Who'd have thought it? It looked doomed to disaster, but in fact it's great. It has exactly the same crazed atmosphere and bizarre plot twists as the original series. I never thought they'd crack it.
There's lots to love: Linda Gray seems to have metamorphosed into an anorexic animatronic puppet, with the skin precariously stretched over her face bones. You feel she might shatter at any moment - but she is still strangely attractive and fascinating to watch. She can still pack a punch as Sue Ellen. Admittedly in season two she undergoes a complete mentality switch in no time flat, but, hey, it's Dallas. Bobby and J R are still very good (though J R's just died here in the UK run).
Perhaps more importantly the two cousins are very good actors. Josh Henderson is great as John Ross. The make-up and hair department have let him down a little by overdoing the sleazy look - who'd buy a gallon of anything from this man? Jesse Metcalfe is the perfect counterfoil. He has a more difficult part to play as the goodie, since in drama is notoriously harder to make a goodie interesting. The young women are only so-so. Elena is just a younger and less interesting skeleton than Sue Ellen and Pam just pouts most of the time. Neither of them can hold a candle to Victoria Principal in her prime, or to Linda Gray. However, Brenda Strong is excellent and has the best acting ability on the set, at least among the women.
Don't cancel it, TNT. We want to see it here in the UK, despite the ridiculous time slot Channel 5 has given it.
