both women a very clear position as Amy appeals to the immortal witch simply as a woman while Angelique is baiting the hook for Amy’s return to witchcraft, dangling the spell to turn Tommy back into a baby in front of her, but only explaining it should Amy agree to perform it herself. It is a classic Dark Shadows stalemate and the production staff and the actresses themselves really get the most they can out of it. Hearing Parker and Ellyne palaver just as women and, more than that, women who have undergone immense trauma and come out the other side is a really powerful turn for the serial. This also builds on the natural rapport with Maggie Evans that Amy has been forming. Kathryn Leigh Scott is still kind of a utility player in this saga as of now, but her warm, resolute energy is a real boon for the story and a testament to the power of Scott’s presence on the show that she basically just be nice to everyone and barely do anything and I still love her.

Hearing Andrew also get his just desserts is also particularly satisfying to hear. The writer’s use this fight to drop a bit of exposition about Amy’s origins before this story as well. As a newcomer to the Big Finishverse, I really appreciate the deft handling of this info dump. It never really drags the scene down, which is great because all the actors involved (Ellyne, Matthew Waterhouse, and Scott Haran) are really giving it their all. Better still, it gives listeners like me a nice slice of context that doesn’t clutter the flow and intensity of the scene. The writers even double down on this move in regards to Kate Ripperton. Speaking of which…

Kate really shines in this episode, which is great because I feared she was starting to move more toward the background of the story in previous episodes. While I have been enjoying her and Frankie (a charming, but kind of bland Roger Carvalho) basically being the romantic leads of the story, I was wondering when they would really get some time in the spotlight and Episode 5 more than delivered on my wish.

Lidster, Flanagan, and Howells give both characters a meaty section of the episode as Kate starts reveal her darker side to Frankie, basically revealing that she lives for all the murder and mayhem that has followed her since seeing her friend possessed on live television. That is why she moved back to Collinsport, not to get answers like she said, but to immerse herself in the darkness that is Collinsport. Asta Perry really kills it during this sequence, dropping Kate’s boozy, flirtatious walls to show a vulnerable hunger for understanding and addict-like attraction to monsters and the supernatural. She ALSO discovered that her boyfriend has been enchanted to never explicitly talk about what is happening at the Collins mine which FINALLY makes some headway in the Mystery of the Mine, which was my second favorite Hardy Boys book. The first, obviously, being The Witchmaster’s Key.

Meanwhile, back at the Blue Whale, Ed is telling every damn body who will listen about his dead wife, much to the terror of his mother, Jessica. This section of the episode is kind of the weakest bits but I am glad to to see that the writer’s aren’t going to drag out the plot for too terribly long. I really like the dynamic between actors Marie Wallace and Jamison Selby (who I have been informed is the son of the famed David! Which is kind of mind-blowing to a newbie like me). They actually feel like mother and son, which makes Jessica’s apparent death this episode all the tougher to process. Yes, the killer stalking Collinsport strike again this episode, claiming her life and it sounds like the life of Andrew as well, though his ganking isn’t any real loss.

But no moment of the episode made my heart soar as much as the cliffhanger did. A cliffhanger that finds one Quentin Collins, DAVID EFFING SELBY HIMSELF, returning to Collinsport. He only gets one line, but I will be damned if it isn’t a great one. And all the sudden I am back in in a big, big way. I will admit that last episode left me pretty cold, but cheese and rice, guys, this one really picked my spirits up. And to think, all it took was some genuine conflict, a gaggle of intensely talented women, and the appearance of yet another Dark Shadows heavy hitter. Things are only going to get better from here and the wise and powerful Wallace McBride has personally promised me that my mind will be blown. I sincerely cannot wait.

NEXT TIME! Episode 6! Who cares what happens?! DAVID SELBY! I even knew it was happening and it was still a delight. Like, I audibly yelped in glee. I named my son after this character, how could I not?! Anyways, be seeing you.

Justin Partridge has always loved monsters and he thinks that explains a lot about him. When he isn’t over analyzing comics at Newsarama or ranting about Tom Clancy over at Rogues Portal, he is building Call of Cthulhu games, spreading the good word of Anti-Life, or rewatching Garth Marenghi's Darkplace for the dozenth time. He can be reached at the gasping Lovecraftian void that is Twitter @j_partridgeIII or via e-mail at justin@betweenthepanels.com Odds are he will want to talk about Hellblazer.

Review: Dark Shadows: Bloodlust, Episode 4

By JUSTIN PARTRIDGE

Click HERE to get the episode.

Abandon All Hope of Avoiding SPOILERS Ye Who Enter Here.

Welcome back, ghoulies! Reporting live from my cramped vestibule of an office here at the CHS, I bring you yet another report on Bloodlust, Big Finish’s first major ongoing serial with the property after numerous “expanded universe” one-off stories and anthologies. Today we are going to talk Episode 4, the story’s first table setting episode and arguably the first low point for the story (at least it was for me, as a listener). Now before you gather your pitchforks and make like Transylvanians (though DID a mob ever come for Dracula? I will have to look in the archives later), that is NOT to say that this episode is outright bad. It totally isn’t! The production staff still make great use of the moody atmosphere they have cultivated so far, they give the cast plenty to do at least laterally, and deliver a truly stunningly weird cliffhanger to send us into the next episode. But all that still doesn’t make this installment’s arrangement of elements and characters any less than just that; arrangements. Again, not bad per se, but just not to the dizzyingly entertaining heights that the previous installments have reached. Let’s talk about it.

Okay, so, yeah, I didn’t love Episode 4. But that doesn’t mean I am phoning this thing in! I don’t even really have a phone. Well, I do, but every time I try to dial out, I hear was can only be described as a “yawning void of white noise” so I mainly just send a lot of memos around here. BUT my Lovecraftian tech support issues aside, there is still a lot of good to be found in this episode.

Mainly Lara Goddamn Parker. This episode gives us another ill-fated meeting between Andrew Cunningham (Matthew Waterhouse, who is really dialing up the sleeze of his character) and the witch Angelique and Parker finds a whole new gear for the character. In the last episode she is bombastic and showy, telegraphing her presence and power through her booming vocal turn and eerie effects backing from directors David Darlington and Ursula Burton. But in this episode, the pair start to talk specifics of their “deal” and Parker really plays it intimately, lowering her voice to a menacing coo, still backed by the ambient noise of the ocean outside of her cave and the ever present whispers of the widows. It really works wonders for the scene and displays Parker’s fantastic range. While it was neat to hear her go “full witch” in the previous episode, I feel like Episode 4 gets some better, creepier things out of Angelique.

There is also the matter of The Collinsport Teens, a group of characters that I find myself increasingly loving. After brushing up against the supernatural side of Collinsport, young Harry has to find someone to confide in. Does he go to the cops? Of course not, because what can the cops do? Does he go to his parents? Piss up a rope with that because what teen wants to talk to their parents? NO, he goes to his friends! The plucky Jackie and the rakish Cody! They don’t really do too terribly much during this episode, save for hear him out and believe him (them being born and raised in God’s Own Spooky Country and all), but I really like this turn from the serial. It gives it a real jolt of youthful energy and really nails the generational make up of the property’s past casts, which gives it all the more “fandom cred”.

Other minor, but nicely deployed reveals are centered around Amy Cunningham and the regulars over at the Blue Whale. You see while Andrew is tom catting around town and meddling in stuff he shouldn’t, Amy is finally looking into his reasons for moving them to Collinsport and what she finds is that, in the immortal words of Phil Collins, it’s all been’a pack’a LIES. The script confirms a suspicion that I had last time, that Andrew has looked into Amy’s packed away magick materials and learned about the hidden face of Collinsport. But it ALSO reveals that he has basically lied the whole way there, uprooting his family in order to track down ill gotten fortune and power, using his “recommendation” to the Star as a cover. Classic soapy stuff and one that will hopefully lead to Andrew getting some kind of bloody comeuppance, either at the hands of Amy or Angelique. I vote keelhauling.

This episode also takes a much more Stephen King-ian turn back the Blue Whale between Frankie and Ed. Ed, who has been slowly cracking thanks to Sheriff Tate’s questioning and his interactions with his ghostly wife, finally decides to give up the ghost (I am so sorry) and tell someone about his returned wife. This thread doesn’t really go beyond that, but it is a really nice way to finally get Frankie in on the action of the narrative, aside from just him providing an alibi for everyone that discovered Melody’s body. It is also a nice bit of grounded creepiness for the serial, supporting all the witchy action happening back at the base of Widows’ Hill.

I think a lot of this episode is really hung up on trying to get certain characters to certain places in order to really start to move forward, but the rub is, they don’t REALLY follow through on it. That’s where my use of the phrase “table setting episode” comes from. I once read a book that said act breaks should be marked by the characters making a decision that they can’t come back from. By that metric, this episode gets the characters riiiiiight up until the moment they will decide to do something but then stops cold. I know that that is kind of the nature of serialized storytelling and it was only a matter of time before Bloodlust took a bit of a dip, but if this is their version of a dip in quality, then we are still in pretty good shape.

NEXT TIME! Episode 5! The youngest Cunningham is now big, thanks to Angelique, but what does that mean for the Cunninghams? Will Andrew gaslight Amy some more? And seriously, WHAT THE HELL IS IN THAT MINE?! All these answers and more (hopefully) next time.   

Justin Partridge has always loved monsters and he thinks that explains a lot about him. When he isn’t over analyzing comics at Newsarama or ranting about Tom Clancy over at Rogues Portal, he is building Call of Cthulhu games, spreading the good word of Anti-Life, or rewatching Garth Marenghi's Darkplace for the dozenth time. He can be reached at the gasping Lovecraftian void that is Twitter @j_partridgeIII or via e-mail at justin@betweenthepanels.com Odds are he will want to talk about Hellblazer.