Dream season questions!!!!

[Pamela_E]

I agree. “I feel as if I were standing at the edge of my life, looking back at all the wonderful things that aren’t there anymore." It's a very poignant scene, all the more so for being so unexpected.

The music's nice in 'Family Ewing', but distractingly Spanish.



I don't think it's just Ellie. I think it's the whole of that season opening episode. Only an hour or two have passed since the events of 'Swan Song', yet it feels more like days or even longer. There's a lack of raw emotion, of anguish and amazement at what has just happened. Sue Ellen doesn't even ask how Bobby died. This is TV movie grief: it doesn't transcend the soap genre the way key moments in 'Swan Song' did or the way KNOTS LANDING habitually did when portraying extreme emotions. Pam's hysteria comes closest to cutting through the gloss, but there's still something muted about it. There's nothing wrong with Victoria Principal's performance exactly, but somehow the immediacy of the pain she conveyed in 'Swan Song' isn't there. It's hard not to notice, too, given all that Pam has been through that day, that her makeup is too perfect and her outfit too immaculately white.

Miss Ellie has that scene with Clayton by Bobby's tree house where she fondly, smilingly reminisces about her sons growing up. It's a lovely scene, but you don't get the sense this is a mother whose son was murdered less than twenty-four hours earlier. I understand that grief takes many forms, but where's the rage, the shock, the sheer disbelief? When Gary finally breaks down over Bobby's death on KNOTS a few weeks later, he seems truly devastated in a way that none of the Dallas Ewings quite do.

Yes totally, you are so right, it wasn't just Ellie. I agree with you about all of them, even Pam. She was hysterical but somehow they way they did it, it wasn't her moment. I think it was because she was on the bed, she wasn't the focus. It felt like Pam is sad, next.

I always find it weird as well that Miss Ellie calmly asked Pam the day before the funeral why Bobby was at her house.

I was thinking I would have asked on the night of his death at the hospital. That Miss Ellie and all of them would have questions.

There was more emotion when some barrels fell on Jamie.

I get it's soap opera and they want to move on quickly, but within all of this it wasn't quick.

Some kind of shock like with Karen when Sid died would have been good. Just something.

 

[James from London]

I agree with the points made about Miss Ellie. It always felt to me that I was waiting for her to have some catharsis that felt real.
As @Pamela_E said, she spends much of the time worrying about someone else. Which makes sense because she's needed and because it would perhaps help her cope with her own grief. When Sue Ellen falls off the wagon she puts her energy into helping her and getting J.R. to take some responsibility. I would have liked later on in the season for Miss Ellie to have her moment of grieving. Maybe when they are all together after Sue Ellen’s fundraiser and everyone is toasting Sue Ellen for the success and getting sober, Miss Ellie could say in that calm but fierce way of hers, "Alright, now that everyone's getting along and Sue Ellen has been showered with attention and praise, does anyone mind if I take a few moments and MOURN MY SON?!!!

There is that interesting moment where Ray is asking Miss Ellie advice about whether he should sell his shares of Ewing Oil to West Star and she suddenly snaps and says something like, "I don't know - about anything!" before driving off. That felt like a glimpse into how she was really feeling, but for the most part it was as though her grief was off limits to the audience.

Some kind of shock like with Karen when Sid died would have been good. Just something.

I think the main difference is that Ellie's grief didn't move the story forward whereas Karen slowly coming to terms with her husband's death while trying to raise three children and run a business was the story.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Ellie's lack of grief could be retroactively explained by finding out she was working with the FBI/CIA/Interpol in keeping a comatose Bobby out of sight while they attempt to corral Angelica's assassin team hired anonymously by Katherine Wentworth just before before the latter plowed into the groundskeeper's truck.

Just bear with me.

The music's nice in 'Family Ewing', but distractingly Spanish.

And that score got Jerry Immel fired by high-handed Philip Capice.

 

[Pamela_E]

There is that interesting moment where Ray is asking Miss Ellie advice about whether he should sell his shares of Ewing Oil to West Star and she suddenly snaps and says something like, "I don't know - about anything!" before driving off. That felt like a glimpse into how she was really feeling, but for the most part it was as though her grief was off limits to the audience.



I think the main difference is that Ellie's grief didn't move the story forward whereas Karen slowly coming to terms with her husband's death while trying to raise three children and run a business was the story.

Yes true and I guess Jenna's grief was because they didn't know what else to do with her. And then it was nicely bundled to a moment where grief is over. Which is clearly never the case in the real world and again another reason why I liked the Miss Ellie and JR scene as it wasn't a full stop, an end. It was something she was living with.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

You mean he turned into a vampire?

No he was a zombie, not a Vampire!

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

Ben Stivers had a scar on his neck, I wonder what all that was about!

I've heard people say that if Patrick Duffy hadn't come back Ben Stivers really would've been Jock because the original season nine cliffhanger was Miss Ellie at Ben's bunkhouse finding Jock's belongings. Ben would've walked in on her and revealed that he was really Jock.

 

[kcmimichar]

For the most part , I didn't mind the dream season. Linda did some of her best acting being during that season being in the sanitarium. It also has the BEST love scene with JR and Sue Ellen!!