Book Review: Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

I should probably start out this review by mentioning that Truly Madly Guilty is the first book by Liane Moriarty that I’ve ever read. Admittedly, I was somewhat hesitant to have Truly Madly Guilty be the first book by Liane Moriarty that I ever read since it has gotten a lot of mixed reviews. I had always planned on starting with her book Big Little Lies, but I ultimately decided to read Truly Madly Guilty first since it’s her most recent book. Because I’m very aware of the fact that this book has gotten a lot of mixed reviews, I went into reading Truly Madly Guilty telling myself that I shouldn’t necessarily view this book as being the sole determining factor when it comes deciding to how I feel about Moriarty’s writing in general; that being said, here are my thoughts on Truly Madly Guilty.

When I initially started reading Truly Madly Guilty, I was really enjoying it, and I honestly thought that I might end up being one of the people who loved the book. The overall premise of the book basically being about a barbecue gone wrong and how it affected the friendship between the two main characters, Clementine and Erika, really intrigued me and is what drew me to this book more than anything else. I also found the idea of what exactly happened at the barbecue being the mystery aspect of the book pretty cool. However, after a while, I definitely started to get very frustrated with how Moriarty really seemed to beat around the bush way too much when it came to a lot of the writing for the book; both when it came to how she would vaguely reference the incident at the barbecue in the chapters that took place after the barbecue and how she handled writing the chapters that took place on the day of the barbecue, but took place before the incident occurred at the barbecue. After a while, whenever a chapter would begin by indicating that it took place on the day of the barbecue, I found myself thinking, “Good lord, this sure is one long-ass day.” especially when none of the events that took place in some of those chapters was stuff that happened at the actual barbecue. The overall pacing of the plot really seemed to move at the same speed as storylines on soap operas move, which I found extremely frustrating at times.

None of the characters in Truly Madly Guilty are truly likable people, but that ultimately wasn’t the biggest complaint that I had about the book in the grand scheme of things. I’m not a person who’s necessarily completely turned off by characters in a story being unlikable, as long as the characters are intentionally being written as unlikable people, and the writing for the characters and the story overall is really good. After all, when it comes to what my favorite TV shows are, my #1 favorite comedy is It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and I’m also a huge fan of the show Seinfeld. However, I’ll admit that when it comes to Truly Madly Guilty, I did have somewhat of a hard time getting truly attached to the characters in the book. I liked Clementine and Erika as a characters, but I definitely didn’t love them, and sometimes they did kind of get on my nerves; which I think is one of the reasons why I ultimately thought that this book was good, but not great.

Career of Evil: We're three books into the series, and Cormoran Strike is STILL down on his luck (Book #3 in the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling)

I’d like to start off this review by saying that I’ve definitely been putting off reading and reviewing Career of Evil for quite a while, not because I didn’t like The Cuckoo’s Calling and The Silkworm, I loved both of those books. The reason I’ve been putting off reading Career of Evil is because I found Paula Hawkins’ book The Girl on the Train to be a rather challenging book to review. When I review something, I really like to talk about it in great detail, but since that book is a mystery novel, I was really unsure of how to approach writing a review for it, and it’s definitely the same thing with this book. Books in the mystery genre are definitely one kind of book that I don’t think a person should have a ton of details about the overall plot of the book and especially the end of the book ruined for them before they read it. I’m really going to try and find the right balance between discussing my thoughts on this book, while hopefully not giving too much away in case anybody who reads this review hasn’t read Career of Evil yet; that being said, here are my thoughts on Career of Evil.

When it comes to Career of Evil, my overall reading experience with the book was definitely very weird. The reason I say that is because I started out absolutely loving the book and thinking that it had potential to be the best book yet in the Cormoran Strike series, only to have my thoughts on the book to take a turn for the worse the further into the book that I got. I’ll start this review off on a positive note and say that I love that Robin was so personally affected by the case they were trying to solve in this book, which involved an unknown person sending Robin a woman’s leg in the mail, and Strike and Robin trying to figure out whose leg it was and who sent it.

Maybe this will sound weird to some people, but reading Career of Evil really made me think a lot about the TV show Desperate Housewives and how the season mysteries were the most interesting when at least one, if not all of the women, were involved with the mystery in some way. In my opinion, the show definitely suffered in season two due to the fact that the whole mystery with Betty Applewhite was so completely splintered off from the show’s core housewives for the most part, but I digress.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved The Cuckoo’s Calling and The Silkworm, and neither Strike and Robin were all that connected on a personal level to the cases in those books. However, having Robin be so connected to the case they were trying to solve in this book really contributed a lot to my enjoyment of the book. It also gave Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling the chance to really continue to develop Robin as a character even more in this book. Robin definitely has a very sad past when it comes to the fact that it was revealed that Robin was raped when she was in college, which subsequently led to her developing a case of agoraphobia and leaving college. That whole reveal definitely helped me to understand Robin as a character even more than I did before. I also found Strike’s reaction to this reveal and how it impacted their relationship throughout the book rather compelling, especially in terms of the drama that it caused between them.

Bared to You: Is it just me, or is everybody in this book fifty different kinds of screwed up? (My thoughts on Book #1 in the Crossfire book series by Sylvia Day)

Let me start out by saying that the main reason why I decided to read and review Bared to You is because I’ve encountered a lot of people who’ve compared the Crossfire book series to the Fifty Shades trilogy. In most cases, I’ve seen people say that the Crossfire series is significantly better than the Fifty Shades trilogy, which has mostly been attributed to Sylvia Day being a much more experienced writer compared to E.L. James. Although, I’ve also seen people say that they like the Fifty Shades trilogy more than they liked Bared to You. After reading Bared to You, I’m absolutely baffled by the fact that anybody would think that the Fifty Shades trilogy is better than the Crossfire series since it’s pretty clear to me that Sylvia Day’s writing ability is definitely completely superior to E.L. James’ writing.

That being said, I realize that everybody is entitled to their own opinion, and when I think about how there are some people who like the Fifty Shades trilogy more than the Crossfire series, I’m reminded of the fact that I like 90210 a lot more than Gossip Girl. While I do like both 90210 and Gossip Girl, I’m also not blinded by the fact that in terms of the quality of the writing for the two shows, the writing for Gossip Girl is definitely superior to the quality of the writing for 90210. At the risk of seeming like I’m going to far off topic, one of the main reasons why I like 90210 more is because anybody with even just a small shred of maturity can see that the relationship between Chuck and Blair, who are arguably the main romantic pairing on the show, is incredibly toxic and abusive. The sad thing about that is the way the producers always talked about Chuck and Blair’s relationship, it’s as if they view that relationship as some epic fairytale romance when it really did end up being a very toxic and abusive relationship. I feel I should mention that I was originally a major Chuck and Blair shipper, it was only when their relationship became truly abusive at some point during season three that I stopped being a fan of that relationship.

While 90210 didn’t have much of a clearly defined endgame couple, the closest 90210 had to an endgame couple was Liam and Annie. Liam and Annie’s relationship wasn’t necessarily handled all that well when it came to them frequently getting together only to almost immediately breakup with little to no buildup or development to them either getting together or breaking up. What I think made Liam and Annie’s relationship better is that at least it wasn’t sick and abusive with them constantly treating each other like crap or either of them trying to sabotage the other’s happiness when they weren’t together like Chuck and Blair constantly did. They definitely handled things between them with a lot more maturity, which is one of the reasons why I liked them as a couple as much as I did, but I digress.

Revenge: Does absence make the heart grow fonder? I'm starting to think that it can sometimes (A brief reflection of my thoughts on the first 14 episodes of season 2)

As a part of my preparation for reviewing the upcoming fourth season of Revenge, I'm currently watching season 2 again before season 3 comes out on DVD in about a month, and I thought that I would write a brief reflection of my thoughts on the first 14 episodes of the season. I might write a post reflecting on my thoughts on the rest of season 2, but that's not a definite thing. I might do the same thing with season 3 depending on how busy I am when I'm watching the season in a few weeks once it comes out on DVD. Since I've only seen two episodes of season 3 at the moment, it will essentially be my first time watching season 3 when I do that, which might make reviewing season 3 a bit trickier for me, but I digress.

When season 2 of Revenge first started and a lot of the viewers started becoming more and more vocal about their criticisms with the season, I admit that I was probably more willing than most of the other fans of the show to defend the season for most of season 2. However, I eventually fell behind on watching the show at some point during the second half of the season for reasons I can't even remember now. When I finally got around to finishing the second half of the season, watching the show started to feel more and more like a chore to the point where wasn't as willing to defend season 2 as I had originally been, which is a big part of why I decided to not watch the show any more when season 3 started.

That being said, after watching the first half of season 2 again for the first time in about two years, I have to say that the season has grown on me quite a bit since I watched it the first time around. Don't get me wrong, I still think that the season is a major mess in a lot of ways, but I'm definitely having a lot of fun watching the show again after not having watched it in such a long time. As for what I feel went wrong with the show in season 2, the introduction of The Initiative was definitely a big mistake on the producers’ part. I truly think that everything with The Initiative played a big role in the show really going off the rails in season 2. 

However, what I still absolutely hate about the season even more than everything with The Initiative is definitely the direction that the writers took Daniel in as a character. I hate that they made him basically become his father's son, which I think is weird since I love Conrad as a character. I think the reason why I hate seeing Daniel act incredibly devious, ruthless, and an all around asshole to pretty much everyone around him, Victoria and Conrad included, while I'm able to see Conrad act the same way in a lot of way is due to the way Josh Bowman and Henry Czerny play their respective roles. 

While I do think that Josh Bowman is a good actor, I don't think that he has the same charm and charisma that I feel Henry Czerny has to make Conrad work as a character. Conrad has always been one of my favorite characters on the show along with Emily, Victoria, and Nolan. I think that the writers have always done a good job of writing Conrad as a character, but I feel like the writers kind of dropped the ball in terms of how they handled the direction they took Daniel in as a character in season 2. To me, my dislike of Daniel as a character, while I love Conrad as a character, is very reminiscent of how I feel about Christopher Ewing and Bobby Ewing on TNT's Dallas in the sense that they are both supposed to be the good guys of the show, and yet Christopher is arguably the most despicable character on the show, and therefore the most hated character amongst the show's viewers. 

The difference in that case is that the writers have always done a good job of writing the character Bobby, and Patrick Duffy is a good actor. Christopher on the other hand has been a horribly written character ever since the very first episode of the series. What makes things even worse in that case is that Jesse Metcalfe couldn't give a good performance on the show even if his life depended on it, while Josh Bowman has always been at the very least a decent actor, regardless of what the writers have done with Daniel. As I said earlier, Josh might not have done the best job of making Daniel work as a character starting with season 2, but he's still a decent actor.

It really upset me seeing Daniel seize control of Nolcorp from Nolan. I'm no business or legal expert, so maybe he had the legal right to do that given that Nolan got the start-up money for his company from David Clarke, and David was once an employee of Grayson Global, but that still seemed very messed up and unfair to Nolan when Daniel did that. 

Nolan has always been one of my favorite characters on the show and just one of my favorite things about the show in general, so I felt really bad for him throughout season 2. Despite how upset I felt for Nolan in season 2, I also loved everything the writers did with Nolan and his ex-boyfriend, Marco. When I was watching season 2 the first time around, I always thought that Gabriel Mann and E.J. Bonilla had great chemistry with each other, and I really wish that the writers had featured Marco more than they did. While there are so many things that I love about the character Nolan, especially the dialogue the writers write for Nolan, I think that the writers have always done a great job of handling the fact that Nolan is bisexual. Being bisexual myself, I feel like the writers have done a great job of utilizing Nolan's bisexuality to create some truly great soap opera-style drama, while still being respectful of the bisexual community.

The other issues that I have with the season is the way they brought back Emily's mother, Kara, what they did with the character and the way the writers had Kara leave in what I feel was a rather abrupt manner was all rather disappointing. I'm also still not sure that Jennifer Jason Leigh was right for the role in the first place. The one final issue that I still have with season 2, at least at the moment, is the presence of the character Amanda on the show. I never really liked both Amanda as a character and Margarita Levieva as an actress very much at all. They both always annoyed the hell out of me, and I really feel like Amanda/Margarita Levieva totally overstayed their welcome on the show. Honestly, I remember that I was really happy when Amanda was finally killed off in episode 1x14 "Sacrifice". I found Amanda's death to be a welcome relief for me personally, and time hasn't made me feel any differently about Amanda getting killed off.

Watching the season again and given that I just finished watching episode 2x14 "Sacrifice", four episodes that really stand out as some of my favorite season 2 episodes are episode 2x04 "Intuition", episode 2x06 "Illusion", 2x07 "Penance" and episode 2x08 "Lineage". What I loved about "Intuition" is the whole thing with Amanda falling over the balcony in the Grayson's mansion during her fight with Victoria and giving birth to baby Karl prematurely. That kind of thing is a classic soap opera staple, and I absolutely love that the writers did that. Victoria and Conrad getting married again and everything that happened with their wedding in the episode "Illusion" was a lot of fun to watch. 

Mason Treadwell/Roger Bart's presence in both the episode "Illusion" and "Penance" also added a lot to my enjoyment of those episodes. Mason Treadwell has always been one of my favorite recurring guest-star roles on Revenge, and I think that Roger Bart plays the role flawlessly. The first thing that I ever saw Roger Bart in was on Desperate Housewives as Bree's pharmacist that killed Rex in the show's first season, George Williams, and I loved him in that role. I've seen Roger Bart on a few other TV shows besides Desperate Housewives and Revenge, and I just think he's always awesome, not matter what TV show he's on or what movie he's in.

As for the episode "Lineage", I think that episode did a great job of providing more back-story for every character on the show, and I just think it's an altogether fantastic episode.

All that being said, while I still think that season 2 is a mess in a lot of ways, the season really has grown on me a lot since the last time I watched it. Despite the season's many flaws, I'm enjoying season 2 a lot more than I did the first time around. Once again I'm finding the show to be rather addictive and a lot of fun to watch like I did back when it was in its first season. Perhaps there's some truth in the expression "Absence makes the heart grow fonder." after all. :)

Scandal: Enlists John Barrowman for Guest Stint-TVLine

According to TVLine's Michael Ausiello, John Barrowman will be guest-starring in an upcoming episode of Scandal. Here's an excerpt from the article:

“John Barrowman is here working today at Scandal,” Rhimes wrote. “Life is good.”

Rhimes didn’t reveal any further details about Barrowman’s character. Sources, meanwhile, confirm he’ll appear in this season’s penultimate episode on Thursday, May 9.

Barrowman had a role in Rhimes’ ill-fated ABC period drama pilot Gilded Lilys.

Link to the full article:‘Scandal’ Casts John Barrowman in Season 2 - TVLine



My thoughts: I've never watched the show Torchwood, so I can't comment on John Barrowman's acting on that show, but I loved him on Desperate Housewives,  and I thought that he was great on Arrow, so I'm definitely very excited about this news. That being said, I have to say that it kind of bugs me that Shonda Rhimes and the other producers have been very secretive about a lot of the guest-star roles on Scandal this season. On the other hand, the producers' tendency to be very secretive about the show's guest-stars has led to some very surprising moments on the show, especially when it comes to Scott Foley and his character, Jake, so I definitely kind of enjoy being surprised by the writers. Scandal has really been on fire this season, both creatively and in the ratings, so I'm sure that whatever happens with John Barrowman's character, it will be very exciting. If you're not already watching Scandal, then you definitely need to start watching the show immediately, because Scandal is a truly amazing show.

Dallas: This has got to be the best episode yet of the series (My thoughts on episode 2x06 “Blame Game”)

As I said in my review of the first four episodes (My thoughts on episode 2x01 “Battle Lines” through episode 2x04 “False Confessions”), I truly believe that Dallas has been lucky enough to avoid suffering a dreaded sophomore slump like Revenge has been suffering from this season, and this episode once again reinforced that belief for me. This is definitely the best episode yet of the season, and perhaps the best episode of the series at this point. As far as I’m concerned, this episode only had one little flaw, which I found very forgivable. 

 

Since I only have one very minor issue with the episode, I’m just going to mention it now and get it out of the way. The only issue that I have with the episode is the fact that this episode features a continuity flaw in the scene where J.R.’s assistant is showing him how to use what looks like an iPad or a Surface when they already showed J.R. using a tablet to look at Elena’s loan agreement with Sue Ellen in episode 2x03 “Sins of The Father” and they also showed J.R. using a tablet again later on in that same episode in order to look through articles that have been published about him in the media over the years . I read somewhere that they were going to use some deleted scenes from the first season in order to help give the character J.R. a sense of closure before he died. If I had to guess, the scene where his assistant was showing him how to use his tablet was a deleted scene from last season that was used in order to allow J.R. and Bobby to have a nice moment with each other when J.R. keeps messaging Bobby on his computer and emails him a link to a funny video featuring a dog.

What I like about that scene is that on the surface it looks like a nice moment between J.R. and Bobby where J.R. is just trying to cheer him up that also gives the viewers a chance to like J.R. despite all of the bad or questionable things that he’s done over the years. However, it ends up being revealed later on in the episode that it was J.R.’s way of pulling one of his very last schemes, because the email of the video apparently included a computer virus, which erased the Cloud Drive from last season when Bobby tried to show Sue Ellen what was on it. That moment also seems very telling of how Bobby feels about J.R., in my opinion. Bobby obviously wanted to see it as his brother doing something nice to try and cheer him up, but instead it ended up being a part of one of J.R.’s schemes. Since I thought it was a nice moment that also ended up being revealed as another one of J.R.’s many tricks and schemes, I’m willing to let that whole whole continuity error go.

  

Personally, I thought that this episode was absolutely crazy, and I mean that in the best way possible. The part of the episode where Vicente and his men took John Ross, Pamela, Christopher, Elena, Bobby and Sue Ellen hostage in Bobby and Ann’s house reminded me a lot of the season three episode of Desperate Housewives “Bang” where Lynette and several of the other characters were held hostage in a super market. To this day, that episode continues to be one of my top all-time favorite episodes of Desperate Housewives.

Dallas: Wow! It must really suck to be Ann Ewing right now (My thoughts on episode 2x05 “Trial and Error”)

As I said in my review for the first four episodes of the season (My thoughts on episode 2x01 “Battle Lines” through episode 2x04 “False Confessions”) I’ve actually been enjoying season two of Dallas more than I loved the first season, which was an awful lot, and that continues to be the case with this episode. This was definitely the best episode yet of season two in a lot of ways. Although, there were a few things about the episode that I found somewhat disappointing, they are only fairly minor complaints, which I’ll get to later.

One of the reasons why I’ve been enjoying season two even more than I enjoyed season one is that I feel the writers have really been doing a lot of the things that I wish they had done in season one. One of them being that I really wanted the writers to give the viewers just a little bit more information about Ann’s past so I could better understand her behavior at times, and they’ve really delivered when it comes to that aspect of the season. While the writers had already revealed some more details about Ann’s past in the first four episodes of the season, this episode really delve deep into Ann’s backstory and finally answered a lot of the questions that I’ve had about Ann, such as how Sue Ellen and Ann met each other and became friends. They apparently met when Ann did volunteer work for one of the foundations that Sue Ellen started for battered and abused women.

Ann also mentioned that she grew up in a family that didn’t have a lot of money and never went to college, which is something Judith had apparently given her a hard time about when she was married to Harris. It sounds like Harris did treat her very well and was very generous with her when they first met. It was only after Judith met Ann and started to interfere in Ann and Harris’ marriage that the relationship between Ann and Harris took a turn for the worse. Apparently, Ann had been diagnosed with post partum depression after Emma was born, and she admitted that she’d taken more pills than she should have the day Harris kidnapped Emma at the fair. She also described herself as being a very awkward girl when she was growing up, saying that her mother had actually taken her to see doctors in order to see if they could find a way to make her stop growing. I can’t help, but wonder if that line was some kind of dig from the writers about the fact that Brenda Strong is really tall.

I have to say that I thought Brenda Strong’s acting in this episode was fantastic, especially when Ann was being questioned on the stand. I’ve always thought that Brenda was a great actress. She did a great job playing the role of Sue Ellen Mischke on Seinfeld, and she always did a fantastic job of narrating Desperate Housewives as Mary Alice Young, but I’ve been especially enjoying her work on Dallas. If you ask me, she should definitely consider submitting this episode for Emmy consideration. 

One thing that really surprised me about this episode was how quickly the whole thing with Ann confessing to being the one who shot Harris, as well as being tried and convicted unfolded all in the same episode. I know that some people were wondering if the writers and producers combined footage from several different episodes to make one episode in order to accommodate having to write Larry Hagman/J.R.’s death into the show on fairly short notice, but I don’t think that’s the case here. If they had combined several different episodes worth of footage to make up the episode, I’m pretty sure that the episode would have credited more writers then they usually do for an episode, as well as list two directors in the credits. I suppose it’s possible that they could have combined two or more episodes that just happened to all be written and directed by the same people, but I don’t think that’s the case here, especially since the producers previously said that Larry Hagman had filmed six episodes for season two before he died, and the episode that’s airing this week is apparently Larry Hagman’s final episode. For whatever reason, it looks like the writers decided to jump ahead one month about ten minutes into the episode so they get right to having Ann’s trial.

Dallas: Revenge might be having a sophomore slump, but four episodes in; this show is soaring higher than ever before (My thoughts on episode 2x01 “Battle Lines” through episode 2x04 “False Confessions”)

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.

Dallas (TNT Series): Strap yourselves in, everybody, because you’re in for one wild ride (My thoughts on season 1)

With the season two premiere of TNT’s Dallas quickly approaching, I decided to write a review of the show’s first season as a whole, so I went back and watched season one two times. In this post I’m going to talk about the season one episodes, as well as each of the characters and the character development they went through throughout the season. Let me begin by saying that this is a biased prospective that’s based solely on the TNT series since I’ve only seen the first episode of the original series. I’m not looking to get into any kind of pissing match with other fans of the show, especially fans of the original series since I’m sure a few of my opinions regarding the character Bobby won’t be very popular with some of them. That being said here are my thoughts on season one.

I have to say that I think the show got off to a very good start right from the very beginning. I loved the first two episodes of the series that made up the two-hour series premiere event. Dallas definitely started off in a very shocking manner with Bobby finding out that he had stomach cancer. I always think that it’s important for TV shows to get off to a grand start, and the scene at the beginning of the episode where Bobby finds out that he has cancer definitely helped the show do that.

That being said, I did find the whole thing with Bobby having stomach cancer to be relatively pointless as the season continued. Aside from Bobby being diagnosed with stomach cancer being the motivation for him wanting to sell the Southfork ranch, Bobby having cancer didn’t really add much to the show. For example, aside from the doctor telling Bobby about oral chemo therapy pills that he could take to treat the cancer, having him double over in pain numerous times throughout the first episode and telling Ann how his cancer diagnosis was one of the reasons why he wanted to sell Southfork, they didn’t really do anything too significant with Bobby’s cancer storyline until episode 1x09 “Family Business”. The writers definitely could have done a lot more with that storyline than they did, and in the end that storyline just came across as being wasted potential in my opinion.

What I have to say next is one of the things that I’m guessing some fans will have a problem with, but as the season continued I found myself hating Bobby more and more to the point where I was hoping that he would die of complications from the cancer. Only this time, the writers wouldn’t miraculously bring Bobby back from the dead by having the whole storyline be a dream like the writers of the original series did with season nine, A.K.A. “The Dream Season”. The main reason why I hate the character Bobby so much is because I feel like he’s just so self-righteous and arrogant, which led me to be happy whenever J.R. and John Ross managed to one-up him, even if it was only momentarily before Bobby once again got the upper hand. Bobby also almost always seemed to be angry about something, and both the character and the way that Patrick Duffy played the part simply came across as being two intense for my taste most of the time. If Patrick Duffy were to decide to leave the series at some point, I honestly wouldn’t miss him one bit, because Bobby is definitely my least favorite character on the show. Although, considering the fact that he’s one of the characters that serves as a link to the original series, I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon, especially considering the fact that Larry Hagman just recently passed away.

Deception: NBC has come up with another copycat TV show, but it has potential (My thoughts on episode 1x01 “Pilot”)

Usually I only like to review shows that are currently on the air, but considering the fact I’m taking some time to reflect on the series as a whole before I post my review of the series finale of Gossip Girl and most of the shows that I typically like to comment on are currently on a break, I’ve decided to take the time to write a review for the pilot of Deception; that being said, here are my thoughts on the pilot.

The main thing that I found myself thinking about as I was watching the pilot was that the show is seriously lacking originality in a lot of ways, and I say this because I thought of at least four different shows that I’ve already seen before as I was watching the pilot. Those shows would be Revenge, Dirty Sexy Money, The Killing and Desperate Housewives. I know that some people might think that I’m being a bit random with some of the shows that I just listed, but those are simply several of the shows that the pilot of Deception reminded me of in some way. I’ll try to explain what elements of the pilot made me think of those shows as I discuss certain elements of the show in my review.

Let me go right ahead and say that while the pilot didn’t seem all that original to me, there were still enough things about it to make me want to continue watching Deception once it premieres on TV. The main thing that I like about Deception is that it features several actors that I’ve seen in other things and like, namely Victor Garber and Tate Donovan. The cast also consists of Wes Brown and Ella Rae Peck, both of whom I’m familiar with, but have mixed feelings about after watching the pilot. Wes Brown guest-starred in five episodes of 90210 at the beginning of its fifth and current season. I didn’t really like him on 90210, but that was pretty much because of the character he played, but Wes Brown and his character, Julian Bowers, ended up being one of my favorite things about the pilot, especially when it came to his scenes with Meagan Good, who plays the protagonist of the show, Joanna Locasto.

I’ve never seen Meagan Good in anything prior to this show, and I don’t remember hearing of her before either, but I really liked her in the pilot. In terms of her acting, she doesn’t come across as being on the same level of amazingness as Sally Field, but I still think she did a great job in the pilot, and I’m confidant she will continue to a great job on the show in the future. Here’s a brief side note: Sally Field is my favorite actress, and she has been my favorite actress ever since I saw her in the movie Mrs. Doubtfire when I was six years old. For those of you who might not already know, I’m currently twenty-five years old, but I digress.

Personally, I thought the pilot did a great job of setting up the characters and storylines. There are definitely several potentially interesting storylines based on what I saw. Although, the pilot definitely felt a little rushed in my opinion. Given the fact that this is only the first episode, I think I can forgive the writers for making the episode feel too rushed though. After all, a pilot of a TV show is supposed to do a lot of things. It’s supposed set up the storylines and the characters on the show, so networks can decide whether or not it has potential to be a good show and should be picked up to series. Not only does a pilot have to do that for the network, it basically has to do the same thing for the viewers at home too once it premieres on TV. That being said, I’m okay with TV shows being fast paced, because if they move too slow then the viewers can get bored and lose interest, causing them to stop watching. The writers really need to be careful about how fast the storylines move on Deception beyond this episode though, otherwise they could be completely out of ideas halfway through season two at the rate the story moved in the pilot, assuming that Deception does well enough in the ratings to be renewed for a second season.

Dallas: Scoop on the season 2 premiere and J.R.'s funeral from TVLine's Michael Ausiello

Here's some scoop on Dallas from this week's (Posted on 12/11/12) Ask Ausiello column.

Question: Any word if Victoria Principal will return to Dallas for J.R.’s funeral? I would love to see her cause some serious trouble for Bobby and Ann. —BJ
Ausiello: I hear she’s among the names on producers’ wish list, but nothing’s official yet. I can tell you with absolute certainty that Pam’s presence will be felt in a huge way in the fantastic Season 2 premiere on Jan. 28 — so huge that her name is mentioned at least a dozen times. Bonus Scoop: Agent Skinner presents Mary Alice Young with quite the Sophie’s Choice.

Link to the full article:‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Spoilers – Plus Scoop on ‘Gossip Girl’ in Ask Ausiello - TVLine

Desperate Housewives: Scoop on the possibility of a reunion from E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos

Here's some scoop on Desperate Housewives from Kristin Dos Santos' Spoiler Chat for Monday 11/19/12.

Harriet in St. Louis: Sucks that 666 Park Avenue got canceled. Any chance Vanessa Williams would be up for a Desperate Housewives reunion?
We asked the beautiful Williams herself that very question recently, and while she said that no talk has been brought up about bringing back the Housewives yet, she has a feeling fans shouldn't hold their breath. In her own words, everyone on the cast has "moved on."

Link to the full article:Spoiler Chat Scoop On Glee New Girl Community Nikita And More | E! Online

Grey’s Anatomy: Desperate Housewives’ Steven Culp to Play Doctor-TVLine

According to TVLine's Matt Webb Mitovich, Steven Culp has been cast in a recurring guest-star role for season 9 of Grey's Anatomy. Here's an excerpt from the article, which gives some details on Culp's role:

As reported by our sister site Deadline, Culp will recur during Season 9 of the ABC drama in the role of Dr. Parker, a top surgeon. It is not clear if Parker practices at Seattle Grace or elsewhere, given that some of the residents’ fates were in play at the close of last season.

Link to the full article:Grey’s Anatomy: Desperate Housewives’ Steven Culp to Play Doctor - TVLine



My thoughts: I've always loved Steven Culp as an actor. I loved him on Star Trek: Enterprise, and he was great on Desperate Housewives, so I'm sure that he'll do a good job on Grey's Anatomy. Given the information that the producers and stars of Grey's Anatomy have revealed so far about season 9, I'm really excited to see for myself what the show is going to be like next season. Grey's Anatomy is definitely one of the returning shows that I'm most excited about this upcoming season, because it sounds like season 9 is going to be very different from the previous seasons of the show. I know that I've said this before, but I just hope the writers will handle the new format of the show well next season.

Dallas: Wow! Things really are heating up on this show! (My thoughts on episode 1x07 Collateral Damage)

Let me begin by saying that I’m really falling in love with this show more and more, which I think is great, because after absolutely loving the first two episodes that made up the two-hour series premiere event, I was rather disappointed by episode 1x03 “The Price You Pay” and episode 1x04 “The Last Hurrah”, and watching those episodes really made me wonder if this show was going to be able to keep my interest in the long-term sense. However, starting with episode 1x05 “Truth and Consequences” I feel like the drama and the action on the show really got amped up and started to become more interesting with each passing episode. I feel like episode 1x05 “Truth and Consequences” was where TNT’s Dallas became the show that I was hoping that it would be before it started, but I have to say that the level of enjoyment that I got from watching this episode exceeded the level of enjoyment that I got from watching episode 1x05 “Truth and Consequences”.

In my mind, this was the most exciting and most intense episode yet of the show. It really had me on the edge of my seat, and when I got done watch this episode the first time, it really left me wondering wants going to be happening next, which as someone who watches a lot TV shows, I think that’s a very good thing for a TV show to be able to do. After watching this episode, there’s no doubt in my mind that I’m officially addicted to this show.

After watching this episode, I’m officially declaring that John Ross is my favorite character on show from the younger generation and Christopher and Bobby are officially my least favorite characters on the show. I hate how smug and self-righteous they were in this episode, and just how self-righteous they are in general. The whole thing between John Ross wanting to drill for oil on Southfork Ranch, but Christopher and Bobby being hell-bent on stopping him continued in this episode. Christopher informed John Ross that he and Bobby owned the mineral rights to Southfork and without the mineral rights he can’t drill for oil on Southfork. I personally have mixed feelings about this ongoing storyline. On the one hand, I’m really enjoying watching John Ross scheme and plot to be able to drill for oil, especially when J.R.’s helping him. However, in this episode John Ross was basically forced to deal with the situation with Christopher and Bobby on his own since J.R.’s still out of town on business and he’s not ready to go back to Dallas. He was also still having to deal those businessmen that he owes oil to since he was running out of time to pay them, which is why he’s so desperate to start drilling for oil.

Honestly, I’m also starting to find this storyline a little repetitive in terms of Bobby and Christopher constantly trying to prevent John Ross from drilling on Southfork. I get that this is a drama and that there needs to be conflict, but I personally would like to see someone get the upper hand for extended period of time on the show and not for just one episode, preferably John Ross and J.R. Bobby and Christopher are extremely arrogant, self-righteous and annoying, and I think they need to be knock down a few pegs. I hate that Bobby thinks that he has the right to have John Ross thrown off Southfork. Like I said before, I don’t know a lot about the original show, but if this was the real world I don’t think that Bobby would be allowed to kick John Ross off the family property just because he doesn’t like him.

In addition to dealing with John Ross trying to get the mineral rights to drill on Southfork, Bobby also had to deal with Ann’s ex-husband, Harris Ryland, who had him arrested for assault. For anyone who missed last week’s episode, Bobby showed up at Harris’ office and attacked him for bothering Ann. Harris apparently told Bobby’s lawyer that he would drop the charges if Bobby simply apologized to him for attacking to him, which Bobby initially refused to do, even though his lawyer told him that Harris has a lot of influence with a lot of people that he could use to make the situation worse if he didn’t just apologize to Harris. However, Bobby eventually changed his mind and apologized to him after he saw how upset Ann was.

They’ve made it pretty clear that Ann has a secret that Harris knows about because he gave Bobby a file that contained information on her past, which I’m guessing is why she was really on edge throughout the episode. It’s obvious for a number of reasons that her secret involves a child in some way. At one point in the episode she was talking to Bobby on the phone, telling him that she was in line to buy something at Neiman’s when she was actually sitting on a park bench watching a little girl play in the park. I’m wondering if the little girl was hers’ and that she gave her up for adoption or the child in the park simply reminded her of her daughter. At the end of the episode Bobby told Ann that he didn’t want to read what was in the file and that he would wait for her to tell him whatever’s bothering her herself when she’s ready to, so he threw the file in the fire that was burning in the fireplace. They should a close-up of a picture from the file as it burned, and the picture was a picture of Ann holding what looked like a little girl, so I think it’s pretty safe to say that her secret involves a child.

Personally, I think it’s funny that Brenda Strong just got done playing Mary Alice for eight years on Desperate Housewives, which began with Mary Alice killing herself because she had a secret that ended up being about a child, and her first acting job after Desperate Housewives is playing Bobby Ewing’s new wife, Ann, who has a secret that obviously involves a child. They’ve already established that Ann is pretty handy with guns, so everybody should probably keep an eye on her make sure she doesn’t go off and blow her brains out like Mary Alice did.

I feel like this episode really gave John Ross a lot of humanity as a character, and it really made me want to root for him and Elena to get together when I watched their scenes together. Elena obviously cares a lot about him, because she offered to give him some of the oil from Mrs. Henderson’s land so he can pay the people he owes oil to. He initially turned down her offer, but she eventually convinced him to let her help him. John Ross obviously cares about her given the way he reacted when Veronica Martinez called him, telling him that she was holding Elena hostage and was threatening to hurt her. John Ross seemed pretty distraught when he showed up at Veronica’s place to save Elena, only to discover that she had only told him that she was holding Elena hostage, because she knew that he would come if he thought Elena was in danger.

It was nice to see more of Lucy in this episode and not just for thirty seconds like they did in the other episodes that Charlene Tilton has appeared in so far. John Ross had lunch with her to ask her for help with getting the rights to drill on Southfork. Unfortunately, Lucy told him she wouldn’t help him and told Bobby that John Ross had asked her for help, which is what prompted Bobby to threaten to have John Ross thrown off Southfork. Even though they showed her for more than thirty seconds in this episode, I’d still like to see more of Lucy. Charlene Tilton must be pretty desperate for cash if she’s willing to appear in each episode that she’s been in for what feels like just thirty seconds of screen time.

Rebecca was dealing with the fact that she’s pregnant and Christopher was initially refusing to have anything to do with her. Elena figured out that Rebecca was pregnant after she came to her house to give her a gift basket as a way of thanking her for taking to the hospital in the previous episode, only to quickly be hit with a bout of morning sickness and throw up. Elena told Rebecca that she would keep her secret, but she ended up spilling the beans to Christopher during an argument.

Christopher was initially a total jackass when he found out that Rebecca was pregnant, and on some level I feel like he has the right to be. After all, Rebecca had been lying to him and she did send the email that led to him and Elena breaking up, but I’m thrilled that Ann really let him have it about how he spiteful and cruel he was acting. Ann lashing out at Christopher also added a little to bit her storyline in the episode as well, if you ask me. They decided to have paternity test to determine if he was indeed the father, and I don’t entirely blame him for being skeptical about whether or not he was the father. It was revealed that Christopher is indeed the father, but in a twist they also revealed that Rebecca is pregnant with twins.

While I do think the whole thing with Rebecca finding out that she was pregnant after Christopher found out that she had sent the email to Elena and left her was rather predictable, because I totally saw that coming, I wasn’t expecting Rebecca to end up being pregnant with twins. That was definitely a nice little twist. Of course with Dallas being a primetime soap opera, just because Rebecca’s pregnant now, it doesn’t mean that she won’t have a miscarriage down the road. Although, they did say that she was nine weeks along, which means she’s not too far away from going into her second trimester and people say that miscarriages usually happen in the first trimester. If I had to guess, I’m guessing that Rebecca will end up giving birth to the twins, because it would give the writers a reason to keep her around if she and Christopher don’t get back together eventually.

This episode had quite the ending, soon after John Ross left Veronica’s place he saw that Veronica had fallen from the balcony of her place and landed on his car. They didn’t show her or John Ross when she fell, so I don’t think he killed her. Although, he did seem pretty upset as he was leaving her place. If I had to guess what happened, I’m guessing that Vincente Cano killed her since they showed him or at least some other Venezuelan man at the hotel when John Ross was there. If that guy didn’t kill her, then I’m guessing she jumped off the balcony herself. After all, she’s obviously mentally instable. Things aren’t looking too good for John Ross right now though, because the cops came to Southfork and arrested him at the end of the episode.

All in all, I really do think that this was the best episode yet of Dallas. It was definitely the most action packed episode yet. The only thing that I didn’t like about this episode was just Bobby and Christopher in general. I hate those two so much. Thankfully, they didn’t bring the level of enjoyment that I got from watching this episode too much.

That being said, I give this episode a rating of an A.

Lifetime Rescues Marc Cherry's Devious Maids-TVLine

According to TVLine's Michael Ausiello, the Lifetime channel has officially picked up Marc Cherry's  new TV series Devious Maids, which ABC decided not to pick up to go to series last month, for a 13-episode first season. Here's an excerpt from the article, which gives a statement from the president, Nancy Dubuc, and EVP of the Lifetime channel, Rob Sharenow, regarding the network's decision to pick up the show, and some details on the show for anyone might not know very much about it or they simply need a refresher on the show:



“This show and Marc Cherry’s unique story telling voice perfectly articulate Lifetime’s strategy of attracting top-tier creatives with their most original and exciting projects,” Lifetime prez Nancy Dubuc and EVP Rob Sharenow said in a joint statement.

Loosely based on the Mexican telenovela The Disorderly Maids Of The Neighborhood, Cherry’s Maids follows four ambitious housekeepers (played by Ugly Betty‘s Ana Ortiz, Scrubs‘ Judy Reyes, Heroes‘ Dania Ramirez and Without a Trace‘s Roselyn Sanchez) who work for the rich and famous in Beverly Hills.

Soap icon Susan Lucci was on board to play one maid’s employer, while onetime Melrose Place resident Grant Show and True Blood alum Mariana Klaveno would lord over another, as a successful soap opera hunk and his self-centered actress-wife.

Maids is set to make its Lifetime debut in 2013.



Link to the full article:Devious Maids to Lifetime -- Marc Cherry - TVLine



My thoughts: Personally, I think the premise of the show sounds kind of stupid, but since the show was created by Marc Cherry an Susan Lucci and Grant Show are two of the stars of the show, I'm going to at least check it out.

Dallas: Welcome back to Dallas, everybody! (My thought on the series premiere-Episodes 1x01 “The Changing of the Guard” and Episode 1x02 “Hedging Your Bets”)

As I mentioned in the my blog post, Dallas (2012 TNT TV Series): Who’s Excited to see this? Will this “continuation” work? (My thoughts on the promos for the series premiere and people making reboots/continuations of old popular TV shows), I wanted to blog about this show since I’ve been looking for another show in addition to Revenge to help satisfy my craving for more primetime soap operas, and this show definitely didn’t disappoint me in terms of satisfying my desire for more primetime soap operas.

In one of the extended promos for the show, Patrick Duff made a comment saying that he thought the first episode had the equivalent of five episodes worth of action, and he wasn’t lying. Both of the episodes were very action packed. Sometimes I think that can be a bad thing for the writers of a TV show to put enough action in the series premiere to equal several episodes, because it makes it feels rushed. One show that comes to my mind when I say this would be the late reboot of V from ABC. That was one show that had a series premiere that had too much action for its first episode alone, which it made it feel too rushed for my taste, but I digress. In this case, I think it’s a good thing that Cynthia Cidre’s script for the first episode was action packed, especially considering the fact that this is a cable series and the first season of Dallas is only going to be ten episodes long. The first two episodes did a great job of introducing all of the characters and getting right into the action. Although, I have to say that there were so many twists and turns in the second episode, especially in terms of the sale of Southfork, which made the second episode kind of hard to follow at times, but I still liked the second episode even more than I liked the first episode, and I absolutely loved the first episode.

Based on the first two episodes, it looks like one of the main elements of the show is going to be the rivalry between John Ross Ewing and Christopher Ewing. For the record, I’ve only seen the first episode of the original Dallas, so I had to do some research to get some background information on the details of Christopher’s parentage for anyone else like me who might not have watched the original series. Based on my understanding, Bobby Ewing and Pamela Barnes, literally bought him from his biological mother Kristin Shepard, because Pamela had recently had a miscarriage and was in a severe state of depression because the doctors had told her that she most likely wouldn’t ever be able to carry a baby to term. There might be more to how Bobby and Pamela gained custody of Christopher, but I’m not sure. John Ross Ewing III is the son of J.R. Ewing and Sue Ellen Ewing. John Ross and Christopher’s rivalry is basically based on two things: They are both in love with Elena Ramos despite the fact that Christopher marries Rebecca Sutter at the end of the episode. Secondly, John Ross and Christopher have different views on the future of Ewing Oil. John Ross thinks the family should continue to work in the oil, while Christopher thinks they should start working with alternative energy sources, which Bobby supports. Part of the reason Bobby supports Christopher’s interest in using Methane as an alternative energy source stems from the fact that his mother’s (Ellie) will stipulated that there wouldn’t be anymore drilling for oil on Southfork Ranch. He also said that he didn’t want the two of them fighting over Ewing Oil the same way he and J.R. did in the past.

As for the John Ross-Elena-Christopher love triangle, apparently, Elena ended up with John Ross after she received an email on the day of her wedding to Christopher, which she believed was from Christopher since it was sent from his email address, saying that they were a mistake and that he wanted to break things off with her. Since Christopher didn’t send it and John Ross denies sending it, I’m guessing that J.R. sent it, especially after the comment he made about not even knowing how to send emails. He seems like the type of man that would do something like that, and then play dumb about it.

As for who I’m rooting for when it comes to the John Ross-Elena-Christopher love triangle, I’m definitely rooting for John Ross. John Ross is definitely my favorite of the characters from the younger generation. I found him rather intriguing, and I’d love to know more about his relationship with Sue Ellen. It sounds like there’s a lot of baggage there. If I had to give any of the characters on the show an award for the least likable character show on the show, I would definitely give that award to Christopher. He annoyed the hell out of me in pretty much every scene he was in both episodes. Plus, he gave me a major potentially abusive boyfriend/husband vibe when he confronted Elena and she told him about the email. Although, Christopher did say my favorite line from the first episode, which would be “I ain’t a virgin. But I ain’t a whore, either.” when he was meeting with the businessmen about his methane energy project and he didn’t like the terms of their business proposal. I loved that line.

It turns out that Christopher’s methane energy project was linked to triggering an earthquake, which killed a lot of people. After John Ross found out about that, he basically gave Christopher an ultimatum saying that he had to tell Bobby not to sell Southfork ranch in order to finance his methane energy project, or he would tell Bobby himself. Christopher ended up telling Bobby about his methane energy project being linked to causing earthquakes and that he shouldn’t sell Southfork ranch until he could find a way to safely drill for methane. I loved that whole thing with John Ross forcing Christopher to tell Bobby not to sell South fork. That was a classic soap opera move.

The first episode opened with big shocker right off the bat: Bobby has Stomata cancer (Stomach Cancer). Bobby didn’t want to tell anyone until after Christopher’s wedding, but he was frequently hit with severe stomach pain throughout the episode, which he tried to hide from everyone. His new wife, Ann, ended up finding the pills that his doctor gave him to treat his cancer, and she used a generic search engine to find out that they are used as an oral form of chemo, which the doctor said was highly effective at treating the kind of cancer Bobby has. I can’t wait to see how the whole Bobby has stomach cancer storyline plays out. Side note: I always hate when shows have characters use a generic/fake Google search engine. Is it really that expensive to show people using Google on TV shows?

I have to say that one of the weirdest things for me when I was watching the first two episodes of Dallas was listening to Brenda Strong talk with a southern accent. After eight years of hearing her narrate Desperate Housewives and seeing her play numerous guest-roles on various TV shows, it was quite an adjustment for me to watch a show where she’s talking with a southern accent. I have to say that she’s doing a great job playing Ann though.

If you ask me, Ann is one tough cookie, especially considering how she ran after the guy who broke into hers’ and Bobby’s house with a gun. It’s so great to see Brenda Strong in an onscreen role, not that I didn’t love her as Mary Alice on Desperate Housewives, because I did. She did an amazing job of narrating the show. I watched the original pilot of Desperate Housewives on YouTube a while back, and Sheryl Lee’s narration, as Mary Alice was just downright bad on so many levels. The producers of Desperate Housewives definitely made the right decision when they decided to recast the role of Mary Alice and Brenda Strong got the part, but I digress.

Ann also seems pretty smart too. I initially thought the scene where Ann gave Rebecca the book of Ewing family recipes a bit random, but after reading some comments on the IMDB message board for Dallas and thinking about the episode some more, I think Ann did that because she’s suspicious of Rebecca and she did that as a way to catch Rebecca in a lie down the road. I’m thinking that might also why she gave Rebecca’s brother, Tommy, a job as a ranch hand on the Southfork ranch. If that’s Ann’s intention, then she is definitely pretty smart and good a reading people because the scene between Rebecca and Tommy toward the end of the second episode pretty much confirmed that they have a scheme that they are working on. It looks like they are after Christopher’s money, and possibly more than that. I can’t wait to see how that plays out.

When it comes to what I think of the original characters, I have to say that I found Bobby rather stuck up, self-righteous, condescending, especially when it comes to how he treats John Ross and just downright annoying. I hope the writers make Bobby more likable in the future episodes. However, I did like all of the scheming between Bobby, J.R. and John Ross regarding the sale of Southfork ranch. I have to admit that I did find all of the twists and turns regarding the sale of Southfork kind of confusing and hard to follow, but I still liked that storyline. It looks like J.R. is the one who’s getting screwed over in the end though based on how the second episode ended. I can’t wait to see how that storyline plays out.

Like I’ve been mentioned before, I’ve only seen the first episode of the original Dallas, but I absolutely loved Sue Ellen and J.R. in the first two episodes. It really makes me want to go back and watch every season of the original Dallas. Sue Ellen seems like quite the powerhouse now, if you ask me. I can’t wait to see if they do anything else with Sue Ellen loaning Elena money to buy some oil leases. I for one hope they do more with that storyline. Perhaps it could create some conflict between Sue Ellen and Elena down the road.

I love that J.R. is still manipulating and scheming against people at his age. J.R. is basically my favorite kind of character from a soap opera in terms of how he manipulated Bobby and J.R. and schemed against them. I’ve always loved characters on soap operas who are constantly scheming and manipulating people. I’m also looking forward to seeing more interactions between J.R. and John Ross.

I have to say that I found it somewhat predictable when J.R. snapped out of his non-responsive state of depression after John Ross came to visit him and was telling him about how Bobby was forbidding him from drilling for oil on Southfork. Maybe other people didn’t find that predictable, but I did since I’ve seen a lot of soap operas where characters snap out of a coma or a catatonic state after a family member begs them for help with something. That was a classic soap opera move. I still loved that scene, regardless of how predictable I thought it was.

One last minor complaint that I have about the first two episodes is that I absolutely hated how John Ross and Christopher constantly called each other “Cousin” as if it’s their name. It reminded me a lot of the Berenstain Bears book series. Also, my dad is constantly calling my uncle “Brother” as if it’s his name, so John Ross and Christopher also reminded me a lot of that as well. Maybe some people might think I’m being too nitpicky about that, but I consider people constantly addressing members of their family by their role in the family to be a major pet peeve of mine.

All in all, I thought that the first two episodes of Dallas were great for the most part, and I think that Dallas is definitely off to a great start. TNT’s Dallas in combination with Revenge is definitely going to satisfy my thirst for new primetime soap operas. With that said, I give episode 1x01 “The Changing of the Guard” a rating of an A- and Episode 1x02 “Hedging Your Bets” a rating of an A.

Dallas (2012 TNT TV Series): Who’s Excited to see this? Will this “continuation” work? (My thoughts on the promos for the series premiere and people making reboots/continuations of old popular TV shows)

I don’t know if there are a lot of people out there on the internet who are looking forward to TNT’s Dallas continuation TV series, which premieres on Wednesday June 13^th, but I for one couldn’t be more excited for the series premiere. The reason why I’m so excited about this show is that I’ve been hoping for quite some time now that someone would come along and create a new primetime soap opera, which appears to be a rarity on TV these days. Perhaps my longing for a new primetime soap opera was triggered last year by ABC’s announcement that Desperate Housewives would be ending after its eighth season, I don’t know.

ABC’s Revenge had a phenomenal first season, and it definitely helped satisfy my craving for a new primetime soap opera to enjoy watching every week, but my craving for primetime soap operas still isn’t quite satisfied yet, and I’m hoping that TNT’s Dallas will help completely quench my craving for primetime soap operas. Revenge also ended up becoming my favorite new show last season, which surprised me because a big part of me was expecting ABC’s Once Upon a Time to be my new favorite show of the season. Revenge has proven to be a very addictive show to watch for me personally with Once Upon a Time still being one of my top favorite new shows of the year, but not my number one favorite new show. The reason why I went into the new TV season last fall thinking that Once Upon a Time would be my favorite new show of the year before it premiered was mainly because it was created by two of the writers from Lost, and I’ve always loved pretty much anything that involves fairytales in some way. However, like I just said, I ended up loving Revenge more and found myself consistently loving almost every episode, while I ended up having several big complaints about Once Upon a Time throughout its first season.

For starters, Once Upon a Time has a fairly large cast, but the writers quickly developed the habit of focusing pretty much only on the same small group of characters: Emma, Regina/The Evil Queen, Mary Margaret/Snow White, David/Prince Charming, Mr. Gold/Rumplestiltskin and Henry. While I love those characters, I found myself wanting to see more of the other characters as well. If there’s one thing that I hope the writers of Once Upon a Time do a better job of in season two, it would definitely be that I would like them to utilize the entire cast, especially given the fact that it’s supposed to be an ensemble show. There were also a fair amount of episodes of Once Upon a Time that I didn’t like very much at all, while there were only a few episodes of Revenge that I wasn’t all that crazy about, but I still liked them to a certain degree.

The writers of Revenge on the other hand did an excellent job in my opinion of utilizing its entire cast, both the series regulars and the recurring guest-stars. Also, the writers did a wonderful job of creating complex characters that do morally questionable things, but at the end of the day, you still can’t help but root for them and care about them when bad things happen to them. That’s definitely a requirement for any daytime soap opera or primetime soap opera, and I’m hoping that will also be the case with the new characters on TNT’s Dallas.

While I’m hoping that Dallas will be a show that will help satisfy my love of nighttime soap operas the same way Revenge has, I do have some concerns about it, not so much about the fact that it’s a primetime soap opera, but about the fact that it’s a continuation of an old show. Over the past few years, people have been attempting to create spin-offs or reboots of old hit shows such as Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place and Charlie’s Angels often with disappointing or mixed results. The ratings for the CW’s 90210 started out big for the CW’s standards only to have the ratings wane greatly over the years. The quality of each season of 90210 has also bounced up and down each season, with season three being the best season in my opinion. If I had to attribute the roller coaster ride that is the quality of the writing for 90210 to anything, it would be that the show has had a revolving door of showrunners, which began before the show even premiered.

After 90210 ended up being relatively successful, the CW decided to do a spinoff of Melrose Place, which I personally loved, but it unfortunately only lasted one season. If I had to attribute any one reason for why it failed, I would say that the CW’s Melrose Place failed largely because it was a good show that aired on the wrong network. The CW’s audience has always been very much geared towards teens and young adults, and even more specifically towards women. The original Melrose Place was much more of an adult show, and that’s not really the CW’s main audience. This brings me to my main concern about whether or not TNT’s Dallas will get good enough ratings to succeed.

Unlike 90210 and the CW’s Melrose Place, Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing) and Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing) will all be series regulars on TNT’s Dallas and will be just as involved in the show as the new cast members rather than how stars of the original Beverly Hills 90210 just guest-starred throughout the first season and to a certain degree in season two before they disappeared never to be mentioned again. Hopefully, Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray’s involvement with the show will be enough to bring in some of the viewers of the original Dallas to help the show succeed in the ratings department, however that probably won’t be good enough to keep the show on the air. The original Dallas aired from 1978 to 1991 and was followed by three TV movies, and perhaps I’m being to presumptuous when I say this, but I’m guessing a lot of the viewers of the original series are now well outside the 18-49 age demographic that advertisers care about the most. That means it’s very important that the show is able to attract younger viewers that fall within that demo as well, which might be hard to do if 90210 and the CW’s Melrose Place have taught me anything about getting new viewers interested in spinoffs of shows that have been off the air for at least ten years.

For the record, I’m twenty-five and I’ve only seen the first episode of original Dallas, and if I haven’t already made it clear, I couldn’t be more excited this show. All of the promos for this show look great, and the show has what I think is a great cast. Based on the promos, it’s clear that there’s going to be a lot of drama and a major rivalry between John Ross Ewing III (Josh Henderson) and Christopher Ewing (Jesse Metcalfe) both when it comes to the future of the family business and their love lives. Based on the promos, it looks like business rivalry between the two of them stems from the fact that John Ross wants the family business to continue focusing on the oil industry while Christopher wants the family business to focus on more modern forms of energy. I think that could a very relatable storyline in the sense that family businesses in today’s world have to be concerned about keeping up with the changing technology as the leadership of their company is transferred from one generation to the next, so I’m looking forward to seeing that storyline unfold.

One final comment that I would like to make about the new Dallas would be, is it just me, or does the show also seem like a bit of a Desperate Housewives reunion as well? After all, Brenda Strong played Mary Alice throughout the show’s entire run, Jesse Metcalfe who played John Rowland as series regular during the show’s first season and made several guest appearances throughout the rest of the show’s run. While Josh Henderson wasn’t a series regular on Desperate Housewives, he did have a fairly significant recurring guest-star role, playing Edie Britt’s nephew Austin McCann throughout season three. It’s also worth noting that Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing) guest-starred in two episodes of Desperate Housewives. Maybe other people haven’t thought about this all that much, but I for one think that’s kind of funny. I’ve been a big fan of Brenda Strong long before Desperate Housewives even started, so I was thrilled when she finally got a long-term acting job narrating the show as Mary Alice. However, I’m really excited to see her on Dallas where she’ll be playing an onscreen role as Bobby Ewing’s new wife, Ann.

I’ve read some spoilers for the show, and it sounds like Ann has a secret that will unfold throughout season one. I personally think it’s really funny that Brenda Strong just finished narrating Desperate Housewives as Mary Alice for eight years and the show began with Mary Alice having a secret, and her first post-Desperate Housewives acting job is starring on Dallas as a character who has a secret at the beginning of the series. Maybe Brenda Strong really likes playing characters who have secrets, I don’t know. I just think that’s funny.

I really do hope the show does well. Personally, I think that TNT is taking a big risk doing a continuation of Dallas when the success rate for spinoffs and reboots of old TV shows in recent years have been mixed at best. The way I see it, TNT’s Dallas could either be a success, or it could instantly bomb in the ratings. An entertainment news reporter for my local newspaper gave the show a rating of a B, and based on the other reviews for the show that I’ve read have also been generally positive. Hopefully this will be one spinoff that will be both critically successful as well as being successful in ratings too, because I’m really looking forward to this show.