Knots Landing - The Complete First Season - DVD Review

David Jacobs, the creator of Dallas pitched a show about suburban couples in California, inspired by Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage (anybody who knows me knows I'm a huge fan of Bergman). The network told him they wanted something bigger and he made Dallas. Clearly he never forgot his original premise, because the network wanted a spin-off, and he devised it with underachieving, alcoholic, middle brother Gary Ewing (Ted Shackelford) reuniting with his high school sweetheart and bride, Valene Ewing (Joan Van Ark), and moving to California to start anew. Midway through Dallas' third season the episode "Return Engagement" served as a pilot or prequel to Knots. So if you wanna watch Knots but not Dallas, then check out this episode as it adds a little depth to the backstory - and speaking of backstory, that's something Knots was particularly interested in and may have been key to it's fourteen season reign.

The Ewing's new Californian home, a second-marriage gift from Dallas matriarch and Gary's adoring mother, Miss Ellie Ewing, is located in a tight little cul-de-sac, Seaview Circle. The residents of this cul-de-sac make up the rest of the cast and the tight setting, as you would expect, makes the place a boiler room for conflict. Gary was apparently Miss Ellie's favourite son. But really, who could blame her after having to live in the same house as her ego-driven, maniac sons J.R. and Bobby for so long. Gary, the quiet failure seems pretty appealing in contrast.

Now let's meet the ridiculously friendly and inviting neighbours (if this were really a Bergmanesque character-drama then the families wouldn't be close - I love it - but it's complete fantasy. I don't know the names of any of my neighbours and I have been living in the same cul-de-sac for nearly eight years). Sid and Karen Fairgate (played by talented Don Murray and Michele Lee) are the idealistic and 'perfect' family. They have three teenage children, Diana (Claudia Lonow, who went on to become a successful sitcom writer), Eric (Steve Shaw) and Michael (Patrick Petersen). A slightly younger thirty-something couple, Richard (John Pleshette, who's character's as close to a villain as the first season has) and Laura Avery (Constance McCashin). Richard is a smarmy lawyer who treats his wife like a lower life-form but he is humanised over the course of the first season and even more so in the second - while still retaining his strong flaws. This gives the series a level of character-depth that may have partly been lost if Richard turned out to be a J.R. clone, which is an idea the writers toyed with for a little, but thankfully discarded. To round off the cast there's the twenty-somethings Kenny (James Houghton) and Ginger (Kim Lankford) Ward.

What surprised me most about this set is how much I enjoyed it. I was expecting very dated television, restrained by standalone episodes (Dallas, Dynasty and Falcon Crest also started with only standalone episodes - they all had very humble beginnings...) and while it is these things, it's also very enjoyable and often well-written. Knots' strength lies in its willingness to be a character-driven series and the episodes that succeed in this set are just that.

Arguably the strongest episode from the first season is "The Lie", in which Laura Avery acts out against her restrained lifestyle and domineering husband. The subject of rape is brought up and more specifically, the perception of rape. This episode also has one of the best endings for a show of its time. Similarly to The Sopranos or Mad Men, the symbolic final scene intelligently sums up the themes of the episode and asks the viewer to analyse what they've seen.

"Land of the Free" holds the honour of being the worst episode on the set. Entertaining in it's own right, the terrorising bikers episode attempts to be relevant (apparently this was a problem in California at the time) but comes off campy and exploitative. Basing an episode around something as strange as terrorising bikers will always be awkward, particularly because there's no subtext to the plot. Predictably, the cul-de-sac bands together against this external force, like they will again in variations on the episode later down the track. The essential and underlying misstep of the episode is that the premise of the show isn't about wild external forces, it's about complex, ordinary people dealing with themselves and the people who's lives intersect with their own. The second episode "Community Spirit", where J.R. from Dallas crosses over, suffers the same problem. As entertaining it was to see J.R. on Knots, he is far too cartoonish a character for the show and this highlights the very striking differences between Dallas and Knots

Apart from these two, the episodes range from decent standalone episodes - but perhaps too understated - to very moving and dense standalone episodes. It's about half and half - very admirable for a first season of a spin-off, and even more-so considering the show didn't find it's long-standing identity as a soap-opera/realistic drama meld until season 3 or 4.

This release is a five dual-layer disc set of 601 minutes. The artwork on the inside of the case has a list of the episodes on each disc with brief summaries on every episode. English and German subtitles and the same enhanced subtitles for the hearing impaired.

Video

The 1.33:1full-screen image is kept to preserve the original look of the show and while there are minor problems with the transfer, they may just be source problems due to the shows age. The show does look quite good considering - and keep in mind that some of the later Dallas and Dynasty seasons had sub-par DVD transfers.

Audio

Dolby Digital 2.0. I'm not sure how much effort was put into cleaning up the audio but it's adequate.

Extras

Special Features:

• Commentary on 2 key episodes by Joan Van Ark and Ted Shackelford

• Gary and Val: Together Again. The stars reminisce.

The commentaries are interesting because the show and the people clearly meant a lot to these two. The show was on the air for such a long time that there is a rich history to the behind-the-scenes of the show.

The reunion between Joan and Ted is good to watch (especially for fans of Gary and Val), but only if you've seen the entire show as there are clips from pivotal moments while the characters are discussed.

A surprisingly good first season, giving the longer second season a lot to build from. Starting season 2, Donna Mills moves into the cul-de-sac and many people credit her with spicing the show up as husband-stealing vixen, Abby Cunningham. I'm interested to see how and when the tonal and stylistic shifts in the show come about - bring on seasons 2 to 14.