Everything we know about the Dynasty remake

[Willie Oleson]

something Emma Samms said in an interview

There was so much going on in those opening credits!

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Far from being prepared to hate it, I've been surprised by how receptive many of the fans here are to the nuDYNASTY. But that doesn't make them blind to the generically "outrageous" tone of the trailers.

Perhaps Blake owns a luxurious chalet in Aspen?

Or at least Blairsville.

 

[Alexis]

Krystina who? LB who? Danny who?

Sorry, but DALLAS was the only show with "iconic" kids because they were an important part of the show's history and main characters, especially JR of course.
Steven and Danny didn't have that kind of relationship. Fallon's daughter? Who is she, and who cares? How's that going to look like DYNASTY?
A "post-Blake" sequel could have been interesting, 15 or 20 years ago, when Collins and Evans were still vital enough to do this kind of intensive TV work (preferably, together with Stephanie Beacham).
But now it's too late. It's over, finito, basta.

A remake is the only good reason to bring it back. Why is everyone so determined to hate it? Just so you can say "I told you so?"
Blake, Steven, Fallon...they're coming back! How can you NOT be happy?

Well to be perfectly honest the clips from the pilot look utterly terrible. I don't think people were determined to hate it. That's unfair. People were curious and hopeful, then their hopes were dashed by a not very good preview. I think that trailer was some of the worst TV I have ever seen.
Like someone condensed all of the most terrible things about the original show into 4 minutes but without the natural charm and talent that most of the original cast had. And then to top it off the creators went and did all of the things we really hoped they wouldn't do. That faux witty banter and that Californian vocal fry even though the show is set in Atlanta Georgia! These Carringtons are very nouveau riche, with their gaudy McMansion and from the sound of Fallon and Steven's exchanges they speak like Valley girls in a Mall. It appears soulless. Vapid pantomime right from the very beginning. Surely you can see why people are less than enthusiastic about it. And of course the original show sucked plenty at times but when it was good it was a million times better than this. This is a show the CW made to pander to their tweeny audience, the ones that watched Gossip Girl and Reign. The original show matters not to them. You can hardly blame fans of the original for not being here for this. It doesn't speak to them. It certainly doesn't speak to me, from what I have seen. Though I will be fair and give it a chance.

To me it seems more like the later seasons of Melrose Place than Dynasty.

 

[Willie Oleson]

I think that trailer was some of the worst TV I have ever seen

That's interesting, because I was pleasantly surprised. I must admit, partially due to the anticipation. We've been waiting for the Big News for months now.

That faux witty banter

That's something I'm still nervous about, I hope they keep it to a minimum.

These Carringtons are very nouveau riche

Blake looks younger so he couldn't have started his empire 50 years ago. But now we have a sexier Blake. Lose some, win some.

Surely you can see why people are less than enthusiastic about it

There's a difference between disappointment and a complete assassination. Some people here seem to revel in their own negativity, especially since they've already decided why it could never work, regardless of the trailer.

And of course the original show sucked plenty at times

That should never be an excuse for another show to suck as well, and I hope they'll avoid the traps of the original show.

The original show matters not to them

That's quite a statement at this point. But we already knew it wouldn't be an exact copy. If the CW is the only way to get it done, then it's possible that they're limited in what they can do. I'll take whatever I can get, but if it really sucks that bad, I won't waste my time and energy on hating it.

The cast seems to be very enthusiastic about it, and right now so am I, because I had never expected to see another DYNASTY. Bring it on!

 

[Alexis]

That's interesting, because I was pleasantly surprised. I must admit, partially due to the anticipation. We've been waiting for the Big News for months now.

I am genuinely perplexed that THE C.W is so delighted with it and that there was buzz about it. They seem to think it's great, to me it just reminds me of all the bad soaps that got cancelled either mid-season or after 1 season.

This may be my new guilty pleasure/secret shame. I may watch it because it's so bad it's good but I'm not even sure about that. I enjoyed the first season of EMPIRE but as the second season rolled around I just couldn't commit to watching it as it was so crappy. I had no interest not when I could be watching something better. It may be the same with Nu-Dynasty.

I will say this from what I have seen, the cast does nothing for me. The actress playing Cristal especially is awful and is just too young for me to even care about. Nu-Fallon was a disappointment to me. She was very much what I didn't want. Grant Show seems too much like Mr Nice Guy. He's more Jake Hanson from Melrose than he is Lucas Boyd from Point Pleasant. When I heard of his casting I thought it would be a good thing as could play that darker character that Blake was/should be in the beginning. I don't see that happening now, this Blake will be having Bagels in the Carrington kitchen rolling his eyes while Steven talks loudly and like a cheerleader to Fallon about the wild night he had with Sammy Jo while some shitty boy with a guitar music plays pointlessly in the background.

I know what Schwartz and Savage do.

 

[Ked]

These Carringtons are very nouveau riche

But weren't the old Carringtons noveau riche as well? Blake was supposed to be a self-made man.

 

[Alexis]

But weren't the old Carringtons noveau riche as well? Blake was supposed to be a self-made man.

Yes but they didn't feel that way did they? There was something about the old show that made you think of bloodlines and inheritances and family trees and them and us. There was for sure an upper class thing about the original Carringtons, at least to begin with. These lot feel like the masses with money. The original Carrington family may have been nouveau riche but they looked and behaved like old money. The house sold that idea, they carried themselves like royalty and they seemed well educated.
Maybe it's the actors, I don't know... The actors in the original show seemed like old money people. The casting was just very, very good.
These new lot feel like they were plucked from a trailer park, hosed down, wrapped in Gucci and airdropped into that mansion.

 

[Willie Oleson]

THE C.W is so delighted with it and that there was buzz about it. They seem to think it's great

But what do you expect them to say? "This is trash, don't watch it"?
Doesn't a show like DYNASTY deserve some buzz?

But weren't the old Carringtons noveau riche as well? Blake was supposed to be a self-made man.

The history of the original Carringtons (1950s/60s) seems richer and more enigmatic because it happened before our time.
NuBlake's history, the 1980s/90s, won't have that lush and lavish "feel", simply because it doesn't exist. That's not the CW's fault.

I'm sure we'll continue to disagree (or not!) but I think we ought to be a little more realistic about certain aspects of this remake.

 

[Alexis]

But what do you expect them to say? "This is trash, don't watch it"?

Of course not, though this was the best of their shows for the season and I think it's terrible from what I have seen. It's been pushed into production only because the network is part owner of the material. Would a show like this have been greenlit without that ownership? Likely not.

Doesn't a show like DYNASTY deserve some buzz?

I don't think a show like this deserves buzz, no. I don't. It looks just like a failed '90s/00s soap. It's masquerading as a new modern take on a soap but it's not. It's not pushing the soap genre forward or breaking new ground. It's just re-treading old steps. All the steps that hastened cancellations.

 

[Soapwriter12]

If you think about it, the time between the eigties, and today is the same gap as between the 80's to the fifties/sixties, to today's younger generation.

The eighties may have ben the era that we lived through, but not to the gerations born after the eighties.

As for the orginal Carrington mansion, we find out in season nine, that it was built by Blake, and tom Carrington, so for the eighties it was a relatively new mansion.

 

[Alexis]

As for the orginal Carrington mansion, we find out in season nine, that it was built by Blake, and tom Carrington, so for the eighties it was a relatively new mansion.

But for 8 years it never EVER felt like that.

 

[Soapwriter12]

What makes a house feel old compared to new?

 

[Alexis]

What makes a house feel old compared to new?

Well the original Carrington mansion as based on FiLoli felt like it had been there for centuries. It's design aesthetic and architecture and the interiors were not 1980s. It didn't look like it had been built in the last 10 or 20 years. It felt like there was real history with that house. Surely you notice a glaring difference between the original Carrington mansion and the new one?

 

[Soapwriter12]

their are diferences, but until we see the pilot, we don't have a complete picture if how it all fts together. remeber we aonly saw maybe four minutes out of a forty five to fifty minute pilot, so we're missing a lot of detail, and context. The trailer is only meant to develop sizzle, and buzz, something to tease the audience so that they will see what happens in the episode.

 

[Alexis]

their are diferences, but until we see the pilot, we don't have a complete picture if how it all fts together. remeber we aonly saw maybe four minutes out of a forty five to fifty minute pilot, so we're missing a lot of detail, and context. The trailer is only meant to develop sizzle, and buzz, something to tease the audience so that they will see what happens in the episode.

It's the Tyler Perry house vs Filoli. DYNASTY isn't just about money. If all you see are two mansions that rich people would live in then you are missing something.

 

[Ked]

they carried themselves like royalty and they seemed well educated.

For the first couple of seasons, that is.

It's not pushing the soap genre forward or breaking new ground. It's just re-treading old steps. All the steps that hastened cancellations.

Perhaps not, but it is updating the old version: back then, Krystle and Fallon were given the "stay at home" treatment, more or less. Fallon wasn't going to inherit Blake's business because she was his daughter, not his son. I can understand a man who grew up in the 40s/50s/60s doing that, but that wouldn't fly today. So in this version, Fallon works at her father's company and gets to fulfill her ambition at becoming the new leader for it... only this time, what's standing in her way isn't Daddy's sexism, but her new stepmommy. Which means Cristal, unlike Krystle, gets to be involved in running the family company as well.

And there's the fact that we finally get to see Steven fully embrace his sexuality, thanks to the new standards on TV these days. Its still not clear whether Steven is the "black sheep" of his family because of that or not, but I personally doubt it. It might be for other reasons, or it could be a contributing factor.

And let's not forget that we now have a wider range of race/ethnicity/whatever: the old version had only one regular black character, Dominique (Brady, Nick and that one dude from early season 6 don't count, as they were never regulars). Now we have two regular black characters, Jeff and Michael Cullhane, possibly three with Monique, and we have a Hispanic regular in Cristal.

We wouldn't get this kind of stuff with the 80s Dynasty, because that was made in a different time. However, if season 9 showed me anything, is that Dynasty had the potential to change with the times. So I say let it.

 

[Ked]

It's the Tyler Perry house vs Filoli. DYNASTY isn't just about money. If all you see are two mansions that rich people would live in then you are missing something.

That's why you need to see the pilot, because all a trailer can show you are people in a mansion.

 

[Alexis]

That's why you need to see the pilot, because all a trailer can show you are people in a mansion.

Unfortunately that trailer showed us exactly what the show was. Are you expecting it to be better than the trailer?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

They flip-flop about the age of the original mansion. In Season 9 they say both "'60s Carrington estate construction" and then thought better of it and said "re-construction" because it was obviously an older house than that.

In the 1991 Reunion, Krystle then verified that Blake "built it".

Oh, well. Was Blake married to Alexis for 7 or 8 or 9 or 10 years? Those things don't stay the same, even when they should.

Anyway, I do think that nuDYNASTY could work better as a modern extension of the original show instead of a modern remake. Why not do a bitchy, 2010's "trashy" show about L.B., Danny, Lauren, Kwysthteeeena and their slutty kids instead of re-imaging the first version --- even if you left the older cast, now geriatric, out of it entirely?

I mean, since the younger generation never saw the original DYNASTY, for all its strengths and weakness, they don't care whether the trampy ho and him-hos are called "Crystol" or "Lauren".

But that way, you could have a show which satisfies the younger crowd's expectations for shrieking smut, while giving the older viewer a connection to the older show which isn't technically the older show nor an override/re-do.

Let's not forget: nuDALLAS was a hit in the ratings at first in part because the older crowd wanted to see a sequel series. But the same writers who disrespected oldDALLAS so badly when making nuDALLAS were unable to satisfy the younger viewer, too. So it crashed and crashed fast.

But then nuDYNASTY is a remake, not a sequel.

I kind of wonder if we'll be blamed once nuDYNASTY is cancelled.

Look at it this way, bad or good or indifferent, the new show reclaims the title from that show about the ducks.

 

[Soapwriter12]

Details about the estate, and it's no Mcmansion.

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2015/10/09/take-a-peek-inside-tyler-perry-s-25-million.html