Dallas, Season Ten Review

Plot
A drama that ran in hour segments from 1978 to 1991. A wealthy family owns a large, independent oil company and cattle ranch in Dallas Texas. The entire series focuses on their dysfunctional family and need for more—of everything.

Starring
Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy, Victoria Principal, Linda Gray, Barbara Bell Geddes, and more.

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Review
Back in the 80s Dallas reigned as the top nighttime drama. Dallas was filled with drama, corruption, scandals, sex, greed, and so much more. I remember watching Dallas, as a young girl, and thinking, “How on earth could JR get away with so much?” And “Why can’t Cliff Barnes just get over the past and move on with his life?” And “Why doesn’t Sue Ellen leave JR? She deserves so much better, why is she allowing JR to ruin her life?” And “Why doesn’t Bobby move out of that house so that his family has a chance to survive?”

And yet, as frustrating as the characters were, I watched. And I continued to watch the series, on and off for several years; having missed seasons 8 through 12. So when season ten came out, I decided to watch it.

In season ten of Dallas, the death of Bobby Ewing—and an entire year’s worth of storyline—is dismissed as Pam awakens to find the entire year was nothing more than a horrendously bad dream. Pam and Bobby are back together and planning a wedding, Bobby’s old fling is pregnant with his child and wants nothing to do with him, the independent oil industry is in a crisis and JR is determined to save his company by hiring terrorists to blow up the Saudi oil fields, Jock Ewing supposedly returns from the dead and causes havoc on the Ewing family and Miss Ellie’s marriage to Clayton, Sue Ellen wises up and builds an empire of her own while winning back the love and affection of JR, Ray divorces his wife and appears to fall in love with Bobby’s ex-pregnant-fling, and Cliff’s wife dies leaving him suspect number one.

It’s been years since I watched Dallas so forgive me if I’m wrong, but I don’t remember the earlier seasons appearing so choppy in storylines. In season ten, I found myself very frustrated with the fact that each episode jumped right into a new storyline without allowing the audience to full experience certain parts of the old storyline. Sure, there were verbal communications that told you what happened, and allowing the fast forward to take place, but it just wasn’t the same as actually seeing it happen. And yet, I found myself glued to the series the entire week-end!

I also noticed something different about the acting back then and the acting today. While Dallas was fantastic for it’s era, the acting was mediocre in comparison to the acting I’ve seen over the last ten years. More emotions are played out today than every before. In Dallas, even during the most trying of times, the characters appeared calm and sensible and their rage always under control. Even when Bobby’s little boy almost kills JR’s little boy when he decides to use his daddy’s real gun for a pretend game of cowboys, the family appears to be nonchalant in their handling of the situation.

That having been said, if you’ve never seen an episode of Dallas, I encourage you to pick up a copy and familiarize yourself with the nighttime drama that led the way for primetime dramas everywhere.

Disclosure: I was given a sample to review. This is "my opinion" of the product. I was not paid to give a positive review.