Oh, Season 2 -- such calm, mature clarity

Snarky Oracle!

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... no nervous rambling about pretentious nothings while avoiding an actual plot.

 

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... no nervous rambling about pretentious nothings while avoiding an actual plot.


Linda. looks. DYNAMITE.

And she murdered the scene. Her restraint. Her strength. Her vulnerability!!! QUEEN!!!!

:lol:

Joannie makes you wanna scream. When she played Alexis with this cool yet vicious calm, you didn't know whether to ball up and cry or rip her limb from limb. Hence Linda's perfect reactions almost every time.

There will never be two more like they.

Never.

I said... Never.
 

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BRAVO. The potential of this storyline was never fully reached, for me. I liked someone's season 10 fanfiction that attempted to complete the arc with Alexis' tormented nightmares while hospitalized following the Carlton fall, where she was confronted by the spirit of that child. It was great!
 

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What would have happened if the show had stayed like this -- well written and well acted and where the past seems real?

We would have overdosed--so the brass started diluting it to protect us. :lmao:
DYNASTY suffered because the Shapiros did not care enough to mind the ship day to day and especially to bring the Pollocks back to their senses when needed, which was frequent. Also because too many people started to have a say in what DYNASTY "should look like" and "feel like." Too many cooks and all that. That's where Steven's sudden heteroconversion came from, and led to the fist actor departure.
When the Shapiros were forced to work and oversee the writers, they could do wonders. Look how they transformed the latter half of season six. It felt like DYNASTY again, which it had not felt so since season four. And while Paulsen himself was a good choice for season nine, I think the mere fact that there was a single showrunner and a single creative vision for the show was itself more important than the fact that this was Paulsen. The lesser seasons, or the lesser parts of mixed seasons, always felt adrift. Seasons one and two have an amazing sense of purpose and direction.
 

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Also because too many people started to have a say in what DYNASTY "should look like" and "feel like."
Maybe that was partially in response to the audience, or media (although things weren't so interactive back then).
They want glamour and over-the-top? Let's bedazzle them some more!
Unfortunately, at the expense of more important ingredients.
 

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And while Paulsen himself was a good choice for season nine, I think the mere fact that there was a single showrunner and a single creative vision for the show was itself more important than the fact that this was Paulsen.
Oh, I can't really go along with that. I'd heard in the spring of 1988 that a "Dallas head honcho" would be taking over DYNASTY in the fall, but it wasn't until I saw the first episode of season 9 that I realized that it was the DALLAS honcho who'd made DALLAS work so well from 1982 to 1985 and again in '86/'87, because his style was written all over this new season of DYNASTY (even though it was clearly too late to save it, especially given the time slot change).

Believe me, if, say, Howard Lakin had taken over Season 9 of DYNASTY, it wouldn't have been the same thing at all.

 
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From that............ to this:

Oh, I know... vapid, listless, unfocused.... Joan tries to keep it flowing, while Linda's less-is-more approach -- though better than squeaking -- comes off like her Klonopin dosage needs to be adjusted.

It's the producers' fault, though. There's no reason that this scene shouldn't work -- except for the fact that Alexis correctly calls Krystle's bluff, and that empty threat which shouldn't be empty has everything to do with why the moment can't work.
 

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Joannie makes you wanna scream. When she played Alexis with this cool yet vicious calm, you didn't know whether to ball up and cry or rip her limb from limb. Hence Linda's perfect reactions almost every time.
How the hell did Joan know how to play that role so damn perfectly? How was it all so good. The perfect ingredients.
 

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How the hell did Joan know how to play that role so damn perfectly? How was it all so good. The perfect ingredients.

Because Alexis was everything Joan ever wanted to be and more. Having spent her life playing understudy, handmaiden, and low-budget leftover pick-up gal to the diva-actresses of yore, she knew that woman. When it came time to put on the other shoe, I think it just came natural.

And as The Stud and her 70's tell-all do attest, she was familiar with the... other elements of Alexis. Very quickly, the writers, in all their pre-fanfic glory, just started to write from her life experiences and previous roles. In doing so, they essentially tricked her into sinking her teeth even deeper into the role, though she may not have even realized the projection was helping her performance.

She knew the character of Alexis before it was even put to page. Nobody could've played it like her.
 
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Oh, I know... vapid, listless, unfocused.... Joan tries to keep it flowing, while Linda's less-is-more approach -- though better than squeaking -- comes off like her Klonopin dosage needs to be adjusted.

It's the producers' fault, though. There's no reason that this scene shouldn't work -- except for the fact that Alexis correctly calls Krystle's bluff, and that empty threat which shouldn't be empty has everything to do with why the moment can't work.

This scene has so much going for it (Krystle on the attack and Alexis on the defense, the past being used in a meaningful way) but Linda Evans's heart isn't in it. She wanted out and it shows. Krystle should have been furious that the woman who killed her child is trying to be the governor of Colorado, but instead she acts as if she is simply upset Blake is being inconvenienced by Alexis' run. Of course the director is someone new they brought in for a couple of episodes (Harry Falk) so I am willing to bet whatever Joan Collins brought to the scene was brought by her (no Don Medford or Irving J. Moore or Jerome Courtland).
 

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It's been a long time since I've watched a Dynasty episode, and I had almost forgotton how interesting the contrast between their voices is.
The flashbacks are interesting but also a little funny-hokey because it suggests there are long pauses in this conversation. They should have shown the old scene, and then have Krystle describe the situation - as if she were revealing the culprit in a murder mystery.

Still, at this point I didn't know how serious or unserious Krystle's threat was, so I suppose the script was effective enough.
Krystle looks gorgeous in this scene, and Alexis' big, flashy necklace looks like a shield, or a weapon to blind her enemy.
 
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A couple of Youtube posters mention their surprise at how different Krystle's voice is in these Season 2 scenes, how much "deeper" and more authoritative, than the high-pitched squeaky one they're used to hearing in the subsequent seasons.

They clearly haven't visited Soapchat. But it shows that objective, detached viewers picks up on it, too, even if they don't know how to analyze it.

Still, at this point I didn't know how serious or unserious Krystle's threat was, so I suppose the script was effective enough.
It's not serious, the threat from Krystle in the Season 8 season posted. Blake says "don't" and so Krystle stops pursuing it. Storyline over.
 

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than the high-pitched squeaky one they're used to hearing in the subsequent seasons.
I like her voice in this scene, it's smoke-y and velvety, like her hair and fur.
But it must be difficult to raise and contain your voice at the same time. It usually sounds false.
Joan's voice was also softer in her first seasons.
Blake says "don't" and so Krystle stops pursuing it
Before this scene? Did we already know that she couldn't or wouldn't do it?
 

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I like her voice in this scene, it's smoke-y and velvety, like her hair and fur.
But it must be difficult to raise and contain your voice at the same time. It usually sounds false.
Joan's voice was also softer in her first seasons.

Before this scene? Did we already know that she couldn't or wouldn't do it?

yeah, in the beginning of the episode Blake tells her he wants to win based on issues, not character assassination. There had also been some references in season 8 that the Alexis-Blake relationship has been different/not so hostile after Singapore
 

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I like her voice in this scene, it's smoke-y and velvety, like her hair and fur.
Yes, this season 8 scene at least doesn't have her typical shrieky stuff. But, as I said, her less-is-more approach is almost too subdued in this -- and I'm usually all for Krystle being self-restrained.

Krystle's whispering beats Krystle's mousy bleats any day of the week, but I'm not sure it fits in this scene: she doesn't seem composed or effectively minimalistic, but drugged.
 
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