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Dallas the TV series
Knots Landing
Re-watching the Ewingverse ... alphabetically!
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<blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 200052" data-attributes="member: 22"><p><u><em>Always on Your Side</em> (KNOTS, 07 Feb 91) v <em>An American Hero</em> (KNOTS, 04 Apr 91)</u></p><p></p><p>Great, a double bill from my least favourite season!</p><p></p><p>The opening section of <em>Always on Your Side</em> is a good example of what I don’t love about Season 12. First, we see Karen and Mack trying too hard to impress Jason’s social worker, then Linda and Bob trying too hard to impress Mrs Richfield’s niece, and then Frank and Charlotte trying too hard to impress each other. Not only are the characters trying too hard; the actors are too — they’re all being self-consciously wacky as if they’re in a Broadway comedy about a bunch of zany characters who just don’t realise how adorable they are.</p><p></p><p>But as soon as the ep remembers it’s a drama not a sitcom and starts taking itself seriously, it instantly improves. Mack helping Jason abscond from the courthouse, Claudia taking a weirdly intense interest in Meg, Paige just being a haughty bitch — it all works. Special credit goes to Joan van Ark and Ted Shackelford who only appear in one proper scene (Gary and the twins reappear at the end as part of a soppy musical montage), but manage to elevate the silly brain virus story by simply taking the situation seriously and playing it for real.</p><p></p><p><em>An American Hero</em> is much better. It does comedy too — the opening scene has Paige fantasising about what she <em>should</em> have done after walking in on Greg and Linda, and there’s lots of enjoyable office politics at the Sumner Group — but it’s much sharper and wittier, with the laughs arising naturally out of the situation rather than the actors trying to impose them. Jason provides the pathos back at the cul-de-sac by movingly defending his abusive father to the Mackenzies until he simply can’t anymore.</p><p></p><p>Both eps do a decent job of depicting Mack as a flawed, reluctant hero in Jason’s storyline rather than as a TV saint, while Kate Whittaker has a refreshingly natural, unforced chemistry with both Steve Brewer and her Uncle Greg — which makes her position in the second ep all the more interesting when Steve tells her that Greg was responsible for destroying his parents.</p><p></p><p>And the winner is … <em>An American Hero</em>.</p><p></p><p>BONUS BEATS</p><p></p><p>[MEDIA=youtube]B4JCehDOy54[/MEDIA]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="James from London, post: 200052, member: 22"] [U][I]Always on Your Side[/I] (KNOTS, 07 Feb 91) v [I]An American Hero[/I] (KNOTS, 04 Apr 91)[/U] Great, a double bill from my least favourite season! The opening section of [I]Always on Your Side[/I] is a good example of what I don’t love about Season 12. First, we see Karen and Mack trying too hard to impress Jason’s social worker, then Linda and Bob trying too hard to impress Mrs Richfield’s niece, and then Frank and Charlotte trying too hard to impress each other. Not only are the characters trying too hard; the actors are too — they’re all being self-consciously wacky as if they’re in a Broadway comedy about a bunch of zany characters who just don’t realise how adorable they are. But as soon as the ep remembers it’s a drama not a sitcom and starts taking itself seriously, it instantly improves. Mack helping Jason abscond from the courthouse, Claudia taking a weirdly intense interest in Meg, Paige just being a haughty bitch — it all works. Special credit goes to Joan van Ark and Ted Shackelford who only appear in one proper scene (Gary and the twins reappear at the end as part of a soppy musical montage), but manage to elevate the silly brain virus story by simply taking the situation seriously and playing it for real. [I]An American Hero[/I] is much better. It does comedy too — the opening scene has Paige fantasising about what she [I]should[/I] have done after walking in on Greg and Linda, and there’s lots of enjoyable office politics at the Sumner Group — but it’s much sharper and wittier, with the laughs arising naturally out of the situation rather than the actors trying to impose them. Jason provides the pathos back at the cul-de-sac by movingly defending his abusive father to the Mackenzies until he simply can’t anymore. Both eps do a decent job of depicting Mack as a flawed, reluctant hero in Jason’s storyline rather than as a TV saint, while Kate Whittaker has a refreshingly natural, unforced chemistry with both Steve Brewer and her Uncle Greg — which makes her position in the second ep all the more interesting when Steve tells her that Greg was responsible for destroying his parents. And the winner is … [I]An American Hero[/I]. BONUS BEATS [MEDIA=youtube]B4JCehDOy54[/MEDIA] [/QUOTE]
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Knots Landing
Re-watching the Ewingverse ... alphabetically!
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