Dallas - Season 3 Premiere - The Return - Advance Review

   

     Only 12 hours after JR's real cause of death was revealed to Christopher and John Ross, things are up and running in Dallas. As last season teased John Ross isn't the slightest bit interested in being faithful to his wife. As Sue Ellen quips, John Ross is definitely JR's son. The only problem is, it would appear that John Ross and the rest of the Ewing's will have to "pay for JR's sins".

     Going back to the time of the original series, Cliff Barnes has revealed to Elena that JR can still cause quite a bit of a mess from beyond the grave. It turns out that the land that Elena's father was actually worth millions, but JR saw to it that the deeds were switched. As a result, JR inadvertently caused her father's death. Elena decides that it is time that the Ewing's paid for their dirty deals. The only problem, in my opinion, with this is that the culprit behind all of this is already dead! Obviously Elena is less than pleased with the Ewing's for kicking her out of a company that she helped build, but I found her acceptance for Cliff's vengeance scheme a little too scripted for my tastes. Regardless, it should be interesting to see how Cliff's "proxies" work. (First Tease: Yes, both of them)

     On the other side of the family, we aren't exactly seeing a lot of Ann, but we are seeing quite a bit more of her daughter. She's conniving, ruthless, and overall the perfect girl for John Ross. On top of all this she is just across the hall. The only problem with all of this is the fact that she is John Ross's cousin's stepsister. Technically I guess there's nothing wrong with that, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Ann is not going to feel the same way about it. Christopher, meanwhile, would seem to be following in the footsteps of his father. Anathema to his cousin's philandering and scheming (literally at the same time), Christopher spends a lot of time on the ranch. It would appear that he might have a new love interest coming into play, but that's all I will say about Christopher.

     The season 3 premiere of Dallas is well written, well acted, and overall fairly exciting. All that being said, I am still worried that the show will be unable to live past JR. Every episode since JR's death has in some way referenced the legend. A quick look at JR's Wikipedia page reveals that unused footage of Larry Hagman is planned to be used for season 3. While I personally enjoy these throwbacks, it unfortunately speaks to the writers' inability to center the show around a new feud convincingly. At some point they are going to have to stop leaning on JR as a crutch. In order for this season to be successful, Dallas will likely be adding a few new cast members. I just hope that they can all grab the audience's attention like JR used to.

Last Tease: Don't rule out old Harris Ryland yet.

Grade: 9.2/10

Tune into the season 3 premiere of Dallas on February 24th at 9/8c on TNT. Be sure to come back here to SpoilerTV to let everyone else know what you thought of the episode.