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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 93490" data-attributes="member: 22">18 Mar 87: DYNASTY: The Shower v. 19 Mar 87: THE COLBYS: Betrayals v. 20 Mar 87: DALLAS: Some Good, Some BadVery occasionally on DYNASTY, the Carringtons engage as a member of the household staff someone who displays nothing but contempt for both their employers and their own duties. Mrs Johnson, Krystina’s negligent new nurse, is such a person. “Mrs Carrington, I’ve taken care of children for a long time now. Don’t you think you’re being overly protective?” she asks Krystle coldly, her eyes full of loathing. She’s really fun. For me, her appeal is enhanced by the fact that she is played by the well-meaning Adoption Lady from DALLAS’s Dream Season who paired Donna and Ray with cute deaf kid Tony. It’s as if she has cast off the sentimental shackles of that treacly storyline and embraced the darker side of child care.DYNASTY also echoes the Dream Season by continuing to have its central characters behave towards each other with uncharacteristic niceness. Whereas it felt on DALLAS as if the Ewings had been replaced by cyborg replicants, on DYNASTY it’s the other way round: the characters appear less stiff and more human than they did previously. The once smug and preening Dex, for example, is now likably humble while Alexis and Dominique’s exchange of light-hearted bon mots during Dana’s wedding shower make a refreshing change from their countless threats and counter-threats to destroy each other’s companies. Elsewhere, Steven’s nonjudgmental attitude towards Adam’s heavy drinking (“Call it a [wedding] gift,” he smiles after bailing him out of jail) makes him seem more relaxed and, well, just nicer than he has been since he was played by Al Corley.If Steven and Adam’s newfound brotherly bond is endearing then the sibling conflict that erupts between Bobby and Ray on this week’s DALLAS is downright exciting. “I just think it’s a little strange — three-and-a-half seconds after your divorce, they move in,” remarks Bobby upon finding Jenna and Charlie living with Ray. “Are you sure you’re not trying to make her a substitute for Donna?” Ray responds by taking a swing at him, thereby finally repaying Bobby for the disco punch he landed on him way, way back in the second ever episode of the series. “There’s not another man alive that I’d let get away with that,” Bobby snarls.There’s more sibling rivalry on THE COLBYS. In the opening scene, after Jason exposes his double-life as Hoyt Parker, Phillip has to be physically restrained from attacking his big brother who then orders him to leave the house. At the end of the episode, Jason finds Phillip in bed with his fiancee. (Interestingly, the fact that Phillip and Frankie are both fully-clothed at this point, as opposed to tastefully nude in the Soap Land tradition, i.e., bare shoulders and strategically placed bedsheets, makes their liaison seem unusually grubby — and kinda sexy.)Jason’s expose of Phillip was intended to discredit him in Jeff’s eyes. Instead, Jeff finds himself torn between his recently acquired biological father and the man he grew up believing to be his father. “I don’t know Phillip,” he concedes, “but how well do I know Jason?” He still wants to help Phillip out financially, but Jason insists that Phil “doesn’t deserve it.” “Why does he have to deserve it?” Jeff shoots back. “He’s family, he’s broke and he’s in trouble … It makes me wonder. God forbid any of the rest of us should fall out of line.” This is a situation as richly complicated as it is soapily convoluted, and one that places Jeff in a similar position to Ray on DALLAS during the Wes Parmalee storyline — each son caught between the man he has briefly known as his true father and the one that has “returned” to him. “You’re the only good thing that came out of this mess,” Phillip tells Jeff who is moved in the same way that Ray was when Wes told him how proud he would be to have him as his son. Just as Ray wanted to believe that Wes was genuine so Jeff wants, maybe even needs, to believe the best of Phillip. (Adding to the power of this storyline is John James's performance. James is one of those Soap Land actors it’s easy to overlook, but he more than holds his own opposite Charlton Heston and Michael Parks.)If Jeff is Ray caught between two fathers, then Frankie is Miss Ellie caught between two husbands: “It was different when I thought he was dead, but now …”Ray’s relationship with Jenna returns him to the role of family outsider in this week’s DALLAS: “If the Ewings can’t accept the way I live my life, then they can go hang.” Interestingly, he has company: “I wish to hell I’d never even heard of the Ewing family. They’ve brought me nothing but misery and heartache,” says cousin Jack upon his return to Dallas. And how ironic is Jack describing his sister’s death to Bobby, of all people, as “a nightmare that just doesn't end”?So it is that a week after Mack's old flame (Anne Matheson) moved in next door to he and Karen on KNOTS LANDING, an ex of Bobby’s (Jenna) moves in next door to the Ewings. “I don’t even like seeing her occasionally. Now she’s gonna be right next door!” Karen complained to Laura. “Things were bad enough with her living in Braddock. Now she’s living with your brother?” echoes Pam to Bobby. “The next thing you know he’ll be bringing her to dinner right here at Southfork, baby and all!” (The lighting fixture falling off the wall after Pam exits angrily out of the scene is a specifically Season 9 touch.)And this week's Top 3 is ...1 (1) THE COLBYS2 (3) DALLAS3 (5) DYNASTY</blockquote>

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