New posts

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 220848" data-attributes="member: 22">Cabin Fever (KNOTS, 12 Jan 89) v Calculated Risks (KNOTS, 18 Oct 84)While Cabin Fever is all about relationships — Greg dumping Paige to marry Abby, Mack bonding with Paula during a vacation from Karen, Gary and Jill splitting up — Calculated Risks is all about life and death — Karen choosing to keep her grim prognosis a secret, Mark St Claire holding Abby hostage at the marina, Greg shooting St Claire in cold blood.In both eps, Greg reduces a strong woman to angry tears: Paige in ’89 by breaking up with her and Laura in ’84 when he insists she withholds evidence from the cops about St Claire’s whereabouts. In each instance, he coolly uses the same justification — it is “the right thing”.Running counter to her high maintenance reputation, Val functions as a supportive sounding board in both episodes. During Cabin Fever, she listens sympathetically to Karen complaining about the way Mack hangs toilet paper on the holder; in Calculated Risks, she waits patiently as Karen tries, but ultimately fails, to tell her she’s dying.Whereas Karen lectures Michael about his caffeine intake and what classes he should be taking in ’89, she’s all for Diana setting sail for New York and striking out her own in ’84. To demonstrate that she’s well enough to be left, she goes so far as to get out of her hospital bed and walk around — even though she’s been warned that movement of any kind will dramatically increase her chances of dying. Diana says she’ll be back for Thanksgiving, but won’t actually return the cul-de-sac for thirteen years.Both episodes mark the debut appearance of a significant character: hello Paula Vertosick, hello Joshua Rush. Both are wholesome, unsophisticated and completely unprepared for life in an ’80s soap opera, and both are swiftly rejected — Paula by Mack after she clumsily invites him back to her cabin, Joshua by his Aunt Lilimae when he eagerly asks for information about his late mother and she angrily replies that she was a tramp — vicious and wicked, selfish and spiteful. Alec Baldwin and Julie Harris on screen together are really something.Joshua’s arrival aside, everything that happens in Calculated Risks is connected to the Wolfbridge Group. The plots are more disparate in Cabin Fever, but loose themes tie one scene to the next: Greg’s surprise at finding Paige sitting behind her desk the morning after he breaks her heart is mirrored by Gary’s shock at seeing Jill emerge from his bathroom shortly after she apparently moved off his ranch. Paige assuring Greg she can separate her work from her personal life is countered by Mack telling Paula that having a job one hates cannot help but impact one’s domestic situation. Paige forfeiting the deposit on an apartment she can no longer afford is followed by Jill’s landlady offering to return her deposit when she keeps finding excuses not to move into her new place.When Ted Melcher expresses surprise at the news of Abby and Greg’s wedding in ’89, Abby tells him they have “known each other for a long time.” “And from what I’ve heard, you’ve spent most of that time trying to take advantage of each other,” he replies. Karen is just as cynical about their relationship in ’84 when Greg claims to have called off a press conference out of concern for the abducted Abby’s well-being. “You don’t care about Abby,” she tells him. “You’re just using her the way you used everyone else.” Being confronted so directly (and for the first time, I think) by the conscience of Knots Landing has a strange effect on Greg. You can almost see his mask starting to crack in front of her. “Sometimes you get caught between choices, neither of which is the correct choice, but a choice has to be made,” he mumbles. This episode is full of REALLY BIG CLOSE-UPS and they’re particularly effective in this scene. Greg’s always fascinating when he’s cornered, as he is by Karen in this scene and by Paige in Cabin Fever. Even as he's talking in that methodical measured way of his, it's all he can do to keep the emotional barrier he has erected around himself intact.Mack and Karen don’t share a scene in Cabin Fever until almost the very end of the ep when he returns home unexpectedly in the middle of the night. As Karen silently greets him with a kiss, it feels like a reaffirmation of their love. Their final scene in Calculated Risks is the total opposite with Karen playing the martyr for all she’s worth as she tells Mack she doesn’t love him anymore and wants a divorce.And the winner is ... Calculated RisksBONUS BEATS:[MEDIA=youtube]sfJRMBR450U[/MEDIA]</blockquote>

Verification: Who played Sue Ellen in Dallas?