DVD review: Was ‘Dallas’ season 3 worthy send-off to series?
“Dallas” was one of those rare shows that truly got a second life on TV. It just so happened that its second life was many decades after the first. While it appears as though the Warner Bros. drama will not have another home for season 4 following its cancellation by TNT, there is a nice gift arriving on January 13 in the form of the season 3 collection, which is available on DVD and Digital HD.
We were sent a copy of the DVD to check out recently, and as an avid “Dallas” supporter, we were hoping that we would remember the series as fondly through this as we did when we first watched the show many months ago. As a whole, we were not disappointed, given that the primary reason we buy such collections is to re-watch old episodes above all else.
Story Quality – Creatively, “Dallas” season 3 is probably a little underrated. It was still in the shadow of Larry Hagman in many ways, but did introduce some great new characters like Nicholas, and establish plenty of twists and turns. Life was as tumultuous as ever between John Ross and Pamela, and who saw that finale coming? Regardless of it it was a season or series finale, it makes sense for the show to go out with a cliffhanger like Christopher’s death, and the reveal that John Ross has a secret sister. It’s dramatic, soapy fun that you can dive into even if you are not familiar with the history of the show. It also gets better and better as the season progresses.
Audio / Video – The quality was almost exactly what you would expect from a strong DVD transfer. There’s nothing necessarily that will blow you away, but for most shows in this genre, it’s not really meant to. The colors pop nicely and you won’t need to clutch onto the remote control to change to volume frequently. We’re still surprised how many DVDs force you into that.
Special Features – Unless you enjoy deleted scenes, the collection’s a little lacking in that department. There are others that probably care about this more than we do; while it is nice to have a bevy of available features, we tend to find most of the time that we rarely watch any of them. There are also subtitles of the episodes in English, French, and Spanish.
Overall – In the end, the set is an essential buy for any “Dallas” fan hoping to complete the collection, and wants to re-watch all of the episodes now wherever they want. Even for some casual fans, it’s a worthy look into what is an underrepresented genre these days in the primetime soap. We’re going to miss diving into the world of Southfork, with its schemers, plotters, and occasional go-getters.