Popular Culture Review Volume 30, Number 1, Winter 2019 | Page 163

Popular Culture Review 30.1
Eden aired , Dynasty had just been created by Richard Shapiro and his wife , Esther Shapiro . The storylines of episodes that were to air during that season were similar to those of East of Eden . The character Walter Lankershim , a feisty , hard worker , persuades the sensitive Steven Carrington to visit a bordello with him . The promiscuous Fallon Carrington marries the enamored Jeff Colby , but not out of love . Another bride , Krystle Carrington , does not get along with the servant Joseph Anders , and later she takes steps not to have children . Claudia Blaisdel , a mother and unfaithful wife , packs her things and runs away . Future seasons of Dynasty featured additional dark plot elements that no doubt brought East of Eden to viewers ’ minds : arson , battery , blackmail , murder , and suicide .
Most importantly , there is a single element of melodrama which is ubiquitous through all temporal and formal modes of melodramatic entertainment : the attachment genre , which runs the cinema ’ s gamut from the various versions of the tearjerker chestnut Madame X to the heartwarming dramedy Forrest Gump , to the pornography-plotted Boogie Nights , and to the science-fiction classic Star Wars . Kate ’ s reunion with her sons is typical of the attachment genre , according to Hogan ’ s definition :
The main story typically involves a lengthy separation caused by one of the parents or by some outside force . This is commonly followed by one party seeking the other and finding him or her after some errors or misrecognitions . The reunion , however , is often not fully successful and the parents and children may end up separated again . One main difference in subtypes concerns
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