Knots Landing – The Complete Second Season (Warner DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: D Episodes: C+
A sister
show of Dallas, Knots Landing was not as campy, phony or as melodramatic as the
show it came from and was a hit spinoff that competitor Dynasty could never come up with.
Though Dynasty remains the
greatest of the nighttime soaps (though some would argue Peyton Place as the first and best), Knots Landing succeeded because it tried to be something different
than catfights of the rich and The
Complete Second Season reminds us that one of the reasons is because it
behaved more like crime dramas.
However,
it is still a soapster show and looking back at it from its 1980 – 81 Season
(it is that old already?) you can see part of the appeal was the cast, as the
writing was competent, but nothing outstanding.
Michelle Lee, Donna Mills, Ted Shackelford and Joan Van Ark became stars
out of this (though Mills was more familiar from TV ads and feature films) and
they had enough chemistry together to make up for the shortcomings of the
series. All 18 episodes are here,
including a Dallas crossover and a
two-part season opener.
I had
forgotten about James Haughton, Constance McCashin, Kim Lankford, Don Murray
and John Pleshette in the cast or that Murray and Pleshette had actually
written episodes of the show. The show
would change a good before all was finished, but fans will enjoy it. This was one of the better seasons before
things became repetitious.
The 1.33
X 1 image comes from old prints and old Lorimar transfers that are faded,
loaded with detail issues, aliasing errors and just not that good. The Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono is compressed,
limited and aged. The combination does
not show how good this 35mm production really was and it will take Blu-ray to
fix that. Except for a paper insert with
a brief episode guide there are no extras.
For more
on Dallas, try these links:
Seasons One thru Eight
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6625/Dallas+–+The+Complete+Series
Nine
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7266/Dallas+-+Season+Nine+(Warner+Bros
Ten
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8054/Dallas+–+The+Complete+Tenth+Sea
- Nicholas Sheffo
