Saturday, January 29, 2011

Crystal's Lie, Part One

As promised, I have slept on it and now that my mind is rested and supple I will try to recall what McNeil said about DYNASTY. He said he watched an episode called "Crystal's Lie, Part One." Can that be right? Was there a character called Crystal? That sounds right. I will tell you what I did not tell McNeil: I have never seen an episode of DYNASTY! Here is what I think McNeil said about "Crystal's Lie, Part One": "It's impossible to tell whether it's a work of genius or the product of an idiot." He said there's a scene in which a man comes home, looks through the mail (or something, this is all an approximation and any inaccuracy should be attributed to me, not McNeil), loosens his tie, sits down, and has a conversation with his wife like: "How was your day?" "Fine." "Where's Bill?" "Playing football." "Do you want something to eat?" "I ate lunch pretty late today" and so on and so on. "Just two people sitting around in their home," McNeil called it. Then he said there was a long scene on an airplane... I think he said an airplane, but he mentioned couches... were there couches on airplanes in the DYNASTY days? Maybe it was a private airplane! I am pretty sure McNeil said some people were sitting on couches on an airplane, across from one another. One got a drink. Then the two people stared at one another and crossed their legs and just sat there a while before one of them began speaking. Like Samuel Beckett I guess! McNeil is mesmerized by the stately pacing of DYNASTY is the way I would put it.