Dynasty is a Netflix’s remake of a popular soap Dynasty. Many of us grew up with this series and even though I liked original dynasty when I was a child I had nearly no interest in watching the remake. Therefore, the series came to its seventh episode before I watched it (for blogging purposes only).
I thought this is going to be one of my bad blogs, which does not happen often but it does happen from time to time. As it turned out, I was wrong because I actually liked this series. It is still a soap but a better one which makes it feel like you are watching a normal series. In other words, the story is still ‘soapish’ with one rich family and the story centred on them and intrigues from outside as well as from within. However, unlikely for the old Dynasty soap where the story was moving slowly (or any other soap for that matter), in this version the story moves fast which is why I liked watching it.
But, the story is not what made me continue watching this series because I am more of a fan of series such as US Shameless or Orange is the New Black (OITNB) where the story is centred on people and their everyday lives as well as coping with issues such as poverty, surviving and similar. What attracted me to continue watching this version of Dynasty is an important discussion about women who sleep their way to the top.
Thus, Cristal (Nathalie Kelley) has a reputation of sleeping her way to the top by marrying Blake Carrington who then appoints her as CEO. While this is not true for Blake (Grant Show) does not let emotions get in the way of appointments and would not just appoint someone who would not deserve the promotion, this is the general belief. However, when other women believe that Cristal has slept her way to the top, they visibly show hostility towards Cristal for behaving in that way and one colleague openly tells her off by saying she makes all women look bad and that it is women like her who are giving misogynist’ a reason to argue their point and threat all women badly. She also says she made damage to the whole gender. I thought this was a very important discussion for women who damage other women’s prospects should be told off in every possible way. By this I do not mean just in these situations in regards to sleeping with men to get to positions, but also in every other situation where women are arguing against equality policies that enhanced opportunities for women.
However, Cristal also sends an important message about how women should behave. Thus, when one women tries to take over her position by lying that important clients are worried about Cristal’s reputation she appoints as head of PR the women who told her off and then tells the other women who tried to back stab her that women should not back stab each other no matter what, because that causes damage to women and prevents their progress and entry into the business world too.
Another important thing in the series is that prejudices about PR are again enforced and thus we hear some characters saying that PR is about spin and creating an image, and we also see Cristal as a typical PR bunny always perfectly dressed and living a glamorous life. Very negative portrayal entirely ignoring positive aspects of PR as a profession such as reputation building and corporate social responsibility initiatives, which help society. However, this brings to another problem for CSR is portrayed as a green wash as well, and thus once again CSR has received a negative portrayal that goes hand in hand with negative portrayal of PR.
What is also interesting is characters and how the story has changed to adapt to new time. Therefore, old Blake Carrington was an oil tycoon while the new one is global energy tycoon. Krystle is now Cristal and while the first Krystle was Blake’s secretary and second wife, the second one is called Cristal and is his PR executive. Nevertheless, while the first Krystle was portrayed by Linda Evans the second one is Latina and thus Cristal Flores portrayed by Nathalie Kelley.
Fallon Carrington’s character also accommodated changes in the position of women in business and thus new Fallon is a successful business woman who works with her father and then starts her own company after her father appoints Cristal to the CEO position. This is a big change from first Fallon who also had ambitions but at the time there was no place for women in the boardroom. Nevertheless, what remains the same is Fallon’s resentment towards her stepmother. I have to say that Fallon is my most enjoyable character because I do not remember old Fallon at all and thus everything that is happening is new for me. A full analysis of differences in characters and how the story changed to adapt to time is available on IMDB. What I particularly liked about the remake is that there is a change in diversity and thus two key characters are now black, i.e. family chauffeur and Fallon’s lover and Jeff Colby, Fallon’s business partner.
In summary, some interesting discussions and portrayals and I can’t believe I am saying this but I am looking forward to future episodes. I feel almost like a child for watching a soap again as I do not watch them normally, however if soap is willing to tackle equality and diversity I am all in.
Thank you for reading.