Falcon Crest Season 4 (Maggie catches Chase snogging Connie causing her to run to Richard’s where she ends up snogging him. The Cartel explode a bomb around them) vs Falcon Crest Season 6 (Emma threatens to jump of the roof, Chao-Li collapses and falls down the stairs, Richard is revealed to be Angela’s son and Dan, Chase and Richard are missing in the San Francisco Bay).
Melissa's accident looks great but knowing what had caused it - everything the viewers had to endure - well, it takes a lot of fun out of it.
Yes, I kind of felt that too. Sending Melissa mad for no particular reason and then having her play the whole thing for laughs was truly painful to watch, and caused long-term damage to both her character and FC's overall credibility. However, the impact of the Season 6 finale on the start of the next season -- the shifts in the family dynamic caused by Chase's death and the discovery that Richard is Angela's son -- are really, really fascinating. The first few eps of Season 7 are among FC's best.
I feel kind of the opposite about the Season 4 finale. Whereas the build-up to the "Who blew up Richard?" cliffhanger was really good soap, the aftermath was a bit anti-climactic.
But if for no other reason than I hate the screeching mess they turned Melissa into in Season 6, my vote goes to ... SEASON 4!
Knots Landing Season 3 (Valene leaves Gary after catching him in bed with Abby) vs Dallas Season 5 (Cliff takes an overdose of pills and Sue Ellen states she won’t remarry JR if Cliff dies).
Yes!Everything about Gary and Valene's marriage seems high-stakes because we've witnessed that fragile relationship from the very beginning.
Yes!Gary and Valene's marriage was what introduced us to Knots Landing and now we were seeing the disintegrating which again was great drama.
Val and Gary were the bedrock of the series. Everything we knew of Knots Landing started with them. Even with what we'd seen of Gary, this episode really brought home that those foundations had been build on shifting sand, and the only thing left was to start all over again. It's one of the most important moments in the series' history, and it didn't make false promises.
Yes, absolutely! This KNOTS cliffhanger is as character-driven as soap gets. Without needing it explained, we totally get why Gary revels in his guilt-free affair with Abby but then completely crumbles when Val finds them together and begs her not to leave him. Meanwhile on DALLAS, to get Sue Ellen to go from divorcing JR to falling back in love with him to sleeping with Cliff out of revenge to dumping Cliff when he asks her for money to accepting JR's marriage proposal to getting second-thoughts at Cliff's bedside, all within the space of about fifteen episodes, requires the season to turn her into a bit of a plot-driven moron, which she hadn't really been up to this point.
As comparatively low-key as it was, I do think the end of this season sets things up perfectly for the start of the next season, which is then classic DALLAS all the way.The Dallas finale didn't feel big enough (as Willie said), was indeed underwhelming (as Angela pointed out) and ultimately didn't really change anything.
But anyway ... KNOTS!