Dynasty Season 1 [DVD]

THE PROLOGUE

There's something I need to promise anyone who only knows Dynasty from it's media image of big hair and shoulder pads, or from later seasons. Season One will be a revelation.

I for one consider Season One to be a hidden gem. It's different in tone and content to anything that follows it. This is well worth a look - even to someone who is put off by the image that is usually associated with Dynasty (it may help if I tell you that this takes place BC - before Collins)!

THE SHOW

Ok, I won't bang on about the story too much. Either you know it, or the blurb on the cover will tell you all you need to know. Suffice to say this is about watching ridiculously rich people suffer.

Surprises about this seminal season, when compared to later years, are many. John Forsythe's Blake Carrington is not the white knight he became. This Blake Carrington is a brutal tyrant, who will do anything to have his own way with his business - and his family. He is also prone to outbursts of violence towards the people closest to him.

The focus this season is split between the wealthy Carringtons and the "poor" (that's middle-class!) Blaisdel's. The connection between the two families brings together several stories that bubble away through the first season to a gripping court case in the last episodes. The glamour in Season one is also balanced by the machismo of workers at the oil wells.

Standouts for me in acting quality (yes - really) in this set are Pamela Bellwood, Al Corley and Brian Dennehy.

Bellwood as the dangerously vulnerable Claudia, who is recovering from a nervous breakdown really has to be seen.(Katy Kurtzman who plays her daughter is also a very talented young actress, though the poor character seems to cry her way through every scene she's in. Fortunately, she does this very well, and scenes between mother and daughter are suitably moving).

Al Corley as Steven Carrington, whose acceptance of his sexuality is a running thread is also worth his weight in gold.

The wonderful Brian Dennehy makes a mid-season appearance and comes in for the last episodes to show just why he is one of the most imposing and respected actors in the industry.

The most fun this year for me comes from Lee Bergere and Pamela Sue Martin.

Bergere plays Joseph the major domo, who is as haughty and disagreeable to the new mistress of the house as he is servile and sycophantic towards Blake. Great fun to watch - his little facial expressions and tuts make him a real scene-stealer.

Pamela Sue Martin's spoiled character Fallon seethes with resentment towards her father's new wife, colludes with Blake's business associates and Joseph and sleeps with her father's entire football team, as well as his chauffeur. Sometimes she even sleeps with her husband!

She also has the best lines. When the chauffeur tries to evoke jealousy by telling her about his forthcoming date, Fallon cheerfully tells him to "pay her the ten dollars and enjoy!"

THE PACKAGE

The great news is that the episodes themselves have been gloriously cleaned-up, and (apart from the opening credits - which still look pretty great) could have been filmed this year.

The cardboard slipcase has a fun touch with glittery graphics and looks great. Inside is a thick clear clamshell keepcase, and the cover has an episode guide printed on the reverse which can be seen inside the case. The bad news about the case is that the discs are on little flip-over plastic "sheets", which have a tendency to break at the hinges (the six discs in Season 2 suffer even more).

There are some bonus features included, which consist of short character profiles on Fallon and Steven (interviews with the actors Al Corley and Pamela Sue Martin), and "Family, Furs and Fun: Creating Dynasty", which is interesting enough. Sadly, the commentaries which featured on the Region 1 version are not included on the UK edition (a lot of the information is covered elsewhere anyway, but as a completist, I still am slightly disappointed that they are not here).

Overall, this is a nice package, worthy of a great show. I'll finish as I started - this is truly a hidden gem. Enjoy.

Season 1 of Dynasty has no Joan Collins, no Heather Locklear, and precious little in the way of cat-fights, so before approaching it I was weary that it wouldn't be the high-camp melodrama it later became. But is it any good?

The triple-length premier episode, "Oil", kicks off the series, and even
without any commercials it runs to a whopping 2 and a quarter hours, making it a beast to get through in one sitting. It definitely does drag, however the majority of regulars are set up nicely in it. Oil company Denver-Carrington is established, as run by tyrannical patriarch Blake Carrington, who resides in his fully-staffed extravagant mansion. The episode sees the return to the fold of his children: Fallon - who has been enjoying a jet-set lifestyle of indulgence and casual sex; and Steven - who has just cameback from New York where he was living with, and engaged in romantic relationship with another man, Ted. The final member of the Carrington family we meet in the premier is Krystle, well, rather she is soon to be a family member, as she is to marry Blake. Krystle comes across as the star of the show from the outset, as an outsider entering into this world she is the audience's point of reference, and is easily the heart of the show.
Her ex-beau Matthew Blaizedale is the only other character who makes a
significant impact in the premier, he is set up as a rival to Blake, both
romantically and professionally, as by the end of the episode he has set up a rival company, along with Walter Lankersham - a walking Texan cliche. Matthew's wife Claudia is unfortunately set up poorly here, all we really know about her by the end of the episode is that she's been in hospital recovering from a nervous breakdown, luckily Claudia's character is fleshed out later on in the season, unfortunately, their daughter Lyndsey - a whining teenager who moans alot - won't be.

Over the course of the season, with the exception of Blake, as the
characters become more rounded we are able to sympathise with them in the
difficult situations they encounter. Krystle, Steven and Claudia are easily the most sympathetic characters, they are all likeable and believable, and seem to suffer the most. Krystle never seems to be fully welcomed into the Carrington household, and as such, we can easily understand how she is driven back to Matthew, even though she tries her best at making the marriage to Blake work. Her good-hearted nature gets the best of her and she is always trying to encourage everyone to get along and help each other, and enrages Blake when that nature leads her to pawn an expensive necklace to aid Matthew. Her most difficult moment, and easily the most horrific moment overall of this season, is when Blake violently rapes her in a drunken rage when he discovers her contraceptive pills. Steven's pathos stems from the difficulties he has with his own sexuality, and how he struggles against prejudice from his co-workers and his own father. His confusion leads him into the arms of Claudia, herself feeling dejected from the lack of attention she is receiving from Matthew, and the knowledge that while she was in hospital he engaged in an affair with Krystle. For me,
the sign of how well written all these characters are is that one
sympathises with both Claudia and Matthew, without taking sides, its easy
to see how Matthew would be tempted by another woman while his wife is
suffering a nervous breakdown.

As mentioned before, the one character who doesn't provoke any sympathy
whatsoever, is Blake. Blake is manipulative and self-centred, and every
time you might start feeling sorry for him, it's clear that his actions are not governed by any compassion for anyone else, either pure self-interest or he is playing another game with someone. He seems to treat Krystle as a
possession, she's there to make him look good, to be a trophy wife, and to eventually provide him with another child to replace the two faulty
children he has - his hedonistic daughter and his homosexual son. His
treatment of Krystle reaches its worst with the aforementioned rape, and it is baffling as to how she can forgive him. Blake's violent nature exhibits itself again later in the season, when he attacks Ted after seeing him and Steven hugging, which leads to Ted's death.

Fallon is not as violent or self-centred as her father, but she does
inherit his manipulative streak. Fallon is still a sympathetic character
however, as her machinations are driven by a desire to please her father,
rather than for her own personal gain. Unfortunately for others, she has
few qualms about who she uses to do that. She marries Jeff Colby so that
his uncle Cecil (another Oil baron) will bail Blake out, even though she is actually more attracted to Cecil himself, and after marrying Jeff she still continues to sleep with Michael (Blake's chaffeur). The drama snowballs in the last few episodes, especially once we reach Ted's death and the subsequent trial.

Any doubts I had about Dynasty's first season were thankfully unfounded, as whilst it may have been lacking in glamorous over-the-top cat-fights, it proved itself to be an utterly compelling and engaging series that truly had me on edge as to what would happen next.

What great memories of the eighties! Dynasty gives us a world of materialistic, back stabbing, sexist, homophobic attitudes which are now hidden under the screen of political correctness. Entertaining and lavish where the rich are shown at work and at play