James from London
International Treasure
It’s been over a year since I finished re-re-re-watching ‘80s DYNASTY and just lately I’ve been jonesing for an establishing shot of a penthouse exterior accompanied by some frantic background music, so I decided to do with DYNASTY what I’ve been doing with KNOTS and DALLAS, i.e.. re-re-re-re-watch the whole thing again, only this time in alphabetical rather than chronological order. So ... here goes:
Acapulco (01 Dec 82) v The Accident (22 Feb 84)
I actually think the wild orchestral score is the thing about '80s DYNASTY that I’ve missed the most. It’s fun to be guided by how madly it rises and falls as what's the most important thing going on in each episode. It seems clear in Acapulco that the main concern is that show’s most precious jewel, Krystle and Blake’s lovely love, is in jeopardy. The previous ep ended with Mark telling Krystle their divorce was never finalised and now Krystle feels she must spare Blake this terrible news and bear the burden alone. While he is away in Washington doing something confusing with Neil McVane that Alexis won’t like, she jets off to Mexico to sit anxiously in hotel rooms and have what Mark’s already told her explained to her again by different people. When Blake discovers she’s gone somewhere without him, he slightly freaks out (a bit like the episode of THE ROYLE FAMILY where Barbara goes for a walk for half an hour and the family assume she's left them to start a new life). When he then finds her in Acapulco, she tells him the whole story and he assures her he’ll get to the bottom of things and there’s nothing for her to worry about and while they’re in one of the most romantic cities in the world they might as well order room service and make lovely love. So one assumes Krystle will now be restored to her normal serene self, but then the music tells us there’s still something wrong, something so wrong that Krystle accidentally smashes her Magarita glass just by holding it too tightly, like she’s Jaime Sommers rejecting her bionics. There’s something deeper that’s troubling Krystle, even deeper than her and Blake’s lovely love, and it has to do with Mark — but what can it be? The next episode's called The Vigil so I guess I'll have to wait till I get to V to find out.
“This whole #MeToo thing would have never flown in the ‘70s at Carrington Atlantic,” says Jeff and Monica’s nameless granny in New DYNASTY. I can’t see it going down too well in the workplaces of ‘80s DYNASTY either. During these two episodes, tennis coach Mark presses himself up against his boss (Fallon) while wearing only a towel and kisses her, Fallon tells her employee (Claudia) that a guest (Peter de Vilbis) making passes at women is just his way of complimenting them and Adam stops Kirby in the hallway of Denver Carrington to tell her she’s too pretty to work and should be off having babies. “You have the babies,” she replies, causing him to laugh loudly and smugly. A year later in The Accident, he’s tearfully telling her that she's just lost their baby. Not laughing so loudly now, are you, Adam?
Fallon spends both episodes being all efficient and La Miragey, only stopping occasionally to wave at her baby or get run over by a car. The one time she reminded me of New Fallon is in Acapulco when she tells Blake off for driving Steven away from Denver and not doing enough to bring him home.
Whereas Acapulco concentrates on the family and their exes, the focus of The Accident is more diffuse, incorporating kidnapped racehorses, scheming publicists, swaggering suitors, even an anonymous gaslighting violet sender. Plus there's much talk of Peter de Vilbis — practically the entire cast line up to tell Fallon why she shouldn’t marry him — but no sign of the man himself. But again if we listen to the mad music, it drives towards what's at the heart of the ep: first, Blake’s struggle to come to terms with Adam’s admission that he poisoned Jeff with that toxic paint (the effects of which he was just starting to feel in Acapulco, accompanied eerily by gongs and panpipes on the soundtrack) and then Blake apologising to Alexis for having accused her of the dastardly deed. (Alexis is more sinned against than sinning in this ep: Steven all but accuses her of sending Claudia evil flower arrangements.)
The Accident also contains that peculiar nugget of a scene where Dex mentions, nay boasts, to Blake about his father sleeping with Alexis while she was still married to him (Blake). Blake’s reaction is pretty cherishable too: “First the father then the son? She’s a real humdinger!” (The Acapulco equivalent of this line is Krystle’s, upon learning Alexis was the one who brought Mark to Denver: “They’re gonna have to rewrite the book when it comes to unholy alliances!”)
Both episodes end with a Carrington kid in mortal jeopardy. A shadowy Steven is blown up on an oil rig in Acapulco in Indonesia - whoops, I mean in Indonesia in Acapulco - and either Fallon or Jeff, or maybe even both, is/are hit by a drunk driver in The Accident.
And the winner is ... The Accident
BONUS BEATS:
Acapulco (01 Dec 82) v The Accident (22 Feb 84)
I actually think the wild orchestral score is the thing about '80s DYNASTY that I’ve missed the most. It’s fun to be guided by how madly it rises and falls as what's the most important thing going on in each episode. It seems clear in Acapulco that the main concern is that show’s most precious jewel, Krystle and Blake’s lovely love, is in jeopardy. The previous ep ended with Mark telling Krystle their divorce was never finalised and now Krystle feels she must spare Blake this terrible news and bear the burden alone. While he is away in Washington doing something confusing with Neil McVane that Alexis won’t like, she jets off to Mexico to sit anxiously in hotel rooms and have what Mark’s already told her explained to her again by different people. When Blake discovers she’s gone somewhere without him, he slightly freaks out (a bit like the episode of THE ROYLE FAMILY where Barbara goes for a walk for half an hour and the family assume she's left them to start a new life). When he then finds her in Acapulco, she tells him the whole story and he assures her he’ll get to the bottom of things and there’s nothing for her to worry about and while they’re in one of the most romantic cities in the world they might as well order room service and make lovely love. So one assumes Krystle will now be restored to her normal serene self, but then the music tells us there’s still something wrong, something so wrong that Krystle accidentally smashes her Magarita glass just by holding it too tightly, like she’s Jaime Sommers rejecting her bionics. There’s something deeper that’s troubling Krystle, even deeper than her and Blake’s lovely love, and it has to do with Mark — but what can it be? The next episode's called The Vigil so I guess I'll have to wait till I get to V to find out.
“This whole #MeToo thing would have never flown in the ‘70s at Carrington Atlantic,” says Jeff and Monica’s nameless granny in New DYNASTY. I can’t see it going down too well in the workplaces of ‘80s DYNASTY either. During these two episodes, tennis coach Mark presses himself up against his boss (Fallon) while wearing only a towel and kisses her, Fallon tells her employee (Claudia) that a guest (Peter de Vilbis) making passes at women is just his way of complimenting them and Adam stops Kirby in the hallway of Denver Carrington to tell her she’s too pretty to work and should be off having babies. “You have the babies,” she replies, causing him to laugh loudly and smugly. A year later in The Accident, he’s tearfully telling her that she's just lost their baby. Not laughing so loudly now, are you, Adam?
Fallon spends both episodes being all efficient and La Miragey, only stopping occasionally to wave at her baby or get run over by a car. The one time she reminded me of New Fallon is in Acapulco when she tells Blake off for driving Steven away from Denver and not doing enough to bring him home.
Whereas Acapulco concentrates on the family and their exes, the focus of The Accident is more diffuse, incorporating kidnapped racehorses, scheming publicists, swaggering suitors, even an anonymous gaslighting violet sender. Plus there's much talk of Peter de Vilbis — practically the entire cast line up to tell Fallon why she shouldn’t marry him — but no sign of the man himself. But again if we listen to the mad music, it drives towards what's at the heart of the ep: first, Blake’s struggle to come to terms with Adam’s admission that he poisoned Jeff with that toxic paint (the effects of which he was just starting to feel in Acapulco, accompanied eerily by gongs and panpipes on the soundtrack) and then Blake apologising to Alexis for having accused her of the dastardly deed. (Alexis is more sinned against than sinning in this ep: Steven all but accuses her of sending Claudia evil flower arrangements.)
The Accident also contains that peculiar nugget of a scene where Dex mentions, nay boasts, to Blake about his father sleeping with Alexis while she was still married to him (Blake). Blake’s reaction is pretty cherishable too: “First the father then the son? She’s a real humdinger!” (The Acapulco equivalent of this line is Krystle’s, upon learning Alexis was the one who brought Mark to Denver: “They’re gonna have to rewrite the book when it comes to unholy alliances!”)
Both episodes end with a Carrington kid in mortal jeopardy. A shadowy Steven is blown up on an oil rig in Acapulco in Indonesia - whoops, I mean in Indonesia in Acapulco - and either Fallon or Jeff, or maybe even both, is/are hit by a drunk driver in The Accident.
And the winner is ... The Accident
BONUS BEATS:
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