Dynasty – The Complete Second Season
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C- Episodes: B+
When Dynasty began, it could have turned out to be
another desperate attempt to be another Dallas, but the show turned out
to be more and much more than the trash TV some wanted to label it. You can read about the first season at this
link for its DVD release:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2144/Dynasty+-+The+Complete+First
The producers knew a weakness of Dallas was that the show looked rather cheap for a show about the
ultra-rich in the oil
business, so Dynasty slowly built
itself up and though it was solid enough to continue as it had started, the
makers wanted to keep pushing the envelope in look, storyline, casting and
money spent. For The Complete Second Season, a combination of chemistry, talent,
luck and daring raised the show above all other nighttime soap opera, anything
trashy was covering up taboos TV never dealt with before quite like this
(divorce, betrayal, abortion, homosexuality, Middle East entanglements, murder,
greed) and the show was on the way to exceeding Dallas bigtime.
The first
coup was casting Joan Collins as the ex-wife of Blake Carrington (John
Forsythe) and I love how the writers toy with the idea she may not be bad, but
fans of Collins past work knew what she was capable of and her character Alexis
remains one of the most uncompromisingly powerful, dangerous, out for herself,
able-bodies bad women in TV history. It
was more than just a joke. Looking at
these shows again, she was mean-spirited and really, really enjoying it.
This 1981 – 1982 season took TV by storm and if Collins
was not a perfect enough fit into this new universe, the show would launch the
still-enduring career of Heather Locklear, whose Sammy Jo was related to Krystle
(Linda Evans) and was a little more trashy than her comic counterpart of the
time, Daisy Duke. Locklear was written
off as a floozy in real life, but watching this, you can see she is giving a
very smart performance as the coy southern girl who may be more trouble than
she is worth.
The original Fallon (Pamela Sue Martin) and Steven (Al
Corley) remained and with supporting cast like Lee Bergere, Pamela Bellwood,
John James, Lloyd Bochner and James Farentino, this was a remarkable season to
remember. Though no one knew it at the
time, the show was breaking ground against censorship and was more of a pro
Civil Rights show than many considered, especially in the neo-Conservative
1980s. Though it eventually fell to the
weekly grid that soap operas are especially susceptible to, Dynasty is more of
a classic in its early seasons than it gets credit for and this 6-DVD set
proves that the show endures remarkably well. The episodes in this set are:
1) Enter
Alexis
2) The Verdict
3) Alexis’
Secret
4) Fallon’s
Father
5) Reconciliation
6) Viva Las
Vegas
7) The
Miscarriage
8) The Mid-East
Meeting
9) The Psychiatrist
10) Sammy Jo & Stephen Marry
11) The Car Explosion
12) Blake’s Blindness
13) The Hearing
14) The Iago Syndrome
15) The Party
16) The Baby
17) Mother & Son
18) The Gun
19) The Fragment
20) The Shakedown
21) The Two Princes
22) The Cliff
As with the previous set, the full frame 1.33 X 1 image
looks good, much better as a matter of fact than in its original network run or
even current cable revival. The
cinematography of Richard L. Rawlings, A.S.C., may seem a bit darker than
expected, but that could also be seen as a bit ahead of its time. There are some beautiful shots here and you
can tell the women especially had the money spent on them. You can see that in the clothes, make-up and
camera set-ups. The Dolby Digital 2.0
Mono is pretty good, though a stereo remix would have been nice. Dialogue is very clear for the most part. Sadly, the only extra this time is an interactive
family tree to season two which you might want to look at after the
season. This season deserves more extras
like the first and I hope the change is not because the series switched from
Fox to Paramount for DVD release. The
later season releases will show us one way or the other.
- Nicholas Sheffo
