What went wrong with DYNASTY? (Season by season)

[TMC]

** SPOILERS! **

Season 1:

The ongoing saga of Denver oil tycoon Blake Carrington and his family (a show the ABC network hopes will compete with CBS's DALLAS, easily the biggest program on earth in 1980).

A somber drama at first, the torments of Krystle, Steven, and Claudia are center stage. The acting is good, and so is the writing. Bill Conti's score and theme add poignant grandeur to the pilot. The pacing is a bit slower than may be required to become a smash hit, but the groundwork for the series is being nicely laid (or is it "lain"?). No, the glitz and glamour aren't anywhere near as flashy as they would later become, but in some ways they're deeper; someone once described Season 1 of DYNASTY as being "all cabernet and dark chocolates and mahogany" and while that might be a slight exaggeration, it's easy to understand the sentiment: the middleclass Blaisdel family may be getting more screen time than some viewers may appreciate, but the Carringtons would never feel more legitimately "rich": the interiors of the mansion are brooding and believable, life on the estate has a certain rarefied flavor, the cultural observations and literary references are convincing of a family bred if not necessarily well.

All the plots nicely coalesce to bring the season to a natural, tragic and fated climax as Blake goes on trial for killing his son's gay lover, resulting in, in the final frame, the arrival of his ex-wife, Alexis, to testify as a hostile witness for the prosecution.

[Steve_uk]

Originally Posted by TMC

** SPOILERS! **

Well they got rid of the Blaisdel family unit which was a shame, contrasting as it did with the excesses of the Carrington lifestyle, though the writers did bring back Matthew in the later series, they changed Fallon,Steven and Amanda and expected us to remain loyal to the show, the plots got evermore incredible as political correctness intervened, necessitating Blake to discover a long-lost black sister and gay Steven to father a child, Krystle's double wangled her way into Blake's affections though never slept with him, there was a coup in some non-existent European country to clear out the deadwood actors but by then it was too late to salvage any remaining vestige of versimilitude of Coloradoan life.

[mets82]

The two main problems I had was when they recasted Fallon and Amanda. I liked and had a crush on both of them. Now, I just started watching Dynasty when it was on POP about 2 or 3 years ago. Plus, Fallon with the whole aliens thing was stupid and recasting Amanda with an American was even dumber.

[adamchandler]

It had I’m thinking of this as I write feel starting in season 3. All the bad recast insulting us viewers. Too much focus on the cat fights and glamour than family drama