In its day, the primetime soap Dallas embodied ’80s excess with its stories of wealthy narcissists behaving horribly, screwing people both literally and metaphorically, and occasionally having drunken fistfights and taking shots at one another. But did you also know that it changed television forever, and was an epochal work of such artistic import that man has been trying to live up to its standard ever since, with varying results? That was also happening, apparently, at least according to this new, extended, incredibly pompous trailer for TNT’s Dallas revival—a long-in-the-making project initially conceived as a total remake before its producers realized that one simply cannot recreate a show such as Dallas, any more than one can hope to touch the face of God.
No, the best you can do is put the increasingly weathered and stricken face of God himself—in this case, Larry Hagman—back under his Stetson, put Patrick Duffy at his right hand where he belongs, and thus very seriously carry on the Dallas legacy, which is very, very serious indeed. The weight of that legacy is given a meta spin here as it comes to rest on the shoulders of the younger Ewings, and they worry aloud about "getting the Ewing name back on top" and then there's lots of portentous, sins-of-the-father thematic overtones. And just in case you haven’t properly appreciated how important this show is yet, both the new and original cast sit down to tell you in no uncertain terms that it’s all very compelling and epic, in those exact words. Fortunately, some people also get slapped and tossed through windows, which is more like the Dallas we actually remember.