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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 45264" data-attributes="member: 22">"Past Imperfect"As Marky's pointed out, there's quite a KNOTSian vibe to Season 6. It's something to do with the depth and texture of the photography, (Southfork feels like a real house here, in much the same way that Seaview Circle feels like a real cul-de-sac) but also a sense of the everyday lives the characters are leading, against which the larger than life events take place. An example in this episode is the gorgeously shot scene of a candlelit dinner for four at Cliff's apartment, which is as much about Afton trying to get Cliff to taste her cooking as it is about Cliff attempting to persuade Mark and Pam to commit to a multi-million dollar offshore oil deal. (And that's why Afton is such an important part of Season 6--she doesn't have to do, it's enough that she is.) Elsewhere, Bobby and Peter are both curiously bone-headed in their dealings with the women in their lives. Jenna hits the roof when Bobby tells her he's bought her a boutique to run. It falls to Donna--smartly, brightly, warmly, sternly--to put Jenna's point of view across ("It's like you're sayin' that all she's done to support herself and Charlie all these years is just not good enough in your eyes") and still Bobby doesn't get it. When he allows Jenna to think that making the boutique a business arrangement is her idea, he does so in a hugely patronising way, and the show seems to side with him in that. (Still, Jenna will get the last word when she flings the boutique back in his face in the supposedly anti-women Season 9.) The story of Nice Woman Linda Gray and her well-meaning stalker continues confusingly--having made it clear that she is extremely uncomfortable about conducting any sort of relationship with him, Peter's solution is to ... rent them an apartment! He can't understand Nice Woman's appalled reaction. "I thought you'd be thrilled to death about it!" I'm not sure how we're meant to read Peter--as a naive man/child blinded by his own infatuation, as a rational man thwarted by the Rules of a Society That Does Not Understand The Beautiful Love of A Younger Man For An Older Woman, or as an emotionally retarded sociopath? Or is it all some sort of convoluted metaphor for homosexual love? Whichever, Peter comes across as nothing so much as A Soap Character Required to Behave Irrationally In Order To Further The Plot. Oh, and there's also the Ewing boys' reaction to Miss Ellie and Clayton's engagement. JR learns Clayton has a sister called Jessica, there's the beginning of Clayton and Ray's friendship, and a fab scene at the end where Howard Keel bursts into JR's office and tears him a new stetson. Season 7 needed more of that kind of stuff, instead of turning The Keelster into some sort of wild boar Donna Reed has had stuffed and mounted to give her something tall to stand in front of."Peter's Principles"After making such a big deal of forming a consortium with Mark and Pam, Cliff wastes no time in jumping ship when they start to drag their heels on the offshore deal. He makes overtures to Jordan and Marilee instead. Jordan bails, but Marilee's interested. Season 6 makes the best use of Marilee Stone of the whole series. She and Cliff are really good together. Their clandestine meeting at Cliff's apartment sets in motion a succession of great scenes full of conflict. Firstly, Afton arrives home unexpectedly and catches them both, martini glass-handed. ("My performance was cancelled. It looks like yours just was too. Don't come near me.") She storms out and pitches up at Pam's door. This leads to the best scene of the episode in which Pam bursts into Cliff office demanding to know, "What the hell are you doing to Afton?" Pam and Cliff end up having the same conversation they've been having for six years, (Cliff: "I've been kicked and kicked hard." Pam: "You mean by the Ewings? You're still singing that old song??") but because Ken Kercheval is so imaginative a performer (especially vocally) and Victoria Principal has suddenly sprung to life as an actress, it feels fresh and important and resonant. Worried that Cliff's offshore plans could re-ignite the Barnes/Ewing feud, Pam turns to Bobby. This leads to a sweet dinner scene between the ex-lovers, some arched eyebrows from Jenna, and a shouting match between Pam and Mark, which is interrupted by Afton, looking awfully pretty and on her way back to Cliff's, thus bringing the chain of events full circle. Elsewhere, there is a sly reference to Howard Keel's musical past ("I used to sing a little when I was younger," claims Clayton coyly) and the introduction of Peter's roommate Jerry Hunter, who in three short scenes manages to convey more sexiness and danger than Christopher Atkins does in an entire season. I think the problem with the Sue Ellen/Peter story is that it is extraneous to the rest of the Ewing saga. Everything that's happened to Sue Ellen up till now has been a direct result of her marriage to JR which, in turn, is a direct result of the way she was raised. Peter's kittenish infatuation with an older woman, however, feels random in the same way as Pam's Season 9 collision; it could have happened to anyone. That's probably why it feels like Linda Gray could be playing any well-meaning middle-aged woman in any nicely lit TV movie. "Offshore Crude" The offshore stuff is great: JR continues to screw Bobby over, albeit in a much milder, more subtle way than he did last year, by sending him off on a wild goose chase scouting for potential offshore partners for Ewing Oil, when it's all part of his scam to set Cliff up. So JR's lying to Bobby and using Sly to lie to Cliff who's lying to Afton over his involvement with Marilee, who is very funny in this episode (Cliff: "You're sure no one will see us together?" Marilee: "In a dump like this? Sure hope nobody sees me"). Not so much Texas oil baroness, more wisecracking New York Jew with a bit of Mae West thrown in. The most (only?) interesting thing about Sue Ellen's involvement with Peter is how it impacts on her relationship with JR, like in the opening scene where she returns home in the middle of dinner after having rubbish sex with Peter. (She's wearing a different outfit to the one she was wearing earlier the same day at his apartment, and you just know he got prematurely excited and spoffed all over her skirt.) Sue Ellen excuses herself and goes straight upstairs. JR follows her: "Are you forgetting our agreement? We always have dinner together." This is the first we hear of a formal arrangement existing between them during their separate bedrooms period, (other than "shag who you want") and it points up the lonely emptiness of their marriage at this time. Elsewhere, John Ross's over-excitement regarding Peter's re-appearance feels totally believable (intentionally or not, Omri Katz really captures what a pain in the arse kids become when they get all giddy and demanding), while Lucy's over-excitement for the same reason feels plain weird. Tottering around in her swimsuit and high heels, acting all wide-eyed and breathless, she seems like a creature that's just been hatched rather than a fully grown woman who's gone through a succession of traumatic, life changing experiences. And because Sue Ellen no longer has scenes with former confidantes Clayton and Dr Elby, in which her true feelings can be articulated to the audience, we're also treated to the lame Kirby-from-DYNASTY type scene where she shows up at Peter's apartment and, standing with her back to him, opens her heart while he's in the bathroom with the taps on full blast. "Oh I'm sorry, I couldn't hear a word you were saying!" chirrups Peter at the end of her whispered speech. Duh! JR summons Edgar Randolph to Ewing Oil late at night--the mood and camera work are very similar to the scene where he raped Holly Harwood--to begin blackmailing him over we know not what. It is now established that Edgar Randolph, Jenna Wade and Clayton Farlow all have Deep Dark Secrets Hidden in Their Pasts, and much of the rest of the season will be taken up by Ray and Donna, Katherine and JR respectively trying to uncover what each of those secrets is."Some Do ... Some Don't" Some do or don't do ... what? I think they're talking about it. Y'know--it. Bobby and Jenna do do it, for the first time in fourteen years (which means it's not just Jenna's boutique that opens in this episode). Sue Ellen and JR don't do it--in fact, the mere suggestion of creating a brother or sister for John Ross practically has Sue Ellen heaving all over the upstairs hallway--and neither do Sue Ellen and Peter, busy getting their kicks from ice skating and tacos instead. (Ice skating and tacos?? Whichever version of Sue Ellen Linda Gray is playing in these scenes, it bares no resemblance to the one we've seen during the first five seasons.) JR records himself and Katherine doing it, Pam tells Marilee she doesn't want her and Cliff to do it, Clayton suggests doing it--Jenna's opening seems to have got him in the mood as well--but Miss Ellie is horrified at the prospect and leaves him to strike a Rhett Butler style pose at the bottom of the Southfork staircase instead. Nice touches: Clayton and Miss Ellie's kitchen reminiscences of their vacation mishaps (Clayton exposing himself in front of half the spinsters of Pyramus, New Jersey; Ellie eating a calf's head), the Pam Gang playing Space Invaders, Clayton and Ray bonding during the cattle auction scene that establishes ranching as Clayton's first love, and a glimpse of the fab Kate Vernon (later so sweet as Lorraine in FALCON CREST and currently excellent as Lady Macbeth-alike Ellen Tighe in BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) as one of Peter's sneering friends in the otherwise crappy Taco scene. "Eye of the Beholder" Victoria Principal's great in this episode. From the opening scene where Christopher (dry-eyed for once) bursts into his mother's room to wake her, she's spontaneous and playful, cheerfully ad-libbing dialogue in a way that would have been inconceivable during PAM: THE KEWPIE DOLL YEARS (i.e. Seasons 1-4). It's interesting in retrospect to see how future storylines are being set up--Mark is away in Houston, having the secret medical check up that will later reveal his terminal illness (and hello to Abby Ewing's first husband as Dr Kenderson!)--and so, to ensure maximum heartache for Pam down the line, it's important that she start growing closer to Bobby again, hence the scene where they run into one another at the Oil Baron's Club and spend the afternoon reminiscing over lunch. Ironically, there's a real onscreen rapport between Bobby and Pam here that just wasn't present during their marriage. Again, a lot of that comes down to Principal. From her peal of laughter after Pam informs Bobby that she's ordered watercress sandwiches for them both through their trip down memory lane (recalling the moments that led up to the beginning of the series during "the coldest winter in the history of Texas") to her silent realisation (following Bobby's casual remark that "I haven't been home the last couple of nights") that he and Jenna are now sleeping together, there's a lovely lightness to her performance. It all feels unforced and natural. Adding hugely to the atmosphere of this sequence is Bradford May's photography--when Bobby and Pam suddenly realise they've been talking for hours, the lighting really makes one feel that it's now late afternoon on a sunny day, even though the characters are still indoors. And it's a slick touch to have them run into a boozy Clayton at the bar, where he's carrying the weight of the episode's primary storyline on his shoulders. For reasons unknown, Miss Ellie has broken off their engagement and turned on the cold tap, freezing out anyone--Clayton, JR--who dares ask for an explanation. Donna is the only character who won't be intimidated by her. Any emotionally charged scene between BBG and Susan Howard is always a standout and the one in this episode is no exception. It's interesting to see where Clayton turns in his hour of need--while he and Sue Ellen have a nice scene together (again, beautifully shot with Linda Gray looking lovelier than she has all season), he now seems to have replaced her with Ray and Donna as his closest allies. The final scene is great--a bellowing Clayton bursts into Southfork at night looking for Ellie (for a second, one imagines he might burst into song), JR pulls a gun out of his PJs, Miss Ellie goes from angry to heartbroken as she tells Clayton about her mastectomy, they embrace and the episode ends on that great shot of him looking ambivalent over her shoulder. Other highlights: Pam's cheeky reference to THE MAN FROM ATLANTIS; a funny scene in which, after Peter comes to pick Lucy up for a date, JR's wisecracks have Sue Ellen squirming so much she practically turns inside out; Afton's bizarre announcement that Mitch has become chief resident of a hospital only two years after qualifying as a doctor; and a subtle link between Mark lying to Pam about where he stayed in Houston and Cliff asking Mark to recommend a hotel so that he can not stay there during his illicit liaison with Marilee Stone. And let's not spoil the fun by pondering too closely the likelihood of Marilee basing a million dollar investment on whether or not she can getting Cliff into the sack.</blockquote>

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