Warner Bros. | 1988 | 1431 mins. | Not Rated
I thought Dallas had gone off the rails way back at the end of season nine; as any fan of the series knows, that’s the year that was revealed to be a dream after a very much alive Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy), appeared in the shower. We’ll never know precisely what the writers were thinking when they came up with that plot twist, but I don’t think the series ever really recovered. Yes, there were a few more interesting developments, new characters, and season ending cliffhangers but not of it provides the high level, guilty pleasure, water cooler worthy buzz of the earlier seasons.
The thirteenth season was the first time Dallas finished the season outside the top thirty in the ratings; after watching the entire season, it’s easy to see why. Perhaps the writers were just running out of ideas, but the first few episodes really don’t contain the over-the-top debauchery fans had grown accustomed to Instead of secret lovers, baby drama, and such, J.R. starts the season by bringing Ewing oil to the brink of destruction. Strangely though, everything seems almost cordial.
Fortunately, things take a turn for the ridiculous in the season’s final two episodes. Seeing as the vengeful tactics of the money-driven business of moat of the season have done little but fan the flames of seething hatred among characters, in Three, Three, Three’s two parts, J.R. (Larry Hagman) comes up with an outlandish plan to finally put the nail in the coffin of the devious fools trying to bring him down. J.R. is convinced that by checking himself into an asylum, he can create a change in sentiment among those who work for and with him so certain folks will get booted out of the fold and he can run to the doctors and say, ‘It’s all a joke!”, then go back to business as usual.
Predictably, things don’t go quite as planned, and those prickly hospital doctors don’t believe J.R. when he’s ready to leave. As a result, the Texas oilman finds himself being dragged back to the asylum; perhaps for good!
Now, this is what Dallas was good for. Plot lines so bogus and unbelievable, they were hilarious. This is why people watched Dallas when it was on television and line up to watch it when it’s released on DVD. I’ll be waiting for the day when the final season of Dallas arrives at my door. While these years definitely weren’t the series best, Dallas is one of those shows you have to finish once you start watching it.
These 1.33:1 episodes have identical video quality to that of the show’s previous season-long releases. Color accuracy is good, and while this latest set of transfers is a little cleaner, there is still quite a bit of dirt and grime on the transfer prints. Finely grained detail also isn’t as well defined as it should be, and there’s a noticeable muddiness that runs throughout.
The Dolby Digital mono mixes are the same as the last couple of seasons. The pitfalls that often accompany older mono mixes produced for television are all here (tinny dialogue, scratchy music cues, and so on), but things have been cleaned up enough that fans won’t be insanely disappointed.
English SDH subtitles are included.
No special features are included.
