Dallas 2.0: Discussion Thread

[SFK]

I think it's the Y&R connection, but off the top of my head I'm seeing Thad Luckinbill as Bobby and Marcy Rylan as Betsy. I think Marcy's believable as Charlene's little sister, mixing the wholesome with the naughty. Though I could also see them going more towards Jessica Biel territory for Betsy.

[EricMontreal22]

I always thought it was CMT because I didn't think Canada got TNN back then... I know there was some issue about CMT becoming somewhat an American company after much debate (which I paid no attention to).

[Soapsuds]

Ouch....bad review

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/dallas-its-just-not-the-same-at-southfork/

Is there a dramatic equivalent of a straight man? In other words, what is the equivalent in a drama of the person in a comedy team or ensemble whose job is to help the top banana get laughs?

In TNT's new version of "Dallas," the hit nighttime soap opera that ran on CBS from 1978 to 1991, both the character J.R. Ewing and the actor who plays him, Larry Hagman, are the top bananas. When J.R. is onscreen, all the other characters are transformed into straight men, but the quality of the show as a whole rises.

Although that will please fans of the old show, they will be disappointed during the long stretches in which J.R. is missing and a new generation of Ewings is expected to sustain viewers' interest. Although the kids are good looking, none of them matches J.R.'s gleeful antihero appeal.

The plots and dialogue generally lack the crucial element of humor that more recent primetime soaps have brought to the genre. Once viewers have satisfied their curiosity to see how the old stars and characters are holding up, they'll feel no particular compulsion to see another episode.

Premiering this Wednesday, June 13, at 9 p.m., with two hour-long episodes, the series still revolves around the Ewing family's battles over oil and their ranch, Southfork. In the first episode, Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) visits J.R. in the nursing home where he is being treated for depression and tells him that he is going to sell the ranch, specifically so that J.R.'s son, John Ross (Josh Henderson), and Bobby's adopted son, Christopher (Jesse Metcalfe), won't fight over it the way their fathers did.

Bobby wants to follow the wishes of his deceased mother, Miss Ellie, and put the property in the care of a conservancy that will forbid any development or oil drilling. But John Ross, working secretly with his girlfriend, Elena Ramos (Jordana Brewster), has discovered a huge reserve of oil underneath the ranch.

Christopher, meanwhile, is trying to launch a business mining methane in solid form. He has returned to Southfork to marry Rebecca Sutter (Julie Gonzalo), a lawyer he met while traveling in China, where he fled brokenhearted two years ago when Elena disappeared just before their scheduled wedding.

When John Ross appeals to his father for help, J.R. snaps out of his funk and is up to his old tricks. Even the stolid dialogue perks up. At one point, J.R. tells John Ross, "Never pass up a good chance to shut up."

But the plotlines never match that energy. Whereas the big deals and swagger of the original "Dallas" were a breath of fresh air in the gloomy America of the Carter years, the business issues on this show are drab. It's hard to get worked up over Miss Ellie's posthumous wishes, even if Southfork could be damaged by fracking. Chris' methane project, meanwhile, comes with its own environmental issues, adding a depressing note of reality.

J.R. and John Ross are soon working with a series of shady allies to circumvent Bobby and Miss Ellie's wishes. In the seven episodes that TNT made available for review, the double and triple crosses grow wearying.

On the romantic front, Elena, the daughter of a Southfork servant, keeps wavering between the two Ewing boys without making us care which one she'll choose. Moreover, both Rebecca and Bobby's current wife, Ann (Brenda Strong), may have secrets they're hiding. People keep handing over folders and envelopes with possibly damning evidence.

Clichés abound: Besides the aforementioned romance between the rich boy and the servant girl and the rivalry between a biological and adopted heir, we also get a case of cancer and an incident of someone being slipped a mickey. The clichés are neither spoofed nor reimagined. Many plot developments, meanwhile, defy both credibility and internal logic.

Linda Gray returns as J.R.'s ex-wife, Sue Ellen, who is considering running for governor, although we never see why she or anyone else thinks this is a good idea. Charlene Tilton and Ken Kercheval reprise their roles as Lucy Ewing and Cliff Barnes, but they have little to do in the episodes we see.

Still, the old actors inspire a little nostalgia for their time. The four young principals, all born in the era when J was a popular initial for babies, are unlikely to be fondly remembered 30 years from now. Then and now, both J.R. and Larry Hagman always seem to be having the time of their life; John Ross and Josh Henderson are sullen and give the impression they'd rather be doing something else.

Having hired two actors from "Desperate Housewives" — Jesse Metcalfe and Brenda Strong — the producers of the new "Dallas" might have learned a lesson from that show: Today's audiences expect some tongue-in-cheek and over-the-top in their primetime soaps. The bits of that we get with J.R. aren't enough.

[DRW50]

Dallas was successful for many reasons beyond JR. I don't think any of the new characters can match up to that. Unfortunately, by casting such bland, bad actors in major roles, they have likely guaranteed that the new characters won't even match up to Priscilla Presley.

Desperate Housewives was not a soap, and the only lesson you can learn from that is how to kill a show.

[All My Shadows]

I would have sh!t a brick if they'd made this into some kind of goofy dramedy like Dirty Sexy Money. Revenge did just fine without comedy.

[EricMontreal22]

Yeah, I thinjk audiences are actually currently over tongue in cheek style soaps, and are finding more straightforward ones refreshing. Sure, stuff like that goes in cycles, but...

[DRW50]

I'm not sure if the public has ever supported tongue-in-cheek soaps. The one people often reference is Desperate Housewives, but that was not a soap. Most people will likely remember the show for Teri Hatcher falling down.

[ChitHappens]

I was always afraid it would be more of the offspring, a group in which I have no interest so I will take the the bits and pieces of JR and the magnificent Mr. Hagman and cherish them! I will ignore the severely miscast Metcalfe and the rest of that group.

[Khan]

Same. Unless DALLAS 2.0's ratings are just too embarrassing for words, I think it will go at least two seasons. But I would not be surprised if TNT were to force the producers to revamp the show in a big way between S's 1 and 2, eliminating the "dead wood" (which I see happening, quite frankly, where Jesse Metcalfe and Brenda Strong are concerned) and refocusing either on the older characters, restarting the Ewing/Barnes feud, or introducing insta-relatives with strong ties to the Ewing clan and even stronger personalities. (In other words, get ready for someone to introduce yet another illegitimate child for J.R., or even for Bobby. Because it's coming.)

[All My Shadows]

Insta-relatives would be unnecessary because the twins are right there and could easily be used. They wouldn't even have to address the fact that Bobby is still dead in Knotsverse.

[Khan]

Oh, God. Dirty Sexy Money. To this day, I shudder over how Craig Wright and his team of writers mishandled that series. IMO, the premise was fantastic; however, it was clear from the get-go they did not have the genre of soap opera "in their bones," as the late Arthur Laurents would have put it. DSM needed a Peter Dunne or a Camille Marchetta, someone who knew how to write and produce high-gloss, high-stakes melodrama. And when they tried to get "dirtier" and "sexier" for S2, the results were just nightmarish. (You know you're in trouble when normally down-to-earth characters begin doing nutty things, like having affairs, or abusing drugs, for no reason other than it drives story. I call the Michael Mancini Effect.) It all made DYNASTY look like "I, Claudius."

[Khan]

True. But good luck getting the current series' team to keep all that in mind. When Cynthia Cidre (or whoever takes over as showrunner for S2 -- because when/if S1 flops, TNT will replace her, no question) does her big, "So, yeah, S1 turned out to be a dud, but we promise we're on the ball now, and S2's gonna relaunch this mother in a BIG way" publicity push, interviewers will float the suggestions to the team, and they'll dismiss 'em with, "Well, we did think about bringing in Bobby/Betsy, but we thought maybe fans who watched both DALLAS and KNOTS LANDING might object since Bobby's actually still dead on the other show...and really, DALLAS and KNOTS always operated in separate universes, anyway, even when Bobby was alive...and you know, you couldn't have Bobby & Betsy here without Gary & Val, too, and our canvas is just so full...and besides, we're kinda about moving the saga into the next generation, and bringing on all those extra Ewings with all their long backstories would be more about nostalgia...", and so on and so forth.

[Khan]

But look on the bright side: at least this isn't daytime. If it were, J.R. would find a letter from Kristin (probably after John Ross' funeral) saying she either switched his son at birth OR Sue Ellen actually gave birth to fraternal twin boys and she (Kristin) sold one of them.

[Chris B]

Bobby isn't really dead on Knots Landing, they avoid mentioning him, but the two universes are connected. Bobby mentions Gary and Val (and Val being sick) on JR Returns and Lucy and Ewing Oil were both mentioned in the last two seasons of Dallas. People have mentioned Bobby's death as a hurdle, but I don't think that's so. And if Dallas is a big enough hit they'll revisit Knots Landing and won't care either.

[Soapsuds]

The reboot shouldve been Bobby, Betsy, Christopher, John Ross, Lucas Wade, Afton and Cliff's daughter and Ray and Donna's daughter...they could also have added a son or daughter or both to Lucy and Mitch. Then we would have the vets in as well trying to help the younger generation carry the show. Instead we get an awful Christopher recast and thats it....ugh