Dark Shadows: The Beginning

So thanks to the wonders of Netflix I decided to recently embark upon a most adventurous quest.  I remember seeing episodes of "Dark Shadows" here and there as a kid, but the memories are vague.  I also remember being somewhat scared by what I'd seen.  Then one day about 6 months ago it hit me.  I realized that I was a bit behind on my pop culture and had never truly experienced the phenomenon known as "Dark Shadows".  So upon receiving my first disc in the mail I immediately boarded a train to mysterious Collinsport, Maine and delved right into "Dark Shadows: The Beginning Collection". Producer/director Dan Curtis- the man responsible for such gems as "Kolchak: The Night Stalker/Night Strangler", "Trilogy of Terror", "Burnt Offerings", and "The Norliss Tapes" (all highly recommended, by the way!) apparently had a dream about a young woman on a train to a spooky Victorian mansion.  This dream led to a highly unusual daytime Gothic soap on ABC that premiered in 1966.  The first (and rarely seen) season starts with orphan Victoria Winters traveling to gloomy Collinsport, Maine with a new job as governess of Collinwood, ran by strong-willed yet slightly mad Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (played by the great Joan Bennett)- matriarch of the strange and powerful Collins family. For some strange reason, she has never left Collinwood- for eighteen years she has roamed the halls of her mansion.  Full of howling windstorms and wonderful Gothic atmosphere, "Dark Shadows" is instantly addicting.  Somewhat slow-paced, but still highly entertaining as Victoria delves further and further into the forbidding secrets and ghostly legends of the Collins clan.  Anything outright supernatural has been missing so far- ghosts have only been hinted at, until the last episode when I witnessed the actual spirit of long-dead Josette Collins.  Finally!  I'm within a few episodes of introducing vampire Barnabas Collins, who during the entire first season has been locked away in his coffin somewhere.  Right now I'm about 15 episodes away from discovering Barnabas, I think.  The suspense is killing me...