Logo

'Dallas' Actually Earns Its 'A'

Jarett Wieselman

By Jarett Wieselman
@JarettSays

November 07, 2011

twitter

While A-List: New York gave us gays behaving badly and Most Eligible Dallas served up Texas size attitudes, neither quite lived up to their potential as TV's dishiest destination.

So color me shocked that their small screen progeny, Logo's A-List: Dallas, has become TV's ultimate guilty pleasure destination by combining all of their strengths (colorful characters, more backstabbing than ) and none of their weaknesses (fake friendships, blatantly set-up situations).

The show's biggest pro stems from the fact that it centers on six scene-sters -- cowboy Levi, republican fundraiser Taylor, trust fund alkie James, your gay BFF Chase, "stylist" Philip and the token real girl, Ashley -- who were actually friends before the show began (my biggest pet peeve about the NY original). So in the series premiere, Dallas air-dropped you into an already dangerous war zone as Levi was rekindling his relationship with Taylor while denying a hook-up with James.

And don't even get me started on the fact that Levi totally hooked up with Chase in last week's episode. I mean, even the love triangles are bigger in Dallas!

Factor in Ashley, the dream hag, who doesn't hesitate to throw a drink -- or a bitch-slap -- when her gays step out of line (which they constantly do, ensuring there's no shortage of drama in this docu-drama) and you have the recipe for one delicious reality TV cocktail.

The show's only drawback is Philip -- who comes off as an annoyingly shrieky queen whose sole function is to be the producers puppet as he blatantly stirs the pot and poses invasive questions a "real" person would never ask. But even though he triggers my fast-forward finger, Philip doesn't prevent Dallas from getting a big, fat A!

A-List: Dallas airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on Logo.


Keltie Colleen Fangirl Jarett Wieselman Popinion The Insider on TV