After starting off the series with what I thought were a fantastic first two episodes, I have to say that I found this episode rather disappointing for the most part. Don’t get me wrong, this episode definitely had its moments, but to me the most exciting part of the episode was the last two or so minutes of the episode. That’s definitely not a good thing from where I’m standing if the most exciting part of an episode of any TV show is the last two minutes of it. Maybe some people will disagree me and thought that this was a great episode, but for some reason this episode just didn’t click with me all that much.
As I’ve mentioned before in my previous posts on the show, I’ve only seen the first episode of the original Dallas, so I’m sure that fans of the original have more appreciation for cast members from the original series being a part of this Dallas continuation than I do. That being said, I was rather disappointed by Ken Kercheval’s appearance as Cliff Barnes, mainly because it was too brief in my opinion. The way I see it, if people are going to do spinoffs, reboots or continuations of TV shows, like CW’s 90210 and Melrose Place or ABC’s V and the producers of those shows are able to get members of the cast from the original series to participate in the new shows, then they should use the original cast members as much as they can. I don’t know if Ken Kercheval will be appearing in any more upcoming episodes this season, but if this will be his only appearance this season, then I have to say that I felt very cheated by how little he was featured in the episode. I don’t know if Ken was only willing to make an appearance on the show if it was brief one, or if it was the writers’ choice to feature him as little as they did. If it was the writer’s decision to make Ken’s appearance on the show so brief, then they should be ashamed of themselves for not taking advantage of the opportunity they had to feature him on the show. I simply wanted to see more of him.
While I’m still on the subject of cast members from the original series, I have to say that I really missed Sue Ellen/Linda Gray since she wasn’t in this episode. I know that without commercials an episode is only about 42 minutes long, so the writers can only have so many storylines in an episode, but I’m still rather disappointed that Linda Gray wasn’t in this episode. Sue Ellen and J.R. were both a lot of fun to watch in the first two episodes.
I have to say that I found both Bobby and Christopher much more tolerable in this episode, mainly because Christopher didn’t have any interaction with John Ross in this episode. John Ross only had one scene with Bobby in this episode where he told him that he had been reading Miss Ellie’s journal, which revealed that she had spent some time in a mental institution. John Ross wanted to use her journal in court to prove that she was incompetent so he could get the terms of her will regarding not being able to drill for oil on South Fork overturned, but J.R. ended up slapping him and took the journal from him. However, the whole thing with J.R. slapping John Ross ended up being all for show and was all a part of their plan to get Bobby to sign the papers for the sale, which worked. However, the guy John Ross was doing business with wanted five million dollars right away or otherwise he was going to expose J.R. and John Ross’ scheme to Bobby. John Ross is definitely in some serious trouble, and I have to say that I’m anxious to see how John Ross gets himself out of this mess.
It was a real treat seeing John Ross go up against J.R., and J.R. has made it pretty clear at least to me as a viewer that he’s not someone you want to go up against if you can help it. The scene at the beginning of the episode where John and J.R. were getting their faces shaven by people really gave me the creeps as J.R. was telling John Ross the story about how he had wanted his dad to get him a horse when he was kid and then when he got it the horse apparently ended up being blind. Once J.R. had the razor and was shaving John Ross’ face a part of me was half expecting him to slit John Ross’ throat. The guys that J.R. and John Ross are working with to get oil from the Ewing’s oil reserves seem like real trouble, especially when it comes to John Ross scheming with them behind J. R.’s back, and they definitely weren’t happy after Bobby decided to put the Del Sol deal on hold. I have to say that I was rather intrigued when they showed Marta Del Sol popping pills when was alone in one scene. There must be something that the writers are trying to set up storyline wise.
J. R. continued to prove just how sly and mischievous he can be when he had a guy at the facility that he’s been staying at when he was being treated for his depression call Bobby pretending to J.R.’s doctor and was recommending that J.R. move back home to be with his family as a part of his treatment, which was really just a ruse to get him back on Southfork. Unless I’m missing something, I don’t understand why J.R. had to do that since it’s his family’s home. I would think that he should be able to just move back into the family home without having to do all of that, but I still thought that was pretty clever on J.R.’s part.
Bobby apparently had the operation to remove the tumor in his stomach, but when the doctors were operating they discovered that the cancer was more extensive than they originally thought, so Bobby decided to begin the treatment that the doctor recommended. He also finally told Christopher that he has cancer, and Christopher ended up kissing Elaina because he was upset about the news.
I honestly found the whole storyline with Christopher working with Elena to try and find a way to safely extract methane from the ocean floor a major snooze fest. Christopher decided to see if methane could safely be extracted by injecting carbon dioxide into it first by trying it on an experimental level, and it ended up working. There wasn’t very much about that storyline that excited me aside from Tommy seeing Christopher and Elena kissing after Christopher found out that Bobby has cancer.
I have to say that I thought that it was really odd that Rebecca wanted to have lunch with Elena, let alone wanted to be friends with her. If I were in Rebecca shoes, I don’t think that I’d want to have anything to do with any of Christopher’s exes if I could help it. Maybe it’s a part of Rebecca’s scheme with Tommy and it’s supposed to be a “Keep your friends close, and keep your enemies closer” kind of situation, but it just felt weird to me personally.
Rebecca’s brother, Tommy, impressed Ann with how well he was doing as a ranch hand on South Fork. Tommy told Rebecca that he wanted her to install some software onto Christopher’s laptop, which would give them remote access to his laptop. Rebecca was having trouble the idea of betraying Christopher until Tommy sent her a picture of Christopher kissing Elena, but Christopher told her about the kiss and that he wants to be with her, so she threw away the flash drive that had the software on it. I’m still trying to figure out what Rebecca and Tommy are ultimately after, but I’m guessing they’re after the Ewing’s money and possibly the family business.
As for who sent Elena the infamous email, which she thought Christopher had sent her, the private investigator told John Ross that the email was sent to Elena by none other than…. drumroll please…Rebecca! Maybe I was the only one who didn’t see that coming, but even with everything that they revealed about Rebecca and Tommy scheming, I was still half expecting J.R. to be the one who sent the email. I’m definitely really excited to see what John Ross does with that information and how that might impact Rebecca and Tommy’s mysterious plans. I’m not so sure that the jig is up for Rebecca and Tommy quite yet though. Although, I have to say that I’m surprised that they revealed who actually sent Elena the email so soon. I was kind of expecting them to possibly wait until the season finale to reveal who sent it.
One last thing that I’d like to comment on is what is the deal with Ann and guns? I personally thought it was kind of weird that she had her gun with her when she was in the stable with her horse and she caught J.R. going through files. J.R.’s comment to Ann about bullets not having much of an effect on him definitely made me chuckle a little bit though.
This episode really was a major disappointment for me personally given how much I loved the first two episodes. I definitely think that the writers could have utilized Ken Kercheval a lot more than they did. This episode definitely had some good moments, and I definitely enjoyed the parts of the episode with John Ross and J.R. the most. It really was a huge treat for me to see John Ross go up against J.R. Christopher’s storyline with Elena just didn’t do very much for me in terms of my enjoyment of the episode. This episode had a lot of little moments that intrigued me, so a part of me thinks that this episode was meant to set things up for future episodes. Otherwise, this episode just didn’t click with me for the most part.
That being said, I give this episode a rating of a C.
No comments :
Post a Comment