Deja vu all over again. There's Bobby sitting on Clayton's barstool at the Oil Baron's Club drowning his sorrows after a spat with his beloved. It was Bobby who saw Clayton sitting in that same spot just a few shows ago. Bobby was a lot more encouraging of Clayton than Cliff was of Bobby, that's for sure. And to think I was feeling halfway sorry for Cliff after JR persuaded Marilee to ghost on the guy after bidding on those off-shore drilling tracts.
"True Confessions" left me feeling like literally everyone's a scoundrel. Katherine was center stage this time, if not always on camera, then pulling the strings behind the scenes to force Jenna's hand on Charlie's paternity. Not to condone Katherine's self-serving manipulations, but Jenna's hand needed forcing. Jenna's weaponized ambiguity on Charlie's paternity has been unfair to both Charlie and Bobby.
So is this the episode where Katherine fully embraces the dark side and becomes the distaff JR? She's dreamed and schemed and played dirty tricks before, but here she sunk to a new low. I mean, when a man as morally bankrupt as Naldo calls you a "viper," it's time to pump the brakes and self-reflect. Instead, Katherine seemed to relish Naldo's calling out her cancerous character. The one difference between them was Naldo being a stoic realist and recognizing and accepting that Jenna is lost to him forever. Katherine is still on her quixotic quest to conquer Bobby's heart, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far. JR and now Naldo have told Katherine to give up on winning Bobby, but she persists against all odds.
Sound like Peter? Now there's a guy whose infatuation is obsessive and scary. I keep thinking of Roger, the psycho shutterbug who abducted Lucy back in the fifth season. A shoutout to Sue Ellen for finally and decisively slamming shut the door on this illicit and ill-conceived affair. I think it would have stayed shut too if not for Lucy inadvertently opening the door with this proposal for Peter to play male model with her in a Southfork photoshoot. As Ronald Reagan used to say, there you go again...
What was with the protracted scene of Peter furiously working out? What audience was Lorimar targeting with all that sweaty beefcake? Maybe it was a Title IX clause demanding fair play after all those past scenes of Pam in a French-cut one-piece splashing in the Southfork pool. Lucy's cracking wise about Peter's running on a postage stamp was funny, though judging by the oversized t-shirt she was sporting at the pool party in "Offshore Crude," Lucy should consider jogging a few laps on that postage stamp, especially if she's trying to resuscitate her moribund modeling career.
Go away, Dora Mae. Yes, I know there was pressure to increase the presence of minorities on the series, but elevating the roles of the restaurant hostess and Teresa the maid was a bad way to go about it. All their scenes feel tacked on and shoehorned in. The pressure will only intensify in a few weeks when rival series DYNASTY adds a black character to the main cast, Dominique Deveraux, played by Diahann Carroll.
I'm watching through these two prime-time soaps concurrently and chronologically and the parallels are proving very interesting. Miscarriages and major characters wandering into the paths of oncoming cars occurred on both shows within weeks of each other. May-December romances are featured this season on both series, with both flipping the script and having younger men enthralled by older women. JR has Harry McSween and Alexis has Morgan Hess doing their dirty detective work. DYNASTY cast Helmut Berger as international playboy Peter DeVilbis and now DALLAS introduces Daniel Pilon as Italian Count Renaldo Marchetta. Coincidence or collusion? I suspect the two shows had their own Slys passing scripts in seedy bars like Sly does geological reports.
Hey, is this DALLAS or HART TO HART? What's with Ray and Donna going all Jonathan and Jennifer in their investigation of Edgar Randolph's past? They know JR is blackmailing him, but how is this behind-his-back investigation supposed to help? In their own way, Ray and Donna are in the muck retracing Harry McSween's soiled steps--and ouch!--stepping on toes. And all to what end? How do they go back to Edgar under the pretense of helping and say we snooped around and now know all about what you did in that room with little Barbara?
Barbara isn't so little now, and oh, don't forget she's a doctor (but if you do, she'll be quick to remind you). Worse, Dr. Mudhoney grabbed the wheel and crashed the show through the guardrail into the "very special episode" TV wasteland. Release the Kraken of psychobabble! Wait, didn't DIFF'RENT STROKES already address the issue of pedophilia with the bicycle man? I wondered what lurked behind this bizarre plot twist. Was the Edgar's-got-a-dirty-secret subplot designed solely to get us to this public service announcement data dump?
Meanwhile, back at the Oil Baron's Club, Edgar is spilling secrets and clinging by his fingernails to his last shred of self-respect by refusing even to drink with JR. My question is, if JR wants to know the amounts bid by Westar, Four States, and Barnes-Wentworth, and only then he will submit his presumably higher bid, how will that hurt Cliff Barnes? He plots with Marilee to leave Cliff holding the bag without his secret partner, but if Cliff is outbid by Ewing Oil he shouldn't lose anything but whatever filing fees were required (and the $10,000 he paid Sly for the geologicals).
Marilee is quite the "viper" too, so quick to stab Cliff in the back and even to twist the knife on JR's malicious urging. Okay, JR led her to believe Cliff was kissin' n' tellin', which of course aroused her ire. JR may have overplayed his hand here. If Cliff learns from Marilee that JR knows everything, and Cliff knows he hasn't uttered a word (not even to Pam), he may figure out his phone is tapped.
Blink and you'll miss veteran character actor Bill Quinn as Percival. It's Quinn's sole series appearance and only galvanized his reputation of having been in an episode of everything. His list of credits is staggering. Too bad he was squandered here, engaged in a few minutes of pointless conversation with Donna and Ray. Oh, his mistaking Sam Culver as Donna's father provided a nice complement to Sue Ellen being mistaken for Peter's mother.
So... do you believe Charlie is Naldo's daughter? I just can't, even after Jenna's poolside confession, which struck me as scripted, rehearsed, and wholly lacking the ring of truth. Jenna is still weaponizing ambiguity and leading on trusting, gullible, and starry-eyed Bobby. Couple that with the actress Shalane McCall looking so much like the best of Bobby and Jenna, wholly lacking the swarthy and sculpted features of her presumptive father. Maybe only a paternity test--like the one on Kristin's son Christopher--will decisively settle the issue. Until then, I'm still Team Bobby!
"True Confessions" left me feeling like literally everyone's a scoundrel. Katherine was center stage this time, if not always on camera, then pulling the strings behind the scenes to force Jenna's hand on Charlie's paternity. Not to condone Katherine's self-serving manipulations, but Jenna's hand needed forcing. Jenna's weaponized ambiguity on Charlie's paternity has been unfair to both Charlie and Bobby.
So is this the episode where Katherine fully embraces the dark side and becomes the distaff JR? She's dreamed and schemed and played dirty tricks before, but here she sunk to a new low. I mean, when a man as morally bankrupt as Naldo calls you a "viper," it's time to pump the brakes and self-reflect. Instead, Katherine seemed to relish Naldo's calling out her cancerous character. The one difference between them was Naldo being a stoic realist and recognizing and accepting that Jenna is lost to him forever. Katherine is still on her quixotic quest to conquer Bobby's heart, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far. JR and now Naldo have told Katherine to give up on winning Bobby, but she persists against all odds.
Sound like Peter? Now there's a guy whose infatuation is obsessive and scary. I keep thinking of Roger, the psycho shutterbug who abducted Lucy back in the fifth season. A shoutout to Sue Ellen for finally and decisively slamming shut the door on this illicit and ill-conceived affair. I think it would have stayed shut too if not for Lucy inadvertently opening the door with this proposal for Peter to play male model with her in a Southfork photoshoot. As Ronald Reagan used to say, there you go again...
What was with the protracted scene of Peter furiously working out? What audience was Lorimar targeting with all that sweaty beefcake? Maybe it was a Title IX clause demanding fair play after all those past scenes of Pam in a French-cut one-piece splashing in the Southfork pool. Lucy's cracking wise about Peter's running on a postage stamp was funny, though judging by the oversized t-shirt she was sporting at the pool party in "Offshore Crude," Lucy should consider jogging a few laps on that postage stamp, especially if she's trying to resuscitate her moribund modeling career.
Go away, Dora Mae. Yes, I know there was pressure to increase the presence of minorities on the series, but elevating the roles of the restaurant hostess and Teresa the maid was a bad way to go about it. All their scenes feel tacked on and shoehorned in. The pressure will only intensify in a few weeks when rival series DYNASTY adds a black character to the main cast, Dominique Deveraux, played by Diahann Carroll.
I'm watching through these two prime-time soaps concurrently and chronologically and the parallels are proving very interesting. Miscarriages and major characters wandering into the paths of oncoming cars occurred on both shows within weeks of each other. May-December romances are featured this season on both series, with both flipping the script and having younger men enthralled by older women. JR has Harry McSween and Alexis has Morgan Hess doing their dirty detective work. DYNASTY cast Helmut Berger as international playboy Peter DeVilbis and now DALLAS introduces Daniel Pilon as Italian Count Renaldo Marchetta. Coincidence or collusion? I suspect the two shows had their own Slys passing scripts in seedy bars like Sly does geological reports.
Hey, is this DALLAS or HART TO HART? What's with Ray and Donna going all Jonathan and Jennifer in their investigation of Edgar Randolph's past? They know JR is blackmailing him, but how is this behind-his-back investigation supposed to help? In their own way, Ray and Donna are in the muck retracing Harry McSween's soiled steps--and ouch!--stepping on toes. And all to what end? How do they go back to Edgar under the pretense of helping and say we snooped around and now know all about what you did in that room with little Barbara?
Barbara isn't so little now, and oh, don't forget she's a doctor (but if you do, she'll be quick to remind you). Worse, Dr. Mudhoney grabbed the wheel and crashed the show through the guardrail into the "very special episode" TV wasteland. Release the Kraken of psychobabble! Wait, didn't DIFF'RENT STROKES already address the issue of pedophilia with the bicycle man? I wondered what lurked behind this bizarre plot twist. Was the Edgar's-got-a-dirty-secret subplot designed solely to get us to this public service announcement data dump?
Meanwhile, back at the Oil Baron's Club, Edgar is spilling secrets and clinging by his fingernails to his last shred of self-respect by refusing even to drink with JR. My question is, if JR wants to know the amounts bid by Westar, Four States, and Barnes-Wentworth, and only then he will submit his presumably higher bid, how will that hurt Cliff Barnes? He plots with Marilee to leave Cliff holding the bag without his secret partner, but if Cliff is outbid by Ewing Oil he shouldn't lose anything but whatever filing fees were required (and the $10,000 he paid Sly for the geologicals).
Marilee is quite the "viper" too, so quick to stab Cliff in the back and even to twist the knife on JR's malicious urging. Okay, JR led her to believe Cliff was kissin' n' tellin', which of course aroused her ire. JR may have overplayed his hand here. If Cliff learns from Marilee that JR knows everything, and Cliff knows he hasn't uttered a word (not even to Pam), he may figure out his phone is tapped.
Blink and you'll miss veteran character actor Bill Quinn as Percival. It's Quinn's sole series appearance and only galvanized his reputation of having been in an episode of everything. His list of credits is staggering. Too bad he was squandered here, engaged in a few minutes of pointless conversation with Donna and Ray. Oh, his mistaking Sam Culver as Donna's father provided a nice complement to Sue Ellen being mistaken for Peter's mother.
So... do you believe Charlie is Naldo's daughter? I just can't, even after Jenna's poolside confession, which struck me as scripted, rehearsed, and wholly lacking the ring of truth. Jenna is still weaponizing ambiguity and leading on trusting, gullible, and starry-eyed Bobby. Couple that with the actress Shalane McCall looking so much like the best of Bobby and Jenna, wholly lacking the swarthy and sculpted features of her presumptive father. Maybe only a paternity test--like the one on Kristin's son Christopher--will decisively settle the issue. Until then, I'm still Team Bobby!
