Before Dallas premiered on
TNT back in June of 2012, I found myself thinking that this show in combination
with ABC’s Revenge would be able to quench my constant craving for nighttime
soap operas, and together they both did during their first seasons. However, as
many people, both TV critics and viewers, have been saying, Revenge is having a
major sophomore slump both creatively and in the ratings department.
In the case of TNT’s Dallas,
however, it’s been able to avoid suffering the dreaded sophomore slump on the
creative end of things. It’s true the ratings are down this season, but I’ve
read a lot of comments online from people who are saying that they believe that
the ratings being down has more to do with the fact that this season is airing
during the regular TV season, meaning it has more competition to deal with from
broadcast networks, whereas the first season aired during the summer with less
competition. Brenda Strong addressed this in a recent interview that I read,
and it sounds like TNT wants to branch out and start airing more shows during
the regular season. According to her, it sounds like TNT is hoping to have
Dallas pioneer that effort and expected the ratings for the second season to be
lower since it’s airing during the regular TV season. Since she said that, I’m
not too terribly worried for the time being that the show won’t be renewed for
a third season. Perhaps they will renew it for a third season and simply decide
to only air the show during the summer in future, but I’m not sure what the TNT
network executives are thinking about the show’s ratings though.
As much as I loved the first
season, I have to say that I think the second season has been even better in a
lot of ways so far. For starters, none of the episodes have felt like filler
episodes so far, which is always a good thing for TV shows if you ask me. There
also isn’t the repetitive back and forth scheming regarding the future of
Southfork like there was last season where John Ross and J.R. would have the upper
hand one episode, and then Christopher and Bobby would have the upper hand the
following episode, which often made me feel like the storyline wasn’t moving
forward all that much. That was the main thing that made several of the season
one episodes felt like filler to me. When it comes to season two, however, each
episode has felt like it’s progressing the storylines and have all been full of
excitement so far. Season two has also featured several very interesting
storyline developments. My favorite storyline development would be the fact
that John Ross and Pamela/Rebecca, have formed a business agreement as a part
of a plan to get some of Christopher’s shares in Ewing Energy shares and have
also become romantically involved with each other in the process, which I’ll
talk about some more in a moment.
I have to say it’s been
pretty difficult for me to get used to referring to Rebecca as Pamela after
thinking of her as being Rebecca Sutter for the show’s entire first season, but
I’m slowly getting used to calling “Rebecca” Pamela now that she’s gone back to
going by her birth name. The whole situation reminds me a lot of how people who
watch Revenge refer to the girl that Emily Thorne switched identities with as
being Faux Amanda, which I always thought was rather annoying, but now I can
kind of understand why people did that.
I think what made it so hard
for me to get used to referring the character as Pamela when it has always felt
really weird to me that some people have referred to the girl Emily Thorne
switched identities with as Faux Amanda is because the audience knew right from
the very beginning that Emily had assumed a different identity so she could
carry out her plan for revenge; while it wasn’t revealed until the end of the
season one finale that “Rebecca Sutter” was actually Cliff Barnes’ daughter,
Pamela. I spent the whole first season thinking her name was Rebecca Sutter, so
that’s what I was used to calling her, and then all of the sudden the audience
were basically forced to start thinking of the character as being named Pamela
Barnes. It has definitely been an adjustment for me.
So far the writers have
really delivered this season in terms of giving me what I want out of the show
as a viewer, mainly to have them feature Ken Kercheval more on the show and
have Cliff Barnes become more involved in the storylines than he was last
season. After watching the season one finale where they revealed that the
person we all thought was Rebecca Sutter is actually Cliff’s daughter, Pamela,
I figured that would mean the writers would be featuring Ken Kercheval more in
season two, and I’m thrilled to see that I was right.
Going back to the
relationship between John Ross and Pamela, having the two of them get together
was something that I had wanted to happen ever since season one was airing, and
so far that aspect of the season has turned out to be even better than I had
imagined. While I really enjoyed the relationship between John Ross and Elena
last season, mainly because I liked the way John Ross was with Elena, I
definitely like John Ross and Pamela’s relationship a lot more. Personally, I
feel like the relationship between John Ross and Pamela has given the writers
the chance to show that there’s more depth to the character John Ross than I
had previously realized when John Ross and Elena were a couple.
Even though John Ross and
Pamela keep telling each other and anyone who questions them about their
relationship that their relationship is all a part of a business deal, and not
much more beyond that, John Ross has definitely displayed a certain level of
concern for Pamela and her well being that he never really showed for Elena.
This is especially the case in episode 2x04 “False Confessions”. There are
several times in the episode where John Ross acts like he might have feelings
for Pamela, at least one of them was when he was talking to Pamela at one point
in the episode. The second time was when he was talking to Cliff and John Ross
tells him that somebody needs to keep Pamela’s best interests in mind, and the
other time in the episode was when J.R. confronts John Ross about the fact that
he met with Cliff. While John Ross is definitely displaying more genuine
feelings for Pamela than he had for Elena, which I personally find rather
sweet, their relationship is also a lot of fun to watch. I’ll save the rest of
my thoughts on their relationship for my review for episode 2x05 “Trial and
Error” though since a lot of my thoughts on their relationship at the moment
have more to do with my thoughts on that episode as a whole.
When season one was airing,
I frequently found Bobby to be way too intense and overbearingly self-righteous
for my taste. His behavior was downright off-putting at times, which made it
hard for to side with Bobby the majority of the time. If I had been a member of
the Ewing family last season, I would have given him a gift certificate for
anger management classes for his birthday or for Christmas, whichever came
first. Thankfully, I’ve found Bobby to be a lot more likable as a character so
far this season, and I think that’s because the whole idea of selling the
Southfork ranch is behind him and everyone else now that he doesn’t have cancer
anymore. Plus, both the character Bobby and Patrick Duffy’s acting isn’t too
intense for my taste this season, which has made Dallas even more enjoyable for
me to watch compared to last season.
While I’ve found Bobby to be
a lot more likable and interesting this season, I’ve unfortunately found
Christopher to be even more obnoxious and unbearable compared to last season,
and I absolutely hated him last
season. Personally, I’ve always thought that Christopher Ewing was the worst
character on the show, and just when I thought that the writing for Christopher
couldn’t get any worse, it got worse than I ever would have imagined. Perhaps
Jesse Metcalfe and his bad acting is to blame for Christopher being such a bad
character, but the more I see of Christopher, especially so far this season,
the more I think most of it is simply due to bad writing. That’s a real shame
considering the fact that the show is otherwise very well written for the most
part.
When I was watching season
one, I always felt like Christopher came across as being downright pathetic
99.9% of the time, because unlike John Ross who showed that he’s not afraid to
plot and scheme against people on a fairly independent basis, sometimes even
against J.R. of all people, he seems to be incapable of doing anything without
Bobby by his side for backup when he’s scheming. It will be interesting to see
how John Ross handles J.R.’s death and how J.R.’s death affect’s John Ross’
ability to pull off schemes, especially since John Ross has proven that he can
pull of plots and schemes without J.R. If Bobby were to die, I have a feeling
that Christopher would almost immediately crash and burn. He’s simply too
dependent on Bobby, if you ask me.
The thing that makes
Christopher so pathetic in my opinion is that he goes around making the most
outrageous threats that I’m pretty sure he’d never be able to follow through
on. For example, in episode 2x04 “False Confessions” he threatens someone who’s
working for Elena, saying that he’d make sure that the guy (Brian) would never
be able get another job in Texas. To me, Christopher is all bark, and no bite
when it comes to his behavior. I seriously doubt that Christopher has the power
and authority to actually make that happen. It’s as if Christopher thinks he’s
some kind of all powerful god who can do anything he wants, when he reality
he’s basically the exact opposite of that. It’s simply impossible for me to
take the character Christopher seriously. All I can do is mock him and pretty
much everything that he does or says. He’s an unintentionally funny character,
and I don’t mean that in a good way.
A poster on the IMDB message
board for Dallas (The TNT series) said that Christopher threatening to have
Brian blacklisted from the Texas job market reminded them of Gossip Girl and
how two characters had been banished from the Upper East Side on two separate
occasions throughout its’ six year run simply because someone hated them. I
thought that was kind of funny because Christopher’s behavior and Jesse
Metcalfe’s horrible acting on the show has constantly reminded me of how much I
hate the character Serena van der Woodsen and how horrible Blake Lively’s
acting is. I constantly found myself wishing that the writers of Gossip Girl
would write Serena off the show, but I knew that would never happen given the
character’s importance to the show and the book series that the show was based
on. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure that’s also the case with Christopher. He’s
simply too important to the premise of the show, at least in theory, to write
him off the show altogether. Plus, unlike Harris, Elena and Elena’s brother,
Drew, he serves as a link to the original series since he’s Bobby Ewing’s
adopted son who was first introduced in the original series. Unless Jesse Metcalfe decides that he wants to
leave the show at some point and his request is granted, it looks like viewers
are stuck with both the character Christopher and Jesse Metcalfe’s terrible acting
for the long haul.
Considering the fact that
he’s supposed to be the “good guy” or the Bobby equivalent of the younger
generation, the writers have pretty much made it completely impossible for
viewers to have any desire to root for Christopher. Instead, the writers are
making it very easy for me and a lot of other viewers that I’ve encountered on
the Dallas (2012) IMDB message board to side with John Ross the majority of the
time. This will probably make me sound like a terrible person, but I’m really
enjoying watching John Ross and Pamela work together to screw Christopher over.
If the writers want the viewers to sympathize with Christopher, then they have
completely failed at making it so people can feel sorry for Christopher when
bad things happen to him, especially this season.
For the most part, I would
say that Cynthia Cidre is a fantastic and very competent writer, but when it
comes to the writing for the character Christopher, the writing is so bad that
it makes her look like downright horrific writer. Sometimes the writing for
Christopher seems so random and out of place, which is how I felt about
Christopher’s outburst at Frank’s arraignment in the episode “False
Confessions”. It was like he thought he was living in some other alternate reality
where something completely different was happening. I didn’t understand his
behavior in that scene at all.
Christopher’s behavior is
frequently very contradictorily and inconsistent. For example, he wants Pamela
to go to jail for killing Tommy, because he thinks it was murder, when she
actually killed him in self defense, but he didn’t appear to have any problem
with Ann shooting Harris in premeditation, which she did at the end of episode
2x03 “Sins of the Father”. Basically by Christopher’s logic, murdering someone
or at least attempting to murder someone is okay as long as he likes you, but
if he doesn’t like the person, then they should automatically go to jail even
if they killed the person in self-defense, which I think is beyond dumb.
Congratulations, Elena! You’ve landed yourself a real winner! Sighs.
When it comes to the relationship
between Christopher and Bobby, their scenes together have often left me
wondering if pages from scripts for the TV show 7th Heaven keep
getting mixed in with the scripts for Dallas by mistake. I really liked 7th
Heaven, but it was definitely sickeningly cheesy way too often for my taste, so
I don’t want to be reminded of 7th Heaven when I’m watching Dallas. I
also definitely don’t want to be reminded of Gossip Girl whenever Christopher
is in a scene, which unfortunately keeps happening this season. I liked Gossip
Girl, but the show definitely became increasingly terrible over the years, so
it’s not good that Christopher’s behavior constantly reminds me of the show. Dallas
is too good of a show to be reminiscent of Gossip Girl in any way.
I know that Cynthia Cidre
hadn’t been expecting Larry Hagman to die during production for the show’s
second season, forcing her to find a way to write J.R. off the show during the
season, but I feel like the writing for season two so far has unintentionally
provided some great moments that really honor the character J.R. and Larry
Hagman as an actor. I feel like these moments can also serve as closure for the
character J.R. One example would be Bobby going to J.R. for help bringing
Harris down in episode 2x03 “Sins of The Father”, and J.R. tells him that
brining Harris down will be his “masterpiece”. Some people might not agree with
my assessment of J.R.’s use of the word masterpiece, but I feel like Larry
Hagman’s portrayal of J.R. Ewing could be considered his masterpiece as an
actor. I know that Larry Hagman is also famous for his portrayal of Major
Anthony "Tony" Nelson on I Dream of Jeannie, but if I had to guess, I
would say that his worldwide fame as an actor is mostly due to his portrayal of
J.R. Ewing on Dallas.
The
scene where Bobby goes to J.R. for help with bringing Harris down is probably
my favorite moment from the show as a whole when it comes the character Bobby.
The reason for this being that I’ve always been very fascinated by characters
who have really prided themselves in trying their best to be a good person and
always do the right thing being driven to a point where they feel the need to
handle a particular situation by resorting to unethical or questionable tactics
at best. It’s always interesting for me to see a character deal with that kind
of struggle, but I also think it’s extremely vital for the character to be
played by a really good actor in order to pull off portraying that kind of
struggle effectively. This is something I feel like the writers attempted to do
with Christopher at times last season, but they always failed miserably thanks
to Jesse Metcalfe’s bad acting. I would say that Patrick Duffy did a great job
of playing that struggle well though. I also really liked Larry Hagman’s acting
in that scene, because the way he played it made me believe that Bobby coming
to him for help with taking down an enemy like Harris is something that he had
been waiting for his whole life. Bobby asking for his help really seemed to
mean a lot to J.R., if you ask me.
One
of my favorite things about episode 2x02 “Venomous Creatures” is the part of
the episode where Sue Ellen was telling Ann that she almost started drinking
again, referring to the wine she almost drank as an “old friend” that could
make her problems go away, but that she was thankfully interrupted by J.R.
paying her a visit, also referring to him as an “old friend” who could make all
of her problems go away. What I liked about that part of the episode is how
they intercut between Sue Ellen and Ann’s conversation and J.R.’s conversation
with the guy he was blackmailing in order to help Sue Ellen. The editing for
that scene was really good, but then again, I’ve always loved the editing for
the show. The way they edit the show often does a good job of building suspense
and making the audience think one thing is going to happen, only to have
something else happen. One example of them editing the show in a way that
builds suspense and at least briefly tricks the audience would be the whole
sequence in episode 1x04 “False Confessions” where it looks like the police are
coming to arrest Pamela and Pamela is getting ready to flea, only to reveal
that the police were coming to arrest Frank for Tommy’s murder, while Cliff
goes to Pamela’s place. I for one really liked that whole sequence.
As I said earlier, the
writers have really delivered in terms of giving me what I want as a viewer
this season. Another one of the things that I frequently found myself wanting
last season is for the writers to feature Linda Gray and the character Sue
Ellen more than they did. So far I feel like they’ve been giving Linda Gray/Sue
Ellen a lot more to do this season, which has been great to see. I’m really
glad that they finally mentioned what the terms of the agreement between Sue
Ellen and Elena were for the money Sue Ellen loaned Elena so she could drill on
Mrs. Henderson’s land. I always wondered what kind of terms Sue Ellen had made for
Elena to be able get the money she loaned her, and it really bothered me that
they didn’t address that last season.
In “Sins of The Father”, it
was established that there’s some kind of morality clause that states that
Elena had a certain amount of time to drill for oil on Mrs. Henderson’s land
before Sue Ellen would be able seize Elena’s shares in Ewing Energy if she
failed to strike oil. Apparently Elena had stopped trying to drill for oil on
Mrs. Henderson’s land after they hit a salt dome. I truthfully don’t know what
a salt dome is though. I have to say that I was shocked by how easily John Ross
was able to manipulate Sue Ellen as a part of his plan to get more shares in
Ewing Energy though. Perhaps the reason why she was so quick to threaten to bring
the hammer down on Elena is because Sue Ellen wanted to be protective mother
and Elena did hurt John Ross by dumping him and immediately getting back
together with Christopher. I don’t blame Sue Ellen for going after Elena.
Dumping John Ross and immediately getting back together with Christopher was
beyond tacky and completely lacking in class on Elena’s part.
Aside from Christopher being
beyond unbearable to watch, I have very few complaints about season two so far.
The main complaint that I have with season two at this point are very similar
to the main complaint that I had about the season one finale, which would be
that some storylines and plot developments happened way too fast for my taste.
I should probably clarify by saying that it’s the season two premiere that I
feel this way about. Ann revealing the secret that she had been keeping from
Bobby last season happened way too fast to fast, and to make things worse,
Ann’s secret ended up being really lame.
I wasn’t expecting the
writers to reveal Ann’s secret in the season premiere, and the way they
revealed it was very disappointing. It just happened so quickly, so I’m glad
that Bobby pointed out that the timing of Harris supposedly finding Emma after
all these years was rather convenient given the fact that he wanted to get his
taped confession to Ann back from Sue Ellen. The other details that have been
revealed about Ann’s life with Harris since then have also been equally
disappointing. As details about Ann’s past continue to emerge, I’ve frequently
found myself thinking, “So? What’s the big deal about that?”
After all, none of the
details about Ann’s past that she’s been keeping from everybody have been
particularly earth shatteringly horrible. I’m still trying to figure out why
Ann felt the need to keep the fact that she had a daughter named Emma who had
been kidnapped when she was only eighteen months old a secret from Bobby and
everyone else. Was it because she apparently abused tranquilizers in the past
as a way of coping with being Harris’ wife? If so, that’s still very
disappointing, especially considering the fact that this is a continuation of a
show where Sue Ellen is a recovering alcoholic. If Bobby and everybody else can
handle knowing about Sue Ellen’s struggle with alcoholism, then I don’t
understand why Ann would feel the need to hide the fact that she supposedly has
a history of abusing tranquilizers.
I really hope that there are
a lot more secrets that will be revealed about Ann’s past as season two
continues that would in my ideal world be a lot more scandalous then the
details about Ann’s past that have already been revealed. Right now Ann’s
“secret past” isn’t juicy enough, if you ask me. Although, I did think it was
pretty interesting twist that Bobby and then Ann discovered that Harris was the
one who kidnapped Emma and that he and his mother, Judith, have been raising
her in secret all these years. The fact that the secrets about Ann’s past has
proven to be rather lame so far have really reminded me about how some of
season mysteries on Desperate Housewives ended up being pretty lame, namely
Betty Applewhite’s secret in season two and the mystery with Dave Williams in
season five. Even those mysteries ended up having somewhat of a twist in the
end, which made them slightly more interesting. Hopefully, the writers of
Dallas have a few twists up their sleeves to make Ann’s mysterious past at
least a little more interesting.
The quick reveal about Ann’s past in the season premiere wasn’t the only thing that happened way too fast though. As I mentioned earlier, Harris agreed to tell Ann where Emma was if she got his taped confession back from Sue Ellen and gave it to him, which Ann reluctantly did. With the recording of Harris’ confession in his possession, he quickly arranged to have information regarding Sue Ellen bribing the medical examiner to have Veronica Martinez’s death ruled as a suicide in order to get John Ross out of jail last season leaked to the press, ruining Sue Ellen’s campaign for governor of Texas. Sue Ellen handled the situation by quickly pouring herself a glass of wine, which seemed really weird to me for several reasons.
For starters, Sue Ellen told
Harris last season she had been sober for twenty years. I know that it was
probably quite a harsh blow to Sue Ellen’s life to have her campaign for governor
be ruined, but if she was solid enough in her sobriety to remain sober for
twenty years, I don’t think that even that should be enough to knock Sue Ellen
off the wagon so quickly. I also found the scene where she was pouring herself
a glass of wine very weird, because Sue Ellen was looking over her shoulder as
if she wanted to make sure that nobody saw her drinking. Unless she had a staff
of maids, butlers and other help in the house with her at the time, which I
don’t think she did, the whole thing with her looking over her shoulder makes
no sense to me.
That said, I’m really glad that J.R. showed up when he did, which ultimately convinced her not to drink and prompted her to pour the wine down sink. As I’ve said before, I still haven’t seen any episodes of the original series beyond the first episode, but a friend of mine who has seen quite a bit of the original series said that was pretty significant since J.R. would have basically given Sue Ellen the bottle of wine himself in the original series. It will be interesting to see if Sue Ellen does fall off the wagon at some point in the future, but for now I’m glad that she hasn’t started drinking again yet.
Season two has involved
several new additions to the cast, some of which I love, while others have
proven to be rather disappointing at the moment. Like I said before in my
review of the first season (My thoughts on season 1), I for one am thrilled that the producers
decided to make Mitch Pileggi a series regular, especially now that Larry Hagman
has passed away. I know that a lot of people on the IMDB message board for the
show have had issues with Judith Light playing Harris’s mother, Judith, due to
the fact that she’s only four years older than him, but it doesn’t really bother
me. After all, this is a night time soap opera, and soap operas, especially
daytime soap operas, have constantly had actors play the parents of grownup
children who are being played by actors who are only a few years younger than
them for years, so I’m used it. Besides, I’ve really enjoyed Judith Light’s
portrayal of the character. Although, I have to admit that the relationship
between Harris and his mother definitely creeps out a little bit. It will
definitely be interesting to see where things go with Judith as the season
continues.
I’m honestly not all that
crazy about Ann’s daughter, Emma, but given the fact that the character was
just introduced, I’m trying to keep an open mind and give the character a
chance. I think what’s bothering me the most about the character Emma is her
attitude towards Ann thanks to Harris and Judith both poisoning her mind
against Ann. Hopefully, as the season continues and as the writers do more with
the character, I’ll start to like her more. I’m also hoping that Emma will
start to realize that Ann isn’t the horrible person that Harris and Judith have
made her out to be throughout all the years as they were keeping her hidden
from Ann. If Emma spends the whole second season hating Ann, then that will
definitely ruin the character for me.
When it comes to Elena’s
brother Andres “Drew” Ramos, I just feel like he’s a rather pointless character
that’s extremely forgettable. Frankly, I’m still trying to figure what the
point of introducing Drew was. Was it to give Christopher and Elena someone
else to interact with? Was introducing him meant to add something to
Christopher and Elena’s storylines this season? If so, I honestly couldn’t care
less about them, so I don’t really want to see more of Christopher and Elena on
the show. Sure, I really liked Elena last season, especially when she was with
John Ross, but the season one finale really flushed my view of the character
right down the crapper. Plus, Christopher essentially drags down any potential
that Elena may have of being interesting and likable, if you ask me.
I also don’t understand why
Christopher and Bobby felt the need to each give her some of their shares of
Ewing Energy simply because she closed a big deal in episode 2x02 “Venomous
Creatures”. For starters, she’s only made a few good business decisions. It’s
possible that she’ll go on to make a bad business decision for the company,
causing them to lose a ton of money, and then I’m sure they would regret that
decision. Most importantly, I can’t help, but wonder if doing that was somehow
meant to serve as foreshadowing to the idea of them shutting John Ross out of
the company since John Ross himself pointed out that giving Elena more shares
would give the three of them combined more power in the company than he has.
After all, Christopher and Bobby constantly acted rather hostile and
self-righteous towards John Ross throughout the first season, so it wouldn’t
surprise me if they ended up trying to screw him over down the road despite
their insistence that they aren’t trying to plot against him. At the moment,
the best thing to come out of Bobby and Christopher giving Elena more shares in
Ewing Energy is that it’s part of what prompted John Ross and Pamela to make
their business arrangement as well as their subsequent romantic relationship,
which is definitely my favorite thing about season two at the moment.
I’m sorry if I’m coming
across as having a lot of complaints about season two, because I really don’t.
Dallas really is more than satisfying my constant craving for nighttime soap
operas these days, which is great when I think about all the things that I’ve
found disappointing about Revenge and its second season. It’s just that the few
things that I didn’t like about the first four episodes really get to me
whenever I think about them, especially when it comes to Christopher.
All things considered, the
first four episodes of Dallas’ second season were phenomenal. Christopher may
be more unbearable than ever before, but I definitely like season two even more
than I liked the first season so far, and I absolutely loved the first season. Each
episode has been full of excitement and has left me anxious for the next episode,
unlike last season, which had two or three rather lackluster episodes in just
the first half of the season alone. The show has had a lot of very interesting
developments this season in just the first four episodes, but relationship
between John Ross and Pamela and the business deal that they’ve made is
definitely the most interesting thing about the season so far for me personally.
The new characters may be hit or miss with me, but it’s still fairly early in
the season, so I’m willing to continue keeping an open mind about Emma and
Drew. That being said, here are my ratings for the first four episodes of season
two:
Episode 2x01 “Battle Lines”:
A-
Episode 2x02 “Venomous
Creature”: A
Episode 2x03 “Sins of the
Father”: A+
Episode 2x04 “False
Confessions”: A
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