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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Snarky Oracle!" data-source="post: 439378" data-attributes="member: 57984">I very much love the three-hour pilot -- it is Krystle.And Krystle was DYNASTY (at least, beneath the surface, at its center).And while I thoroughly understand that every subsequent episode couldn't possibly have offered the forlorn grandeur of the pilot, or the music score, or as consistently cinematic a tone, nor 100% filmed at the Filoli estate, it is the tortures of Krystle -- and Steven and Claudia -- that are centerstage.And should be. It's, like, the world is about to emerge from the '70s and into something very different, be it good or bad.Yes, you had to have the arrival of Alexis, specifically with the casting of Joan Collins, to have the show take fire. And Season 2 displayed precisely what DYNASTY should be: the poetic, soulful new wife versus the salacious, high-society sociopathic ex, Krystle & Alexis.The casting was perfect.The show was obviously proud of itself, Warren Beatty called Aaron Spelling after the Season 2 cliffhanger and said, "you have the best show on television!", and DYNASTY was now a legitimate competitor to DALLAS (the top show on the planet by leaps and bounds). But it soon became evident that what the DYNASTY producers primarily wanted for their venture was the continuing "success" and status which was now coming with DYNASTY, without having any knowledge -- or probably any interest -- in what had made the series, including the just-concluded Season 2, actually work... Just stick the despicably overdressed villainess into a "glamorous" corporate office, have her boss people around, and then completely forget about Krystle (the producers at times almost admitted as much) despite how beloved Krystle originally was.At the very least, what kind of business model is that?But, for me, the line in the sand is still the first episode of Season 3, as Krystle bleats out for "Blaaaake..!!" on that wind-swept mountainside. There were some okay scenes, but many were suddenly abysmally stilted (and by design). The Static Acting Directive had arrived and, to my mind, DYNASTY was essentially over -- this new creative angle now made even well-written scenes feel silly and kind of dopey... And the program never recovered (until so late in its run that everybody had long-stopped watching it)... It's true that I have finally adjusted to it, and that line of demarcation no longer seems quite as pronounced as it once did, but I've had decades for those edges to be dulled.Simple comparison: envision Krystle's "If you want a re-match, just whistle!!" as the Season 2 art studio catfight concluded with, say, Krystle on the mansion landing in the process of throwing Alexis (and her flowers) out near the end of Season 5: in the first, Krystle is an angry, adult woman exasperated by the mistreatment (and baby-murder) received from her predecessor; in the scene from Season 5, Krystle -- in voice and body language -- comes off more like fussy Shirley Temple, infantilized and indignant, eyes almost crossed, as if she's instructing her rival to exit the playhouse.All of DYNASTY's encroaching post-Season 2 wrongheadedness became frozen in amber due to S.A.D.. The Lobotomy Years had begun with Season 3 -- even if it got worse later. The ratings were not even affected negatively for two or three years due to 90%+ Q-rating approval of the casting, Nolan Miller's clothes, and a press enthusiastic over what DYNASTY seemed to be or wanted to be.Then the viewer realized, after the predictably hapless aftermath in Moldavia, that this show doesn't actually tell a story. And the frozen actors, kept in their cages regarding every gesture, remained too constrained to save it.And, with the executives unwilling to unload the writers who created much of this mess (and probably even created "S.A.D." itself) one of the most infamous and rapid collapses in series television really got underway.That's why I'm always surprised when some fans claim Season 7 was "better than" Season 8... Sure, Season 7 had superlative potential (e.g., Alexis moves into the mansion) but DYNASTY was never going to follow through on any of this satisfactorily. In fact, Season 7 feels "sick" to me. Mentally ill. A dark metaphor for the series as a whole. And it's the year I have the hardest time re-watching, by far... Despite its numerous problems, Season 8 relaxes (perhaps a bit too much??) and the plotlines almost make some sense. (Krystle, of course, remains a fringe character, despite Linda Evans being the highest paid actress on television).In a way, DYNASTY's Season 9, under the auspices of David Paulsen, is kind of like DALLAS' Season 10 (DVD) -- also Paulsen -- in that both years of both shows are a bit like Haunted Last Hurrahs, as if both programs were awakening from -- well, from a dream -- and then being submerged into yet another, better dream, the emergence from a discombobulated coma into sudden mental clarity, just before the ultimate sweet release of death: the ghost of a long-lost character, prominent in their ways to the families' pasts, seems to reappear, generating scandal that goes to these dynasties' souls. It's a manifestation, a seance. A fatefully eerie return to proper form, a recognition of the series' immense potentials (and perhaps their loss of such potential), before finally disappearing completely (although DALLAS forgot to call the morgue, the corpse rotting a bit long in the Texas sun for another few years). <img src="https://c8.alamy.com/comp/2JTJA3D/dynasty-aka-der-denver-clan-fernsehserie-usa-1981-1989-darsteller-vorn-john-james-heather-locklear-emma-samms-joan-collins-john-forsythe-linda-evans-2JTJA3D.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?