nuDynasty Episode Chat S5E22: Catch 22 (last episode)

[tommie]

Re: Sammy Jo - I said it the moment they decided to turn him into a gay man; that they were going to de-claw him and make him into the nice gay guy... and that's what happened. Then again - it also happened on the OG when they decided to make Sammy Jo a regular and not a drop-in. Ironically, Beto did seem to fill in that role in that role that Sammy Jo had (drop in villain to manipulate Cristal) - had the show gone on I could've seen him being back and up to more mischiefs.

 

[tommie]

I can fully understand how the writers became so divided on Adam's fate.

I think there's another factor that a lot of people on this forum forget - the viewership that's noticeable on social media are largely young females; they usually don't want the sort of dark endings where Adam properly gets his comeuppence and dies. You usually see this in the various forums about night time soap operas too - people who watched these shows as young don't want to see the sort of messy complex endings and want their happy ones. So Adam's ending fits with the shows profile audience.

(But this also comes back to me never being particularly disappointed in the show - the moment it landed on the CW I knew exactly what sort of audience it would pander towards - see also: Sammy Jo.)

 

[Daniel Avery]

Now that the dust is settling, I guess I can do a little nitpicking. I hear it helps with the grieving process.

Note how, in Steven's face/off reveal to Sam, how "Graham's" well-fitting shirt suddenly goes limp and doesn't fit as well once Steven reveals himself:

I know they were in their final weeks of filming, but would it have busted the budget for wardrobe to have bought two shirts (one for each actor)?

 

[Lankershim Blasdel 1]

“Graham” was in better shape than Steven.
I think it was the 3 years of being drugged up in that Paris mental institution that made him a little soft.
I’m glad for the reboot,
I enjoyed S1 and most of 2.
I just wished they had kept the dark tone the show had in the last part of 1 into 2.
That scene with Anders dumping Mack’s body in the lake while Blake and C2 look on and walk away, it evened out the fluff we were getting in the second season.
Even when Alexis arrived with her Hank scheme a woman who was able to lie about her presumed dead son who she hadn’t seen since he was an infant , I thought they were going to make her worse than the OG, then season 2 happened.
Too bad they listened to those focus groups, idiots at the CW, bottom of the barrel, low rent network.
And btw why would Culhane get married at the manor it should have ended up being Steven and Sam

 

[tommie]

The first half of season 1 was so-so, I thought they course-corrected nicely in the second half.
Season 2 was wildly uneven and way too many one episode plots (Sammy Jo's were especially horrendous this season), but also the odd really good episodes (like Alexis shooting Mark, Adam's re-appearance and then shoving mama Alexis's face into the fireplace).
Season 3 was the first season where I felt they had a consistent thread through out the season, shame it got cut short with co-vid.
Season 4 is probably the one I want to re-visit eventually - I feel like it started out so-so but I also feel like a lot were being set up that I didn't catch when I first watched. Dominique was really redeemed as a character this season.
Season 5 started out very strongly, especially with the Rita arc which was played straight-faced and wisely stayed away from trying to explain or justify it. Unfortunately, they started threading water, probably because the show's fate was up in the air. I would've liked to have seen what they would've cooked up if the shows future hadn't been so uncertain, but at least it gave us closure on major dropped storyline points.

 

[tommie]

Also, since we're talking about prospethics, I actually wanted Alexis at one point to peel off a part of her face and show huge scarring (think Kimberly-pulls-off-her wig in Melrose Place), showing that maybe the plastic surgery wasn't as effective as we thought probably in relation to her finally turning fully on Adam.

 

[Lankershim Blasdel 1]

More like a Stepford wife robot underneath
If that was in the finale I would have taken back all my criticism
She performed it perfectly

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

You usually see this in the various forums about night time soap operas too - people who watched these shows as young (viewers) don't want to see the sort of messy complex endings and want their happy ones.

When I was young and watching these shows, I never pined for contrived happy endings at all. But I wasn't a girl.

Anyway, sometimes, like with EMPIRE, I wondered if the nuDYNASTY writers were reading our forum.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I watched the nighttime soaps and daytime soaps simultaneously in the 1980s/early 1990s and became aware of the differences that were necessary for their unique places in TV, even as so many people tried to put them all in the same box. Nighttime had the budget to do "better looking" stuff and of course had the larger following, but daytime had the luxury of time to play out many more story beats and develop characters further.

I think those who grew up on "never-ending" daytime soaps (and became accustomed to their techniques) understand better that you have to have a fairly large number of "unhappy endings" for the characters, but that these are to be expected, since real life isn't always happy. It is rewarding to the viewer, however, to watch those characters recover from bad events and become stronger, maybe even happier. It gives the viewer a sense that they're "along for the ride" with that character. It was also understood that a happy, unconflicted character on a daytime soap was a boring character who was likely to be written out because the writers had run out of ideas for him or her.

The final scenes of NuDynasty didn't make me think everyone would be living happily ever after, though having some key events occur like Lauren's birth and Steven's return made it feel that there would be a bit more love in the air. They made sure we knew that Alexis and Dominique would still be sniping at one another, and that Blake, Cristal, and Fallon would all be elbowing each other at times where Carrington United was concerned. I think they wanted the viewer to come away with the feeling that they'd continue to be more or less like they've always been, but that some ongoing issues had been overcome that might allow them to move forward with less conflict than before. The three characters who had been most at loose ends---Kirby, Sam, and Culhane---are all now in committed relationships, and the extraction of Adam from their lives could only help the family move forward. The looks that I saw Blake giving Alexis during their search-and-rescue mission (respect for her tenacity and determination, maybe even a bit of admiration for just how far she'd go to save Dex) gives me the feeling that he now has a more positive
view of her after all this time. This will certainly help them tolerate one another in the future.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I wonder what would have happened, had they done the proper continuation --- which the fanbase would have preferred -- with the original oldDYNASTY actors, And maybe Gilles played Lauren and de la Fuente played Adam's gay son.

 

[xab]

I've been curious enough to watch the last 4 episodes. I stopped watching a while ago. I just read recaps here and there, wich comforted my decision. (Well, hardly a decision, I was just bored.)

What a lame and rushed ending... The Reunion is a masterpiece compared to... this.

A mask.

They took the mask road to reintroduce Steven. They did.

Ok. I missed nothing.

Let's firget all that and fly back to Denver, where the Carringtons and Colbys truely belong.

I did hope and expect Dame Joan Collins to get out of her bed, go to her bathroom, open her shower and find out Linda Evans swearing to her old nemesis the crap "was all a dream and nothing happened"... A la Pamela Ewing.

Unfortunately it was no dream and everything happened.

 

[MenaceTheDennis]

Aside from Adam getting away with everything (he was banished from the family, but how is making a decent living as a vet any real punishment), and the mask thing (ridiculous, but this coming from a show where Gillies played her own mother), I thought it was a decent send off, for what this show was. Characters acted like human beings, not prolonged SNL skits. It maybe could’ve benefited more from a 90 minute send off to better explain Graham, maybe a friend or husband of Steven now, assisting him in taking care of Adam, instead of it being Steven ripping off a mask, and letting the family know what Adam pulled, but oh well. Joan Collins as Alexis, at the end, dreaming it would’ve been the best!

 

[Rove]

I've been curious enough to watch the last 4 episodes.

You're game...I just went to the final episode - ever - on Netflix. From the opening scene of Liam hooning down a hallway with some pregnant character in a wheelchair, only to be stopped by Fallon using her smartphone as a stop watch....right there....I knew I hadn't missed much. From this point it was only a matter of fast forwarding to any scenes of Steven.

Over the last several weeks I've been watching some of those Spanish series with 'soapish' elements. They are so damn good compared to The CW Dynasty as they are playing it all straight.

 

[TheWorldaStage]

And btw why would Culhane get married at the manor it should have ended up being Steven and Sam

Even if it would be predictable, would have been much better.

Why would Culhane move to L.A. with his fiancé (maybe they didn't move yet, anyway) then come back to be married in Blake's house? When Blake/Blake's company was/is indirectly/directly responsible for his father's death. Culhane moved past it in his own way but still. And why would the fiancé agree to marry in a random wealthy guy's house in a city she has no interest or connection to? Every bride's dream! Romantic! At least their proposal was nice.

Also by the end of this series, I decided (personally for me) Culhane is by far the #1 most useless character of the entire series. He is definitely not important enough to have his wedding in the series finale. I was previously somewhat neutral on him. But if you took Culhane out of the equation, the only real impact he had was being in a love triangle with Fallon and Liam. Yeah, he did some other stuff but it was pretty weak, boring or random plots to keep him on the show. Though I didn't mind his friendship with Sam at times.

 

[TheWorldaStage]

Do you think if the show continued they would have Ben and Adam team up? But I don't think Ben would trust Adam - too much of a loose cannon maybe.

 

[Daniel Avery]

it should have ended up being Steven and Sam

The only possible reason I can imagine why it wasn't their (re-)wedding was the show's exhaustive efforts to keep the secret of James MacKay's return for the finale.
A soap wedding takes a lot of planning and a lot of crew members have to be involved in the staging. They likely wanted as few people as possible to know he was going to be returning, so he could not be a major player in one of the more difficult series of scenes to film.

I mentioned in an earlier thread how I thought keeping the secret was counter-productive, since it was one of those plot points that, if properly publicized, might have enticed lapsed viewers back to watch the finale and sent the show off with a decent-sized audience bump. Nevertheless, they did a pretty good job of keeping the secret. It only leaked out because MacKay signed an autograph onto a poster or something that had several other current cast members' autographs on it. It "placed him at the scene," so to speak, leading others to dig and find on-set photos and such.

I totally agree that Nina and Culhane as the marrying couple in the finale was kind of weird. If anything, Culhane ought to have invited some members of the family (Fallon, Kirby, Steven, maybe Amanda) to his wedding, which would have been held at La Garbage*.

Speaking of which, it would have been logical for Culhane to sell his half of the hotel to Steven.

* I just realized how much I'm going to miss calling Sam's hotel by that name.

 

[TheWorldaStage]

I totally agree that Nina and Culhane as the marrying couple in the finale was kind of weird. If anything, Culhane ought to have invited some members of the family (Fallon, Kirby, Steven, maybe Amanda) to his wedding, which would have been held at La Garbage*.

Speaking of which, it would have been logical for Culhane to sell his half of the hotel to Steven.

* I just realized how much I'm going to miss calling Sam's hotel by that name.

Yes and yes.

 

[TheWorldaStage]

Do you think if the show continued they would have Ben and Adam team up? But I don't think Ben would trust Adam - too much of a loose cannon maybe.

Continuing my thought here.

Although on some level Adam may be angry/hurt and would like to burn his family to the ground (though that may be more of Ben's thing against Blake), that is not truly what Adam wants deep down - which is acceptance, approval and love.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Adam was very easily led when someone showed him affection, which was a major flaw in a character who was supposed to be so manipulative and evil. It would have been very easy for someone like Ben to swoop in and convince Adam to ally with him against the family.

In the Show In My Head (which, believe me, was much more fun), the show was not about to be cancelled, so Ben's arrival would have been a longer plotline with more twists and turns. One such twist would have been Ben blackmailing Adam to be Ben's "man on the inside". If Adam refused to cooperate, Ben promised to reveal to everyone what Adam had done to Steven. He'd keep saying "what you did to Steven" in this contemptuous tone that sounded like Steven was dead, but would never actually say he was dead (because he wasn't, obviously). Adam would keep going along, feeding info to Ben and his lawyers, but Adam would feel so rotten about it that he would hatch a plot to kill off dear ol' Uncle Ben.

But Show In My Head was never picked up to series, so that'll never happen.

 

[tommie]

The Ben plotline was definitively cut short due to the show ending. As I said in the previous episode thread(s), getting Charisma Carpenter for a role that sort of ended up almost like a cameo was likely not part of the plan. I definitively see Ben manipulating Adam. They clearly changed a lot in those last few episodes - the time jump for the pregnancy being the obvious one since it didn't really affect any of the other plotlines that were going lol