When To Start Watching: Dynasty

Dynasty premiered on ABC on January 12, 1981. The show ranked #28 in its first season. By Season Two, it had broken into the top 10, and by Season Five, it had hit number one. So when should you start watching the show, even though all nine seasons are currently streaming on Amazon Prime? And should you even bother with Season One? Here’s why you should…and why you shouldn’t…below.

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Why You Should Watch Season One

The first season of Dynasty was a much more down-to-earth show than the jewelry, fur, big shoulder pads, bigger hair, and camp-fest it eventually became. Krystal (Linda Evans) was but a humble secretary who felt out of place in her new husband Blake’s (John Forsythe) mansion. The servants, including snooty Joseph (Lee Bergere), made it clear that, no, she wasn’t imagining things; she really didn’t.

The main reason to watch Season One of Dynasty is for the raw, painful, and, for the time, relatively progressive scenes of Steven (Al Corley) begging his traditional father to accept Steven’s homosexuality. Some of those exchanges would have been a better fit for the realistic family dramas of the 1970s rather than the soon-to-be-over-the-top excesses of the 1980s. If you only knew the show in its later years, the tone feels completely off…and quite moving.

MORE: Here’s why you should stream Dynasty.

Why You Shouldn’t Watch Season Two

Before she wed Blake, humble secretary Krystal was in love with Matthew (Bo Hopkins). Matthew was but a humble, independent oilman competing with majors like Blake (and hiring Steven when his dad wanted nothing to do with him).

Matthew turned to Krystal while his mentally unstable wife, Claudia (Pamela Belwood), was in the hospital. They fell in love, but then Claudia came home, and Matthew felt he couldn’t leave his wife or teen daughter, Lindsay (Katy Kurtzman), which was noble of him. But it’s also boring. Very, very boring.

The Blaisdell family was very, very boring. This is why all but Claudia were written out by the end of the first season. They are also the ones who make it unnecessary to watch. Also not in Season One: Alexis (Joan Collins), Sammy Jo (Heather Locklear), Adam (Gordon Thompson), and Dominique (Diahann Carroll).

Have you watched Dynasty? Do you think you’ll revisit it again on Amazon Prime? If so, what season will you start watching first? Let us know in the comments below.