Knots Landing

[Liberty City]

The dream season of Dallas should have remained, honestly. Or how it should have ended altogether.

[titan1978]

Those last couple of years of Knots also still feel contemporary. It never feels dated to the era it was airing in. I think both Dynasty and Dallas feel incredibly dated by the late 1980’s compared to their primetime peers airing at the same time. Where Knots revitalizes around Paige/Sumner Group and feels so much fresher than either of the other ones.

[Liberty City]

Oh yes, the picture and sound quality on Prime Video is an improvement from Plex.

[Liberty City]

Just finished season five... what a cliffhanger, wow!

[te.]

It's a great one, but also one that shows how they lost interest in Laura as a main character. 

[Liberty City]

Season six... Abby's captors hacked her up, and Val got some cute curtain fringe from the hotel to the hospital.

And I'm kind of okay with it.

[Marco Dane]

So we are going to forget that Karen still owns KL Motors? And what happened to Empire Valley. They could've kept Laura if they stopped adding so many secondary characters/.

[Liberty City]

What is this Valene storyline? Whew....

[Liberty City]

FINALLY made it to the "Don't call me cookie" episode.

[All My Shadows]

They address KLM in early season 6, IIRC.

I’m almost finished the third season, and I can see why the show was under the threat of cancellation. They were gradually sliding into more serialization at a time when Dallas, Flamingo Road, Dynasty, and Falcon Crest were all basically continuing stories, and right off the heels of Gary and Abby’s first kiss, we get Valene babysitting her ex’s stepdaughter in a low-key repeat of the pilot episode. Richard and Laura’s marital woes heat alllll the way up, but here, let’s spend an episode with Abby talking about the good ol’ days of the Roaring 20s with an elderly gent.

I like Joe Cooper a lot, but I can see why he didn’t last once the likes of Mack and Greg took over as male leads. Even he fell victim to the episodic pitfalls because why did we meet his long-time girlfriend and go through so much with them all in one episode?

I am very much looking forward to the official start of the Val/Gary/Abby triangle as a closer to the season and then all of the greatness that is S4-S6.

Edited December 10, 2024 by All My Shadows

[kalbir]

@Liberty City Season 6 was Knots Landing best season. The final 10 episodes of that season were the peak of the series to me.

[Liberty City]

I'm about half-way through the season; will be continuing tomorrow. So far it's quite interesting how things changed in the overall vibe of the series from my point of view.

[Khan]

I agree!  Michael Filerman and David Jacobs knew KL needed to get soapier if the show was to survive.  Yet, throughout S3, they remained skittish, which is why (IMO) the season can come across as a hybrid of anthology series and all-out soap opera. 

In a way, though, I don't blame them for feeling skittish.  They tried to "soap up" KL the previous season, but it was much too soon, and it was done without any clear idea of how to go about it, too.

[te.]

I suspect the show was still kind of performing erratically in the weekly ratings, which is why they tried to have more standalone episodes to try and capture people who were randomly tuning in. Of course, it ended up almost getting them cancelled, so they luckily threw caution to the wind in season four since they had nothing to lose.

[Chris B]

Season 3 was a nice balancing act of the old format and bringing more soapy/continuing themes into the show. They also had to deal with Karen's grief over Sid. Giving her a season to deal with that only made season 4 and Mack's arrival stronger.

Those final episodes of season 3 make it all worth it. The Valene/Gary/Abby developments that season were absolutely delicious.