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Domenec Reynolds
Question: I started watching Dallas at the tender age of 7. It was what my grandmother and I did on Friday nights and I have always been fond of the show. I was ecstatic when I heard about the new series. I have enjoyed it very much - although seeing some of the older cast members making an appearance has been somewhat painful - and I felt the way they handled the passing of Larry Hagman was respectful and keeping true to form with J.R. I read recently that Dallas has yet to be renewed. One of my frustrations with the mainstream networks (NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox) is that I'll get attached to a show and they cancel it. Please tell me TNT is going to renew this gem. Yes, the loss of J.R. as a character and Larry Hagman as an actor is a blow, but the story lines this season have been amazing and if they can keep it up, I know this show can have a good run. - Bonnie
Matt Roush: First off, while I'd be surprised if TNT didn't renew Dallas (it's still a powerful brand name, even though it slipped this year against more robust in-season competition), cable networks actually have been known to cancel shows. It's less apparent than on the broadcast networks, which deal with a much higher volume of programming and thus have a much higher failure rate. Not even AMC and FX have a perfect track record, but because TNT is aiming for a much broader audience, I'd think the third season (if there is one) will be make or break. And I'm not sure the show will ever truly recover from losing J.R. The next generation just isn't cutting it for me, especially where their acting chops are concerned, and there's only so much heavy lifting we can expect Patrick Duffy and (especially this season) Linda Gray to do.
Question: What did you think of how they wrapped up this season on Dallas and set up next season? I have two why-did-that-happen questions. Why did they plant a duplicate of J.R.'s belt buckle in the safe-deposit box? What happened to the original? And why exhume the body? Didn't they get the bullets during the original autopsy? - Terri
Matt Roush: I liked the fact there was resolution, and that the Ewings, at least for now, have triumphed over Cliff Barnes - the way they went about bringing him down was mostly satisfying - and Harris Ryland, this season's Big Bads. I was less impressed with the explanation of "who killed J.R." turning on the character's fatal disease (awfully on the nose, especially when factored into the reveal that Original Pam's absence was also explained away by cancer), but seeing how J.R. chose his own way out, and doing it as a way to get back at his enemies, at least felt like something that would happen within the crazy Dallas universe of yore. To your procedural questions: Apparently J.R.'s original bent buckle went missing or was stolen from the crime scene in Mexico. I don't know how or when a copy was made, but we do know why. And the bullets having to be exhumed: That's just sloppy, stupid plotting. For more answers to burning questions about the Dallas finale, read William Keck's post-mortem with the executive producer.
Question: Don't get me wrong, Dallas is my personal guilty pleasure. Not only because I love this version of the show, but because it brings back great memories of the original when I watched with my mother and we enjoyed Larry Hagman and Patrick Duffy so much. This reboot, though, sort of turned a lot of strange corners including this whole "Pamela isn't dead" storyline. I still remember that gut-wrenching moment when Bobby realized she was gone. Horrible. So I just hated the whole idea that she had survived the accident and abandoned Bobby. Not the Pamela we knew and loved, no way, no how. That however is my personal issue. The question I have, though, is when is Christopher ever going to be told that he is in reality a Ewing, and John Ross's half-brother? That seems to me to have been something important, and while I know Larry Hagman's death ended many storylines, surely he should have been told at J.R.'s death?
Finally, I want to ask what you thought of the lost year of Dallas? You know, the one that melted away in the shower? Personally, I loved what happened to the characters, and as much as I love Bobby, I think that Cliff, Sue Ellen and many others developed in better ways after his death. Oh and one last thing, I pray that they end the "Sue Ellen is drinking" story because it has been done over and over and over to death. - Terri
Matt Roush: I can't believe I have an opinion on this, but wasn't it established in the original series that Christopher was not J.R.'s bastard? He shares a bloodline with Sue Ellen through the late Kristin (of "Who shot J.R.?" infamy), but Christopher was her child by another man. If I'm wrong, don't shoot me. And regarding the lost year of Dallas: That was the jump-the-shark moment from which the original show never recovered. (By that time, my allegiance had shifted to, and stayed with, Knots Landing.) As for Sue Ellen's drinking: It is familiar ground, but Linda Gray is playing the heck out of it, and this time, it's not like this struggle is going to destroy her. She's a much stronger character now, but unlike in the first season of the reboot, more cracks are showing (and I'm not talking make-up).
Question: Much like how the British series MI-5 ended, if last week's episode of Southland is indeed its last, that is the worst way it could have possibly ended. I've grown to admire Officer Cooper over the course of this series, as he overcame so many obstacles along the way. If his death is the last scene we see in this serial, what I have to ask is: Why? And by extension, why does Southland have to end on such an anti-hero note? The negativity in this finale makes the series a waste for me. There is enough hate and discontent in the real world without it being mirrored so miserably in this way. In the ideal, police officers right wrongs, they don't become the wrongs. - Gary
Matt Roush: But Southland never has presented an ideal world, has it? That's the best argument to make regarding the bleakness of the final scene, which is very much in character, although I don't entirely disagree with your reaction. When I saw how that climax was unfolding with Cooper exploding in violent rage at his ex-wife's neighbor, I couldn't help flashing on what would be the worst-case scenario and hoped the show wouldn't go there. Which it did. It felt to me like piling on and because of that a bit predictable, although there's no denying the power of these final episodes for Cooper. But a point of fact: John Cooper didn't necessarily die. He was still breathing, though it certainly didn't look good. In fact, if you read Ileane Rudolph's post-mortem with Michael Cudlitz and the show's executive producer, if the show miraculously returns for a sixth season, so very likely would John Cooper be resurrected. In the bigger picture, I wasn't really looking for Cooper to get a happy ending in this finale. That would be out of sync for Southland. Having his pipe dream of fatherhood dashed, and even his mentor chiding him for losing his gun in the previous week's horror show, Cooper had clearly been driven beyond the edge of despair. I admire the show's integrity in leaving fans in much the same state, but part of me wishes the show had gone out on a more ambiguous, less graphically dark note. Not that I was surprised.
Question: I absolutely love Southland and hope that TNT continues to bring it back. Just one complaint: the constant bleeping during the dialogue that apparently is the taboo "F" word. All the other language gets by, so why not inform the writers to just substitute another word in the place of that one. Third Watch did that very well and never lost any of the drama by replacing it with something else acceptable. And that was on network TV. I get the gritty gist of the street talk, it just annoys me that some scenes are filled with bleeps and drowns out anything else being said. Otherwise, I would really miss this show if it isn't renewed. So few good dramas as it is. - Martha
Matt Roush: The bleeping was imbedded in the show's quasi-documentary signature style from the start, along with the lack of any soundtrack underscoring (unless it came from natural sources) and jittery camerawork, which was somewhat toned down over time. If the Southland cops had substituted fake "frak"-style cursing (or the made-up patois of NYPD Blue), it might have diminished or negated the show's realism. At times it probably was self-consciously overdone, and it certainly felt that way to me during the NBC season, but I came to accept it as part of the formula.
Question: I watched the hour-long finale of Suburgatory, and it left me a little confused. Why did this show, which I have loved since the beginning, decide to switch almost completely from comedy to drama? Yes, there were a few funny moments with Sheila and her family, and I did love the frozen yogurt store (the Gurt Locker!), but the rest of the hour was very heavy. It's almost like the writers did a complete 180-degree turn at the end of the season. Can you remember the last time a show changed its tone so drastically? Hopefully the show is renewed and switches back to being hilarious when it returns. - Tom
Matt Roush: It's not the first time Suburgatory has shown a dark or more poignant side, especially when dealing with the emotional damage from Tessa's broken family life. The better TV comedies allow us, or possibly even force us, to feel something for its characters, and I was touched as well by Dalia's genuine-seeming regard for "Daddy Altman" after his split with her mom. The problem here is one of tone. So much of Suburgatory is so stylized and wacky that the unforced moments may well feel like they've come out of left field, from a different show entirely. I'm sure if and when Suburgatory comes back - there's little doubt it will get renewed - it won't take long to get back to the funny. But the Tessa-George-Alex storyline is likely to ground the show in some painful emotions at least for a while, and I don't see that as a bad thing.
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