KNOTS LANDING

[Soaplovers]

Season 7 Abby would know that...but season 4 Abby was still lean6ing about the ins and outs of the business world.

What's fascinating is that we're seeing the development of Abby...unlike Angela, JR, or Alexis where we met them once they were tops in power 

 

[DemetriKane]

That Part! I couldn't have said it better.

[Vee]

So I've been taking a beat on this for a couple days due to some IRL family medical stuff. I'm getting back in the swing of things but I may or may not stay a bit slower, we'll see. The show keeps getting better and better and my family seems to be holding steady, so who knows if I can tear myself away from the escape of Knots Landing for very long.

Season 3, Episode 9 (The Best Kept Secret): 

Again, a lovely opening with Karen and Val actually chatting and having fun together as opposed to more agony aunt material that often pervaded the last few seasons, with Val weeping or worrying and Karen giving advice. Here, Val's the talk-to and Karen is gabbing away about Mack. It doesn't hurt that Val is now considerably upwardly mobile, more than ever before; Karen marvels at her answering service (ah, the early '80s) and Val sighs about needing to hire an assistant and getting fan mail, while dressed to the nines prepared for a radio show. It's a world of difference from the wilting, weary housewife Val of the last few seasons, but that's what a new sense of self and a personal drive has gotten her. Welcome to the '80s.

What are the Fairgate kids playing, Atari? Coleco? 

I was expecting the whole teaser with the woman in Mack's apartment to turn out to be some crazy misunderstanding (a very old soap/drama trick), so color me amazed when Mack showed up at Karen's and did not immediately tell Karen he wasn't sleeping with his neighbor - I was as stunned as her to realize that yes, he did. And then he shrugged it off and attributed to his bachelor lifestyle! That kind of candid hook-up culture stuff being interwoven into these kind of major love stories does not and did not happen on almost any soaps, anywhere, period, then or now, and I admire the show for tackling it, but I'm siding with Karen. This is a widowed mother of three over 35 who believed she'd made a commitment to a man, only the third man she's slept with in her life. Mack was fooling himself pretending it was casual, and to his credit he does realize it and try to make amends; the show wasn't afraid to make Mack come off both insensitive and vulnerable before he faced up to his own fears and admitted he's in love, and it terrifies him.

The scene with Karen and Val on the stairs talking about it, and the classic shitty excuse ('it had nothing to do with us') was beautifully performed by both of them. Michele Lee has such modulated control of her emotions, tempo, pace - presumably all that theater work - that you can't really dare take your eyes off her when she goes for it in the big scenes, like when she compares Mack to Sid: "I had the best!"

Richard is meeting Abby halfway about the restaurant but Laura doesn't like it, probably because she just doesn't like Abby. Can't blame her, but IMO Abby is right about Daniel, even if she is shredding Richard's frail ego to do it. Laura could probably handle these things with twice the ease in half the time if Abby would delegate instead of riding herd like a slavedriver - but she didn't even know about Abby's note and lien until now. (Is Laura on maternity leave from the real estate office while helping out? She was making money hand over fist there.)

The cold war between Richard and his French chef Henri continues. Every time they weave another bit in with Henri's withering contempt for Richard I just cackle.

There is a really great touch with Olivia and her little friend playing Monopoly at the new beach house, listening in with the child's eye view on Gary and Abby arguing about their businesses - Abby wanting to put the screws to Richard and Kenny, Gary still seeing them as neighbors and friends. The moment gets amusingly defused after Gary leaves in a way you don't usually see in primetime soap battles, with Abby loosening up and smiling at Olivia with affection as Olivia punctures her bubble of haughty fury. But Olivia's still learned at Abby's feet, telling her friend she has her over a barrel in the game: "Business is business." Again, this is multifaceted family stuff you just don't see on most primetime soaps of any era, where character and specific, nuanced relationships are able to be woven in with the overarching dramatic plot without either being compromised or slaved to too much melodrama.

Abby overstepped with Jeff Munson, who it seems has a thing for Val - are they really going to stick her with this old dude for the rest of the season? Meanwhile, Gary and Ciji are getting closer, and they leave it surprisingly ambiguous what happened with them in her apartment. The silent quadrangle moment in Daniel, though - Val at her table as Abby bristles at her presence and proximity, then both of them spotting Gary and Ciji together and finally locking eyes, saying so much with nothing - was fantastic. I really wanted Val to toast Abby in that moment, but that would probably have been too camp.

I did like Claudia going to Abby to confide in - those connections are still deeply rooted in the show. There's so many lovely Val/Karen moments in this episode, like Val once again showing up in her new finery and confidence, asking Karen how she looks as she prepares to enter the Gary Ewing-funded Daniel, and then admitting she already knows she looks damn good.

Ciji brings it home for all the characters again with another musical number (as Ginger notably hangs off Kenny, marking her territory) and the ending shots of Karen breaking down listening to the song are really wonderful and sad. Michele Lee kills it again.

Edited June 12, 2022 by Vee

[DRW50]

This is the Ciji singing moment I mentioned as my  favorite of the season. I just love the buildup to Karen ugly crying.  It's the perfect blend of music and character-led drama, helped by not being edited to death the way so much TV has been in the last 20-30 years.  

[Vee]

Episode 10/11 (Emergency/Abby's Choice):

A big two-parter. Diana going off with Gary and Abby re-ignites more of the domestic/suburban linkages that are so layered and rich for the show and its canvas - just Val catching sight of Gary's car across the cul-de-sac is a moment unto itself. And I loved her telling Karen "I got more important things to do" than pine after Gary forever.

The languorous pan across the limos, sports cars, etc. on the horse riding grounds for their trip was a deliberate look at how the other half lives, an other half Gary and Abby have now bought their way into. And Abby is determined to lojack it for all she's worth, as it seems her whole trip up there was a ploy to get closer to Munson.

I still can't tell how long Chip and Ciji have known each other. I'm not sure I buy that they first met onscreen, given how close the relationship seems to be. And Grinnin' Kenny is as clueless and thoughtless as ever! Poor Ginger has barely had five lines in the last ten episodes and now Ciji is poaching her songs. The look on Kim Lankford's face was powerful, though, and she held her own with Lisa Hartman. Abby is right about Kenny - if he was going to make the big time he would've by now.

The big sting and sinister music at the climax of Ginger and Ciji's confrontation and then carrying throughout the hospital scenes, plus some very atmospheric lighting in the corridors, was really effective and haunting. I've never heard music like that on this show before. Diana's pallid makeup in her hospital bed was also really unsettling. The slow zoom in on Karen as she's slowly totally overwhelmed by what the doctors are telling her, still with the creepy music, then as they dash back out into the darkened hallway from her POV - so great. It's not the same director as the key hospital sequences in the first two episodes of Season 3 with Sid's death, but the visuals and music are equally haunting if not moreso. And for an illness plotline with one of the most annoying characters on the show it's remarkable they can still maximize the drama and emotional and suspenseful weight of it. As usual, it's Michele Lee carrying so much of the performance element.

Val confronted by Gary and Abby up close and personal finally at the hospital cafeteria. I wish Val and Mack had been able to talk about the situation with him and Karen, and his bachelor life. I did love Karen finally succumbing in Mack's arms, and the two-shot at the end of the first episode - Karen and Diana's hands clenched together, eye to eye - was great. So was Abby losing it after arguing with Gary about Munson, starting to cry over Diana.

Abby and Diana's doctor was some amazing stuff, as Abby plays both sides of the fences re: donating her kidney and grows more and more upset; later, she tries to use sex with Gary to balm her feelings and can't do it. Again, more credit given to Mills' wonderful performance and the writers for allowing Abby to be much more than the show's resident bitch queen. They've (so far) always kept her nuanced, layered and somewhat relatable. There's some nice reconnection with Gary and Val which feels well-timed, as even Val offers sympathy re: Abby, and then Val and Olivia who try to openly parse the complexities of their little relationship, from adult to child on the outside. And of course the moment at the end with Karen kissing Abby as she sleeps was lovely.

The Laura/Ciji friendship (or whatever) I've heard so much about begins here, fairly innocuously. They are definitely engaging together. I did like Laura telling her shrink she no longer knows what to do or how to feel about Richard from day to day - that's fairly evident onscreen.

[DRW50]

Abby's Choice is one of the episodes that resonates with me to the point where I kept it in my back pocket for later years when the writing for the Karen/Abby relationship (and anything related to Karen) becomes much more one-dimensional. The visual of Abby refusing any gratitude from Karen but Karen still showing some, when Abby was sleeping, is very touching, and a statement on both characters. 

The montage in this episode with Abby staring out at the waves,  cutting to Val in her chair at home, also deep in thought, is beautiful, such an effective example of the power of montage. Clearly someone at the show agreed, as it stays in the opening credits for years. 

[Soaplovers]

Season 4 still had the Ingmar Bergman touch especially in Abby's Choice.  

[Joseph]

Happy 79th Birthday to JOAN VAN ARK

BTW This Video was posted a few days ago Pretty Much Resumes Paige and Anne's relationship doesn't it? Blowing Hot and Cold

 

[DRW50]

 

[Vee]

Been preoccupied with other things for a few days, so I've had these in the chamber waiting to go but wanted to do one more to maximize space. Here you are:

Episode 12 (The Block Party):

Another cute suburban setpiece episode, even if the block party was a tad over the top. I did love seeing the neighborhood once again used as the larger canvas. A great exchange early on:

Karen: Laura, in all the years you've known me, have you ever, ever known me to nag? An objective opinion!

Laura (deadpan): Well, if you'd stop nagging me, maybe I'd tell you.

Constance McCashin's consistent dry wit really adds to Laura's character; she's different than the other women, more prickly but also more blunt, and I always enjoy seeing it.

The cliche Irish musical cue for Mack's dad was a bit much. I did like Lilimae flirting with him - I lost it at Val facepalming in the background as Lilimae broke out the autoharp and began singing that one damn song yet again. But the duet at the end with Ciji on "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" was really lovely, which brought Val over as well. I think Lilimae's take that she offers to MacKenzie Sr. on how she and Val have 'moved on' from their past is slightly more charitable to her than the facts, but that's Lilimae for you.

Not sure the terrifying clown picture on Diana's nightstand is great bedtime material. Is that supposed to be her from the horrific talent show number in Season 2?

I did like Karen and Val talking about how much the neighborhood has changed, 'what's left of us,' etc from how they started. Of course it's now about to change even more. I did love the moment with Karen embracing the nervous Olivia, who wasn't sure she was still welcome. That sense of community is what I cherish about the show and its suburban atmosphere, even as the characters are upwardly mobile and ascending higher into the '80s.

A fairly uneventful breather episode, but with some wonderful emotional work from Kevin Dobson that gives us more insight into Mack's volatility, and some great moments for the ensemble. Props to the SoapNet taping of this episode for running a "NEXT: Ciji finds out she's pregnant!" ticker mid-episode on this one.

Episode 13 (Cutting the Ties That Bind):

Finally, Val is ready to divorce Gary. I love that she already has a proper office/study and writing space in her home - such a far cry from the all but barefoot and pregnant hick homebody with the hippie blouse from the first couple seasons with the '70s hangover.

Initially I thought Jeff Munson was perhaps the most boring love interest this show has seen so far, save perhaps that dreary guy from last season who Karen and Abby were inexplicably both into. But he's sweet to Val, kinder to dim Kenny than he knows and has a dry wit. He's right about Abby and her 'pragmatist' take on things, too: "It's admirable. I'd just hate to be on the receiving end of your pragmatism." Abby does play things masterfully with Kenny and Gary (in addition to keeping her options open on Gary should things go south re: his divorce from Val), and Kenny is grinnin' no more. Oh well. Gary is easily led around by Abby at this point in her various machinations. I'm not sure why she's so adamant at getting Kenny out - maybe she just doesn't like him, and who can blame her? Anyway, Gary's still a neophyte in an arena he wants to become a real player in. I wonder how long that can go on.

Yes, the whole Little Italy sequence with Jeff showing Val his old neighborhood had stereotypes right out of Super Mario, but as a longtime New Yorker who misses it terribly and remembers that whole part of town I can't be too upset. Jeff isn't exactly setting the world on fire but he has some gravitas and is helping liberate Val's character, so that's nice enough. The talk they have about how things like this don't happen to her, she doesn't travel in these spheres, etc. seems like a bit of a meta-statement for the whole show - all these women on the show started as domestic housewives and look at them now.

Things with Ciji and Chip are beginning to go south, what with the hair-pulling, threats and so on, and now him stealing some of Val's next manuscript. The Ciji/Laura relationship remains intriguing, while ol' Richard realizes with some dismay that Laura has next to no interest in going back to bed with him. Who can blame her after being literally held hostage? No relationship can ever really survive that, IMO.

Episode 14 (And Teddy Makes Three):

Yes, Teddy, Karen's first boyfriend is back, but it's not Terry Kiser of "Weekend at Bernie's" fame this time, who had that amazing monologue in Season 3. No, this is Fake Shemp Teddy played by someone else, who has considerably less impact and charisma though that may just be the rather forward writing - I know the actor, Steven Keats, from things like Black Sunday and Death Wish, and he is talented, but woof he's down bad for Karen.

I dug the cute opening with Mack and Val searching for an engagement ring. Any time I get to see Val, such a sad striver for so much of her early appearances, living large with money and having fun it makes me happy and more invested. It seems she's repainted the entire house between episodes; I was enjoying the sky blue before.

The breastfeeding interlude with what I must assume was Constance McCashin's own recent newborn baby and Ciji sitting beside her was interesting. I don't get as many lesbian vibes from these people as some do, but Laura suggesting they go watch a dirty movie was definitely in the zone. The relationship with Richard continues to deteriorate as Laura honestly just seems over it, and has been ever since he began leaning into his deal with Abby at the restaurant. But I also don't think she ever really wanted to go back after the whole, y'know, hostage crisis. There was a brief moment of happiness with the Daniels (no relation to the directors of Everything Everywhere All at Once), but it was a facade for the trap she'd let herself be pulled back into.

Kenny was stupid to turn down Munson's deal after pulling a George Costanza at the recording studio. As for other elements of the Gary/Abby storyline, I dunno who was responsible for the incredibly form-fitting and revealing pants Gary was wearing in his gratuitous barechested workout sequence but I doubt that would get past the network censors today. God bless.

I wish we'd seen the scene with Karen talking to the kids about marrying Mack. Mack was his usual - sometimes unctuous and overbearing, sometimes tender, sometimes very funny. But I do like them together a lot and I'm glad they're going to marry; it would be fast by most standards but here it feels like they've taken the time to let Karen mourn and grow for a year and then built the relationship with Mack carefully (it helps a bit that it started in media res - when we first saw Mack, they already knew each other).

Poor Ciji, scheming Chip. What more can you say about that in its current state?

[DRW50]

@Vee Really happy to see your watch has resumed.

Ciji/Laura is one of those relationships which I certainly think could have gone that way, in another era, anyway (I could see them trying this on a late '90s show...probably not very well). I tended to interpret the relationship as the fear that society and men tend to have toward a bond between women that is difficult to define. That is so much of the allure and tragedy of Ciji - she's a very complex figure in a world (and a show) that required more simplicity. The same struggle Laura had. 

Lisa's next role on Knots is, to me, much butcher than her run as Ciji, although I don't think that was intended... 

Edited June 20, 2022 by DRW50

[Vee]

I'm curious what you think makes Ciji so complex. I do think there are depths there, but I've been trying to get my head around it. To me the biggest force of the character comes out in the music so far.

[DRW50]

I think it's partly that her narrative purpose is to get reactions out of other characters, often very violent reactions, rather than nuanced writing, and partly down to Lisa Hartman just clicking this part after years (and for years after this) of ill-fitting roles. I think the main complexity of Ciji is that she challenges the idea  of a woman wanting some independence and wanting a career through easy tropes - made to do so because of being widowed (Karen) or further pushed  into a professional life by a failed marriage (Val) or scheming and grasping to be the bitch of the street (Abby). She is just raw ambition, finding her way in a world that's not really meant for her,  and, similar to Laura, full of  ambiguity, destined to make most people around her  feel off guard by her presence because deep down they know they can never fully control or understand her.. 

Edited June 20, 2022 by DRW50

[Vee]

That's fair enough! And a good read, IMO.

It's too bad about Khan not being around. I hope he'll read my rambling someday, as he was a devoted fan of KL and one of the people (along with you and others) who had me keeping the torch hoping for this opportunity for many years.

[DRW50]

I second that. I would love to hear his thoughts.