New posts

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 257501" data-attributes="member: 22">18 Aug 14: DALLAS: Denial, Anger, Acceptance v. 12 Oct 16: EMPIRE: Cupid Kills v. 01 Feb 19: DYNASTY: Filthy GamesThere’s a brilliant collision of storylines at Soap Land Memorial Hospital at the start of DALLAS’s midseason premiere, just as there was the start of ‘80s DYNASTY’s third season when Cecil’s heart attack coincided with Blake’s tumble down a mountainside. Bobby and Christopher, waiting anxiously for news of Sue Ellen’s condition following the fire at Southfork, are shocked to see an unconscious Pamela wheeled in on a gurney, closely followed by John Ross. “They said she overdosed. What happened?” Christopher asks him. John Ross looks at his smoke-stained cousin and uncle in confusion. “Wait, what are you two doing here?” he asks. Instead of answering, Bobby pushes him against a wall. “You are responsible for this … Because of your cheating, she could die!” he shouts. Then a doctor appears: “I’m looking for Sue Ellen Ewing’s family …” “What’s going on? What happened to my mother?” John Ross demands to know. ”While you were out destroying your marriage, there was a fire at Southfork. She was inside,” Christopher snarls.Now that everyone’s on the same page, it’s time to address the two whodunnits posed by this mid-season premiere: “Who set Southfork on fire?” and “Who sent Pamela that video?” Even though we already know the answer to the second, there’s something very satisfying about Bobby immediately jumping to the wrong conclusion. “It wasn’t enough that you betrayed Pamela, you have to send her some sick video to prove it!?” he yells at Emma as she too appears on the scene.Although John Ross believes Emma’s protestations of innocence — “Why would I send a video of us making love to Pamela?” — it’s not enough to save their relationship. “We never made love,” he tells her coldly. “We screwed … The first rule of cheating is when the wife finds out, it’s done. From now on, you and I are strangers.” If it wasn’t Emma who sent the video, then it must have been “that son of a bitch Ryland,” he decides. In a deleted scene, Emma takes this allegation and runs with it, angrily accusing her father of sending the video to break up her and John Ross. Harris denies the accusation, but thrillingly refers to John Ross as “that little shit.” “How do you know it was Ryland?” Elena asks John Ross. “Who the hell else would do something like that?” he replies. Elena knows exactly who the hell else would do something like that. “You sent that video, you son of a bitch!” she yells at Nicolas over the phone.Emma may not have sent the video but as far as Ann is concerned, her affair with John Ross is still to blame for Pamela’s overdose. Her defence is almost exactly the same as JR’s when his mother blamed him for Pamela’s father’s overdose thirty-two years earlier. “Cliff is in the hospital because of Cliff. I didn't shove those pills down his throat,” JR said then. “I didn’t force John Ross to sleep with me and I didn’t force those pills down Pamela’s throat,” Emma says now. Disgusted, Ann sends her back to live with the Rylands where, heartbroken after being dumped by John Ross, she receives some twisted counsel from Grandma: “The ability to feel pain is a gift. Feel that hurt. Nurture that hurt. Feed that hurt till it’s powerful enough to take vengeance on those that have wronged you.” Here, Judith is singing from the same hymn sheet as KNOTS LANDING’s Diana following her husband Chip’s untimely death thirty years earlier. “I don’t want it to stop hurting, ever,” she told her Aunt Abby back in 1983, “because if it stops hurting I might forget and forgive and I don’t wanna forget and I hope I never forgive … As long as I’m in pain I won’t forgive anybody who did anything to let this happen … I cherish the pain.”Drew, meanwhile, is being held by the Mendez-Ochoa cartel, as per Nicolas’s request. Even though he continues to talk passionately about taking revenge on the Ewings (“I will destroy them and they will know whose hands created that destruction”), he is pretty much a dead man walking at this point. Nicolas again tries to explain that he and Elena already have a scheme in place to take over Ewing Global (“If you go after them again, you’ll destroy our plan before it is complete”), but Drew isn’t impressed: “Taking their money means nothing. They’ll just make more.” Eventually, Nicolas admits that he personally needs the plan to go through so that he can pay back the cartel the hundreds of millions of dollars he lost them. “Does my sister know this?” asks Drew quietly. “Of course not. If she found out you were using her, using her pain over our father’s death, just to pay a debt to drug dealers, she would despise you.” This is one more reason why Nicolas needs Drew to die: Elena must never find out his real motives for helping her. Finally, Drew says what they’ve both been thinking: “Let’s not lie to each other, mi Hermano. We both know I was dead the moment you brought me here.” His calm acceptance of his fate is chilling. The brutal execution that follows is closer in tone to 24 than ‘80s Soap Land yet there is a weird streak of tenderness running alongside the cruelty. “Give your father my love,” says Nicolas after tearing the St Christopher medal from Drew’s neck. It’s hard to tell if he’s being ironic or sincere. “With what I’ve done, I’m going to Hell,” Drew replies matter-of-factly. “I’ll save you a seat.” Nicolas makes the sign of the cross and kisses St Christopher (for the benefit of Drew’s soul or his own?), before giving the nod for one of the cartel henchman to shoot Drew in the head. After the trigger is pulled, tears well in Nicolas’s eyes.Following Jamal’s freak-out when he saw Freda at the Soap Land Penitentiary in last week’s EMPIRE, he tries to visit her again, but this time brings along Philip, the leader of his PTSD self-help group, to help with his breathing when he gets anxious. Meanwhile, John Ross is prohibited by hospital staff from visiting Pamela for most of this week’s DALLAS because she’s on suicide watch. When he eventually does get to see her, she laughs at the suggestion that she was suicidal. “If I’d wanted to kill myself, I would not have driven over to your hotel room to do it,” she tells him. “I did what I did so that every time you think about screwing that piece of trash, all you’ll be able to see is me on the floor with my eyes rolled back in my head. Sexy, huh?” About as sexy as Jamal seeing Freda’s sweet little face all battered and swollen from a beating. “Who did that to you?” he asks. “Let’s just say you’ve got some really, really big fans in here,” she replies through split lips. Like Drew, she seems resigned to her punishment. “It’s all good,” she insists. “I belong here for what I did to you.” “You can’t stay here,” Jamal argues. “I’m gonna fix this.” On the advice of Angelo Dubois, his mom’s potential new love interest who, usefully, is also a lawyer, Jamal recruits a doctor to testify at an emergency bail hearing that Freda has “a history of psychological problems” and that her shooting of him occurred during “an episode of intense temporary paranoia” caused by “alcohol in combination with prescription drugs.” For good measure, Jamal adds that Empire is also responsible for Freda’s situation because it gave her money and success, but not the tools to deal with them. The judge is persuaded and she is granted bail.Then comes an outrageous twist that would feel phoney on New DYNASTY, but which EMPIRE just about gets away with because it’s still, ultimately, rooted in the characters’ relationships. “She would have been killed,” Jamal says when his father congratulates him on getting Freda out of prison. “I know,” Lucious replies with a chuckle. “That’s why I had her ass beat in there. I mean, Freda was down for it. She knew that was the only way she was ever gonna get out …” “So you’re saying that Freda played me the whole time?” asks Jamal, stunned. “What I was most proud of,” continues Lucious smugly, “was the fact that you paid off that doctor to make reports for that judge because now, no matter what she ever says in a court of law, it’ll never be credible, so that nonsense about me having something to do with whatever happened with her father — but the beauty of it is, I didn’t have to tell you to do it … It was like it was second nature to you, like a Lyon. How’d it feel to know you’re just like your daddy?” Last week, it was Andre who was dismayed to be told he was just like his father, now it’s Jamal. Needless to say, we’re once again in John Ross/JR territory.This week’s DALLAS is that most unthinkable of things — an episode in which JR’s name is not mentioned or even referred to. However, in a scene where Bobby is lecturing his penitent nephew as they stand in the ruins of Southfork, he could just as easily be talking to his big brother during one of JR’s periodic bouts of remorse back in the ‘80s. “I know sleeping with Emma was wrong, but I did it anyway,” John Ross admits. “I just kept telling myself it was business, that it really didn’t mean anything.” “That’s what you do, John Ross,” Bobby replies. “You justify and then you ignore all the destruction you leave in your wake … You say you wanna be a better person, that you didn’t mean to betray the people you love and you feel so bad for doing it. Well, words are cheap. You are what you do. You want to be a better man? Be one.” Following their respective conversations with Lucious and Bobby, Jamal and John Ross each seek reassurance about themselves from a third party. “Do you think I’m a good person?” Jamal asks Philip, the PTSD guy whom he’s known for all of three scenes. “Am I even capable of loving someone or am I just some kind of a sociopath that’s so broken inside that I can’t ever be fixed?” John Ross asks Elena who, as he says, knows “me better than anybody.” Each receives a noncommittal but optimistic response. “I’m not in a position to judge,” Philip tells Jamal, “but I know that you’ve got work left to do if you wanna get over your PTSD.” “I think we all do things we regret,” says Elena, clearly reflecting on her own recent actions as much as John Ross’s, “but every day is another chance to do the right thing. You just have to find the strength to do it.”Although JR isn’t mentioned in the finished episode, he does receive a shout out in a deleted scene when Judith, who alas is on her way to Europe to sort out a problem with her Parisian brothel (“Apparently the French prostitutes are being rude to the customers”), warns Harris and Emma to be on their guard against the Ewings. “JR Ewing may be dead, but his plan to destroy us is alive and well,” she reminds them. Before leaving, she finds time in her busy schedule to split up Bobby and Ann by maliciously revealing what she witnessed from her window during the previous episode: “Ann’s make out session with Harris looked like a real toe-curler from where I stood.” Back in the ‘80s, the separation of a Soap Land super-couple (Chase and Maggie, Blake and Krystle, Pam and Bobby, Karen and Mack) was invariably instigated by the wife, who would poignantly inform her man that she’d taken a suite at the Soap Land Hotel because “I need some time to think.” Here, however, it’s all Bobby’s idea. “When I used to look at you,” he tells Ann, “all I could think of was how lucky I was to have you in my life and now I wonder what secrets you’re keeping from me … I don’t wanna live like that.” He explains his intention to stay at Southfork during the rebuilding of the house. “Are you kicking me out?” Ann asks in surprise. After thirty-one years, Bobby finally gets to deliver the same line that Pam did when she walked out on him: “I need some time to figure things out.” The chilliness between Bobby and Ann is matched by the temperature of the burnt-out room they’re standing in: it’s so cold, you can see their breath.  Whereas it was the discovery that she wasn’t (solely) responsible for the car crash that paralysed Mickey Trotter that gave Sue Ellen the resolve to stop drinking in 1983, it’s the mistaken belief that she is responsible for the fire at Southfork that gives her the strength to quit (following a near relapse with a bottle of aftershave) in 2014. “I am an alcoholic and I will be until I die,” she emotionally admits to Bobby, Ann and Christopher. (Just don’t tell she’s to blame for the broken back Bo McCabe sustained while trying to rescue her or we’ll be back to square one.) Over on EMPIRE, it looks like Jamal’s addiction is just getting started. “You don’t wanna be mixing those,” advises Philip, when he sees him about to wash down his medication with alcohol. Jamal pretends to heed this advice but then waits till he’s alone before knocking them back.Such is the unpredictability of EMPIRE that the two juiciest stories in last week’s episode — Andre’s assault charge and Lucious and Anika’s marital feud — are scarcely mentioned this week. Rather, the focus is on Cookie’s first date with Angelo, who has invited her to hear a singer friend of his perform. This scenario incorporates several well-known TV tropes — some familiar to Soap Land, others less so — but each given a unique Cookie twist. First, there’s the ‘Costume Test Montage’ with a one-line quip to go with every outfit Cookie tries on (“I look like Mrs O’Dell who went to all the funerals in my church”; “Angelo better get ready for all that jelly!”; “I look like Snaffleupagus”). However, unlike similar sequences on New DYNASTY, the tone isn’t overtly comedic. What emerges most strongly is how nervous the character is, not how hilarious the writers or actress think they are. In the event, Cookie shows up to the date in a short sexy red dress — only to find Angelo dressed formally in a tuxedo, having neglected to mention that the singer they’re seeing is a soprano performing in an opera, and it’s a charity fundraiser which means all the other women are wearing their poshest gowns. This brings us to our next trope, which tvtropes.org refers to as ‘Underdressed for the Occasion’: “Arriving underdressed to a party or other social event often signals that the underdressed character is in some way an outsider. Frequently, the underdressed character is of lower-class status than the rest of the guests. A poverty-stricken character may be underdressed due to an inability to afford formal wear.” This description applies to Cookie only up to a point: yes, she is regarded as a lower-class outsider by the other guests (who, interestingly, are also black), but she is hardly poverty-stricken. (We’re not talking Jamie Ewing sitting down to her first formal dinner at Southfork in jeans and a work shirt.) This dichotomy is illustrated when one of Angelo’s snooty female friends asks Cookie, “Where do you stay on the vineyard?” Cookie doesn’t know what she means. “Martha’s Vineyard,” Angelo explains, before addressing the other women. “Actually, Cookie spends most of her summers running her family’s multi-billion dollar corporation.” “Actually, I have summered in Connecticut,” Cookie adds sweetly, “at the Danbury Federal Correctional Institution for Women.” The next trope, the ‘Bathroom Stall of Overheard Insults’, isn’t one we’re accustomed to seeing in Soap Land where, as a rule, bathroom stalls don’t exist. “I just don’t know what he’s doing with that hood rat,” Cookie overhears one of the women saying to the other as they primp themselves in the mirror. “Wonder how long it’ll be before he tosses that charity case back to … that prison she escaped from?” smirks the other one. As Cookie emerges from the stall, the scene segues into a much more familiar soap trope: the ‘Powder Room Showdown’. “I got a charity for you,” she says as she slowly approaches the two women. “Make A Wish — you know that one? Once I get finished whupping both of y’all’s asses, you’re gonna wish you never met a hood rat like me.” She flicks a bit of water at them before walking away, causing them to flinch nervously. “Just wiping my hands, bitches,” she says over her shoulder.Angelo explains to Cookie that the opera they’re watching, La Boheme, is “the story of a woman caught in between two men," which neatly reflects not only Cookie’s current situation with Angelo and Lucious, but also an equivalent scenario in her teenage years when she was caught between Lucious and “this guy my daddy wanted me to marry," whom Angelo now reminds her of. This leads to another teen flashback, this time set to ‘Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)’ by the Temptations, one of the Motown songs that also soundtracked Mack and Anne’s flashbacks back in KNOTS Season 8. I guess nothing evokes wistful memories of innocent young love quite like it.Last week’s DALLAS ended with a two girls/one boy sex scene where one of the girls almost died. This week’s EMPIRE ends with a two girls/one boy sex scene where one of the girls is dead already. It’s a long story, but Shyne, the volatile gangster who ruined Hakeem’s wedding at the end of last season, has a niece, Nessa, whom Lucious has been trying to sign to Empire ever since he heard her sing in this season’s premiere (when she took over the mic during a show after a traumatised Jamal fled the stage). Shyne has been making life difficult for all concerned and so this week, Lucious gets Andre involved. From the moment Andre claps eyes on Nessa, the attraction between them is clear. In the final scene of the ep, they’re about to have sex on his desk when he suddenly pulls away from her. “I can’t,” he says. “I want to, but —” “It’s okay,” she whispers. “I know you lost your wife.” Right on cue, Rhonda’s Ghost materialises. “You can do it,” she tells Andre encouragingly. “We can do it together. We’ll both do it. And it’ll be really good, just like it always was.” And so, while Andre ravishes Nessa, Rhonda ravishes Andre. As with the threesome on DALLAS, it’s the man who is most freaked out by the situation. (Admittedly, in this case, that’s because he’s the only one who knows it’s actually happening.)DYNASTY is as annoyingly smug and stupid as ever. The sole highlight of this week’s ep comes when Alexis, having learned that New New Cristal has secretly ordered a DNA test to determine if Blake is the father of her unborn baby, enlists the aid of Tony the gardener to corrupt the test. “All we have to do is switch out the original paternity sample with a non-Carrington sample so the tests come back as not a match,” she explains. This is reminiscent of the FALCON CREST plot where Melissa swapped the blood samples in the paternity test over Maggie’s baby. However, as this is C21st Soap Land and Tony has the same amusingly low IQ as Hank (aka Fake Adam), an extra twist is required and so he takes the non-Carrington sample from Bo the dog. And the Top 3 are ...1 (1) DALLAS2 (2) EMPIRE3 (3) DYNASTY</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?