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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 17129" data-attributes="member: 22">6 Mar 85: DYNASTY: Parental Consent v. 7 Mar 85: KNOTS LANDING: A Piece of the Pie v. 08 Mar 85: DALLAS: Trial and Error v. 8 Mar 85: FALCON CREST: House DividedEarlier in this season’s KNOTS LANDING, Val transformed herself into Verna Ellers, a fictional character in her own novel. This week’s DYNASTY goes one better by transporting Alexis to the fictional kingdom of Moldavia. What we see of the country — a royal chateau in wintry surroundings — looks quite Austrian, so it's appropriate that King Galen himself should strongly resemble Christopher Plummer, aka Captain Von Trapp from THE SOUND OF MUSIC. This minimal view of Moldavia — Alexis and Galen in cosy seclusion — is typical of what we see whenever Soap Land characters travel abroad. There’s rarely a genuine sense of the country or city we’re in, which makes the opening scene of this week’s DALLAS, where a tearful Pam and a concerned Sue Ellen appear lost and bedraggled amidst the hustle and bustle of a rainy Hong Kong street, all the more fascinating. A couple of real life passersby steal awkward glances at the camera in a way that never usually happens in Soap Land simply because there never usually are any real life passersby. Both in spite and because of its limitations, DYNASTY’s attempts to conjure an entire fictional country out of nowhere are so audacious as to be really funny. I particularly like the scene where Alexis laments Prince Michael’s betrothal to “the Duchess of Breena”. “Branagh,” King Galen corrects her. “Whatever — it’s so small a duchy that I never remember its name,” she shrugs, casually dismissing an entire dukedom as if it were one of her interchangeable male secretaries.The first Soap Land Song Wars for two seasons takes place this week between DYNASTY’s Dominique Devereaux and KNOTS LANDING’s Cathy Geary. Admittedly, it’s not really an equal fight as Dominique is still convalescing in her hospital bed where we find her listening to a recording of herself singing “The Very Thought of You" and wondering if she’ll ever be able to perform again. “Listen to that - that’s the late great Dominique Devereaux,” she tells Blake. Over on KNOTS, Cathy makes her debut on Joshua’s TV show singing “Jehova”, a very pretty, overtly Christian song (“Jehovah, I love you so and Jesus, I want you to know all you’ve done for me …”). Unlike Joshua, Cathy has never expressed any strong religious views of her own, yet she imbues the song with an aching sincerity. At the same time, the cutaway shots of a glowering Joshua scrutinising her performance like an old-time movie director combine with Lisa Hartman’s innate vulnerability to suggest an underlying ambiguity — is Cathy singing to praise her creator or to appease Joshua? Either way, her sweetness and humility win out over Dominique’s showboating (even if it is only on tape).Cathy’s performance is immediately followed by this week’s display of bizarre wedding-related behaviour. After the revelation of Jeff Colby’s non-wedding on last week’s DYNASTY comes Joshua's non-proposal as he announces his and Cathy's engagement on live TV, without having consulted the bride-to-be beforehand. Peter de Vilbis pulled the same stunt on Fallon during last season’s DYNASTY, but whereas Blake was unhappy to learn of his daughter’s engagement via the medium of television, Lilimae “is full to bursting with joy” that her son is to marry "the nicest girl in the whole wide world” (Cathy, like Fallon before her, having fallen passively into line).Joshua isn’t the only character on this week’s KNOTS to pull the rug out from under those closest to him via an announcement on live television. Greg Sumner calls a surprise press conference (very much like the one last season in which he accused Mack of corruption and then asked for his resignation from the crime commission) to announce, in one fell swoop, Paul Galveston’s death, his own relationship to Galveston, and his decision to resign from the senate in order to take over his father’s company. No one saw this coming, least of all Greg’s closest confidante and girlfriend Laura. “I can’t believe it! All the effort, all that work down the tubes and not a word!” she shouts, before smashing a framed photo of the two of them in happier times.There’s an equivalent situation in this week’s DALLAS when a similarly angry Ray Krebbs comes home drunk after finding out he was the last to know that wife Donna has "hit the big gusher” with her first oil well. He accuses Donna of being embarrassed by their marriage and lifestyle (just as he described his own shame at growing up as “the town drunk’s son” in last week’s ep). Like Laura’s outburst on KNOTS, this scene also ends with a shot of a "happy couple" photograph as Ray storms out leaving Donna to pick up their wedding portrait and look at it plaintively.During the scene, Ray tells Donna, “You belong in the big house with the real Ewings, where the power is, not with the half-breed.” By “big house” he is speaking of Southfork itself. The line echoes what Richard Channing told Lorraine at the end of the last episode of FALCON CREST: "You belong to them now!” By “them”, he was referring to Angela, Lance and co. in their big house. And just as Donna has indeed moved in with “the real Ewings” by the end of this week’s DALLAS so Lorraine is now living with “them” at Falcon Crest. But where Miss Ellie and Clayton welcome Donna with open arms, Lorraine’s stay with her in-laws-to-be is proving somewhat frostier. It’s during a scene where Angela takes her to the same kind of restaurant as Sue Ellen took Jamie to earlier in this season’s DALLAS, where models parade in expensive designer dresses that diners can then purchase, that Lorraine realises that all Angela is interested in is turning her unborn child into the next heir to Falcon Crest.There’s also a parallel between Ray and Donna’s conflict and a late-night kitchen conversation between Chase and Maggie on FALCON CREST. Where Donna insists that she is "not going give up my ideas, my hopes and my dreams to try and fit in with what Ray's ideas of what a perfect wife should be,” Maggie recalls a time when being a perfect wife was all she aspired to: "All I wanted then was to be a good wife and mother and roll out a flaky pie crust.” "If Donna wants to spend her time turning a profit in the oil business, she's just going have to do it alone,” Ray tells Clayton angrily. "Do you resent all this?" Maggie asks Chase, referring to her work as a journalist. "Occasionally," he admits. The Gioberti marriage is nowhere near as rocky as the Krebbses’ at this point, but it’s nonetheless telling that at the end of the scene Chase is telling Maggie about his work when he realises that she’s stopped listening. (This is one of those odd moments, a bit like when Dominique started coughing on DYNASTY a few episodes ago, that in real life would be inconsequential — after all, people cough and stop listening to each other all the time — but in the simplistic world of Soap Land seem quite portentous.)Her search for Mark having reached a dead end, DALLAS’s Pam prepares to return home. “I've finally got to accept that he's gone from my life,” she tells Sue Ellen. “I know they’re gone,” echoes Val on KNOTS LANDING in regard her twins. Both shows then conclude with what might be termed a "resurrection tease”. As Pam and Sue Ellen leave Hong Kong, they are unaware that they are being observed by Mr. Wong. "The plane just took off,” he is reporting to someone over the phone. "Tell him it went exactly as he planned.” Tell who? Might it be … Mark Graison? Meanwhile during this week’s KNOTS, Mack and Ben pay a chance visit to an address listed amongst Paul Galveston’s papers. A young housewife answers the door and invites them in, but is unable to supply a connection between herself and Galveston Industries. Mack and Ben are then distracted by Greg’s surprise announcement on television and so fail to register that the woman has twin babies in her kitchen. Lest we at home aren’t quite sure what to make of this, KNOTS pulls a Soap Land first and places a freeze frame of the twins underneath the end credits, circumventing narrative convention to make it clear to us that, “yes, they really are who you think they are.” This kind of direct communication between programme maker and viewer would nowadays most likely be done via Twitter.Throughout this week’s FALCON CREST, Greg Reardon is hopeful that his appeal for a postponement regarding Lance’s trial will be granted. In the final scene of the ep, we learn that it hasn’t. “Your trial starts Monday,” Angela informs her grandson gravely. Meanwhile, on DALLAS, Jenna’s trial is already underway. As the prosecuting attorney, Scooter Warren, Laura Avery’s former real estate mentor, is pitted against Angela Channing’s first husband Douglas (aka defence lawyer Scotty Demarest). While Scooter is as brisk, sharp and witty as he was on KNOTS, Douglas/Scotty is as laid back and slow-talking Southern as ever. It’s a great contrast.Synchronicity of the week: In the same week that Greg S gives up his senatorial career on KNOTS, Greg R announces his intention to make a run for the governor’s office on FALCON CREST.And this week’s Top 4 are …1 (-) FALCON CREST2 (2) DALLAS3 (1) KNOTS LANDING4 (3) DYNASTY</blockquote>

Verification: 6 + 4 =