Dallas - A Cultural Icon Returns

And so it did, on both TV3 (Mondays 10pm) and Five (Wednesdays 9pm) and I ended up having to catch a repeat.

I'm not going to lie about Dallas - it's not a big thing for me. Like many, I'm well aware of moments like 'Who Shot JR?' and Bobby stepping out of the shower and CBS Drama tends to air repeats of the original run but at the same time, it wasn't a show I avidly watched. I was however determined to give the new version a go and judging by the first episode alone, I'm actually rather glad that I did.

TNT commissioned the show for a nice round of ten episodes and from what I can see, this is simply no remake, but more of an actual continuation of the series itself. It's been twenty years since the original series aired and this new version sees the animosity going over to both JR and Bobby's sons, John Ross and Christopher Ewing as both lads fight for supremacy over Southfork Ranch with each fella seemingly inheriting their fathers admirable and deplorable traits.

I have to admit, I wasn't exactly jumping for joy with the castings of both Jesse Metcalfe (Christopher) and Josh Henderson (John Ross) but compared to their days on Desperate Housewives, it does seem that both lads have actually progressed a bit as actors and throughout the pilot episode alone, they were actually rather solid. It's hard to actually side with either guy but it does seem like the rivarly between John Ross and Christopher will be every bit as interesting as the long standing one between JR and Bobby was and still is within the show.

As for the rest of the cast - the likes of Bobby (Patrick Duffy) and JR (Larry Hagman) are more or less the same as they were back in the original show, Sue-Ellen (Linda Gray) has cleaned herself up and gotten into politics while Bobby's new wife, Ann (Brenda Strong) also has a likeable presence but the ladies in Christopher and John Ross's lives do need a bit more gumption about them. Rebecca (Julie Gonzalo) seemed a little bland and I'm not sure if Elena's (Jordana Brewster) obvious love triangle between the lads will be sustainable enough but it was a good start and the fact that it's amassed some excellent ratings over this side of the pond seems to have proved that some people haven't tired of the Ewings just yet.

Dallas airs on both TV3, Mondays at 10pm and Wednesdays at 9pm on Five. Season 2 will air on TNT from January 2013.