• Home
  • popular
  • Events
  • Submit New Event
  • Subscribe
  • About
  • News
  • Restaurants + Bars
  • City Life
  • Entertainment
  • Travel
  • Real Estate
  • Arts
  • Society
  • Home + Design
  • Fashion + Beauty
  • Innovation
  • Sports
  • Charity Guide
  • children
  • education
  • health
  • veterans
  • SOCIAL SERVICES
  • ARTS + CULTURE
  • animals
  • lgbtq
  • New Charity
  • Series
  • Delivery Limited
  • DTX Giveaway 2012
  • DTX Ski Magic
  • dtx woodford reserve manhattans
  • Your Home in the Sky
  • DTX Best of 2013
  • DTX Trailblazers
  • Tastemakers Dallas 2017
  • Healthy Perspectives
  • Neighborhood Eats 2015
  • The Art of Making Whiskey
  • DTX International Film Festival
  • DTX Tatum Brown
  • Tastemaker Awards 2016 Dallas
  • DTX McCurley 2014
  • DTX Cars in Lifestyle
  • DTX Beyond presents Party Perfect
  • DTX Texas Health Resources
  • DART 2018
  • Alexan Central
  • State Fair 2018
  • Formula 1 Giveaway
  • Zatar
  • CityLine
  • Vision Veritas
  • Okay to Say
  • Hearts on the Trinity
  • DFW Auto Show 2015
  • Northpark 50
  • Anteks Curated
  • Red Bull Cliff Diving
  • Maggie Louise Confections Dallas
  • Gaia
  • Red Bull Global Rally Cross
  • NorthPark Holiday 2015
  • Ethan's View Dallas
  • DTX City Centre 2013
  • Galleria Dallas
  • Briggs Freeman Sotheby's International Realty Luxury Homes in Dallas Texas
  • DTX Island Time
  • Simpson Property Group SkyHouse
  • DIFFA
  • Lotus Shop
  • Holiday Pop Up Shop Dallas
  • Clothes Circuit
  • DTX Tastemakers 2014
  • Elite Dental
  • Elan City Lights
  • Dallas Charity Guide
  • DTX Music Scene 2013
  • One Arts Party at the Plaza
  • J.R. Ewing
  • AMLI Design District Vibrant Living
  • Crest at Oak Park
  • Braun Enterprises Dallas
  • NorthPark
  • Victory Park
  • DTX Common Desk
  • DTX Osborne Advisors
  • DTX Comforts of Home 2012
  • DFW Showcase Tour of Homes
  • DTX Neighborhood Eats
  • DTX Comforts of Home 2013
  • DTX Auto Awards
  • Cottonwood Art Festival 2017
  • Nasher Store
  • Guardian of The Glenlivet
  • Zyn22
  • Dallas Rx
  • Yellow Rose Gala
  • Opendoor
  • DTX Sun and Ski
  • Crow Collection
  • DTX Tastes of the Season
  • Skye of Turtle Creek Dallas
  • Cottonwood Art Festival
  • DTX Charity Challenge
  • DTX Culture Motive
  • DTX Good Eats 2012
  • DTX_15Winks
  • St. Bernard Sports
  • Jose
  • DTX SMU 2014
  • DTX Up to Speed
  • st bernard
  • Ardan West Village
  • DTX New York Fashion Week spring 2016
  • Taste the Difference
  • Parktoberfest 2016
  • Bob's Steak and Chop House
  • DTX Smart Luxury
  • DTX Earth Day
  • DTX_Gaylord_Promoted_Series
  • IIDA Lavish
  • Huffhines Art Trails 2017
  • Red Bull Flying Bach Dallas
  • Y+A Real Estate
  • Beauty Basics
  • DTX Pet of the Week
  • Long Cove
  • Charity Challenge 2014
  • Legacy West
  • Wildflower
  • Stillwater Capital
  • Tulum
  • DTX Texas Traveler
  • Dallas DART
  • Soldiers' Angels
  • Alexan Riveredge
  • Ebby Halliday Realtors
  • Zephyr Gin
  • Sixty Five Hundred Scene
  • Christy Berry
  • Entertainment Destination
  • Dallas Art Fair 2015
  • St. Bernard Sports Duck Head
  • Jameson DTX
  • Alara Uptown Dallas
  • Cottonwood Art Festival fall 2017
  • DTX Tastemakers 2015
  • Cottonwood Arts Festival
  • The Taylor
  • Decks in the Park
  • Alexan Henderson
  • Gallery at Turtle Creek
  • Omni Hotel DTX
  • Red on the Runway
  • Whole Foods Dallas 2018
  • Artizone Essential Eats
  • Galleria Dallas Runway Revue
  • State Fair 2016 Promoted
  • Trigger's Toys Ultimate Cocktail Experience
  • Dean's Texas Cuisine
  • Real Weddings Dallas
  • Real Housewives of Dallas
  • Jan Barboglio
  • Wildflower Arts and Music Festival
  • Hearts for Hounds
  • Okay to Say Dallas
  • Indochino Dallas
  • Old Forester Dallas
  • Dallas Apartment Locators
  • Dallas Summer Musicals
  • PSW Real Estate Dallas
  • Paintzen
  • DTX Dave Perry-Miller
  • DTX Reliant
  • Get in the Spirit
  • Bachendorf's
  • Holiday Wonder
  • Village on the Parkway
  • City Lifestyle
  • opportunity knox villa-o restaurant
  • Nasher Summer Sale
  • Simpson Property Group
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2017 Dallas
  • Carlisle & Vine
  • DTX New Beginnings
  • Get in the Game
  • Red Bull Air Race
  • Dallas DanceFest
  • 2015 Dallas Stylemaker
  • Youth With Faces
  • Energy Ogre
  • DTX Renewable You
  • Galleria Dallas Decadence
  • Bella MD
  • Tractorbeam
  • Young Texans Against Cancer
  • Fresh Start Dallas
  • Dallas Farmers Market
  • Soldier's Angels Dallas
  • Shipt
  • Elite Dental
  • Texas Restaurant Association 2017
  • State Fair 2017
  • Scottish Rite
  • Brooklyn Brewery
  • DTX_Stylemakers
  • Alexan Crossings
  • Ascent Victory Park
  • Top Texans Under 30 Dallas
  • Discover Downtown Dallas
  • San Luis Resort Dallas
  • Greystar The Collection
  • FIG Finale
  • Greystar M Line Tower
  • Lincoln Motor Company
  • The Shelby
  • Jonathan Goldwater Events
  • Windrose Tower
  • Gift Guide 2016
  • State Fair of Texas 2016
  • Choctaw Dallas
  • TodayTix Dallas promoted
  • Whole Foods
  • Unbranded 2014
  • Frisco Square
  • Unbranded 2016
  • Circuit of the Americas 2018
  • The Katy
  • Snap Kitchen
  • Partners Card
  • Omni Hotels Dallas
  • Landmark on Lovers
  • Harwood Herd
  • Galveston.com Dallas
  • Holiday Happenings Dallas 2018
  • TenantBase
  • Cottonwood Art Festival 2018
  • Hawkins-Welwood Homes
  • The Inner Circle Dallas
  • Eating in Season Dallas
  • ATTPAC Behind the Curtain
  • TodayTix Dallas
  • The Alexan
  • Toyota Music Factory
  • Nosh Box Eatery
  • Wildflower 2018
  • Society Style Dallas 2018
  • Texas Scottish Rite Hospital 2018
  • 5 Mockingbird
  • 4110 Fairmount
  • Visit Taos
  • Allegro Addison
  • Dallas Tastemakers 2018
  • The Village apartments
  • City of Burleson Dallas

    Dallas Could Learn From Mad Men

    TNT's Dallas midseason finale sets Southfork — not series — on fire

    Elaine Liner
    Apr 14, 2014 | 11:48 pm

    What if Dallas episodes were as well-crafted as those of cable's best series, Mad Men? What if they were written with wit and style? What if they actually gave viewers some accurate, trenchant insight into the lives of rich people like the Ewings, the aging oil-and-cattle barons left over from the Texas of yesteryear whose kids are doing tech start-ups and joining museum boards?

    In other words, why isn't Dallas as interesting as Dallas?

    This week's episode was the half-season finale as the show takes a hiatus until August 18 to make way for 10 new scripted series debuting on TNT this summer. Those include new shows by TV drama heavy-hitters Steven Bochco, Michael Bay and the producers of Showtime's Emmy winner, Homeland.

    There's no big story arc to tie episodes together week to week. No cliffhangers worth caring about. No characters to love or hate enough to make the show a must-see.

    Watch out: Those folks know how to write for television. If their series take off ratings-wise, they could squeeze Dallas off the primetime schedule.

    Which might not be such a tragedy. As a reboot of the top-rated oldie from the 1980s, this Dallas suffers terribly from a lack of quality writing. (This week's episode, titled "Where There's Smoke" was co-written by series producer Cynthia Cidre and Robert Rovner.)

    There's no big season-long story arc to tie episodes together week to week. No cliffhangers worth caring about. No characters to love or hate enough to make the show a must-see.

    On the old Dallas, you knew who were heroes and villains. Now characters flip from rotten to righteous to rotten again from episode to episode. Characters behave so erratically, it's as if the writers aren't reading each other's scripts.

    One week Sue Ellen (Linda Gray, soldiering through every awful line of dialogue like the champ she is) is a drunk, the next she's sober, then she's blotto again. Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) has done little this year but whisper-yell each week that he will allow neither fracking nor redecorating at Southfork.

    "Over my dead body," he's said a few times to scheming nephew John Ross (the height-challenged, inexpressive Josh Henderson). "Don't tempt me, Uncle Bobby," John Ross mumbles back.

    The show's writers, different from week to week, have tried to make John Ross into J.R. Jr. But Henderson's no Hagman, so the attention heaped on his character just emphasizes the actor's inability to carry the series as a leading man.

    This season had John Ross marrying doe-eyed brunette Pamela Rebecca Barnes (Julie Gonzalo) twice and moving her into J.R.'s old bedroom at Southfork. But he was simultaneously carrying on a rather soggy affair with pert blond Emma Brown (Emma Bell).

    Emma's his cousin-by-marriage because she's Bobby's wife Annie's daughter, though Annie hadn't seen the girl in 20 years after ditching her at the State Fair in her baby buggy — a little something she'd never bothered to mention to Bobby. Emma was raised by her rich birth-father, Harris Ryland (Mitch Pileggi), and her Cruella-like grandmother, Judith (Judith Light). They run a trucking firm and a whorehouse on Swiss Avenue. As you do.

    This kind of writing on a primetime drama is so ridiculous that it's insulting to the viewers. It's cheap and tawdry.

    See? This kind of writing on a primetime drama is so ridiculous that it's insulting to the viewers. It's cheap and tawdry. Cartoonish one minute, bawdy the next. And Henderson as a sexy devil? He looks more excited discussing fracking than he does when he's fornicating.

    On Mad Men, we believe Jon Hamm is that complicated advertising man, Don Draper. He has zipper problems like John Ross does, but Don's sexual profligacy seems to come from somewhere. Don has depth. The writers on that show, led by the master, Matthew Weiner, have taken time to give Don Draper a soul.

    On Dallas, even the characters held over from the Reagan years now are just vague facsimiles of the complicated Ewings we used to know. And the new kids — John Ross, Christopher (Bobby's kid, played with maximum stubble by Jesse Metcalfe), Pamela, Emma, Elena, etc. — are so shallow and emotionally vacant, they're little more than pretty ciphers.

    Whether kissing or arguing, their faces don't move. Hard to tell if it's Botox or bad acting.

    Dallas has tried to sex it up this season. Every episode has had John Ross playing bouncing bedmates with Pamela and Emma. Hip to the shenanigans, Annie and Sue Ellen tried to stop John Ross' extramarital hijinks.

    Worrying about it drove Sue Ellen back to the bottle. Annie kicked Emma out of Southfork for about 10 minutes, then invited her back. Sue Ellen moved back into Southfork too, with Bobby and Annie providing a "sober coach" (never seen, though wouldn't that make some good scenes?) to help her stop drinking. How nice of them to keep all the crystal decanters of hooch around the house to sabotage the effort.

    So many dopey subplots keep getting in the way of this show ever finding its rhythm. Drug cartels overthrowing the Mexican government. Arctic oil leases up for grabs. A tedious storyline that had John Ross, Ewing Global employees Elena Ramos (Jordana Brewster) and Nicolas Trevino (gorgeously oily Juan Pablo di Pace), Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval), and a half dozen other characters trying to buy enough shares of stock to take over the company.

    Jesse Metcalfe is about 400 times hunkier than Josh Henderson. And he can act! Why not really make him the white hat against bad-boy John Ross?

    That whole thing fizzled out. Wasn't even mentioned in this week's "finale." And J.R., long dead now, is mentioned so often that we half expect him to stride into the boardroom. Ring out the dead, Dallas. You're not helping yourself by reminding us what's not there anymore.

    Blackmail attempts, fistfights, two women trying to get John Ross' DNA on the same lace dress — sheesh, writers, try to focus.

    Another problem: too many cellphones. Every scene seems to revolve around somebody's iPhone buzzing or someone checking or sending an email. This week's big plot twist had Emma sending video of her latest tryst with John Ross to his wife Pamela, who watched it on her phone and then went into a stupor as her bathtub overflowed.

    (Odd that no cellphone company actually sponsors this show. There are so many phones in characters' hands, it looks like product placement.)

    To give Christopher a love interest, they've paired him up with a young ranch hand played by dead-eyed AnnaLynne McCord. This week her ex-husband absconded with her little boy.

    Christopher and Bobby, playing superheroes in their magic pick-up truck, left lunch at Lee Harvey's and arrived at the Mesquite Rodeo minutes later to retrieve the tyke. (Nice cameo there by Dallas Theater Center and Second Thought Theater actor Steven Walters as an angry rodeo dude.)

    Look, Jesse Metcalfe is about 400 times hunkier than Josh Henderson. And he can act! But all season he's been stuck in one dead-end plotline after another. Why not really make him the white hat against bad-boy John Ross?

    Let them go at it in business and on the homefront. Hard to recall even one scene with both actors in it. Maybe it's because Henderson would need an apple crate to stand on to be eye-to-eye with Metcalfe.

    The real star of this Dallas is Judith Light. In the role of evil matriarch Judith Ryland, she doesn't just chew scenery, she goes after it like a human chainsaw.

    The real star of this Dallas is actress Judith Light. In the role of evil matriarch Judith Ryland, she doesn't just chew scenery, she goes after it like a human chainsaw. This season has seen her snorting coke and declaring "Mama like" as she licked her gums, and, this week, instructing her slutty granddaughter on how to handle men.

    "They heel better when they have a leash around their necks," she snarled. Delicious.

    Light and Pileggi have the ginchiest chemistry of any two actors on this series, but they've shared barely two minutes of screen time. He's especially good at biting back at Light's character. Seeing that she was upset this week, Pileggi's Harris Ryland cracked, "One of the Dalmatians get loose?"

    More lines like that, please. And more actors like these two.

    This week's season opener of AMC's Mad Men featured, as always, deft use of period-perfect music to reflect what was happening to various characters in 1969. The episode ended with Don Draper drunk on his penthouse terrace and his old pal Peggy (Elizabeth Moss) crumpled on the floor of her apartment as Vanilla Fudge's version of "You Keep Me Hangin' On" throbbed on the soundtrack.

    The song made a statement about where these characters are in their lives and what they mean to each other. It hinted at things to come.

    This week's Dallas used a rock song to end on too. As flames licked at the eaves of Southfork — yes, they're burning it down, which is a good way to get those renovations covered by insurance — and John Ross interrupted some girl-on-girl action between Emma and Pamela in his favorite boffing suite at the Omni Dallas hotel, we heard the Doors singing "Break on Through (to the Other Side)."

    The song made no sense against the visuals. Rights to "Light My Fire" must have been too expensive.

    ---

    Catch all episodes in rerun at TNT online. New episodes of Dallas return August 18.

    The new kids — like Emma (Emma Bell) — are so shallow and emotionally vacant, they're little more than pretty ciphers.

    Dallas on TNT season 3
      
    Photo by Skip Bolen
    The new kids — like Emma (Emma Bell) — are so shallow and emotionally vacant, they're little more than pretty ciphers.
    unspecified
    news/entertainment
    CULTUREMAP EMAILS ARE AWESOME
    Get Dallas intel delivered daily.

    Movie Review

    Dark comedy Friendship covers male bonding with copious cringing

    Alex Bentley
    May 16, 2025 | 4:16 pm
    Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd in Friendship
    Photo courtesy of A24
    Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd in Friendship.

    Comedian Tim Robinson has gained a cult following thanks to series like Detroiters and I Think You Should Leave, in which his brand of cringe comedy is on full display. The former Saturday Night Live writer/performer has had a few small movie roles over the years, but he’s now getting his first starring role in the off-kilter Friendship.

    Robinson plays Craig, a mild-mannered suburbanite with a wife, Tami (Kate Mara) and son, Steven (Jack Dylan Grazer). Craig has a boring life that involves little more than going to his middle manager job while wearing the same clothes day after day, anticipating the next Marvel movie, and helping Tami out with her at-home floral business.

    He gets a jolt of energy when Austin (Paul Rudd) moves into the neighborhood. The two men seem to hit it off, with Austin - a weatherman at a local TV channel - even taking Craig on a couple of impromptu adventures. But when Craig commits a couple of faux pas at a group gathering at Austin’s house, their bond starts to fracture.

    Even though the film is written and directed by Andrew DeYoung, it’s clear that Robinson had a big influence on the style of comedy it features. There are no big set pieces with a slew of jokes coming one after another. Instead, the film forces the audience to try to vibe with the very particular type of wavelength it’s giving off, one that could almost be called anti-comedy for the way the laughs come out of left field.

    The 100-minute film is full of random comedic moments, like Steven kissing Tami on the lips, Craig being obsessed with his plain brown clothes, a group sing-along, and more. More often than not, it’s the way Craig reacts to both normal and abnormal situations that gets the laughs. The character is needy and oblivious, two traits that combine to make many of his actions cringeworthy.

    Perhaps most importantly for this type of movie, there are many things in the story that go unexplained or don’t make sense. Seemingly crucial elements are brought up only to fade away just as quickly, while other parts that appeared to be throwaway sections get callbacks later in the film. DeYoung and Robinson are determined to keep the audience on their toes the entire time, never knowing what to expect next.

    Robinson has the perfect face for a story like this, one that’s bland enough to blend into the background but memorable enough to sell the jokes. His demeanor is also excellent, never becoming too expressive, even when he gets angry. With long hair, a mustache, and a certain swagger, Rudd is a great complement to Robinson. Only in a film like this would an everyman like Rudd be considered the suave and cool one.

    There will be some that will see Friendship and come away wondering what the hell they just watched. But anyone who goes in knowing that they’re about to witness a comedy that challenges their sensibilities will likely have a great time.

    ---

    Friendship is now playing in select theaters.

    moviesfilm
    news/entertainment

    most read posts

    Where to drink in Dallas right now: 5 happy hours and specials for May

    Mom-and-pop Asian chain from Austin makes Dallas debut in McKinney

    Tom Cruise to make Dallas BBQ stop while on Mission Impossible tour

    Loading...