Sunday 17 June 2012

Dallas is back!

I just got to know yesterday that the long-running television series, Dallas, has been revived in the United States. The series actually began in 1978 and it ran for 13 years before it ended. I do remember that in the 1980s, my family were literally pulled to the TV screen whenever an episode came on air. What made this programme irresistible to watch was the interaction between the main characters of the show, personified by greedy JR Ewing and the righteous Bobby Ewing. Plus, of course, the cliff-hangers at the end of every season. I didn't watch the series from the very first episode of the first season. I think that I only became a more-or-less regular viewer towards the end of the "Who shot JR" season. The third season, was it?

Anyway, I was just reading through an online newspaper when this news of the revived Dallas caught my eye. More than curious, my wife and I sat down to watch it. Needless to say, we were glued to our seats for the whole of one hour.


Yes, bad old JR is back to his old dastardly business but when we found him, he was languishing in a nursing home suffering from dementia. It took his son, John Ross, to bring him around back to his scheming ways. Did I say his son? Definitely. Because between the end of the old Dallas season in 1991 and this new season in 2012, John Ross and Christopher Ewing (Bobby's adopted son) are all grown up and leading their own lives. But true to the nature of this television series, their lives are intertwined and drawn back together into a new season of corporate and family intrigue.

John Ross started the show by drilling oil quietly on the Southfork ranch while Christopher was looking at alternative energy sources. Their paths crossed, as well as that of Bobby and JR. And what is Dallas without the scandals? Even as Christopher gets married, it is revealed that he still has enough feelings for the bridesmaid, who was his ex-fiancee.

For the next nine episodes that's promised by the TNT television network in the United States, we'll have the same ol', same ol' that we had in the 1980s. Can't wait to catch all the episodes. They'll keep me well occupied until September when the third season of Hawaii Five-0 begins.

No comments: