Vee

I think it was a pretty good final season, and should've been renewed over 90210; some of us have discussed this a lot in the MP thread. The final episode was a bit silly, but it wasn't too dreadful and that happens.

Episode 3 (Encounters): Written by James Houghton and sister Mona again. The opening party is a helluva spread from Richard Avery, noted chef and hostage-taker. I loved Karen's line to Mack: "They're my neighbors! Remember, they're only here to judge you." Another great exchange: Karen: Oh, Richard, you should open a restaurant. Richard: From torts to tarts in one nervous breakdown. The legendary Ciji is here, and as someone who has never seen more than a second or two of this character let alone heard her sing I must say Lisa Hartman Black's voice is an absolute knockout. You can see Ginger tensing up as Kenny watches her - she's seen this before. The Gary/Kenny angle on introducing the character was a smart choice. I am into it. Val looks amazing in her party wear early in the episode (not the headband mess), and she didn't look frumpy at all - I think she's just not used to '80s fashion vs. dressing like Ellie Mae Clampett like she has for too much of the last few seasons. JVA and Stephen Macht have solid chemistry just as I suspected, as Val rages at Joe saying she wants out of the house, out of the neighborhood, out of the whole suburban dream she built with Gary. And Gary is waffling about moving on but cannot resist his animalistic passion for Abby as their latest blow-up turns into yet more hot sex. Joe and Val have a wonderful tender scene in her bathroom late in the episode which really makes me wonder if they were planning to pair them up, while Gary basically defects entirely towards the end of the hour in that underground parking lot and begs Val to take him back. It's a wonderful, heartfelt set of performances by both JVA and Shackelford, and I can see why people kept loving them together and wanted them reunited; it reminded me for a moment why I loved them together too earlier on, and maybe will again in future. But you can't sympathize with Gary much here, as it seems like he simply wants to continue having both women, to have his cake and eat it too. And Val can sense that, so she tells him goodbye (and then, heartbreakingly, looks back and finds him gone - such a good moment from Van Ark). I can only hope this is the end of waffling, whining Val refusing to discuss the Ewings or promote her own potential bestseller. Gary is who he is, for now anyway - move on. Is Gary in love with Abby, as Abby seems to be with him? I thought he might be prior to this episode, but I'm not sure now. I'm not sure he knows either, though. Speaking of Val's brilliant career, Louise Sorel is Val's latest press contact! Even wilder, the gossip columnist is June Lockhart. I have no idea what Wayne: Mechanic to the Mob is up to now. I did like the scorned Abby's line to the other guests at the end after Gary took off: "He had a Boy Scout meeting." And now Richard the home chef wants to be a true restauranteur. I'd love to support him because I deeply care about Richard and especially his relationship with Karen and I think a career change would be good for him if he stops gaslighting and otherwise terrorizing people, but I also still really, really want Laura to escape that house and stop giving him fifteen to twenty chances. Episode 4 (Svengali): Noted Crystal Chappell survivor Michael Sabatino is here. I am aware of a little bit about who Chip Roberts is, and I know what becomes of him but I don't know the hows or whys or schemes or anything in between. Sabatino is younger, sexier and less overly affected here than I've ever seen him on daytime, and instantly shines as a scheming messenger boy turned Eve Harrington, or perhaps Tony Curtis in The Sweet Smell of Success. Louise Sorel is back as his imperious boss Bess Riker(??), who Chip cheerily dismisses at every turn. Watching Sabatino and Sorel together they crackled, but it took a two-shot of them to make me remember Vivian and Lawrence Alamain. No wonder DAYS went for it. Val is still whining about having written a popular book that is about to become a money-making bestseller. I am really over this shít. Please just get your money, get (on with) your life and live in the now. At least she seems to be coming close to that at the end with her successful TV interview. Michael is getting big. LOL at Michael and Mack yelling at each other for the benefit of Karen hiding upstairs. Mack: How about dinner tomorrow night? Karen [upstairs]: No! Mack: What time? Karen: Seven! Are Karen and Mack official at this point? Are they dating? Have they fully acknowledged or discussed it (not onscreen, as far as I can tell)? It seems like it's in a weird limbo zone for them where they are incredibly engaged and fired up by each other, incredibly into their dynamic but haven't yet put a label on it. To their family and friends it seems like Mack is just the funny guy on Sid's case who keeps coming by the house, taking Karen out and getting closer and closer to her. They know what it is, of course, but do Karen and Mack? I'm not so sure they've fully come to terms with it. I hope they will onscreen. Lord, the decor at Richard's restaurant. And his tab for 'a modest selection of basic wine!' The Karen/Richard scene re: her plans was great - he's a coward, he says, but she's not. And her investment was very sweet. "Just don't take it to the bank until Monday." Mike Douglas, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Oz munchkin Billy Curtis are also here. Lilimae hamming it up on the talk show set pre-show was a hoot, but also layered her character and interplay with Val; even then, she couldn't help needling Val about not paying enough attention to her marriage vs. the book until it was too late. Lilimae's daughter is living her dream and I do believe she is truly happy for Val, but I also think she simply can't help but critique her, possibly as a passive form of aggression she is not fully conscious of, partly because she is simply a busybody and needling mother and partly because yes, she wants the fame for herself. Hilariously, she even offers to go on in Val's place. There's layers within layers to what is currently a largely comic character. (Also funny: The fact that schmoozer Chip clearly snuck them onto the set without permission.) Mack initially seems to have as little patience for Richard as Gary always did, but quickly softens; the scenes with him, Richard and Karen watching Val's talk show appearance were cute, as was the bit with the kids watching back at Knots Landing. Amusing as well was the autograph-seeker named Eve. In an episode with a few echoes of All About Eve already mentioned re: Chip, I don't think that's a random choice. Ciji's musical performances (this one apparently written by Rick Springfield) are nothing but bangers so far. The show clearly knows all it has to do is turn on the camera, move it around her a little occasionally and let Lisa Hartman rip. She's that good, and it doesn't yet feel like wasted time on a show so carefully paced that still has almost 50 minutes of drama available, unlike later primetime timeslots with more commercials. It also informs character as we get to learn a bit about Ciji simply from her passion, but also about what appears to be at least two of the male leads' growing fascination with her. One more thing: It is not lost on me that current KL mastermind Peter Dunne later took over the final season of Melrose Place, which also featured an enchanting knockout of a singer (Eve, played by Rena Sofer who was dubbed for her performances, and a decent character but no Ciji) deeply embroiled in a season-spanning storyline and mystery. I don't think that's coincidence, and I'm surprised if no one's ever brought it up.

Season 4, Episode 2 (Daniel): Another Pleshette ep. I loved J.R. cackling reading Val's book and seeming to genuinely enjoy it; his relationship with Abby is also still beautifully matched. "You're just gonna eat him alive, aren't you?" J.R. asks Abby admiringly re: Gary. But Abby resists his latest advances and stands by her man: "He handles me very nicely, thank you." I really hope J.R. doesn't destroy Val's book - I want to see her succeed and thrive on her own terms. I know a lot of people weren't into the Dallas crossovers, but I always am. This show distills those characters to their core elements vs. the extremely repetitive, masculine power fantasy drives (from what I've seen, anyway, dipping in and out of a lot of the early and middle seasons) of the storytelling on the mother soap. I loved J.R. telling Abby to keep Gary out of Dallas because 'the crown is mine,' illustrating that deep down, despite all his stories and jokes about Gary being the family screw-up, deep down he still fears Gary for the same reasons he told his brother about back in S2, the things Abby has brought out of him to the fore. Abby has an early line of the episode as she comes home to a fun home scene with Gary and her kids who are doing all the cooking for her: "Raise your children right, and you never need domestic help." The kids are already quite used to seeing Val's husband and their mom make out, and it feels like a functional home already. It's interesting that the show seems to be fully committing to Gary and Abby as a unit now. I wonder how long it lasts. I know Gary and Val are supposedly apart for nine years, despite being the rooting crossover couple when the show launched; that's bold, and wild. But it feels organic here because Shackelford and Mills are fire together. Roy and Frank the evil car parts mobsters are back, except they've left car parts behind and are stylistically starting to go full Miami Vice. Sure, why not. I did love Richard being the one to talk Karen down from her fury at Mack. But he's once again being the full Richard henpecking Laura over her pregnancy, condescending, overbearing in his control of their current lives. I am stunned she moved back in with him and is still living with this, yet these kind of sad, creepy domestic situations do happen. She calls him in on the suicide note, his stunts, etc. to get her to move back in, and the labor scenes take on an intense, ugly, almost quasi-rape tone at several points. But her anger is all but forgotten, for now, by the birth of Daniel (shown with his mother over the end credits - or rather, that baby is apparently Constance McCashin's actual newborn son). It's a nice moment, but it seems very fitting that the Averys birthed their second child in a literal car wreck. I cannot see where this goes next. Val sure is turning the house blue. I actually love the bright new colors and the yellow over the doors though, embracing the garish '80s. The stuff with Mack really getting into the book is great, and then helping Karen with Jason #3 or 4. Another great line from Gary near the end as Abby gifts him his new apt: "There's nothing worse than a quiet orgy." Next up: Ciji!

The Season 4 premiere (A Brand New Day): The full-on Knots Landing is finally here, and I am here for it! Opening on a great shot of Val powering down on a beach fast and determined, it's another John Pleshette script which I'm quite excited about. (Of course Val checked into the Bates Motel.) I see Julie Harris and the much-hailed Kevin Dobson have been added to the main cast, but most importantly the terrifying mime shot of Karen from Season 2 that haunts my dreams has finally been removed from the montage and that's that what really matters. Gary does the walk of shame across the cul-de-sac from Abby's back to, y'know, his actual house. LOL at Lilimae pointedly holding up the paper in front of her like a partition so she doesn't have to look at Gary next to her at the kitchen table I can't believe he showed up to eat at. I'm very pleased at the time-jump from Season 3 (three weeks). I always like whenever primetime shows (or streaming ones, for that matter) make use of the passage of time between seasons to time-jump a little and reset a bit; I seem to recall Melrose Place occasionally working little jumps of days or weeks in between hiatuses, although never months IIRC. I know Melrose like the back of my hand, but it's been awhile. 90210 I seem to recall definitely jumped through the summer months between seasons more than once, and it worked for them to reset the canvas. The same principle applies here. (It should be noted that Melrose Place did do a reset not dissimilar to this at least once - Season 7, its final year and a strong one that should've allowed it to continue, where the show pointedly chose to reset from a very bad year while being creatively re-aligned by... Peter Dunne, who just came onboard for this season of Knots Landing.) Very cute seeing Diana drive all the Fairgate/Cunningham kids to school together. And there's a pretty epic shot directly after (from the opening credits) of Abby in shorts crossing the sunny drive to a gobsmacked Gary, over sultry sax and a slow zoom in. Great stuff. For some reason I had equated "Don Stroud" in the guest credits with Willie the Kid from Acts of Love late in S3 and was expecting that character, so you could've knocked me over with a feather just like Val when they drove up and saw Rusty and the accursed Cricket, two characters I absolutely never thought I'd see again. Stroud is very hot though, so that makes up for Cricket. Can they bring the ghost girls from Three Sisters back again? That'd be cool. The late Kevin Dobson makes a strong debut - he's sexy as hell, virile and hirsute. It seems Mack MacKenzie and Karen have met before or at least have some existing familiarity with each other due to the case against Sid's murderers. Mack is very forward very quickly with Karen in ways that wouldn't all fly today, but it's mitigated by her disarming him up front, and by the long, slow work done last season seeing Karen confront several potential suitors as she worked through moving on from Sid. You feel ready as a viewer for Karen to find whirlwind romance now, and Michele Lee clearly is delighted to be sparking off Dobson as a uniquely similar and it would appear, spontaneous and improvisational partner. They are instantly very winning together, and he is instantly a shot in the arm for the male canvas. Prior to this, I mostly knew Kevin Dobson from his ill-fated stint on OLTL in the early 2000s, as the first Governor Harrison Brooks. Dobson was hired as the first in a string of half-hearted recurring male presences added to the show under Michael Malone's second tenure in those years to try to quiet audience complaints and suggest they were going to give Erika Slezak's Viki a new story and romantic partner, something almost certainly vetoed by ascendent new daytime head Brian Frons (her last love interest, Mark Derwin, was in an irreversible coma). Dobson seemed uncomfortable on the show and on daytime, and stiff with very poor serviceable dialogue. The Brooks character was quickly shifted into becoming a more effective plot device and scheming politico for the political and criminal machinations with Viki's son Kevin and the evil Santi crime family. The role was also swiftly recast, and after a few more Malone-era recurring men failed to launch poor Viki didn't get a true love interest again until 2007. I know Dobson later turned up as one of the various fake Uncle Mickeys on DAYS, but I didn't put myself through that. Anyway, latter-day daytime never really seemed to work out for Kevin Dobson, but he is an absolute firestarter here. Again, the moves on Karen are a bit swift but seem very welcome from her. I also loved his reaction to having dinner with the kids: "Sounds terrible. I'll be there." I wish we'd seen the whole family dinner. Speaking of male presences, Stephen Macht works beautifully at the office with Karen and Richard (Macht and Pleshette are a great double act, complaining about the deli sandwiches). Uncle Joe was very poorly utilized for most of last season, and it's a big improvement in the most recent episodes. It's too bad they couldn't do more with him for whatever reason (and I'd like to know what happened with him exiting the show, as I have yet to dig up any info); I've seen Macht at full tilt in other things and I'd be very interested to see if he had any romantic chemistry with, say, JVA. I suspect they may have dumped him because he and Kevin Dobson have too similar a volatile energy, and Dobson was a TV name who was snapped up by the show after another of his shows (on CBS, I think) didn't go to series. A few interesting comments re: this transition and Don Murray from an interview with Michael Filerman on the indispensable KnotsLanding.net, which is chock-full of interviews. I'll spoiler this simply because it's a long excerpt in an already long post, sorry. Anyway, back to the episode: I'm glad they did not really try to pretend Gary could take Don Stroud. Come on now. Gary gets lit up by Rusty which is only right, and staggers home to an unimpressed Abby looking like he was behind the wheel of Sid's car. "Your bed's across the street. Unlike your wife who would be at your side with cold compresses and iodine, I'm not a forgiving person. She's the other woman now, not me, and I don't want to share." Love it! And Karen finally fires Gary, which was very satisfying. There's another great moment where Val kicks Gary's shít to the curb including Miss Ellie's chintzy '70s furniture and informs him he's moving out of the house, not her. This leaves Val and Lilimae living on fold-out chairs, and I'm eager to see how she redecorates for the '80s. Another great beat: Val and Abby locking eyes across the cul-de-sac, as open war begins with Abby sending J.R. Capricorn Crude, setting up the next crossover ep. Meanwhile, Gary finally returns home to Abby who embraces him carnally bathed in twilight. As the dramatic swells, he surrenders himself to who they are: Night people. They appear to have recast Wayne, the evil mechanic who juked Sid's brakes with an even more obviously evil bit player who Karen cannot seem to realize is creepy. Oh well. Again, idk how long I'll keep up with episodic posts as the show goes full serial and when my work schedule kicks in harder, but we shall see. I am glad people tolerate them.

That makes a lot of sense. I do think Gary, Sid, Kenny, etc. have never been as fully focused on or centralized as the women themselves but I def take your point.

An interesting note on "China Dolls" btw, from the KL Season 3 essay by Tommy Krasker I think I linked a couple pages ago:

Episode 22 (Living Dangerously): Season finale! And everyone's buzzing about Gary and Abby, even the kids. What's interesting here is that Gary now knows Abby helped set Val's book in motion for her own purposes - she openly admits it - and he doesn't care. He's treating Val with contempt and seems fully committed to Abby, and embraces what she does for who she is and why she does it. Which makes them a perfect match. I was admittedly a bit amazed Ginger is eager to bring her new baby over to visit Richard, the hostage-taking neighbor. What the hell did they tell people happened that night?! No sooner did I say this though did Ginger freak to see Richard holding Erin (I refuse to call her Erin Molly), which only makes perfect sense. Karen keeps making excuses for him, but Laura can see Richard's hand in all his strange, enigmatic behavior and refuses to engage while the whole cul-de-sac (unrealistically, IMO) continues to cluck over his well-being - I cannot buy Ginger and Lilimae being so upset over offending him at this point, let alone the others. I did love seeing Karen, Laura and Lilimae out to lunch together, and I loved them spotting Gary and Abby's lovenest even more. This goes to the throughline of the show's domestic arena; seeing people out at local spots, gossiping together as Lilimae counts the seconds til Gary emerges after Abby: "Look, he beat me." Karen lashes out when Val is still clucking over her book's new (and great!) title and wringing her hands over Gary's reaction - 'this is no time to worry about what Gary thinks!' Her jousting with Gary later over Val - him warning her not to tell, daring her - is a world from where they used to be. But I truthfully don't think either of them ever got over Gary's involvement with the circumstances leading to Sid's death. I think it has scarred the relationship ever since in ways they've never fully confronted, and now the open aggression over Val allows it to leak out and inform the situation. Lilimae's confrontation with Gary is great. I believe this scene is where David Jacobs said Julie Harris only changed one line in all her years on the show - 'score one for the blond kid' is her idea. Julie Harris excels as a schemer and shitstirrer, and they're finally giving her more of her full due; she crackles as she gets Gary over a barrel and puts him in his place. But Val knows the whole thing's a sham as Gary reluctantly agrees to go to her book party, and seems resigned. Her confrontation with Abby in the driveway (as the rapidly-growing Fairgate boys watch) is equally fun for entirely different reasons. Lilimae: Look, I know what's going on, and I want it to stop! Abby: Well, Lilimae, if you're talking about inflation or the arms race I agree! [pats her hand] I do too. [drives away] The cul-de-sac biosphere, the confines of the neighborhood, once again show itself to be a perfect arena for endless combinations of different interpersonal interactions, as this sequence dovetails directly into Lilimae, Michael and Eric discovering Richard's lawn flooded from the sprinklers and his garage door opened. Same goes for a rare first time solo scene for Diana and Olivia (a cute combination and one of the only times I've enjoyed Claudia Lonow), who's babysitting as Olivia lets slip that Gary is 'here a lot.' These kind of simple, true-life suburban 'see something, say something' permutations are all you need to ignite certain types of classic soap opera drama, and it's too often lost sight of these days because it's not seen as high-toned enough. Speaking of the Richard disappearances, there's a great scene where Laura tells the Wards, "I don't know what [Richard] knows" and admits she thinks it's possible he's planned all of this to force her back into their house. I think she's right. I don't think his leaving the sprinkler or on the door unlocked was an accident; I think he created that scene deliberately to stir up the neighbors and see to it they contacted Laura. The eerie music from "Night" replays as she finds his potential suicide note, and while he may have meant it I also think he allowed her to find it. I think his brazening it out with his ex-boss was also deliberate. I think he's been playing all of this to get her back in the house and one way or another, he's still deeply unwell. Which makes the finale where Laura and Jason move back in, with Laura's eyes darting around the lawn in the night like a caged animal, all the more satisfying in its lack of resolution, because to me this still feels like an Avery cold war and Richard feels much more calculating and dangerous, no matter what he's saying or doing. I think it's all a manipulation, and I am fascinated and spooked. And frankly, despite our comments above, this 'resolution' is a situation that can and has happened IRL which makes it scarier. Anyway, the book party is grand but Val is still! bitching about her scandalous book being too scandalous. Give me a break, lady; take the money! The show seems intent on cementing Stephen Macht's Joe by making him Val's new West Coast editor, but we know that will not last for whatever reason. He's worked a lot better in the last couple episodes, but he has no serious romantic or sexual connection with any of the stars yet. That could've easily changed. I loved Karen rushing to Abby's lovenest and trying to drag Gary out like her family problem, and I loved Val storming in and out and then driving out on Gary without a word. Great stuff. I cannot wait for Season 4, which is when so many people say the show 'really starts', but I think so much of the first three seasons is integral character and community building you really need to see (I'm sure we could all probably prune very different lists of essential episodes, though). I don't regret barreling through them. I don't know how many more of these individualized takes I'll do as the show goes full serial, but I am definitely excited for it. I agree that it very smartly delineates their takes on life, but what's interesting is I'm pretty sure (from what we know of her background at this point, anyway) Abby's always had it at least materially easier than Val, who was stripped of family, child and reduced to waiting tables in squalor for years. The difference is that all Val's ever wanted for herself up until her book is the home, family and suburban security Knots Landing and Gary provides, while Abby's had home and family and that kind of security, seemingly, her whole life - but, it would seem, nothing for herself, nothing she wanted for her own dreams as an actualized woman, a baby boomer. For Abby it seems it's less about economic survival than personal survival. I do agree Gary and Abby are a match.

So thrilling as a fan of both Kate and the show.

I think KL was always very female-centric, even in the prior S2 episode. The difference for me is that in S2 they struggled to give the male cast something to do in the story (which focused largely on the captive women) by having them all go apeshít vying for the camera with a bunch of male cops, thumping their chests and springing into physical choreography to prove they were integral to the action, whereas here the women occupy virtually all of the power and dramatic positions throughout outside of the house. No thought is given to turning Gary, Joe or the absent Kenny into men of action, because the story is about Richard, his wife and his relationships (such as with Karen).

I try to take it as a mirror of the times, especially as an unwed pregnant woman. But yes, it's insane that he is still living on this block.

Episode 20 (Acts of Love): Home stretch time, and the love triangle of the '80s is hitting full throttle. Gary is instantly belittling Val minutes into this episode for not supporting him in his latest night out with his work wife (Abby), like a complete [!@#$%^&*]. She rightly asks 'when have I ever not backed you?' Val does not exist to him atm except as an extension of his ambitions and desires, and he's literally booking her as a babysitter for Abby's child without her knowledge. Fed up, Val takes to the hills with her best wingman thus far IMO: Olivia, who's always had a lovely bond with her. Stuck in the boonies overnight after her manic tantrum, Val starts waiting tables in some country-ass dive tavern in the mountains with a guy who refers to himself as "the Kid" and tries to tempt her to stray, and this is contrasted beautifully with Gary and Abby in their upscale restaurant, wheeling and dealing James Karen. Before they even leave for their latest trip Abby's already teased Gary that they're 'just pals' and tells him Val's being petty with her concerns, but the smirk on her face as she says it and the hint of one on Gary's even then tells the story on its own: They both already know the truth and they're both getting off on it, somewhere in the darkest part of Gary's Ewing heart. There's a famous Dallas scene where Jock Ewing snarls at Bobby and tells him that power given to a man is nothing, that it's something he takes. Gary, like his distant, fearsome father, craves to take, and with Abby he allows himself to enjoy it, to feel it. They close a deal with James Karen by invoking the spectre of the Dallas Ewings, then dance and sing on the beach - "I'm a mogul, you're a mogul, wouldn't you like to be a mogul too?" If that's not the '80s I don't know what is! And it's triumphant, ritualistic foreplay for Gary and Abby, which makes perfect sense. A very candid, humanistic bit of dialogue on the beach when Gary finally succumbs to his passion with Abby: Gary: Abby, we can't do this. Abby: Oh, come on, we can't do anything else. [...] You like this, you like going to the edge like this. You like tempting me and having me tempt you. And okay, fine, if that's what you like, that's fine! [...] I've got feelings invested in this, Gary. I've got feelings invested in you. I'm sick and tired of being the wicked woman and the homewrecker. There are two of us here, Gary. It takes two people to feel like this, and I'm real tired of being the only one who admits it. She's right! And she's not just a vixen or sexpot here, she's human and has her own feelings wrapped up in this beyond her schemes. When they get home and Abby hears Lilimae's message about Val and Olivia being away, the very faint ghost of a smile on Abby's face is genius. She knows and they know that the moment is now, and there's no words; she just takes Gary to bed. And now Lilimae knows! At the hospital, Karen is of course Richard's only visitor. In a troubling turn, he's fixated on Laura and why she hasn't called, and the same eerie music from "Night" in a spooky bit as he wanders down the hospital corridor alone. Over at the Wards, there's a wonderful, awkward sequence where Laura instantly tenses up the moment she's alone with a visiting Karen, fully expecting her to bring up Richard, and sure enough she does. It is beyond me how Karen can shrug off what Richard did, and it's astonishing that she'd keep advocating for Laura to connect with him. The creepy vibes (and eerie music) continue when Laura actually does go visit Richard, and he's still joking and schmoozing away, shining her on, but you can see the fear gripping Laura behind her eyes. I have no idea where this is going, but it's very intriguing. Episode 21 (China Dolls): It's stormy weather as Gary and Abby's red hot affair continues, and his initial and consistent lack of guilt is striking - he seems delighted by it when he tells Abby he has no regrets. That's the Ewing DNA, IMO. Meanwhile, everyone's catching on, even Val who's in denial. Joe wisely ties Gary's infidelity to his past gambling addiction - 'down deep,' he warns an uncomfortable Gary, 'the gambler wants to lose.' Probably Stephen Macht's best scene on the show so far, and one of the only ones he's felt integral to. His pointed sparring match with Abby at her front door later - him teasing her about taking Ginger to his function ('a married woman!') and him shooting back ('so tacky!') - was great, too. I've seen Macht go hogwild, so with a less tamped down character him and Donna Mills could've been very interesting. He's a bit cute with Ginger but I wasn't seeing the point of any of that subplot beyond perhaps Lankford and Houghton's contractual obligations. The quick glimpse of Abby breaking down when Gary calls it off the instant after he leaves was a shocking show of vulnerability. Again, not something you'd expect to see from a typical character sketch like hers in most primetime soaps. But it doesn't last, as Gary's sexual obsession blossoms into complete mania and Val's denial is pierced by watching her husband all but stalk Abby, watching her through their living room window for hours and finally rushing across the street to confront her. The show knows what it has in Ted Shackelford, a performer who can be alternately intellectual, emotional, heartfelt and truly ugly as a human being, driven by bestial lusts, and they're fully ready to explore. Laura would have to be far crazier than Richard to move back in with him. Even crazier than that shrink at the sanitarium with the deranged amount of ostentatious cat statues in her office. How is Karen still on her ass about taking Richard in? And I wasn't really getting into the china doll metaphor with the crazy patient's story and actual doll, but hey. At least Richard seems saner this week, acknowledging their marriage is over. I can't understand why she'd ever agree to move back in with him, but she's pregnant and it was a very different time. Stormy winds howl as the camera smartly follows Val across the street with rising music, in a confrontation scene even I've seen bits and pieces of over the years. Val and Abby's perspectives on Gary are clearly illuminated here very well, as Val says she's been in love with him since she was 15 and Abby says she loves the Gary Ewing that presently is. More compelling for me though, as I haven't seen it before, was the scene that felt like the apex of the original conceptual underpinnings of this show and its suburban marriage intrigues, as Gary wanders over to the abandoned, battle-traumatized Avery house over pounding music because he can't take anymore and ravishes Abby then and there. This is another famous episode and I understand why, but it's not the equal of "Night" for me. I think its impact is slightly diluted for me in that I, like many people, have seen some of the Val/Abby confrontation at the end before. It's still a very good episode. I know it comes up in Season 4, but it's not been mentioned so far and it seems like a glaring oversight: The death of Jock Ewing. I've been idly watching a lot of Dallas Season 5 for fun on FreeVee, and Jock's death figures largely in the latter half of that year for that show. Dallas shows Miss Ellie going to call Gary, yet this same year on KL Gary and Val have yet to acknowledge it at all onscreen. (I think Karen's the only one who made a brief mention of Jock's death) It would seem as a fan to be a galvanizing event for Gary's slow transformation with Abby and out of his marriage, and a major blow to his psyche, yet it hasn't come up. That feels like a huge mistake. I am glad it will figure in next season in a material way (which I will be starting very shortly), but it warrants a lot more talk re: who and where Gary is.

Why is that his problem?

Episode 19 (Night): This is one of the legendary eps. Written by John Pleshette for his own character, it absolutely lives up to its reputation. Richard coming home sloppy drunk with Abby, wheedling his way inside, rambling about their ill-fated affair ('remember the hot tub? the neck, not the ear, right?') and then getting way too physical with her sets the disturbing tone. I assume that's the definitive end of their friendly relationship! Back at the Avery house, Richard lonely in his darkened home is a shocker, as it's turned to a complete shambles; he appears to be living and sleeping on his couch for no clear reason (perhaps he can't bear to sleep in the bed he shared with Laura). His having to put on the TV just to hear something in his solitude - an old Hollywood musical romance - was disturbingly too true to life. We've all been in dark holes, black moments throughout our lives, and while it may never have been quite as bleak as Richard's low, I think there's way too much relatable there. As he tells Karen later about his life now: "Everything echoes, everything reflects back." The late Alexander Singer directed this, along with a lot of other KL eps and a veritable who's who of classic '80s TV, but before that he already had a massive resume in network TV - he did a bunch of classic episodes of The Fugitive, Mission: Impossible and many other greats. He closed out his career doing all of the '80s/'90s Star Trek shows (TNG, Deep Space Nine, Voyager) for over a decade, which is how I know his name best. This episode is stunning work. The little insert shots, like Richard examining the old family photos in his wallet, feel intimate, private, something we shouldn't be seeing. Unsettling to see it at all. The slow, Robert Altman-esque zoom in on the dojo as Richard persuades his way into taking Jason out of his class again feels vaguely sinister, surveillance-like. And Jason comes home to find the house frighteningly transformed - the living room a playspace for a gargantuan train set. Then Richard cooks a perfect meal for the family, and refuses to let them leave. Joe forcing the Fairgates (and Lilimae, and Abby!) to read Dylan Thomas for him feels like extraordinary rendition out of Abu Ghraib. A line that hits different today: Karen heading across the street when they hear the Averys' yelling and telling her kids, 'hey, we're not invading Afghanistan!' The crisis here feels far more real and less bombastic than the home invasion silliness from S2 because it feels like something that can happen, does happen with couples we know (not that home invasions don't, but still) all the time in quiet suburban neighborhoods - neighbors hearing the shouting - and because we've lived with these characters so long now and know them well, their reactions, their growing concern and gossiping feels extremely real and true, and has real weight. The shot of Gary creeping into the Avery backyard and patio - a known and friendly, comfy setting as early as the first cul-de-sac party Gary and Val were invited to there in Season 1 - and seeing Laura at the kitchen window trying to do dishes is incredibly haunting. This is the second hostage situation for the LAPD in Knots Landing in a year! A studied and fascinating difference with this one, though: The lead cop is a woman, and all the main action-oriented protagonists in this situation (Karen, Laura, etc.) are women, with Karen taking Sid's role opposite a female cop. Yes, Karen, etc. were lead and active characters in the prior situation in S2, but they were all still hostages at the hands of another evil woman (the lead burglar). Here, the women are on the outside doing the police work and power jockeying against a man, working to end the standoff. This is a major change from the OTT male bombast of the original home invasion episode, where Sid, Gary, etc. all roared and raced around the living room howling at the male cops as the show strained to give the male stars enough viscera to their performances in an episode which still focused on the women, but left them in hostage roles. Something more incisive and smart is done here, giving Karen a lead role. Her relationship with Richard, as we've all noted, is loving, unique, thorny, almost brother and sister. In another life I could've even seem them getting together as an odd couple post-Sid, had Richard stayed the bettered man he was at the outset of Season 3. Initially Karen simply can't believe that the situation is that serious; she pooh-poohs the SWAT team, dismisses Abby as having 'led him on' the night before. Later she understands the gravity of the situation. The eerie music as Karen finally cuts through to Richard herself is stunning, and the central underpinnings of the season thus far begin to link up as Karen equates Richard's loss of Laura with her loss of Sid: "It's like a death, isn't it?" "My hair is growing, my nails are growing, but I'm dead," he replies. Constance McCashin does wonderful work opposite him, but ultimately this episode is Pleshette's showcase and a brilliant piece of work. The eternal question, of course, is did Richard know the gun was never loaded? Knowing his history of being a lovable loser, I don't believe he did. I think he meant to blow his brains out. I can't imagine how anyone goes on from something like this to staying in the cul-de-sac and continuing to interact with the rest of the main cast, which I believe Richard somehow does for another year in some fashion (though I don't know how, and don't tell me). It's not Melrose Place where Kimberly was accepted back in after blowing the place up and I embraced it because I loved Marcia Cross and the character had become an hedonistic chameleon (until Darren Starr quit later that same season, anyway); Melrose had a much more elevated level of glitz and camp than KL. Also, how the hell can LAPD only hold Richard 72 hours? He took hostages! The ending coda - with Karen racing to the Wards to happily welcome them home, trying to go on with another normal day in the neighborhood as the camera rises up over the abandoned Avery house - is a lot to process. I almost wish this had been a 2-parter tbh; I think it could've sustained even more.

Episode 17 (Letting Go): Oy, the opening scene. Is Larry really this engaging and hilarious? Come on, Karen. It's nice to see this mourning and moving on process play out with Karen as carefully as it has, but Larry being the catalyst is just boresville. Uncle Joe gets laid in the afternoon! And his girlfriend is the annoying chick from (again) the 'salem's Lot miniseries, just as annoying here. Their entire domestic drama bores the hell out of me. Whatever. I do wonder if they'd intended to bring Stephen Macht on permanently and either shifted gears in Season 4 with new writers (or at least I think Peter Dunne was new?) or Macht opted out, or both. I know Macht has spoken in the past about never wanting to put down roots in the '80s on various shows (like Star Trek TNG, where he passed on Picard) and having too much of an ego. As it is, his role as Joe is dreadfully staid so far and not the dynamic performer I am used to from other things. They haven't really serviced Macht that well. The centerpiece of the episode, of course, where it really perks up is the long, long sequence with the Fairgate home movies and everyone watching Sid and themselves in happier times. (And props to the show for apparently getting Don Murray back to film all this, as I doubt it's stuff they shot in S1 or S2) The music is lovely, and the superimpositions, etc. of Karen, Michael and Eric's faces as they watch and have their own emotional journeys while watching together all works more than a lot of period TV at that time which would overuse the same now-antiquated special effects. Michele Lee drives it by having an interesting mix of wonderment and fascination for much of the sequence, instead of heartbreak or grief - it's not til halfway through that a single seemingly-unnoticed tear falls down Karen's cheek, and then she gives herself over to the emotional catharsis of the sequence, along with her sons. (No comment on Diana calling herself a ham.) There's a refreshing, candid and philosophical beat here where Karen admits to Larry "I don't know what my morality is" - she married an older man very young, and the moral and sexual mores have changed dramatically from the early '60s to the early '80s. She doesn't know where she stands in the culture as an unmarried woman of a certain age, and that is a smart thing to discuss on something like a soap, let alone a primetime soap. I do know the backstory on Lee taking off her real wedding ring (from James Farentino, who she remained on good terms with and later co-starred in a TV movie with as husband and wife) in the sequence at the end. It was a good scene and a good speech at Sid's grave, though it doesn't have quite the same weight or power for me of the largely wordless home movies sequence. The overly on the nose 'letting go' dialogue between Karen and the annoying girlfriend was also pretty rough. I knew I recognized the handsome senator - it's Bruce Gray, who played Owen Madison on EON during the Mansion of the Damned/Nola Madison saga (which I am still enjoying immensely these days). I had no idea he later played a sugar daddy on Queer as Folk! Speaking of morality, there's a great scene where Val heads over to Abby's to slutshame her about fùcking the senator. Abby is great as she bluntly tells her she used the currency available to her - sex - like men use money or material power. She isn't sneering about it or mustache-twirling, she's just honest and direct, and Val can't take it. Abby: Morality is something you dwell on after you know where your next meal is coming from. Val [appalled]: Do you really believe that? Abby: What do you think? Val: I think that I better keep my eye on you all of the time. Abby: Val - do. How else are you gonna learn? The Eric Fairgate teenage mustache watch - no mustache this week. Thank God. Episode 18 (Exposé): Finally, the Ewing family potboiler comes to light. And of course Gary tries to forbid it, while wanting to stick to his work wife Abby. LMAO at Lilimae greeting Gary's return home with 'home is the sailor.' She's right, too - almost everything bad that's ever happened to Val happened because of Gary and the Ewings. I was wondering where Laura had gone to; she's not living in the cul-de-sac anymore, and it's an interesting adjustment to see her visiting people (for now - I have no idea if she moves back for good). I love McCashin's eternally dry wit, including re: the baby - 'every time the interest rates go up a percentage, the baby kicks.' And Lord, the hooker Richard spills it all to used to star on Hunter (after KL, obviously). Anyway, Richard finally has had enough of pimping for his boss, but it's too late for the 6 o'clock news! Poor lonely Richard wanders over to the Ward house, where a pretty kind Kenny and Ginger take him in and endure his awkward company - the looks between Lankford and Houghton were hilarious. There's a wonderful scene in the midst of all this where Val confides in Laura and Ginger - both newly liberated, working women, both telling her to pursue her dreams as a writer. They are right to do so, but at the same time Val perceptively delineates between their circumstances and hers; she and Gary were torn apart for decades, lost their whole lives together and are not so willing to risk it or give it up for some other dream, when their dream has been each other. Or at least, this life was Val's dream - Gary's dreams are already becoming something else, have been for awhile. He already made it clear earlier this season in a rousing series of scenes that he will never be happy just being a suburban family man in Knots Landing, while that's all Val has wanted for them. Now Val has aspirations beyond just suburban homemaking too, but Gary can't accept it for her, and Val is having to decide how much both things truly mean to her. I'm not sure she wholly knows yet, but I am glad she signed the contracts (even if Abby manipulates that situation into happening, but Gary was right - he and Val did make a stupid, pointless deal). When the hooker story hits and Richard gets the shaft he turns up at Laura's rambling on and going full manic Richard, before having a really sad breakdown in Laura's arms. Not for the first time, the transference circuit between the Averys is completed: Laura is the parent-lover, Richard the broken child. I know what's coming up next, I've heard a lot about it and I am very excited. We are now in the strong tail end of Season 3, and I am advised the show will never be the same. This has been another pretty uneven season - maybe more uneven than Season 2, I think - but it's coming together well so far. Karen's ranting monologue about Gary, Val and Abby to a Joe who has already left was classic.

Okay, calm down, champ. We all have many valid issues with Frank Valentini's GH without needing to jump immediately to old gay panic tropes and painting him as Les Moonves or Josh Kelly as Richard Gere in American Gigolo.

Episode 16 (Silver Shadows): Featuring Lew Ayres as Andrew Douglas, the silent movie director. I know Ayres best from the not very good '70s miniseries of Stephen King's 'salem's Lot, as well as some of his pre-Code Hollywood films from the '30s; I've always liked him. (He also appears in the campy and superfun Damien: Omen II with another Lorimar soap star Robert Foxworth, where poor Lew ends up drowning under a frozen lake as skaters watch to appease the will of Satan.) He's very good here in the rather cliche role he has, and Donna Mills is just soft enough with him - yes, she wants a line on his fortune, pulls a Vertigo with his lost love's clothes (after he already points them out to her and wanting to see her in them, in fairness) and antagonizes his butler (who Douglas smartly refers to as 'Erich von Stroheim,' nodding to silent director von Stroheim's own role in Sunset Boulevard), but she seems to genuinely care a bit for the old man and not want to abuse his trust too badly, but to make him happy in his last days and not exhaust him too soon. I truly hope that was not Donna Mills acting out as 'Terri' (a name no silent star would have) in the old film clip but I suspect it was. Anyway, her rapport with Ayres was lovely, and Abby is genuinely saddened by his decline and death. It would've been easy, again in this era and genre, to write Abby as an Alexis type from Dynasty or something waiting for the old coot to kick off and hissing when he leaves her with nothing, but that's not who she is with Douglas. I was worried this would be a bottle episode not featuring the ensemble to liven it up, so doing a party at Douglas's with the ensemble cast worked well. (Kim Lankford must've been a dancer, she nailed the old-school foxtrot or whatever it was.) I could not care less about Larry, the man who seems caught between Abby and Karen, two women far too good for him, but I did love shitstirring Lilimae and Val. (Lilimae is oblivious to or dismissive of Val's feelings as always as she yammers on and on about Douglas' films, which was great.) This was a better episode than most fans have made it out to be; I've seen far more interminable episodes in the first three seasons (Cricket, anyone? The biker episode? The Rose and the Briar? Val's cancer?). It moved along and the performances clicked. And the ending with Abby tearfully putting on the hat from Douglas' lost love was a beautiful little moment; the slow silent movie iris out was genuinely very touching. It's because Abby has these dimensions that sets her and the show aside from more cliche tropes of this genre. BTW, John Pleshette and Julie Harris living it up dancing together in the background during Douglas and Abby's dance was great.

Katherine?? Who gives a shít!

This stuff with Maeve McGuire's Nicole is a godsend.

Oz is an absolute quack so it's debatable whether he could even use it adequately outside the base. But it certainly doesn't make that race any easier.

I have a lot of issues with Fetterman's record despite thinking his kind of passion and yes, performative behavior is now necessary for the party at large in the hellish media ecosphere we presently live in. I also tend to look sideways at any Great Left Hope that crops up online. But all that said, this seems not good:

Honestly, I'm not sure how bad her current work would look if she was a bit less thin. We saw what happened to Kelly Monaco not long ago, and her face recovered.

Since the status ticker seems MIA from the main board on my end, I thought I'd alert the handful of Borgen fans on the forum that the new season (Borgen: Power & Glory) is now up on Netflix. Just started watching and I love it so far. In a time of absolute nightmare politics the world over, it's liberating to dive back into a series where there is at least some competence and guiding ethos in a political drama, even if the world of Borgen is far from idealized and darker than ten years ago. Like real life, I guess!

Episode 14 (Cricket): So this one introduces Stephen Macht as Karen's brother Joe. Macht, another in KL's long line of legendary character actors, who famously passed on or lost the role of Captain Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation and is known to me best for his wonderfully insane turn in the hilariously silly Stephen King adaptation Graveyard Shift, where he plays a tyrannical mill foreman who is a Mainer by way of Jamaica by way of Scotland by way of Mars. Exhibit A: That being said, soap fans may know Macht better for his run on GH as Ric Lansing's scheming father Trevor, consigliere of the Zacchara family in the late 2000s. GH didn't get nearly as much use out of him as they could've, and soaps should still be using him today. Anyway: He's been around the block all over film and TV and is amazing, but is a bit wasted on KL thus far. Anyway, Val's old flame Rusty is played by another well-known character actor, Don Stroud, who I remember best from a very different role as one of the hapless priests in the original and terrible Amityville Horror. The moment with her and Rusty alone at the house when he surprises her is pregnant with tension, as Val seems uncomfortable and awkward re: Rusty's attentions but not entirely unwelcoming of them - perhaps because she's already begun sensing the undercurrents with Gary and Abby. Meanwhile, Gary is using supposed jealousy over Rusty as a way to defuse his own guilt (and Val's suspicion, perhaps) re: Abby. I also noted Lilimae condescending to Val's writerly ambitions in the opening scenes - ambitions which I know take fruit soon. The entire Cricket plotline was incredibly tedious despite a great performance by Don Stroud at the end, but I did love Laura once again having no time for bullshīt from anyone, anywhere, seeing through Cricket and instantly dismissing her. As soon as Laura got her job she went from being a wilting doormat to having a will of steel, but it's always felt organic, because it's always felt as though it was just below the surface of her once-expected role in life as Richard's little woman of the '70s while all the while she knew in her heart her husband was inadequate. The intellect was always there. What is smart about this episode's A-plot is that the writers tied Cricket being an orphan to Val's own pain over Lilimae turning her back on her, and had her invoke Gary's banishment from the Ewing fold. This justifies Val's commitment to Cricket, which thrillingly ended ASAP. But the resentment from Val to Lilimae is still very much there so far, week after week. Nice continuity - Olivia's broken arm getting hurt again. This is what I like with background neighborhood/family stuff (like Michael's ADD) being consistently carried over week to week, a la daytime soaps. Eric apparently does not want to go to college, which Uncle Joe talks him out of - Saint Sid would be rolling in his grave. And Eric's misbegotten attempt at a stache is back. Think twice, Eric! Episode 15 (Best Intentions): This one's again written by James Houghton (Grinnin' Kenny and future longtime Y&R scribe) as well as his sister Mona. It's very solid, with the Richard/Laura story culminating in her finally leaving him just as he once again gets his act together. But that's a cycle for Richard, as we now know - bad behavior due to bad circumstances in his own work life causing him to mistreat Laura at home, then an attempt to course-correct involving lovebombing, overbearing 'good' behavior, etc. We have seen Richard get his marriage on track before in mid-late Season 2 and IMO it was wonderful for awhile, but it didn't last because when things got bad at his new job he just took it all out on Laura and drove her away faster than ever before. Here, Laura tells him she's pregnant and he instantly moves to micromanaging their lives, something the matured Laura can't tolerate. And when abortion is mentioned, he hits her (and she's hit him before) - a terrible moment, but he's not hearing her afterwards, where she's clearly just done. Because he can't read Laura at all anymore, Richard remains convinced they're able to get back on track and he's ready to commit to bettering himself as a husband (which, again, he's done before). The scene with him and Karen is heartbreaking, as she watches him cycle through the best and worst of himself and back again in front of her eyes at their lunch table - watches him reexamine his bad behavior and critique himself honestly - but can't bring herself to tell him Laura is probably done with him anyway. And it's true, because he gets home and Laura is gone, which leads to the wonderful end shot of the episode with him sitting in the darkened kitchen next to an envelope left for him. They've done two quiet, slow shots pulling out on the Averys as their marriage disintegrates this season and both were wonderful. The tragedy is it didn't have to go this way if they'd both been a bit more open with each other earlier, and John Pleshette's performance is consistently both heartbreaking and unsparing for Richard while Constance McCashin is fully committed to Laura's integrity and evolution. This is apparently the last episode for my beloved Allan Miller as Scooter, where Laura tells him she wants to put the brakes on things but he has yet to be written out. I wonder how that'll happen. As for the equally important B-plot, Val's book is ready to roll. Abby seems to have decided it's a good way to crowbar her way into things with the Ewing marriage even more, by distracting Gary further as Val's star rises (on a book that is a roman a clef about the Ewing family, something that appears to have escaped Gary's notice but is likely to stir his ire). And hey, as Abby's mind often seems to work with these things thus far, if both people get something they want - Val gets published, Abby gets her husband - doesn't that all work out? The stuff with JVA and Shackelford as Gary is dismissive of her writing talent and she bristles at it was very good. He just can't seem to comprehend (yet) that his wife could have ambitions and drives akin to his rapidly-rediscovered own. We're cruising rapidly towards what I am apprised is a very strong home stretch for Season 3, following the next episode (Silver Shadows) which very few people seem to like. (I know @DRW50does so I will reserve judgment)