Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Dark Shadows Vs Netflix


Once upon a time, Dark Shadows was available in its entirety as part of Netflix's "On Demand" service.

And then, according to comments on the show's Netflix page, it wasn't.

All that is available right now are the episodes on the first four DVD collections, which gets you to the beginning of the 1795 story arc. If you visit the Dark Shadows page on Netflix you'll see a lot of unhappy people responding to the change. Here is a small sampling of the comments:
  • "What happened to the rest of the collection? This is one of the main reason I joined in the first place. PLEASE release all the collections! When I started watching Dark Shadows, all the series were shown in the DVD section...where did they go?"
  • "Where did Dark Shadows: The Beginning Collection go? And all of the others are gone now too along with Upstairs, Downstairs...What is going on??? BOOOOOOOO"
  • "Was about to set down and start to watch this and realized it started with with episode210! REALLY Nutflix! That's so not cool. So I will not bother!"
  • "PLEASE PUT THE REST OF THE SERIES ON INSTANT PLAY PLEASE!!!!! I NEED MORE. IT WAS JUST STARTING TO GET REALLY GOOD."
And so on. And those are just a few comments from the first of 45 pages of responses. I was too faint of hear to proceed any further.

On a related note, there is a Facebook page devoted to petitioning Netflix to make the entire series available to customers. It's titled, appropriately enough, Netflix Restore Dark Shadows In It's Entirety. Based on the comments on the Facebook page it appears Netflix let a few of the DVD collections fall away from its mail service, but those look to have been restored. I don't see why this Facebook page couldn't apply to the On Demand service, as well.

I've "Liked" it and suggest you do, too. Even if you don't have (or want) Netflix, wouldn't the world be a better place with a few more Dark Shadows fans?

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Netflix is becoming as lame and apathetic about servicing their PAYING customers as eBay. Netflix needs to bring back all Dark Shadows to streaming.

Anonymous said...

I was considering joining netflix for the express reason that they had all of the Dark Shadows episodes.I guess now I needen't bother.

Cousin Barnabas said...

You're not the first person to say that. The comments on the Netflix DARK SHADOWS page are littered with disappointed customers who signed up just to see DS and feel cheated.

Anonymous said...

I just started getting into Dark Shadows on Netflix and am on Collection 10. However, I see that Collection 11, 14 and 15 are not available, but the others up ot 26 are. WTF!! I don't want to miss any of the shows.

Anonymous said...

I joined Netflix with great anticipation to watch Dark Shadows, only to find out they only show the middle episodes. I was so disappointed. I am going to cancel my membership. Netflix sucks.

Mark said...

UPDATE - Collection 11 is now available, but it's very long wait for disc 3 (I've been waiting about a month) I got so frustrated that I bought it on Amazon for 20 bucks.

Does anybody know another way to watch all the episodes online?

Cousin Barnabas said...

The only other place that has episodes streaming online is Hulu, but they've got fewer than 100 episodes available.

antisocialist said...

Not sure why everyone is so quick to blame Netflix. I spoke with them and they are having issues getting the rights to rent some of the disks because one of the actors hasn't signed off. That person is where the blame should go.

Anonymous said...

Why should Netflix or anyone else for that matter, be allowed to have the right to stream all the Dark Shadow episodes free, when there has been thousands of other fans, like myself, who did the right thing and bought the entire series on Amazon, after the movie with Johnny Depp came out. After all, the people who are viewing these episodes "free", are robbing the actors from the show, the royalties they deserve!!!

Anonymous said...

be nice if you could get DS on Amazon Prime

Cousin Barnabas said...

Actually, Netflix is a pay service. Netflix pays MPI Home Video for the rights to stream DARK SHADOWS, then customers have to pay Netflix to watch them.

Cousin Barnabas said...

I've had issues with the quality of Amazon's streaming videos. The picture and sound quality aren't nearly as sharp as Netflix, but yeah ... that would be a nice alternative.

Anonymous said...

i was a Netflix member for a year and then I quit because they have no commitment to customer satisfaction. And this is a good example.

dmontgomster said...

Are you sure it's just Netflix at fault? Maybe MPI Video, or more likely, Dan Curtis Enterprises, now run by Jim Pierson, now wants to make money selling the videos. (At this year's Festival, Pierson was auctioning awards from Dan Curtis' office, such as one he had won for The Winds of War. I thought that was rather poor taste.)

dmontgomster said...

Are you sure it's just Netflix at fault? Maybe MPI Video, or more likely, Dan Curtis Enterprises, now run by Jim Pierson, now wants to make money selling the videos. (At this year's Festival, Pierson was auctioning awards from Dan Curtis' office, such as one he had won for The Winds of War. I thought that was rather poor taste.)

Anonymous said...

Has netflix resolved this issue yet? I'm sure there are a lot of angry people out there.

Mikey

Angelique said...

Does anyone know of a site where you can watch all of the Dark Shadows?

Unknown said...

Netflix is straight pimping

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