Does TNT's Dallas Merit Gushing Praise?

Show: Dallas.

Premiered: Spring 1978. Summer 2012.

Why Was It Made? As my hilarious strikethrough gag in the line above indicates, Dallas was one of the most successful primetime dramas in TV history, running for fourteen seasons and spanning parts of three decades. Some of its original key cast members were still alive, and their characters' kids would now be grown up enough to do their own evil scheming, so why not give the franchise its own "next generation" treatment?

Why Didn't I Watch? Larry Hagman's terrifying eyebrows? Just kidding. I think I just figured that since I was too young to have watched the original series when it was on, I didn't feel like I had anything to hook into with the sequel.

Why Give It A Shot? Friend of the site/repeat Extra Hot Great Game Time scribe Trip Payne is way into it, and he seems pretty on the ball. (Also, TNT sent us screeners.)

What Aspects Of The Latest Episode Would Seem To Invite Further Viewing? Oh, you guys. It is so cheesy. It really is a throwback to the era that inspired it; people are constantly shooting smoldering glares, when they're not gleefully gloating about putting something over on each other. The soapy structure means that even though I've missed two whole seasons of double-crosses, there are more to come that will either carry on or obviate the ones I didn't see. The fact that almost everyone lives together at Southfork means that they're almost always well positioned for confrontations and/or assignations (John Ross, J.R.'s son/the new J.R., is fucking not one but two girls who got their dads arrested AND both live at the ranch), which is very convenient for story purposes!

What Aspects Of The Latest Episode Discourage Further Viewing? Businessy intrigue is not my favourite kind of TV intrigue, and there's a lot of talk about oil rights, ice breakers (the boat kind, because the Ewings are looking to move into deposits in Alaska), and raising capital for bids. Elena starts out the season as, essentially, a corporate spy on behalf of classic Ewing foe Cliff Barnes, and let's just say that peering through architectural glasses at financials on a computer monitor suits Jordana Brewster less well than fast driving does. And did you forget that all these people are family? If you did, don't worry: Bobby's going to reiterate it about four hundred more times.

Final Verdict: I wasn't expecting to like it -- not just because Josh Henderson, who plays John Ross, looks like an off-brand Jonathan Rhys Meyers enough to give me Dracula flashbacks, though that didn't help -- but I did! The introduction of a brand-new Ewing antagonist, who has a grudge that goes way back, makes for a good reset, and if nothing else, the ladies' cute outfits (especially Elena's, as you can see up top) give it loads of Friday Time-Shift Show potential. I'm into it.