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Dallas the TV series
Dallas - The Original Series
Dallas Season Reviews
Watching Season 12 (DVD) for the First Time
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<blockquote data-quote="JROG" data-source="post: 99088" data-attributes="member: 43"><p><u><span style="font-family: 'Arial'">EPISODE 3: CALL OF THE WILD</span></u></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'">Wow. Exactly what to say about this episode? Not sure.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'">Let’s start with the good stuff: Sue Ellen wanting to rekindle her relationship with Cliff to get back at J.R. I feel that was a natural step to take, and Cliff’s refusal was interesting. After his fight with April, however, there’s a chance he may change his mind. The show remembers Nicholas! Took three episodes but at least it happened.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'">The McKay story is… interesting. Very <em>Desperate Housewives</em> before there was a <em>Desperate Housewives</em>. The tone zigzags between serious and whimsical (the stuff with The Redhead) causing a little bit of whiplash. Still, I can’t pretend I’m not invested in seeing how this goes.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'">Miss Ellie takes the week off. Boo. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'">Casey's finally back and he’s hit oil. I was excited until his character was rewritten: He’s suddenly a pompous, deceitful ass. And this is where trying to review the show becomes complicated: All this fits great in DALLAS. The <em>idea</em> behind it is solid. One can even understand why he’d suddenly be full of himself (big man, big bucks, big dick) and set his goals very high. But the execution of it is so abrupt and poor, it ends up feeling more like character assassination. I can’t even tell if the show wants us to agree with him, sympathize with his big-man actions, or condemn him for what he’s become. It’s muddled and unclear.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'">They’ve invested zero time showing us this change in Casey and the execution doesn’t help make up for it. Even if you’re drunk with success, you don’t randomly start saying things like, "Darling, you don’t know how <em>big</em>, and I’m man enough for anyone." The worst of it is when he tells Sly, "You’re <em>just</em> a secretary and that’s all you’re ever gonna be." This is the woman who stood by him, who believed in him when <em>no one</em> else would. She supported and encouraged him no matter what, so for him to say something like this to her without the <em>slightest</em> consideration for what she’s done for him, is complete assassination, and I’m not even sure the writers meant it that way. He could still decide to set his sights higher but find a different way to go about it. Horrible execution. They better fix this, or he can die.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'">This also means that Lucy is ending up with <em>another</em> loser. His looking around Southfork went way past ambition to direct villainy, and none of it jives with what we’ve seen of Casey so far. I guess a slow transition would have been too much to ask?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'">And then of course there’s the hunting crap (complete with safari jacket for J.R.). I’m not against the idea of the trip (nice callback to The Dove Hunt) but it’s written backwards. Suddenly, you have no sense of there ever having been any trouble between J.R. and Bobby. Clayton hears Bobby will be alone in the wilderness with a gun-carrying J.R. and casually offers a genuine wish that they have a good time (with <em>J.R.</em>?). J.R. is written like a macho, hunting expert (<em>J.R.</em>?). He’s also an excellent shot (<em>J.R.</em>?!!). Gone is the humor that used to subtly poke fun at J.R.’s physical inabilities.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'">It’s actually pretty sad to see John Ross’ kind and gentle spirit snuffed out. J.R.’s words are actions are borderline abusive. As a concept, really good. But then John Ross smiles proudly after making a kill in a sudden way that makes no sense based on all that’s built up to it (even if he is proud to have succeeded) and the show is, once more, on his side.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'">Then, there’s J.R. himself. First of all, seeing him with a woman that looks 15 max is not only weird, but disgusting. He refers to her as a "beautiful, unspoiled thing" (barf) and then says this of himself: "I’ve been special all my life!" For some reason, Cally is hot for his geriatric ass. They made a point of the fact that she doesn’t know what a Ewing is, so the insinuation is that she really, truly finds him attractive (and not, say, Bobby).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'">When you notice Hagman’s name on the Executive Producer credit, it all starts to make more sense. Hagman got himself a "beautiful, unspoiled thing" to play with. I knew this to be the case even before reading Curran’s invaluable book and her entry for this episode: The casting was done with Katzman and Hagman present and that he was instrumental in the development of the Halleyville scenario and the show doing more ‘physical’ stuff. <em>Really</em>? You don’t say?!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Arial'">DDD</span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="JROG, post: 99088, member: 43"] [U][FONT=Arial]EPISODE 3: CALL OF THE WILD[/FONT][/U] [FONT=Arial] Wow. Exactly what to say about this episode? Not sure. Let’s start with the good stuff: Sue Ellen wanting to rekindle her relationship with Cliff to get back at J.R. I feel that was a natural step to take, and Cliff’s refusal was interesting. After his fight with April, however, there’s a chance he may change his mind. The show remembers Nicholas! Took three episodes but at least it happened. The McKay story is… interesting. Very [I]Desperate Housewives[/I] before there was a [I]Desperate Housewives[/I]. The tone zigzags between serious and whimsical (the stuff with The Redhead) causing a little bit of whiplash. Still, I can’t pretend I’m not invested in seeing how this goes. Miss Ellie takes the week off. Boo. Casey's finally back and he’s hit oil. I was excited until his character was rewritten: He’s suddenly a pompous, deceitful ass. And this is where trying to review the show becomes complicated: All this fits great in DALLAS. The [I]idea[/I] behind it is solid. One can even understand why he’d suddenly be full of himself (big man, big bucks, big dick) and set his goals very high. But the execution of it is so abrupt and poor, it ends up feeling more like character assassination. I can’t even tell if the show wants us to agree with him, sympathize with his big-man actions, or condemn him for what he’s become. It’s muddled and unclear. They’ve invested zero time showing us this change in Casey and the execution doesn’t help make up for it. Even if you’re drunk with success, you don’t randomly start saying things like, "Darling, you don’t know how [I]big[/I], and I’m man enough for anyone." The worst of it is when he tells Sly, "You’re [I]just[/I] a secretary and that’s all you’re ever gonna be." This is the woman who stood by him, who believed in him when [I]no one[/I] else would. She supported and encouraged him no matter what, so for him to say something like this to her without the [I]slightest[/I] consideration for what she’s done for him, is complete assassination, and I’m not even sure the writers meant it that way. He could still decide to set his sights higher but find a different way to go about it. Horrible execution. They better fix this, or he can die. This also means that Lucy is ending up with [I]another[/I] loser. His looking around Southfork went way past ambition to direct villainy, and none of it jives with what we’ve seen of Casey so far. I guess a slow transition would have been too much to ask? And then of course there’s the hunting crap (complete with safari jacket for J.R.). I’m not against the idea of the trip (nice callback to The Dove Hunt) but it’s written backwards. Suddenly, you have no sense of there ever having been any trouble between J.R. and Bobby. Clayton hears Bobby will be alone in the wilderness with a gun-carrying J.R. and casually offers a genuine wish that they have a good time (with [I]J.R.[/I]?). J.R. is written like a macho, hunting expert ([I]J.R.[/I]?). He’s also an excellent shot ([I]J.R.[/I]?!!). Gone is the humor that used to subtly poke fun at J.R.’s physical inabilities. It’s actually pretty sad to see John Ross’ kind and gentle spirit snuffed out. J.R.’s words are actions are borderline abusive. As a concept, really good. But then John Ross smiles proudly after making a kill in a sudden way that makes no sense based on all that’s built up to it (even if he is proud to have succeeded) and the show is, once more, on his side. Then, there’s J.R. himself. First of all, seeing him with a woman that looks 15 max is not only weird, but disgusting. He refers to her as a "beautiful, unspoiled thing" (barf) and then says this of himself: "I’ve been special all my life!" For some reason, Cally is hot for his geriatric ass. They made a point of the fact that she doesn’t know what a Ewing is, so the insinuation is that she really, truly finds him attractive (and not, say, Bobby). When you notice Hagman’s name on the Executive Producer credit, it all starts to make more sense. Hagman got himself a "beautiful, unspoiled thing" to play with. I knew this to be the case even before reading Curran’s invaluable book and her entry for this episode: The casting was done with Katzman and Hagman present and that he was instrumental in the development of the Halleyville scenario and the show doing more ‘physical’ stuff. [I]Really[/I]? You don’t say?! DDD[/FONT] [/QUOTE]
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Dallas Season Reviews
Watching Season 12 (DVD) for the First Time
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