Dearest Chester.....

I'm so grateful to you for burning me a copy of the very first disc in the Dark Shadows series. However, the audio track is conveniently faster than the video, or something, so the words never match the mouths. I was worried I wouldn't get any giggles out of this, considering my dour nature.

XXOO Grumpy

I'm So Heavy!

This is going to be a bit tedious. Chester was correct about needing only one eye and/or ear on this show at any given moment. I just can't keep my face on it for too long at a time. The acting isn't bad, but so far it isn't worth actually watching yet. There's an awful lot of really loaded statements being made by people who aren't revealing any details of themselves so much as behaving like they're carrying something extremely important on their shoulders:

[Deliver line in low, slowly paced voice with just enough of a stuffy, faux British accent to sound, you know, "continental", and with a touch of indignation so everyone believes you really, really mean it. This works best if you speak only to someone's back or with your own back turned to them. Take several paces across room and repeat. And remember, that trench coat or cocktail dress you are wearing is soaking wet and made of wool.]

I must add here that the show is set in Maine, just outside of Bangor. These people apparently don't ever leave their town and rarely talk to anyone but their own clan, and everyone gathers on the phone every night for vocal lessons from Douglas Fairbanks.