KNOTS LANDING

[Paul Raven]

I'll add my thanks to Vee for the Knots write ups. Enjoy reading them and look forward to future posts.

[Vee]

Aaand we're back!

Ep 4 (Marital Privileges):

Big Bill Devane Rides In! Yes, the much-hailed Greg Sumner is here. I know William Devane best from 24, where he debuted in its fourth year, possibly its most right-wing, Red Bull'ed cartoon season of all after two very strong previous seasons, as the gun-toting, ass-kicking POTUS packing heat of former Final Year Falcon Crest alumni and 24 showrunner Joel Surnow's dreams. 24 wanted a man of action President of the United States who could keep pace with Kiefer Sutherland and fire off fusillades of hot lead by his side while fending off the unkillable, all-powerful dude from The Mummy as the season's ridiculous, vaguely Middle Eastern villain, and they sure got it. You get a sense of Bill Devane real quick when you first come across him and then you never forget. It's not a negative - he is a bracing, energetic and charismatic presence onscreen who is capable of far more than just jocularity and machismo (as evidenced by his comedy performance in the very bizarre John Schlesinger flop Honky Tonk Freeway not long before this, which probably helped push him towards trying out TV), and I'm glad to have him. The campaign slogan "Greg Sumner: The Man for the Eighties" seems to about sum it up so far. Sumner is constantly surrounded by his entourage and security detail, but is still no bullshít. The grace of this show and its handling of Abby is that even when Sumner very briskly curbs her over the Ewing dynasty's fondness for offshore drilling (40 years later, Birgitte Nyborg of Borgen would be proud), Abby can’t help but smile in admiration and clearly, fascination. She doesn’t sneer or hiss like a Dynasty stereotype, she simply takes him in. Spotted also: A very young Jack Wagner working in Sumner’s campaign office, maybe 30 minutes out from heading to Port Charles. This little view of period California campaign offices idly makes me flash back to the third act of Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza; one wonders if Alana Haim's character from that, politically active a few short years earlier, ended up gravitating to ex-idealist Sumner's campaign too. I'm calling it canon.

So seriously, I kept asking myself: Is this debacle with Chip all some bullshít teenage rebellion for Diana? I kept wondering, what spurred her to take it all out on Karen specifically? Was it really all about Sid and Mack? I didn't get it much beyond what I’ve already said in the past, until Diana suddenly, proudly told the cops she got married in Vegas - "just like my mother". She seems to want to both stick it to Karen and also prove she is now an adult woman, just like she kept whining about in the first three seasons; it's their many mother/daughter conflicts writ large in bloodstained gothic drama. But no sane or well person who isn't a narcissist would possibly take that this far, which makes me think the roots are still in the collective Fairgate family traumas of the last few years: Sid and Mack, like I mentioned above and in the past. But I'll get back to that as things develop across their next couple episodes, so stay tuned. Incidentally, the Ciji/Chip flashback to the murder was fine, I guess. I do wonder if audiences back then had any inkling back then that Lisa Hartman's reappearance might herald her return.

Offscreen J.R. tips Abby off about way more money coming to Gary from Jock’s will (wasn’t there a four-year codicil on Gary's share of the fortune? What on Dallas spawned this? The battle for control of Ewing between J.R. and Bobby over who could make more money?), and Abby knows what this means for her own status and position and refreshingly puts it very bluntly: "I'm gonna have to work real fast." Here, masks are off: Abby and Westmont know Abby is out for Abby, and in these discussions at least Gary, and getting Gary to put a ring on it, is simply a means to her ends. I don't believe he's solely that to her, but when her place and drive for power is on the line I think Abby goes to what she knows, which is cutthroat survival, and figures out how to make it right emotionally later. I may be wrong. Anyway: Not unlike the race for Ewing primacy on the mothership show (which I guess I should go check out some more, since the competition storyline interested me - I left off in the middle of the previous season with the last KL crossover, as Dallas is often so repetitive, simplistic, and cheaply macho to me) the race to finalize the Ewing divorce and cement Abby as the next Mrs. Ewing is on, as Gary and Val are now in a way-too-good place for Abs' liking.

Val shoulda taken the money in the divorce. Just saying. I admire that she didn't, though (and doesn't again in a couple episodes, when Lilimae needs bond money). The divorce dynamics between Gary and Val are refreshingly candid and adult for a couple that seemed like starry-eyed arrested adolescents for much of the first three seasons - Gary has also come through the fire over the last two years and seems like a much more mature, grounded man now, actualized in both aspects of his nature, the soulful rancher who loves the wilderness and the would-be tycoon. As Knots Blogging said over on their site, breaking them up was the best decision the show ever made, not because they were a bad couple the audience didn't like but because they're a great one now, and we know it was very deliberate from TPTB: The more Gary and Val grow as people, the more you want them together as the better people they are today. They’re both so different now, and yeah - way more compelling romantically too. The affection and magnetism radiates off them even in those scenes with Gary leaning into Val's car after the meeting about the divorce and their just enjoying each other's company again, because Valene is now as strong and emotionally intelligent as he is, probably moreso. She is a match for him now, but in a very different way from Abby. Which makes me wonder again when, exactly, the show realized they would keep the triangle going for much longer than just Season 4, where it often seemed like they were poised to bust up Gary/Abby and bring Val back in at any moment. Whoever made the decision to keep it going, deepen it with marriage and a new man, etc. deserves an Emmy.

At the other end of the spectrum, Gary recognizing that Abby's new corporate lair/James Bond villain cave is to her what Westfork is for him is the best possible synthesis of their equal drives in their relationship. Would that it could always be like that for them, but Abby is grasping now and getting more desperate as she goes. Her weak facade of delight re: the Laura news is hilarious though, and Laura and Abby working together is already a very dry, lethally funny dynamic. I suspected Abby's brief mention to Laura of 'land from my uncle' was a precursor to something else I've heard a little about that heavily impacts the show, and I was right; there's another one of these that was apparently seeded into a throwaway line midway through last season (re: a cable TV network), but I guess we'll get to that when it comes up.

Val and Ben: Still cute! That is all. Same for Mack and Sumner reuniting in a fairly low-key way, as Sumner's entourage lurks and William Devane happily prances about in shirt and no pants, Donald Ducking it. You don't see alpha males on TV do that a lot these days.

Oof, what a picture late in the episode: Gary and Abby in front of this Louis XIV-esque banquet spread, on their vast new estate with streetlamps of its own, as Gary sits fallow, pensive and unsatisfied by it all, clearly thinking of Val. This makes Abby even more insecure and she knows she has to throw it to their signature move (deranged sex) as the finisher, except now with the new Val in the mix it feels like a fair fight. Sated and nude afterwards, Abby lets Gary bask in the post-prison afterglow as she begins to plan to put a ring on it.

Chip and Lilimae's big scene at the station is great: He seems both surprised and disinterested to see her, then after a few beats puts on his typical gladhander face. But he can’t keep it up for long at this point, and his eyes when he finally lets go and begins viciously taunting Lilimae, accusing her of working for the cops, are glowering and incredibly scary - it's a real Ted Bundy moment. Julie Harris' reaction work is stunning too. But more on all that later.

Abby going hard in the paint for Diana, letting her stay at Westfork, is a stupid move. As far as I can tell she gains nothing from this besides antagonizing Karen. She can't think this is good for Diana, but OTOH Gary may be right that Diana does need space and rest as she's clearly unwell. I did love Mack unloading on Diana, finally.

I gotta say again that not only is the Westfork horse range (the regular meeting site for Gary and Laura's compelling rapport) amazing, but the entire gigantic location remains absolutely insane. Seriously, Southfork on Dallas is just a painted backdrop and some floaties, cheap patio furniture and cardboard sets by comparison. I dunno who let them get away with this on the spinoff. You could film a whole show on this ranch!

Ep 5 (One Kind of Justice):

Featuring two of those famous moments I’ve already seen and knew were coming. Written and directed by David Jacobs, so you know it's important!

Lilimae and Diana, and their separate relationships with Chip are a key engine for what drives this one: Lilimae is fixated on cutting to the core of Chip, finding a way to expiate her own guilt by making Chip face and pay for his, but Julie Harris' wonderful scene with Sabatino shows her fundamental lack of realization that the sociopath she describes to him, the man Lilimae feels he's in danger of becoming, is exactly who he already is - and he's mask off, tickled that she doesn't see it. He throws some of his old classic Chip platitudes in her face just for the hell of it; he won’t respect her enough to break the character too much, even while laughing in her face over it. Lilimae's exit line is great: "Shame is all I've got now."

Abby moving Gary's extant money before her power of attorney can be revoked is another pretty indefensible move tbh, but it’s become second nature to her. Again, I have to chalk it up to raw survival instincts and insecurity and sorting through her emotions and intellect later. Either way, it's a bad look. Speaking of Abby and bad looks, we've finally come to the big Karen/Abby/Diana/Eric blow-up at Westfork! I've seen some of it before without real context, but it has such weight behind it now. Karen's speech to Abby is amazing, but Eric slapping Diana is possibly even better. Olivia watching it all is what's particularly intriguing, though, another in a string of recurring variations on a familiar scene over the last couple seasons, including early in this season at the beach house: Abby's children watching Abby doing Abby, and her decisions wreaking havoc across a revolving series of increasingly upscale new home and palaces for her family, each confrontation unmasking her in the process. Again, Abby is stupid to get in the middle of this IMO. There's no conceivable gain for her other than making Karen’s life more of a hell than it is, and for what? She knows Sid would come out of his grave over it if he could.

Anyway, Olivia goes to Gary again, another interesting developing bond - great camerawork and editing too, as the camera simply stays with Abby throughout, struggling to make her way across the vast, sunswept hilly plain of Westfork (a beautiful kingdom, just not the one she's home in or ever wanted) alone over the voice-over of Olivia and Gary talking to each other about her. Olivia‘s words finally shame her mother at least a little, but she doesn't change course.

Lord, is Laura still on about Richard and Ciji? Sorry, but Karen was right about both her and Lilimae when she snapped at them upon returning from the ranch. I've noticed the Avery house suddenly has a huge pool this season, which is new to me. I don't recall an outdoor staircase before either; it seems to be a considerable remodel, maybe courtesy of Laura's new upwardly mobile money (I wish we'd gotten one scene of her and Scooter saying their goodbyes when she went to work for Gary full time). Laura and Jason Number Whatever together as Laura struggles to navigate their situation and process her own feelings about Richard was decent enough, but it's capped off best by what Janet Baines says at the end of the episode: He was "a poor, unloved guy who couldn't cope." Of course as far as Laura is concerned and what he did to her that isn't even the half of it, but that's all that's needed to understand why he's gone.

It's interesting that we’re still getting glimpses of Sumner mostly through Mack, with Sumner talking about Karen who he still doesn't met until the campaign gala late in the episode. The campaign bash, where Karen and Greg finally meet and Abby is beyond the 8-ball seeing Val newly in her element, is great. Greg's crime commission plan though, is uhhh, super vague! At best! Good luck with 'discussing new ideas, trying them all!' Interesting here though, and still relevant in our politics today: Ben notes that Sumner used to be an "uncompromising idealist" who was stuck in the state legislature with no chance for advancement on the national level, but who now travels in the rich crowds and can stake a run for the Senate. I assume these are the first hints of whatever the nefarious 'Wolfbridge Group' arc is about. Which makes me wonder when they realized Devane was staying for the duration; a lot of BTS interviews have indicated that they weren't sure if Sumner would only be a one-season, arc-based character, a bit of stunt casting maybe, or when they decided he would continue. Greg wisely can tell the difference between Gary and J.R. though, and he handles Abby and Gary with grace.

Joanna Pettet as Baines and her collection of headbands are done. Her wrung-out, disgusted exit speech about the entire Ciji Dunne case is great stuff from David Jacobs, and I suspect is meant to prod Mack closer to taking Sumner's offer re: "The Crime Commission". But are we supposed to think Baines is leaving town because she's taking herself off the case? She has a great final moment with Mack, kissing his cheek, stealing her chance but pulling the punch.

Again: The slow burn quad of Abby/Gary/Val/Ben is just great. The more insecure and grasping Abby gets, the more easy and natural Gary and Val are. But I can't believe Abby kept on pushing it with Karen at the gala. The silent moment where they both eye the cake Karen clearly wants to plant in her face (and Abby's double take) was great. I wish Karen had done it tbh.

As to the Big Moment outside the courthouse: Knots Blogging notes that once again, Chip is in his element, thrilled to be the center of attention and the star for the reporters, just as he was vamping when he was caught by the cops in front of the news cameras a few eps ago. I've seen the vehicular manslaughter before, but the looks on Karen and Lilimae’s faces at the very end were amazing. Lilimae had been talking about Chip needing to pay for the whole hour, so on some level the seed must have been her in mind, though I don't think she knew what she was going to do until she saw him walk out. YMMV.

Episode 6 (And Never Brought to Mind):

Abby: I've always known beneath that batty little old lady exterior there'd beat the heart of a killer!

I could swear that is Avenue of the Americas just off of Santa Monica where Mack and Sumner talk up the increasingly-important "crime commission." This is an intersection and neighborhood I know extremely well, 40 years later and it's surreal to see it, though I also used to live right next to where The Americans regularly filmed in Brooklyn (doubling as the city from my childhood, D.C.) and it always drove me insane, because I never saw them filming despite all the signs and then they'd still turn up on TV like two minutes from my apartment. Anyway. Ghosts everywhere we go!

Ben and Val are still cute, but overshadowed as soon as Gary shows up at the police station. The big triangle shown in a single tableau again, as poor Ben and Gary exchange a few awkward words.

Laura needling Abby about the G&V of it all is pretty great. This episode also gives us the first real mention of "Lotus Point," hinted at in episode 4. I don’t know all the details of this venture or the Wolfbridge plotline, but I know it becomes prominent for Karen, Abby and maybe Gary going forward and I'm very intrigued. Why is the land of such suspect value?

Lilimae DGAF! She's doing the A Time to Kill GIF, lawyer be damned! Oh, Julie Harris, I love you.

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Olivia and Abby get a sweet moment together by the pool: Nothing but discussing her and Gary's potential nuptials, and Abby tossing her kid in the pool and blowing her a raspberry. Again, unique for the queen bitch character of a primetime soap, especially in this era. It's just there to keep her human. 

There's an absolutely brilliant exchange midway through when Greg tries to press Karen on Mack and Gary, BTW:

Greg: What is with this Ewing character who wants to donate so much money to my campaign?

Karen: Gary? Oh, he's alright, he doesn't mean any harm. It's only that in his wake, people lose their jobs, their marriages and their lives, and he always feels guilty but it's never his fault.

Nuff said! I am glad Karen still hasn't let it all go on Gary even after he got wrongly accused.

Very nice, expressionistic shot of Val and Lilimae when they return home from the clink, with them caught in the slanted shadows of the living room mirror's reflection. Beautiful work.

Potential hot take: I feel like Abby’s emotional reaction to Gary’s divorce being finalized was at least partly genuine, with the visible, physical relief and her frame sagging. I guffawed though at Abby bluffing, offering up a prenup for marriage (which Gary clearly isn't into), while also quite explicitly enumerating her disinterest in going after "the money from last year" - yeah, I'll bet she's over that chump change. The erotic shudder through Donna Mills' body as she kisses Shackelford here is on par with the famous hot tub scene with Richard in Season 2 which the network execs allegedly thought was the hottest thing they'd ever seen (though according to John Pleshette, Mills' reactions in that scene were just because the water was actually poorly heated and freezing).

Good God, for a minute there I thought Lilimae was going for round two on Chip in the hospital, Michael Myers in Halloween II-style. Instead she just straight up barges in on Gary and Abby mid-fuckfest. Why not? Completely hyper-fixated with her guilt, she clearly doesn't care that they are rutting. Gary just walking out without a thought to Abby was great, as was the overall comedy of manners with Shackelford and Harris, and Donna Mills' increasingly harried reactions to a totally insane scene.

Diana: Lilimae tried to kill you.

Chip: Doesn't she know? I'm immortal.

Eeesh, Diana seducing Chip in the hospital with promises of wealth, privilege and all the finest things in NYC (where he'd probably try to [!@#$%^&*] Jessica Walter) is a lot. Is he feigning brain damage and a coma here? I suspect so.

Upon hearing about Lilimae in the middle of the night, Karen says she is burnt out on trauma and has nothing left for Val. I don't blame her at all. As for her blaming Karen at the hospital for the hit and run, I truly cannot believe Diana is this nuts. Like I mentioned earlier and in previous posts, I really think it must all be some sort of massive delayed PTSD/Stockholm Syndrome reaction to the twin blows of the loss of Sid, her mother remarrying Mack, her becoming a woman through all of that at the same time, presumably losing her virginity to Chip and so on. That's really the only explanation for all this that makes sense to me: Diana retreating into a trauma-fueled rebellious adolescent fantasy where her mother is the villain who lost them their father and family as she knew it and is now trying to take the only sense of self-agency she thinks she has. I know Diana is blessedly gone either this season or the next, and I hope they show her leaving the show for extensive psychotherapy. God knows she needs it!

Karen and Mack are really going through an absolute crucible less than a year into their marriage. We’ve never seen Michele Lee this raw and on edge for this long, and it’s still so harrowing to watch episode by episode. I know it leads to a specific storyline but watching her slowly be winnowed down to that raw ragged self is awful. Her confrontation with Laura was ugly, but she wasn't in her right mind (and it was definitely the wrong time for Laura to talk about Abby or business, but Laura didn't know that).

Does Gary hang around at the house in Seaview Circle waiting on Val to put Lilimae to bed, knowing he wants to sleep with her? Personally, I think so. I knew vaguely of the famous baby theft story that's coming down the road, but as I dove into the show myself (and realized it didn’t happen as early as S4, when I initially thought Val might fall pregnant after leaving Gary) I began to wonder how the twins were conceived after I realized they were definitely Gary's. I suspected it might be some last roll in the hay among the divorcees for auld lang syne; now I know.

Mack and Val are very cute together the morning after, when she tells him about Gary. "How do you feel?" he asks simply, and her beaming smile is like the sun. Meanwhile Gary's confiding in Laura, and that relationship (oft on horseback, again, which I love) is increasingly fascinating and always very candid with each other; Laura bluntly equates his love for Val to Gary knocking a few back, and openly discusses Richard. I could watch those two together for an hour.

What was Abby's plan when she packed her bags? Just another bluff on Gary like the prenup? I think so here too. Good luck with that. The Gary/Val night of passion is so much sweeter than it would've been last season or the season before, because they're a long-separated couple you can root for again because of who they've become without each other, especially Val. Maybe that doesn't last as I know Val goes through some contortions in later years under future regimes JVA was not happy with, but for now they're dynamite all over again. So are Gary and Abby, even as she's losing her grip on both Gary and her own impulses, and Ben and Val have a ton of potential. It’s hard to believe the show could build a better cliffhanger than the last episode, but the central triangle has been supercharged beyond belief and they’ve done it all with just the relationships and character evolution. It's really a sight to see and makes for compulsive viewing. Which I'm going to do more of right now! Hope you guys enjoy.

Edited July 12, 2022 by Vee

[Chris 2]

Did they establish from the beginning that Mack and Sumner had been friends as young men?

That crack Karen makes about Gary is great. There’s another memorable one coming, where Abby - frustrated about Gary’s attentiveness to Valene and Lilmae - makes a snarky reference to “our little extended family.” LOL.

[Vee]

Yes, I believe so. Mack makes it quite clear they came up together on Wall Street.

I should add that after the absolute ordeal Diana has been to watch for a long time, it's odd to put her next to a) the IRL Claudia Lonow, apparently a very funny and talented woman behind the camera in the industry who has a sense of humor about her past self, and b) the Diana of the final season or two who turns up near the end. I knew she appeared in the final year, and I couldn't resist taking a peek at one of her episodes the other day (I only watched one scene and a bit of another). It was pretty surreal to see Diana in the chic NYC/boho fashions of the early '90s - she looked great, her acting was still a bit arch - and as a grounded, centered person. Also equally surreal to see that Gary and Val's presumably-just-now-conceived twins in Season 5 were like, 9 or 10 years old. Amazing how long this show ran, and a testament to the living history that is all long-running soaps, primetime or daytime.

Edited July 12, 2022 by Vee

[DRW50]

@Vee So great to see your recaps back. With Greg's arrival and Lotus Point on the horizon we're heading into the show's most consistent and strongest years. I appreciate all the nuance you give the characters, even more than I gave them credit for while watching. 

A few months ago I saw a video talking about the slap scene and comparing it to Will Smith, saying it would not be aired today, etc. All I could think was how much more misogynist a great deal of the  TV landscape (and all of soaps) now is compared to Knots at this time. The scene was high, delirious camp, but also served the purpose of showing how even the most innocent of the family (along with Michael) could no longer accept what Diana had become. It means much more when watching the entire show than it does just that one scene. 

Edited July 13, 2022 by DRW50

[Faulkner]

 

[Vee]

Holy cow, I had no idea she was in Nope. Mirror of the article is here. JVA is also interviewed, among others.

Edited July 19, 2022 by Vee

[Vee]

David Jacobs talks his shows in a profile from last year. Yes, I have more annoying discussion of Season 5 coming!

 

[titan1978]

So simple and yet so the right direction to go in.  It’s also what is missing on a show like DAYS- Sami should have the level headed offspring mixing it up with Carrie’s mini Sami.  That would have been fabulous.

 

Both great articles, thanks for posting.

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[DRW50]

The Donna Mills interview is a wonderful read. I especially appreciate that they took time to speak with JVA and Ted Shackleford, who both have wonderful reminisces of Donna. I laughed when Ted said yes to a revival because he doesn't think it's ever going to happen anyway.  Sad, but true. 

[DemetriKane]

David Jacobs is a genius. I see he's still passionate about those old ideas, TNT should have brought him on as a consultant at least! I loved what he had  envisioned Ann/ Bobby new wife to be like.

 

@Vee Don't worry, it's not annoying. I honestly looking forward to your thoughts on Laura's best season. Some would say the shows best season.

[Vee]

I did too, but I kind of wish he could be wrong.

There's a funny bit in the Jacobs interview where Henry Winkler apparently called him raving about the show, saying it could still be on today. He's right. (He also talks about staffing the KL guest cast with Black actors as much as possible for years until he could get a Black family in the ensemble.)

[DRW50]

That's interesting. I never noticed that, but I'd have to rewatch. 

Henry is absolutely right. It's too bad he can't convince Bill Hader to help get one in gear...in another world Bill would have been a great soap actor. 

[Chris B]

I look at the success of Grace and Frankie and many older actors finding new life in recent years and I always hold out hope for a little Knots limited series focused on the original cast. I feel it would be *so* easy to write and I even have a story idea in my head I think would be perfect for it. They could do a reboot later, but I'd love one last love letter to that fantastic cast. 

His take is much better than what they did. That reboot was so damn bland and I didn't understand why they hired a writer who wanted to turn a super soap into a self-contained crime drama. I'm glad David didn't allow them to use Abby when they asked him. Everything on the reboot felt so tepid and you had to settle for random 1 minute scenes of greatness, but it never lasted. The initial ratings showed that people wanted to watch it, but there was nothing to keep them around. I feel like the final season they finally embraced their soap roots, but it was only because the show was ending. Now with that said, I am happy I got to appear on the reboot (I was an extra in two episodes). It was nice to meet the cast and see one of my favorite shows being shot, even though it wasn't very good. It was also interesting because I was part of a big cliffhanger in season one, so I liked having that secret to keep. 

[FrenchBug82]

Jacobs pitch by the way IS why I somewhat defend Brad Bell as B&B show runner. His story telling is often awful and poorly paced but his story instincts are right: switching the parents personnality with the kids is exactly what he did with Steffy and Hope originally.

 

Edited July 20, 2022 by FrenchBug82