New posts

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 3397" data-attributes="member: 22">27/11/80: KNOTS LANDING: Hitchhike (2) v. 28/11/80: DALLAS: Taste of SuccessIt's an unwritten rule of two-part episodes that in the second half, things have to get a whole lot worse before they can start to get better - call it the "darkest before dawn" syndrome. This is why, in "Hitchhike, Part 2", we find the normally resilient Karen Fairgate sat drinking in her living room in the middle of the day with the curtains closed. "We're dead, Sid," she announces. Later on, the perennially optimistic Sid is obliged to admit that "my life is falling apart." The biggest meltdown, however, and the highlight of the episode, is provided by Richard. Drunk and angry after Sid finally sees sense and fires him as his lawyer, he goes nuts in the middle of the cul-de-sac. Shouting matches between neighbours are relatively rare on KNOTS, (especially compared with British soaps where they're a more or less daily occurrence) and this is one of the best. Richard really lets fly at Sid, who comes close to hitting him - while the irony of a sober Gary trying to calm a drunken Richard only episodes after their situations were reversed is lost on nobody. There's a similar switch at Knots Landing Motors where Sid is now the liability that Gary used to be. Grateful to Sid for standing by him in his darkest hour, Gary is determined to return the favour. Slowly and subtly, the experiences that the cul-de-sac gang have shared are beginning to inform their day to day relationships. It's as if their back story were being written in front of us. Although Abby stays pretty much on the sidelines in this ep, nearly all her scenes take on an extra significance in hindsight. Dropping by KLM to see Sid, she chats a while with Gary. Her idly flirtatious question, "Isn't this [i.e. Southern California] where they make make-believe come true?" now seems full of portent. It points to a world of possibilities and untapped potential - to Seasons 4 and 5, in other words. And how ironic that it should be Val who persuades Abby to stay in Knots Landing and Laura who rents her the house on the cul-de-sac. Meanwhile, Karen's cheerful end-of-episode ignorance of her sister-in-law becoming a permanent fixture in the street foreshadows the very end of the series where everybody is stunned to see Abby moving back to the cul-de-sac. There goes the neighbourhood ...Ultimately, the plot of "Hitchhike" turns on a contrivance - proof of Sid's innocence depends on Karen remembering the licence plate number of a van she only saw by coincidence in the first place - but the way it's presented still makes it feel more plausible than the hypnosis-solves-all approach of last week's DALLAS.Synchronicity alert: In both "Hitchhike, Part 2" and "Taste of Success", a main character is compared to Don Quixote. On KNOTS, Sid declines Richard's advice that he to plead guilty to a lesser charge, insisting instead that he be allowed to clear his name entirely. Wearily accepting his client's decision, Richard refers to himself as Pancho Sanchez [sic] and to Sid as Don Quixote. Over cut price margaritas in DALLAS, Cliff defends his preoccupation with the Ewings to Donna, describing them as "a symbol of everything that's wrong". "So were windmills to Don Quixote," replies Donna drily. On "Taste of Success", Kristin and the entire "Who Shot JR?" story-line are dispensed with in two scenes and hastily bundled off to California before the audience can say, "Hang on, what about …?" As fun as it's been, it's kind of a relief to see DALLAS getting back to normal … even if the structure of the show has now changed. Gone are the Plots of the Week, this is now the start of continuous story-lines - with Lucy inevitably shunted off to one side in an unrelated subplot - that will prevail for the rest of the series.Up until now, the business stories on DALLAS have served primarily as MacGuffins - a backdrop against which JR can do something outrageous like forge his daddy's will or mortgage his mama's ranch. Now Bobby's in charge of the company, we're suddenly meant to be paying attention to the details of the deals themselves. It's a bit of a jolt. Where once the guest cast of an episode was limited to those involved in the Plot of the Week, there's now a revolving door of grey-haired bit players that we need to keep track of: refinery owners, oil crew foremen, a couple of rival bankers, the good ole boys in the cartel. (Even though the cartel have been around since Season 1, they're still pretty anonymous: in this ep, Bobby seems to think Andy's first name is Bradley.) As a kid, I remember finding this sudden shift of emphasis a bit dry and unsexy, but now I love all the detail.Perhaps to compensate for all those old men in suits, this episode also boasts Lucy's impromptu striptease in Mitch's apartment. It's kind of amusingly sleazy and endearingly chaste all at the same time: On one hand, it's the the most overtly rude thing anyone's done on DALLAS thus far - we've never been asked to imagine a character standing fully naked in a room before - but on the other, we've seen more actual Tilton flesh when Lucy's sunning herself on the cardboard patio. Actually, the scenes of Mitch and Lucy's initial courtship, i.e. earnest young scholar has his studies continually disrupted by loveably incompetent screwball, have a certain charm.Following JR's shooting and Bobby's brief departure from Southfork, Miss Ellie's determination to keep her sons at the ranch ("Whatever it takes!") now feels borderline obsessive. To prevent Bobby from leaving again, she orders Jock to give him complete control of Ewing Oil. JR, now recovered from his injuries, is naturally furious at having been supplanted by his baby brother. Something I've never realised before: through this interference, Ellie becomes jointly responsible for instigating the rivalry for the company that will now develop between her sons. Meanwhile, Bobby is emotionally blackmailing his father quite openly - either give me your full support on all decisions or I leave Southfork for good, he tells him. Bobby may insist that he has only the interests of the family at heart, but Pam - currently between breakdowns and exhibiting a refreshingly steely cynicism - has his number, just as Donna has Cliff's elsewhere in the episode. Both women understand that, lofty protestations to the contrary, these men love power for its own sake. Add to this Sue Ellen's willing return to the dark side, (her "I hate you! I hate you!" reconciliation scene with JR is a blast) and the Ewings as a whole have never seemed so morally twisted.The last scene, in particular, feels fabulously off kilter. In spite of JR's best efforts to sabotage the deal, Bobby has bought Ewing Oil a refinery, delighting Jock in the process. Alone in their bedroom, Sue Ellen regards JR's seething jealousy with a perversely crooked smile. "I'm gonna bring Bobby down if I have to destroy Ewing Oil to do it!" he promises her. Wow, that's … kind of insane, ain't it?And the winner is … DALLAS.</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?