For the first time since its original run, I recently found myself giving the 80's "Dynasty" a watch for old time's sake, not expecting to get hooked. Well, it happened. Go figure. I'm just starting on season 4 in spite of the series' moments of overkill, cliched melodrama and dialogue. (Try and count the number of times the phrase "my son!" is spit out. We get it. He's your son.) Some scenarios are not far removed from ridiculous, and for such supposedly intelligent characters, the scripts have them do some pretty stupid things----but let's be honest: the sumptuous settings and a deliciously attractive cast help us to buy all this corn, and we eat it up. As others have noted, the comparitively tame first season, with its emphasis on the Blaisdel family's ties with the Carringtons, has a very different feel from the other eight. It's quite good, but it's unlikely that iut would have sustained audience interest for too long----nothing works like excess, and after the action shifted to the various Krystle/Alexis/Blake scenarios and multiple new characters, excess was the norm. They're in new, lavish wardrobes for every scene and rarely stray far from the brandy snifter.This Eighties version is like bingeing on a big box of chocolates---you know it isn't going to improve you, but it sure pleases the senses. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to find out which villain set one of those amazingly unrealistic "movie fires" that burn ferociously with apparently no smoke or heat....(characters in this show are barely rumpled when they go through fire, flood, car accident or plane crash.) UPDATE: Finished the last season. As lush and lavish as the series is, everything past season 5 is pretty much for die-hard fans.....it has some good things, and some ridiculous ones. As in most soaps, characters increasingly appear and disappear without warning, or are jarringly replaced by different actors--the most lamentable example being the disappearance of Pamela Sue Martin--very believable as the spoiled Fallon--who suddenly morphs into pretty but miscast Emma Samms with her often-unsuccessfully-hidden British accent. (She tries, but doesn't fully capture Fallon's moodiness and casual Western style.) As the seasons went on, 'Dynasty's writers apparently had a contest going to see who could come up with the most outlandish plots---and be warned that the series, like many others, ended up not being renewed by the network and ends on a major cliffhanger. (A tv-movie, kinda-sorta tying up some loose ends, was made a couple of years later but is hard to find.) But again, it's video candy. You've gotta love Hollywood.
