Knots Landing, Season 2

Reviewer: Alyice Edrich

Movie

Plot

A drama that ran in hour segments from 1979 to 1993. Five families, living in a Southern California cul-de-sac, in a fictitious community named Knots Landing become friends, confidantes, and business partners. The show centers around the personal lives of these families, but as the years progress, the storyline becomes more complicated and complex: couples get divorced, residents move in and out of the cul-de-sac, people die or move away, businesses grow, betrayals exist around every corner, and major plot twists develop.

Starring

Ted Shackelford, Michelle Lee, Joan Van Ark, Kim Lankford, Constance McCashin, Pat Peterson, Donna Mills, William Devane, Doug Sheehan, and many others.

The Review

If I had the choice between Dallas and Knots Landing, I’d choose Knots Landing hands down. In my humble opinion, the acting is superior, the storyline more realistic, and the series more intriguing. Even today, as I watch the series with a fresh, more mature set of eyes, I can see how the storyline transcends time and is just as relevant today as it was the day it was aired.

Season two brings with it loads of drama as Abby causes chaos in the lives of everyone living in Knots Landing: from extramarital affairs to lying, cheating, and stealing. Val returns to school in an effort to make something of herself. Karen puts her nose in where it “doesn’t belong” according to her husband, Sid, and uncovers some truths that only she is willing to face. Laura and Richard continue to face marital strife, Ginger and Kenny reconcile after Ginger discovers she’s pregnant, and then there’s Gary who just cannot seem to stay away from trouble. First he has an extramarital affair with the wife of a guy he’s sponsoring through AA, then he accepts an illegal deal that puts Sid’s entire business and his family in harms way. On top of all that drama, there are issues with the kids. Diana is feeling pressured to sleep with her boyfriend, Eric is accused of putting a girl in coma after bringing marijuana to the party that is later laced with LCD. Michael is diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, and Abby’s kids are kidnapped by their father.

Each episode brings viewers to a moral dilemma of choosing right over wrong, of rooting for the bad guys or the good guys, of taking the life lessons shared in each episode and implementing them into one’s daily life or ignoring them and taking the show as nothing more than pure entertainment. Either way, it’s entertainment at its finest.

Your Task

Pick up a copy of Knots Landing, season two, and use the episodes as learning tools to help troubled marriages and/or families in your church.

Okay, before you think I am crazy for suggesting such a worldly film over other “Christian-themed” films understand where I am coming from. Christian films are often sugar-coated reenactments and not true representations of worldly marriages. On top of that, they’re often inundated with scriptural references which tend to turn new Christians off and appear too sappy and/or preachy for couples in troubled marriages.

By presenting troubled marriages with something that isn’t preachy, you allow their minds to be opened and ready for discussion. By choosing to discuss the troubled marriages in the series, you take the guilt and blame off the couples and allow them to speak their minds without feeling as though they must defend themselves.

You can even take the discussions a step further by preparing a home Bible study to accompany the series. Just remember to allow for differencing of opinions, real life view points, and above all, the flexibility to get off track, to laugh, to cry, to show frustrations, and to reflect upon what the Bible says to do in certain situations.

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