KNOTS BLOGGING UPDATE: I HAVE BEEN POSTING TWO EPS PER WEEK SINCE I STARTED DISCUSSING SEASON THREE. STARTING WITH THE SEASON SEVEN PREMIERE, I WILL BE RETURNING TO JUST ONE POST PER WEEK, EVERY THURSDAY. THIS IS MOSTLY DUE TO ME BEING BUSY AND NOT HAVING ENOUGH TIME TO DO TWO PER WEEK, BUT WHEN WE HIT SEASON EIGHT, I WILL MOST LIKELY SWITCH BACK. I HOPE MY ADORING FANS WON'T BE TOO UPSET BY THIS.
A Reflection on Season Six of KNOTS LANDING (1984-1985)
A Reflection on Season Six of KNOTS LANDING (1984-1985)
And
so we’ve come to the end of season six, the season that, upon embarking on this
voyage with My Beloved Grammy, I was most excited to revisit, the season that I
remembered being the absolute best of the entire series run. Were my memories accurate? Absolutely yes.
Honestly,
I don’t even know where to start on this reflections essay. How can I even begin to demonstrate how
fucking amazing this season of television was?
I guess I’ll start off by saying that, for one thing, there’s not a
single bad episode in this entire season.
Of course, I think I said the same thing about season five, but season
six is even more impressive because it leaps up to thirty eps after season five
had a 25 ep count. A good deal of my respect for
this season comes from the fact that it’s so long, that the creative team have
to fill thirty solid eps with dramatic material and storytelling, and yet it’s
never, not for a single moment, boring. Dallas was also doing thirty eps per
season by this point, and when I think of those seasons, I think of really
long, boring, drawn out storylines that take forever to get finished with but essentially lead nowhere (this is
the last time I’ll ever bring it up, but Jenna Wade’s trial, oh dear God Jenna
Wade’s fucking trial). This is
absolutely not true with season six of KL;
every ep feels dynamic and alive and really moving us along in the story, yet
at the same time the length of the season allows plenty of time for the
characters to live and breathe and feel like real people. Look at how well done the whole portion of
the season was in which Val ran off to Tennessee and turned into Verna, for
instance. That storyline alone is good
enough to be a full season on some other show, but with KL it’s just a series of eps near the middle of the season, yet it’s
stretched out in such a way that we really feel like we get to live and breathe
in this world with Val/Verna for quite some time, and that helps it all to feel
very realistic and truthful, versus having to rush through the story like you
would have to do with a shorter season.
Really,
that’s also a good portion of what inspired my awe for this season, which is
that so much stuff happens. There’s enough drama and excitement in this
season of KL to fill three seasons of
any other show, and by the time you reach “They’re gonna take the babies” in
the concluding seconds of The Long and Winding Road, the season finale, all the shenanigans with Karen shot and in
the hospital and Abs kidnapped by Mark St. Claire from Buying Time, the season premiere, feel like they happened eons ago;
it’s rather amazing to reflect and realize that it’s all been a part of the
same season of television. But drama for
the sake of drama is not enough; plenty of shows can claim to have a lot of
drama but you never feel all that impressed when you watch them, and that leads
me to my next point. This season has easily the greatest storyline in KL history, and that is of course Val’s
babies. I remembered this being the best
storyline from the show, and it not only lived up to my expectations, but
exceeded them. The first time I watched
this, I was basically just drooling and staring at the screen and trying to
cram as many eps into one day as I possibly could. I was watching so fast and was so compelled
by the sheer dramatic force of what was happening, that I don’t think I was
able to pause and reflect on why it
was so compelling. Now I am older and
wiser and realize what makes this storyline so good, and that’s actually a
number of things.
First off, this storyline continues in the grand tradition of the Ciji story from season four and the Wolfbridge story from season five, in that it really brilliantly manages to use this central storyline as a way to link the entire cast together. Absolutely everyone in the series is involved in the saga of Val’s babies, yet it doesn’t feel like the writers have to stretch to link them. Instead, it feels super organic and well done, and this would also probably be a good time to mention that season six has easily the best cast lineup of the entire series. Every single person in the opening credits this season is an extremely interesting character played exceptionally well by the actor bringing the character to life. There are still characters I love that we haven’t even met yet (Paige and Anne Matheson spring immediately to mind), yet the cast as a solid, full unit will never ever be as perfect as it is at this exact moment in time with season six. Watching the scrolling squares for season six (which, random interruption, I’ve actually decided I like even better than the season five version, so I’m officially voting for the season six opening of KL as the greatest opening credits in television history), I feel like I’m looking at royalty pass by me, that these are all awesome people who I love and want to spend as much time with as possible.
However,
the absolute star of the season is Joan Van Ark, who gives the best performance
of anyone in the cast during this season.
When I first started doing this blog, I said how Karen was my favorite
character start to finish and that I predicted that would never change, but now
I’m realizing that it’s silly to just pick one character out of such a huge
cast and simply say “She’s my favorite and that’s that.” Now I’m realizing that the different seasons
really emphasize the different characters in a pretty profound way, that I
might have a favorite character during a particular juncture of the series and
then I might have a new favorite during another portion. While I’d say Karen was my favorite character
and the best actress on the show during season three, during season six it’s
easily Val. J.V.A is stunning throughout this season, and
it’s such an incredibly marked improvement from where we began in season one,
when I was kinda making fun of her for hamming it up during certain eps and
scenes. Here, she is perfect, and I
can’t believe anyone could watch this
season and not feel just devastated for her and for all she goes through. She has so many moments that are simply
incredible, but one of the first to spring to mind is when she gets the news
that her babies are dead, and that look on her face that tells us she knows
this isn’t true. She’s equally amazing
just a few minutes later when talking to Karen and Mack and realizing that her
friends won’t believe her when she says the babies are alive. J.V.A played all that stuff so quietly, but
you could understand everything just by looking at her, and then of course we
have her giving some really Emmy worthy stuff in eps like Distant Locations, where she does that one-take scene with no cuts
of scrubbing all the makeup off of her face, and then of course the Verna
Ellers stuff that I love so much that occupies the next chunk of eps. Ugh, there are just too many great moments to
name, so hopefully I’ve done them justice when discussing the season
episode-by-episode.
Another
reason that the Val’s babies storyline is so good is that we’ve built up to
it. If they’d done this story in season
two, it simply wouldn’t have worked, and that’s because we wouldn’t have had
the necessary time devoted to fully understand Val and her past. By placing it in season six, we begin the
season with exactly 100 eps under our belt and we’ve had 100 eps (plus those
early Dallas appearances) to get to know
Val and understand Val and see how her life has been. We know that she had baby Lucy when she was
fifteen or sixteen and that Lucy was taken away from her, and we’ve seen five
seasons of her wanting so desperately to be a real mother to someone. We’ve seen this through her relationship with
Olivia as well as in tons of other ways throughout the prior years, so when we
get to the point where her babies are taken away from her and she is told they
are dead, we fully understand how devastating this is for poor Val (POOR
VAL!).
Okay,
and this just came to me as I was
sitting here writing, but I also realized another thing that makes this story
brilliant. If this had been another
series, I could very easily understand the temptation to play the story in a
completely different way. I’ll bet
another series would show Val deliver and then show us, the viewers, as the
doctors and nurses take the babies away and send them off somewhere and do
their evil thing and then return to Val to tell her the babies are dead. We would be a step ahead of Val throughout
the season, knowing something she doesn’t know.
However, the KL team goes the
much more artistic route by allowing us to follow Val along on her
journey. When she delivers the babies,
she’s all drugged up and then she passes out, and while she’s passed out, she’s
not privy to what happens, but neither is the audience. Instead, we sorta return to consciousness
with her and get the news that the babies died.
We certainly have the suspicion that something is up, that things are
not as they seem, but we haven’t been shown this directly. Therefore, as the mystery starts to solve
itself closer to the end of the season, we really feel like we are along with
the characters in solving the mystery, as well.
We are never ahead of the characters, waiting for them to play catch up,
but rather we move along with them and feel like we are a part of the series,
as well, working to find out the truth.
This just shows how switching things one notch in a certain direction
can dramatically improve things.
But
aside from all the Val’s babies stuff, which everyone who’s ever seen this
season instantly remembers, absolutely everything else about the season is
great, too. There’s not a single
storyline in here that I would call bad.
We have the cast at its absolutely most fabulous ever, and everyone
within that fabulous cast is getting really great stories that are awesome to
watch. Just look at the whole Joshua
thing, for one quick example. Joshua is
introduced at the start of the season, in the second episode. Throughout the season, we watch him make the
switch from meek and mellow and really very sweet and cute to thoroughly
reprehensible and evil, yet it never feels too fast or inorganic. Also, despite the fact that he’s the new kid
on the block at the start of the season, he almost immediately feels like a
part of the cast that deserves to be there and is a very fascinating character
in his own right, a skill that KL always
remains really good at. I also wanna
take a moment to say how fucking great Baldwin is in this role, which is
especially impressive when you consider that this was one of his first gigs
ever. So often when watching old shows
and movies, you’ll stumble upon something where an actor who is now super famous
is there, but not super famous yet.
Sometimes you find yourself making a bigger deal out of the character
than is warranted, simply because they became famous later. With Joshua, I feel like you immediately see
that you have a great actor on your hands, and rather than being the thing
where you’re like, “Oh yeah, Alec Baldwin was on that show before he was famous
and he was, you know, alright,” I actually will say this is my favorite Alec Baldwin performance ever (followed closely by his hilarious and biting portrayal of Trump). He is just
perfect in the part and inhabits him so organically, making his arc from nice
guy to asshole all the more believable, because he plays the part so well and
with such subtlety.
The
arrival of Joshua to the cul-de-sac also provides great material for both Julie Harris and Lisa Hartman. We’ve already
discussed at length how amazing Julie Harris is in all regards, but I think she
really gets some of her finest material near the start of this season,
particularly when interacting with Joshua’s father, Jonathan, and exploring
their complex and tumultuous past relationship.
She’s frankly stunning in all the scenes with Jonathan, as well as in
her early scenes with Joshua in which she is just starting to get to know him. Meanwhile, Lisa Hartman gets some really
great material through her interactions with Joshua as her romantic love
interest. Lisa always strikes me as so
sweet and kind and very real world, so I feel bad watching her fall in love
with this seemingly sweet boy and then have him turn so nasty on her. I was critical of her a bit for not being
more active in putting her foot down with him, but I also understand her as a
woman in love and Lisa portrays that well.
Oh yeah, I’m also willing to bet that this season has the most Lisa songs
of her four years on the show. You may
remember I actually had a bit of a gripe with season five for only giving us
two or three Lisa songs, but season six more than makes up for it by giving her
many, many fabulous songs throughout the year. I lost count pretty fast as we were going
through, but off the top of my head I can think of Jehovah, Time After Time,
Beat of a Heart, Words, and We Belong, and
there are obviously a ton more. In terms
of pure musical satisfaction, season six really hits my ‘80s sweet spot
and I think it has the best collection of cover songs for Lisa to sing.
Another
thing to love in season six is the whole saga with Karen having a bullet lodged
in her spine, something that could come off as hopelessly campy and
melodramatic on any other series but that comes across as fantastically
grounded over here on KL. Some fans say this storyline goes on too long
(occupying fourteen eps of a thirty ep season), but I disagree, and I actually
like the length of time it takes to resolve this story. This was the big cliffhanger of season five,
I remind you, and while another show (like, say, Dallas) would be tempted to heal Karen right away in the season
premiere or maybe throw in some sort of retcon nonsense like “The bullet just
grazed me” or whatever, the KL team
goes all out with this story and lets it span nearly half the season. And yet another
thing worth noting about this story, and perhaps all the very best KL stories, is that the drama comes from
within the characters and their core. On
another show, it could just be like “She’s got a bullet in her spine and if it
moves, she will die; how dramatic!” On KL, the storyline results in Karen
having to do some serious thinking about the end of her life, her relationship
with her family and her children and with Mack, her thoughts on the way she
wants to leave this world, not to mention the fact that she tells Gary her
secret and he keeps the secret until she gets the bullet taken out, which to me
says a ton about the beauty of their friendship with each other. Oh, it’s just all so good, and when we reach
those concluding moments of #14 With a Bullet and those close-ups of Karen blinking her eyes, I’m fighting hard to
keep the tears back because it’s just soooooooooo good.
Meanwhile,
we also have the continuing relationship between Greg and Laura, which I just
love. I loved Greg as soon as he entered
the scene in season five, but he’s even better in season six, and I’m starting
to see that fabulous blurring between the actor William Devane and the
character Greg Sumner. I find myself
wondering which Sumner lines Devane improvised himself and I’m really seeing
the actor and the character come together in this truly fabulous way. Also, having Sumner on the scene allows us to
get two of our best KL guest stars
ever in the form of Howard Duff as Paul Galveston and Ava Gardner as Ruth
Galveston. Duff gets to be a big part of
the earlier portion of the season while Ava occupies the later portion, and
they are both perfect. First off, I
think Duff just brings this fabulously raw and masculine style to the
performance and I think Galveston is a very interesting character who, while
evil and duplicitous, remains very human and fascinating. After he dies, we move over to Ava and she
fucking rocks. I had really brushed over all this stuff from
my previous viewing; in my memories I was like “Some famous old Hollywood
actress shows up for a few eps and she’s, like, evil or something,” but now I
realize how truly amazing she is and it makes me want to, you know, go back and
watch some old Ava Gardner movies. What
truly fantastic qualities she brings to the series, from the smoking and the
cocktails to that amazingly gravelly voice and all her incredible little
witticisms and snide remarks towards she makes towards Laura. Oh God, such genius.
Another
thing I appreciated about season six was its willingness to take chances in the
way it told stories. It had a
fantastically experimental nature that I think remains very underrated. Compare this to what else was going on in the
TV landscape during 1984-1985 and I think you’ll see that this was pretty
unique and that the show was being very bold in mixing up genres. I’m immediately thinking of two things right
off the bat. One would be Val’s creepy
and surreal dreams throughout Message In A Bottle and the other would be the thigh-meltingly romantic dream dance
sequence between Gary and Val in Lead Me to the Altar. I feel like I can
close my eyes and easily imagine some sort of stiff, stuffy network suit
talking to the producers and being like, “This is a nighttime soap, we don’t
have time for all this arty stuff with dream sequences,” and the creative team
holding strong and being courageous and allowing all this stuff to go into the
eps, anyway. It’s not just the dream
sequences, however; it’s also in the very tone
of eps, how we can dabble in one genre for awhile and then be in another
genre for a different ep. Tomorrow Never Knows is essentially a 48
minute horror movie about a woman alone going into premature labor and I found
it legitimately horrifying to watch.
Again, I can imagine a network suit saying, “This is too dark, this is
too weird, this is too scary, just do whatever the hell Dallas is doing cuz that show is more popular.”
Let’s
discuss season highs and lows before I move on to my wrap up on the season as a
whole. Okay, so what was the best ep of
the season? I didn’t even have to think
about this before I wrote it, because the answer is obviously We Gather Together. Not only is this the best ep of the season,
but it’s the best ep we’ve seen of the entire series thus far, and perhaps
forever, in all honesty. The whole cast
is linked together for the Thanksgiving feast, the ep is brilliantly shot and
has some truly stunning camera work, plus it has a raw emotional undercurrent
running through it that, honestly, can bring tears to my eyes just by thinking
of it. When I just imagine that scene of
Val sitting alone in the baby nursery and Gary coming in to find her and the
two of them talking together, I well up.
It’s a scene so good that it actually makes me believe in the idea of
true love and soulmates and reminds me why Gary and Val will always be my
favorite television couple.
As
for season lows, it’s hard to say because I honestly think every single ep this
season was great and nothing sticks out as “a bad one.” I finally settled on picking the premiere ep, Buying Time, as the worst ep of the
season, but even saying that word, “worst,” seems unfair. I think it’d be more accurate to describe it
as “the least good,” since every ep this season is good. The reason I pick this one is because, while
of course compelling, it is just the least exciting of the season and is mostly
concerned with tidying up affairs from the concluding moments of season five. I actually feel like maybe the creative team
is aware of that, as well, and gave the ep the title they did as a kind of meta
joke, like, “Yeah, we’re just buying time until we can get to the really good
stuff with Val’s babies.” Even still, it
was a great way to start the season and I have no complaints about it; I’m just
picking it because I feel like I must pick a bottom ep for the season.
In
the past, I have declared season six of KL
to be “the greatest season of television ever made.” I was planning to make that bold claim yet
again after I was done writing about the season, but now I’m gonna backtrack a
bit and use language that’s a little more realistic and less like hyperbole. See, in the end, absolutely all art is
subjective and there are no hard facts about art and that’s the whole beauty of
it. There is no “best” movie or TV show
or whatever because it all depends on individual tastes and how one particular
piece of art resonates with a certain person, so to say this season of KL is “the best” season of television
ever made would really have no meaning, because I’m sure somewhere in the world
is someone who thinks season nineteen of The Big Bang Theory is the greatest season of television ever. Therefore, I have settled on
saying that season six of KL is my
personal favorite season of
television ever made, based on all the television I have watched throughout my
life. I just think it’s perfect, start
to finish, because it manages to remain compelling and dynamic but also super
deep, with super interesting characters who are just a joy to spend time with,
incredible writing and storytelling and wit, and a central story that provides
a solid foundation for the entire season and all the characters in it. The core cast is incredible, the guest actors
are sublime, and the season just books along and never lets up and never stops
being exciting. In conclusion, it’s easily
my favorite season of the entire series and is also my favorite season of
television ever made.
However,
I wanna make sure and note that this does not
mean it’s all downhill from here.
Based on my memories, I loved the series all the way until the very
final episode in 1993 and never felt it “jumped the shark,” to use a way
overused expression. I get annoyed when
I see fans talk about things and be so dismissive of later seasons, basically
saying, “Well, it never gets better than this, so just stop watching.” What a sad way to look at the world, such a
glass-half-empty perspective. To stop
watching the series after this season would be a great disservice to anyone who
appreciates quality entertainment, and I remember the show remaining very
strong for a very long time. All I’m
saying is that this is the most perfect season of the series as a whole, that
it’s never at this level of artistic achievement again, but to not watch the remaining eight seasons
would be a real crime, because there’s still plenty of great stuff in store for
us.
In
fact, I’m actually very eager to dive into the next season and I’m gonna be
focusing on it in a whole new way. The
first time I watched the series, I would just power through and finish one
season and immediately jump into the next one, not paying any attention to what
was going on behind the scenes or who was running the show at one time or
another. Now, of course, I know that
season seven is the year of the big producer swap, that my much cherished genius
Peter Dunne moved over to run Dallas for
a season while the Dallas guy, David Paulsen, moved over to spend a year on KL. I’m gonna try to focus really hard on what
different qualities David Paulsen brings to his year of KL (and I’m also considering watching
the dream season of Dallas just for
fun to see what qualities Peter Dunne brings to it, but I’m honestly not sure I
can sit through that thing again) and what differences I see throughout the
year, because honestly I remember this season being great but I’ve noticed a
lot of fans not speaking too highly of it lately. In any case, for the time being I should give
you my ranking on the seasons as a whole, and then I’ll conclude this. Clearly season six is getting the #1 spot,
and I’d follow it with season five at #2, season four at #3, season two at #4,
season one at #5, and then the contentious and controversial season three
ranking at #6 (a season that I’m frankly surprised to see get so much love from
so many KL fans). That is my list and I’m sticking to it, but
suffice it to say that everyone in the world should see season six of KL, because you’ll never see another
season of television quite like it. It’s
really up there as a remarkable achievement of television and a prime example
of the very best that the medium has to offer.
Dream Season of Dallas is atrocious. It's fifty percent Dynasty, and fifty percent KL, and it 100% fails. The attempts to ground the characters, create a more visually artistic palette, while at the same time having T-Rex Barbara Carrera stomping all around in big hats with poison hair pins is painful. Don't waste your time.
ReplyDeleteI am going to say it. I cannot even believe it. I watched the dream season first run. And a handful of times since then. I always dread it when I am getting to that point in my Dallas viewing. HOWEVER, I watched it again about 2 years ago, and I actually really enjoyed it. It's not Dallas for sure. And in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't change a fucking thing. But it's interesting to see what Dallas would have become. Linda Gray is amazing as she takes Sue Ellen way to the bottom. Even Pam has some decent stuff. Dallas COULD have continued on without Bobby. I think it's almost a shame they brought him back. Don't get me wrong. I love me some Bobby Ewing. But the last seasons of that show are awful. They may have gained 5 more seasons but in my opinion, they weren't 5 quality seasons. I think Dallas really could have ended with Bobby's death. That's another whole story. Anyway. If you go into the dream season with fresh eyes and an open mind, you might actually enjoy it. A little.
ReplyDeleteYou hit the nail on the head. Best TV ever. EVER. That's amazing and I pity anyone who has never seen it. Man, I miss that kind of fun!
ReplyDeleteWhy they would mess with the creative team behind KL season six is beyond me; if it's not broken, no need to makes any fixes.
ReplyDeleteSeasons seven and eight also have thirty episodes but you will definitely not finish them with the same sense of storytelling satisfaction. Empire Valley was a big dud of a story, even in season six, but it really becomes a snoozer in season seven. New characters like Peter Hollister and Paige are just uninteresting. Jill Bennett provides dramatic interest in seasons nine and ten, but not in seven and eight.
You will soon be wishing to rewatch season six!
I agree with Brett. Season Six was the best, but the series was far from being over creatively. Donna Mills' best work on the series was during the Olivia-drug-problem episodes. And I know a lot of Knots' fans are down on Paige, but I thought she breathed life into the second half of the series.
ReplyDeleteAnd my vote is thumbs down on the Dallas dream season. For the reasons given.
David, your new picture is super cute.
DeleteThank you, Brett! 😀
DeleteWhat a glorious season. I like it explores the character of Val, and why we find her relatable. I like how the show takes it time to give us amazing development within the storytelling, understanding the characters and following us along through their continous journey. It such great television and this is why this show deserves its fourteen seasons.
ReplyDeletePaige. I wish I liked her more. Anne on the other hand. Oh, I can't wait!!!
ReplyDeleteIn which season six episode does Cathy perform "We Belong"?
ReplyDelete