Vee

I'm out probably at the end of the month, since Mulcahey quit and his work is already being affected/barely even got onscreen. The wedding/death stuff with Gregory, etc. was well done, as were a number of other things but that was in April and May. It's clear the show is a mix of creative/executive directions right now but it has been even since the beginning in March, and the focus on the town turning on Sonny, the refocus of the moral center has gotten a bit muddled again in the last month or so. There's still some intelligent dialogue and good scenes, but what upsets me is that with the exception of Drew/Nina/Willow, etc. it's clear almost none of PM's stories really made it to the screen and he was allegedly prevented from trimming the cast as well. (I'm still not convinced ME or JPS/Valentin are going anywhere with Mulcahey now gone.) GH could still be great, but keeps just fumbling at the gate. I have little faith in the remaining creatives continuing any lasting quality.

Dr. Mark Greene? Really, Ron?

Me neither.

One down. @DRW50

And why is half the cast swimming in their fúcking shirts??

It's just frustrating seeing a lot of great building blocks and setup about to go to waste, and not just the Drew/Nina/Willow, etc. stuff. Jake stumbling upon Finn while he and his little dumbass friends trying to drink underage is classic soap to me, and Hudson should still be on a contract (and the presence of an Asian pal reminds me they really should add young characters or another doctor - or both - from the Asian Quarter). And Carly sticking her nose in on Drew and Nina for no real reason is classic Carly, though I won't be surprised at all if EK and co. use Carly to bust up this entire storyline and end it ASAP so Nina can go back to her role as the show's all-purpose punishment goat. I did think the early June confrontation scenes with Sonny v. Carly, Brennan and Valentin, Anna and Jason re: his loyalty to Sonny and her past with Valentin, even Carly and Kristina as well as Ava/Natalia and Kristina v. Natalia were very good, as was the amazing stuff from Tracy and co. at Gregory's funeral (minus Violet's damn poem). But it's a definite mix of interests on the show. You can tell they're trying to reset Sonny now back to a softer place and have him all grief-stricken about Jason suddenly. Ava seems to just be randomly scheming at this point. And they even had Brennan call out the stall in the show by complaining that Valentin has been stringing out his schemes with Pikeman for months. Why is Brennan still on this show? What is his purpose and what is the purpose of his flirtation with Carly? Just a few random women on FB down bad for this dayplayer? Who cares? Move this along. And yet half the show still really works for me, but I'm still catching up so we'll see how downward it trends. And don't get me started on how someone - Korte, Van Etten, whoever - just will not prioritize Trina. Gio is a beautiful kid but seems just very nice and there atm - what is the conflict if Trina gets a random nice guy, unless he is a deliberate contrast to Spencer (who was arrogant, cocky, rich, damaged) and then has other layers? What is the purpose of highlighting the physical similarity to Spencer unless they're going to a weird psychological place? I think it's good to add more non-core people, but he looks so similar to Spencer it makes me wonder if they should've just bitten the bullet, pulled the band-aid off and recast the role with Giovanni Mazza then and there months ago. It's frustrating too because I can see how you could wrap up half the current mess (starting with Pikeman) in a week or two tops and then just reset and leave in place what works, which for my money is still a fair amount. But it's not going to happen. I could even get behind bringing back Budig for a few weeks (and I hate Hayden) to get rid of Violet - Liz thinks she'll keep her, then thinks her sister will stay, then watches Hayden vanish with Violet again to parts unknown after a mysterious and foreboding conversation with a scheming older woman with dirt on her: Liz's mother Carolyn, recast of course, a brilliant surgeon who is real bad news. (Colleen Zenk is the too obvious choice plus she's busy, so I'm open to suggestions)

Feel like you're forgetting the time he livetweeted at length on a plane flight about "Muslim dog eaters" during his and KT's trip to Bali, or when he and Kelly were basically selling private video chats.

Drew Q as he's been since the writing change suits his best work on soaps - breezy, cocky, a bit of a schemer/con man and mischievous, not unlike early Ryan. I've always liked Cameron, I just have never felt dark drama was his wheelhouse and he became intolerable on AMC and in recent years on GH because they tried to make him do material he isn't suited for. And Cynthia has soared. I had zero use for either character til March. I've hung in as long as I have getting slowly through June because I wanted to see how much of this particular story continued (and also finding a lot of the material with Gregory's death/Finn's meltdown pretty good). Some of us have commented on how similar it seems to some of Mulcahey's work on GL with politician Ross Marler and his tangled relationships with mother and daughter Holly and Blake. I assume this will all get a hatchet taken to it with PM gone and be dismantled in short order, but I'm enjoying it for the moment. I'm ready to bail any day, so I will likely be done by July.

As Jason IIRC, but it was shortly before the Two Jasons reveal and I think was done as part of that setup to show how un-Jason he was becoming. BM's faux Jason had always been making an effort to move away from the mob and back to the Qs, Jake, Monica, etc. so it seemed like a natural evolution to me. I think CM has actually done a great job with CW and even Willow and the business/political stuff under Mulcahey, so I'll be sorry to see it get diluted or go. It also suits him to grow the beard back out. He's approaching the levels he was at in his successful early months as Drew for me, before he became Carly's male purse and tanked onscreen.

That was Aurora, yes. Drew still runs it and Nina's company (Crimson) is now under its corporate umbrella, hence their working relationship which led to their affair. I agree with you and talked about this and him and Sam a few posts ago.

I know. It's wild how far she's come, but to her credit minus some short-term switchbacks and relapses it really did start with Danny's birth in 2012.

One of my favorite moments. (Not my tweet)

I think the best thing for all parties would be for Vanessa to do a Special Guest Star stint on The Gates a la Rosemary Prinz on AMC in the first year. If anyone still has that kind of clout with soap fans today it's VM. That would leave her open to GH, which I agree is her home.

Everything Sam said about Jason was absolutely right. It's just a shame she didn't come to any of these conclusions during the first Obama administration.

As with any paywalled article, run this through archive.is to read:

The immortal Donald Sutherland - so fluid, so thrilling, so much more funny, sexy, fascinating than many modern filmgoers know - has moved on. His work in Klute, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Don't Look Now, M.A.S.H., JFK and so many more never leave me.

Every law enforcement officer worth their salt within a 50-100 mile radius should know who Sam and Damian Spinelli are at this point.

It was. They were in open conflict with the polling, to the point that IIRC Karl Rove walked live down to the polling guys on-camera to complain on Election Night. The voting factors I see cited in these and other polls (less drama, future of democracy, abortion) also back that up IMO.

A bit more re: the above on this article which I suspect is the deathblow for Lewis.

Am I wrong in recalling that Fox News' polling outfit is actually pretty good?

Puck's premiere starfucker Dylan Byers has written a somewhat sniffy and defensive piece of Lewis (who parlayed his favor with an exclusive interview months ago) which I will not link to, as he is the outlier in Washington rn and Puck is bought and paid for by money and power above all.

So I realize that usually my Dallas posts are in fact ungrateful Dallas diss posts, in which I submit a rambling series of repetitive insults about the equally repetitive, misogynistic and simplistic storylines on the show or many of its characters who I often find two-dimensional. But like so many others I couldn't stop watching it on FreeVee, in spurts, dribs and drabs here and there across its first eight seasons, like junk food. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, some of the characters keep you coming back and it's easy to watch and just let its recurring bouts of ridiculousness wash over you. I still don't totally appreciate the show as a whole but you can't not appreciate much of the core ensemble, particularly Larry Hagman, Barbara Bel Geddes, the very early material for Victoria Principal as Pam, Patrick Duffy, Jim Davis and Howard Keel, Steve Kanaly and Susan Howard, etc. (I loved Linda Gray on Models Inc. but Sue Ellen is all over the map for me - more on that below.) Most of all I wanted to get to a place where I was situated for the dream season, where Lorimar swapped its Knots Landing dream team with David Paulsen from Dallas and vice versa, so I could watch the swap seasons in tandem. I was baffled by the swap and very curious to see what Peter Dunne and co. would do with a show so thematically different (IMO anyway) from Knots. I've been fairly impressed so far with the first few episodes, though I know it will likely go very south. "The Family Ewing" was so good I initially thought it was purely the new team, but I'm a pigeonholing dope as it was indeed written by the legendary and/or notorious Leonard Katzman, briefly outgoing guru of Dallas. Directed beautifully by storied KL vet Nick Havinga, I was not expecting them to pick up minutes after Bobby's death but Barbara Bel Geddes dives right back in and gives one of her best performances over the next several episodes, putting the lie to anyone (as in Donna Reed's hilariously bitchy, apocryphal letters to friends) complaining about her acting tics. The family is instantly destabilized and we see actual vulnerability between J.R. and Miss Ellie, both separately and together, which surprised me. He's clearly struggling back at the ol' watering hole in the living room/study/whatever, and she's the one who tries to make him man up for her because she can't do it alone - I guess that is the Ewing way, though I wish she'd just comforted him instead. The silent scene of Ellie out in the fields, near Bobby's treehouse, was beautifully performed and scored and very Knots, as was her amazing monologue to Clayton about the treehouse and Bobby's youth - but again, this is all Katzman (with Havinga, mind you) so I need to give credit where it's very much due. I've just almost never seen Dallas in such a tender or thoughtful mode. I'm sure part of that is due to dipping in and out of the show for stretches of episodes at a time, but still, it can get pretty repetitive and one-note over the years. Oh God, I'd already forgotten Jenilee Harrison's Jamie is newly married to Cliff Barnes, Texas' latest nubile pagan sacrifice to Dallas' premier horny goatman. I don't know why they keep doing this grotesque, tiresome storyline with every young chick that comes on the show. Her new Nancy Reagan helmet of hair isn't holding up much better than her acting; she feels instantly superfluous to the ensemble now, even if she was originally intended as a likely replacement for Lucy - Jamie was never interesting to me after her first few rough-hewn episodes, and Harrison can't hack it onscreen from what I've seen. Nothing changes about odious Cliff in these episodes; he is the same hacky joke he has so often been. I did find Pamela's visceral, hysterical grief over Bobby hard to watch, as much as Ellie's in a very different way. Also loved Pam deliberately not telling Ellie the truth about why Bobby was at her house that morning - letting them live (for now) with the sweet fiction for Jenna's sake. Little Omri Katz (who I grew up crushing on in Eerie Indiana about a decade later) as John Ross comforting J.R., getting him to lay down with him and telling him to go to sleep in the premiere was very sweet. While this is apparently Katzman it reminds me again of the preternatural wisdom you see in the kids on Knots, where often they could be more intelligent or insightful than their star power parents. That's never really happened much on Dallas from what I can see, and the conversation a couple episodes later between Jenna Wade and Charlie (neither brilliant thespians, both of whom should be gone) also is strong character work, this time penned by Peter Dunne himself. They feel fleshed-out and equal onscreen, having conversations with actual weight vs. pablum and platitudes. Same goes for the wonderful scenes between Ray and Donna Krebbs, pondering a new addition to their home, furniture, etc. as they prep for a baby - cute, witty domestic stuff you would regularly get on Knots but never on Dallas, til now. Ending this couple is such a huge mistake later on, I love those two together. How can Sue Ellen still be insisting she is not an alcoholic? Incredible! I did love Ellie's tough love for her and J.R. comforting all the crying secretaries at Ewing Oil, and telling them to not start in because he'll start crying himself - again, a note of vulnerability I don't think you'd publicly get from him before. A little surprised they didn't spring to get Donna Mills' Abby Ewing out to the ranch with Gary for the funeral, but I guess that would've been wild and become a whole other episode lol. It is crazy to realize Gary and poor Clayton have never met, while Lucy is sent off to the Twilight Zone cornfield over the phone. Good riddance. I did a triple take at Gary thanking Ray Krebbs for 'taking care' of her, as IIRC Uncle Ray and Lucy were fúcking in Season 1. Was it necessary for Dusty to cold-cock Sue Ellen and haul her over his shoulder unconscious out of that bar? Probably not, but that's Dallas for you. I did not realize this was the season where Sue Ellen famously hits rock bottom among the winos (and Lou Diamond Phillips) and then ends up dried out in a sanitarium in a legit terrifying series of sequences in first a drunk tank and then the institution - yes, both the material and Linda Gray's performance often veer over into hysterical raccoon-eyed camp as she goes full Fire Marshall Bill trying to keep the bottle of hooch from her lips, but she also becomes positively reptilian at times, turning into a power-mulleted Gollum on her hospital cot, and you have to applaud that kind of fearlessness in a performance as well as the new commitment to gritty realism in the surroundings by Peter Dunne and Havinga. It's at last as hardcore as Gary's own alcoholic meltdown on Season 4 of KL if not moreso. I personally think Sue Ellen should've gotten herself straight at least 3 repetitive, meandering seasons ago as the character has had maybe two notes up til now, but better late than never. Dack Rambo as Jack was a character I'd seen very little of and was prepared to dismiss as another Fake Shemp superfluous nobody a la Jamie, but he's very handsome and also very intriguing in the hints of background mystery introduced in his nice scenes with Ray out on the range. I wonder what the intention ever was there. Unfortunately both the milksop Jamie and the unbelievably dire Mandy Winger as J.R.'s latest PYT get more screen time. Episode 3 ("Those Eyes") is a tour de force for a lot of people starting with Peter Dunne and Linda Gray re: the aforementioned meltdown, but it's also got an incredible scene for Larry Hagman where suddenly and somewhat inexplicably, J.R. is shaken to his core by Sue Ellen's total collapse and gets another amazing monologue like Ellie's in the premiere - remarkably vulnerable and different for his character as he goes into a deep, affecting reverie about his wife and how they met, which smartly and silently drives Mandy completely away from him without his even noticing her exit from his office. (And that should've been the end of her character there!) "I knew she'd win," J.R. marvels to himself about Sue Ellen in the running for Miss Texas all those years ago - winning is how he relates to love. Is all of this sudden realization and examination all a bit abrupt of a 180 for J.R. re: Sue Ellen? Absolutely, it's not done on this show much, unlike KL where they often take careful time to layer in and set up character shifts, where Dallas has spent years driving the contempt between this couple deeper. Do I care much that they didn't? Not really, because it's a lot more interesting than what I'd been watching. Bobby's will reading is deeply cathartic for the cast, who all seem to be getting very emotional or at least acting their hearts out. Pam getting Bobby's shares (via Christopher) of Ewing Oil is the crux of the show as it was originally intended by David Jacobs from the beginning IIRC, yet I am aware they will apparently soon squander this. Still, it's good to see. I loved the bit with Pam screaming her way down the highway in her speeding sports car in anguish and frustration over this, only to be told by a clueless highway patrol guy 'you're a very lucky lady.' A moment of regrettable auteur theory: Is it possible Dunne and co. earmarked BBG as their go-to heroine at the time? Because she's been absolutely carrying a lot of the weight of these early episodes with incredible performances that are much more layered and complex than the recent seasons of her squinting, sighing and mumbling 'oh, J.R.' She has a range of colors and emotions, and an inner strength and emotional intelligence here in these eps that rank up with the best of the ladies of Knots. All in all, compelling stuff so far. I know it will go sideways, but the creative swap has been fascinating to see play out. I think it's benefitted Dallas considerably more than Knots atm, though the effect on KL is still relatively minor by comparison at this early juncture IMO. (I discussed this in that thread.) Thank for enduring this post. And yes, I did catch Dr. Ackerman as one of J.R.'s cohorts in this season.