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The Dynasty: New England Patriots Review | A Sports Documentary Masterpiece

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• The Apple TV+ docuseries The Dynasty: New England Patriots is a remarkable sports documentary that rivals some of the best in the genre.
• The series tells an emotional underdog story that transforms into a Shakespearean drama, chronicling the rise and fall of the Patriots as they became known as the "Evil Empire."
• It provides unprecedented access to the past and delves into major controversies surrounding the team, including Spygate, Deflategate, and various trickery tactics.

Jeff Benedict's detailed book about the New England Patriots, The Dynasty , transforms into magnificent life with a new Apple TV+ docuseries in February . Thousands of hours of archival footage, unbelievably candid and entertaining interviews, and the occasional dramatization come together to tell an epic story that amounts to so much more than an NFL documentary . Over the course of 10 episodes, The Dynasty becomes an edge-of-your-seat drama about how an underdog became a villain, how competition becomes an addiction, and how a selfless team fractured into many pieces. It's a human story, but also an almost operatic one in its scope.

Director Matthew Hamachek and his team compiled a docuseries that ranks among the best sports documentaries of all time — The Last Dance, Hoop Dreams , Senna , Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals, Tokyo Olympiad , etc. You don't need to be a Patriots fan, or honestly even an NFL fan, to become deeply invested in the story behind The Dynasty: New England Patriots , though this will likely become the authoritative text for any New England fan.

The New England Patriots Give Unfettered Access to the Past

The Dynasty

The Dynasty: New England Patriots marches inexorably forward in chronological order, though it takes time for some liberal detours through the past. It begins roughly with Tom Brady's first season playing in the NFL — a year which, on its own, could have made a great documentary. He was a fourth string quarterback, picked 199th in the draft, and was forced to step up when New England's golden boy, Drew Bledsoe, suffered a near-fatal injury on the field. As Bledsoe improved his health, Brady improved his game, and then- Patriots coach Bill Belichik had to make a decision. It would change the course of sports history.

A wide array of interviewees show up, all filmed individually in the same Errol Morris-type void, and provide invaluable commentary and narration that is woven together to form an emotional narrative. NFL stars and coaches from the Patriots and their competitors recount the games and emotions that happened more than 20 years prior. Ty Law is a surprising scene-stealer, a hilarious interviewee with great insight into Brady's early days.

Bill Belichik and Tom Brady Sit Down for Interviews

Belichik himself is, well, Bill Belichik. He defines stoicism and has never been the best speaker, though a couple of moments surprise. Footage of him from the past, however, is varied and wonderful, from Belichik playing with puppies and chasing his young children around to him screaming profanities on the field and boosting the morale of a young Brady. Robert Kraft comes across as wise and wry, and we get a great picture of the man by the end. His story is almost as interesting as Brady's.

Related: The Best Movie Based on the NFL

And then there's Brady himself , who has become increasingly comfortable in front of the camera over the years of commercials, cameos, and talk show appearances. He's charming here, but having walked away from the NFL forever (at least we think), Brady is unafraid to really lay himself bare here. He's arguably more profane than anyone else, and he's utterly straightforward about a good deal of things. His family and friends detail "Tommy's Temper" and the way Brady has an almost violent, aggressive competitive streak. Of course, not everything is fully exposed.

Spygate, Deflategate, Dynastygate

The Dynasty 's first three episodes are genuinely moving and brilliantly edited, telling an incredible underdog story that feels nearly Shakespearean. Or, with one interviewee mentioning God, destiny, and the devil, it seems practically mythical. But like Darth Vader's tragic character arc , the good guys are destined to become bad guys, with the team soon being referred to as 'the Evil Empire' for a variety of reasons. As the series progresses, it refuses to shy away from the multiple major controversies surrounding the Patriots, from Spygate to Deflategate, from falsified injury reports to play clock and formation trickery.

Related: 10 Sports Movies That Were About More Than the Game

The Dynasty gathers a wide swath of information about these scandals, much more than the usual sports fan will have ever heard. What Ernie Adams, a brilliant and highly watchable football researcher and analyst for the Patriots, says in the first episode is true:

The media, it's the group that I call 'the scribes.' It's just a lot of people who don't have a clue what they're talking about, frankly. But there are some experts in New England football. And they all work for the coaching staff of the Patriots. If you're not in the building, you don't really know.

Fortunately, The Dynasty brings in the people who do really know, providing juicy details about everything from the notorious to the pleasantly ordinary. This is backed up by an astounding amount of camera footage with surprisingly great quality; the NFL was in the process of digitizing their records at the time The Dynasty began filming, so there is some genuinely good-looking video from the '90s and 2000s. It's easy to take for granted that everyone has a camera in their pocket today; you wouldn't have expected so much footage of every little thing to exist 30 years ago, and yet the NFL records become a priceless tool for The Dynasty to explore the real humanity and drama of this team.

The Dynasty: New England Patriots ​ will premiere with two episodes on Feb. 16, 2024, followed by two more episodes on Feb. 23 and each week after. You can watch it through the link below and check out the trailer as well.​​:

Watch The Dynasty

Tom Brady, teammates open up for 'The Dynasty,' a fascinating video history of the Patriots

Apple tv+ docuseries goes deep on super bowl victories as well as spygate, deflategate and aaron hernandez..

Rob Gronkowski (left) and Tom Brady, who share their Patriots memories on “The Dynasty,” celebrate after winning the AFC Championship Game in 2017.

Jim Rogash/Getty Images

The most storied NFL team of the 21st century gets the “Last Dance” treatment in the 10-part Apple TV+ sports documentary “The Dynasty: The New England Patriots,” and when you take a beat to think about it, there are a number of broad similarities between the Pats and the 1990s Chicago Bulls:

• Both teams won six world championships, clustered in groups of three (or three out of four).
• Each team featured the GOAT of their respective sports in Michael Jordan and Tom Brady.
• Both Jordan and Brady were often at odds with management, i.e., Jordan’s clashes with Bulls GM Jerry Krause and Brady’s power struggles with Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.
• With the Patriots as well as the Bulls, you’re left with the feeling that the core group perhaps could have squeezed in one more championship — but there were too many egos in the locker room and on the management side for that to happen.

Adapting the critically acclaimed, best-selling book of the same name by Jeff Benedict, the Emmy-winning director Matthew Hamachek (HBO’s “Tiger”) and the Brian Grazer/Ron Howard-led Imagine Documentaries (“The Super Models”) have crafted a fascinating and revealing work of video journalism that chronicles the rollercoaster journey of the Patriots’ franchise from the late 1990s through the present day. The filmmakers skillfully weave in sit-down interviews with more than 60 participants, including Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Belichick, Brady, Drew Bledsoe, Ty Law and a host of other former players, as well as NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, various Brady family members and stellar Boston-based journalists such as Jackie MacMullan and Michael Holley.

• Tom Brady insists this retirement is for real

We’re treated to a wealth of game highlights, locker-room footage and archival news footage as the series goes in-depth on every Super Bowl victory and a number of crushing on-field setbacks. Most admirable of all, “The Dynasty” shines an unforgiving spotlight on the Spygate and Deflategate scandals — and devotes an entire episode to the horrific and tragic case of Aaron Hernandez , the enormously talented but deeply troubled and volatile star tight end who was convicted of killing Odin Lloyd in 2015 and killed himself in prison two years later.

• ‘80 For Brady’: When faced with clunky jokes and implausible football, opt to pass

Speaking of the 2010 draft in which New England selected Hernandez, the legendary Ernie Adams, former director of football research for the Patriots, says: “In the fourth round, we found this guy that we liked. There were some off-the-field issues. … Looking in hindsight of course, we did not understand the full dimension of what the problem was …” Your heart breaks for former Pats receiver Deion Branch when Branch laments that he wishes he could have recognized the depths of Hernandez’ troubles: “I have some moments where I’m just like … ‘You should have seen that. Deion, you should have seen that. …’ ”

The troubles of Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez (pictured during a hearing in his murder case in 2013) are the subject of a full episode of “The Dynasty.”

Jared Wickerham/Getty Images

On a much lighter side, we’re reminded that the Patriots selected Rob Gronkowski in that same draft — and when Gronk and his crew whooped it up in front of the cameras, he got a phone call from the organization, telling him in essence to sit down. “I’m sitting there like, ‘Wow, I’m already in trouble,’ ” recalls Gronkowski. “It’s been five minutes since I’ve been on the Patriots and I’m already in trouble.’ ” While Gronk, Brady, Kraft, Drew Bledsoe, Randy Moss and a number of other key figures in the Patriots’ story are refreshingly candid in offering recollections and insights, Belichick is his usual Thief of Joy self, only reluctantly praising Brady and mumbling his typical aphorisms about how it takes a total team effort to win championships. If you’re looking for Belichick to speak openly about Hernandez or Spygate or Deflategate or even why he benched star cornerback Malcolm Butler in Super Bowl LII against the Eagles, have you seen Bill Belichick all these years? That was never going to happen.

Bill Belichick is his usual tight-lipped self in his interview for “The Dynasty.”

Not there aren’t a myriad of triumphant sequences in “The Dynasty.” Even for those of us who aren’t Patriots fans and even might have been slightly irritated by their dominance, one can’t help but enjoy Butler’s exuberance as he recalls his interception in Super Bowl XLIX, which according to the analytics is the single most significant play in post-season history. Randy Moss, Tedy Bruschi, Julian Edelman, Lawyer Milloy and a host of other players are all too happy to share their treasured memories as well. Even Tom’s sister Nancy Brady delivers some interesting tidbits about her brother’s experiences, including his decision to part ways with the Patriots and take his talents to Tampa Bay, where he won one last Super Bowl — which I’m sure delighted Bill Belichick to no end.

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‘The Dynasty’ is so much more than spicy details about the end of the Brady-Belichick era

The new Apple TV+ documentary will let Patriots fans relive the dynasty from start to finish.

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Chances are, if you’re a Patriots fan, and you’ve seen a trailer for the new documentary on Apple TV+ for The Dynasty: New England Patriots , you don’t need me to write anything about it. You’ll still be on your couch the second it comes out to watch the first two episodes.

Be that as it may, I’m still going to write this review to give you an idea of what you’re in store for, and even give you a few tidbits about what you will see as you’re reliving the story of the greatest dynasty in the history of the NFL.

By now you’ve probably heard all of the salacious details about players saying how the show presents how difficult it was to play for Bill Belichick and how Tom Brady wasn’t going to come back no matter what. That is certainly part of this documentary, and I understand that people are looking for someone to blame as to why the Patriots dynasty ended.

However, what this documentary does, and what I hope people take out of it the most, is how and why the Patriots were able to do what they did. Not for five years, not for 10 years, not even for 15 years, but for almost 20 years.

“I’m not going to allow other people to take away from something so special,” said quarterback Tom Brady in the show. “It’s perfect, it doesn’t need to be more than that.”

What was so skillfully done by director Matthew Hamachek was the weaving of the past and the present together.

He goes back to when Robert Kraft first dreamed of owning the team, and how his relationship with Bill Parcells shaped the way he interacted with Bill Belichick. He goes back to Cleveland, where Scott Pioli discusses the Bernie Kosar situation, and how, even though they were confident that moving on from Kosar was the right call, not having a legitimate replacement is what ultimately led to their demise — how that shaped the Tom Brady vs. Drew Bledsoe decision, and how, if it hadn’t worked, it very well might have ended the same way in New England.

The documentary also dives deep into the three main scandals of the dynasty. Spygate, Deflategate, and the Aaron Hernandez situation.

One of the reasons I think they did such a good job of handling the first two is that Patriots fans, as well as Patriots haters, will probably dislike the way the documentary covers Spygate and Deflategate. What surprised me the most about the entire series was how candid Robert Kraft was about Hernandez.

The Patriots’ owner was quite forthcoming the entire series, but really went into great detail about what happened with Aaron Hernandez, and the fallout that came from it. I would say that the only person who was a bit guarded in the series is Belichick, which isn’t particularly surprising. There are times that he is candid, but other times that it sounds like a Belichick press conference.

This will lead some to view him as the “villain” of the story, although I don’t believe that to be the intention of the film makers.

That said, The Dynasty doesn’t pull punches and isn’t afraid to discuss the lowest of the lows. The episode about the 2007 season is going to make you feel just as terrible as you remember feeling all those years ago. It also goes into great detail about the great times, and has a ton of previously unseen footage from inside the locker room and meeting rooms.

As someone who has been a season ticket holder since 2000, and has been covering the team for this site and others since 2017, I learned quite a bit from this series as well.

The last thing I’ll leave you with is this. The Dynasty isn’t The Last Dance . That was a documentary about the Chicago Bulls, yes, but it was mostly about Michael Jordan. The Dynasty isn’t a documentary about Tom Brady, or about Bill Belichick, or about Robert Kraft. It’s about the New England Patriots, and they make it clear the whole time.

This is a must watch, and, whether or not you walk away upset about how it ended, I think it will give a clear picture of just how incredible the partnership between Brady, Belichick, and Kraft really was — and how lucky Patriots fans were to have them in their lives for 20 years.

You can watch our exclusive interview with director Matthew Hamachek here , and you can watch the series, which will release two episodes every week for five weeks starting tomorrow, February 16, on Apple TV+.

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"The Dynasty" episode review: The Tom Brady origin story

By Michael Hurley

Updated on: February 29, 2024 / 2:38 PM EST / CBS Boston

BOSTON -- When a football dynasty spans nearly 20 years, there's bound to be some audio and video documentation compiled along the way. And for the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady-Robert Kraft Patriots, there's been plenty.

From the old Super Bowl DVDs, to "The Brady 6," to "A Football Life: Bill Belichick," to "Do Your Job" and its two sequels, to the "America's Game" compilations, to "Tom Vs. Time," to "Man In The Arena," to all of the NFL Films mic'd up content, to "The Tuck Rule," to "The Two Bills," to "Belichick and Saban: The Art of Coaching," there's been no shortage of content available for consumption over the years.

So, with Apple TV+ releasing an appropriately named 10-part documentary series called "The Dynasty," there might be some skepticism about the programming providing anything new. Understandably so.

And while there's no doubt quite a bit of rehash in the first two episodes of the series -- which debuted on the streaming platform on Friday morning -- the series that took years to complete no doubt provides a compelling and dramatic look at the early days of the dynasty.

With two episodes debuting every Friday, we'll be running reviews of some of the highlights that really popped each week. That begins with episodes 1 and 2, which became available to stream on Friday.

"The Dynasty" Episode 1: "Backup Plan"

--Patriots fans know the history of the franchise well, but Robert Kraft's acquisition of the team is briefly covered. Comedian Bill Burr properly sums up the state of the Patriots during the pre-Kraft era: "The old Patriots -- like, they shouldn't even be in the league. Like, that's how I felt. I get sick to my stomach when I look back, because of the pain."

--The opening montage is killer. Even though you likely witnessed everything Patriots-related that's happened since 2001 (that is, after all, the target market for this program), you'll still get the juices flowing watching the three-minute opening montage. Shoutout to David Bowie, and to the people who put that together.

--The tale of Tom Brady taking Drew Bledsoe's job is told in detail. Arguably more detail than necessary. But the episode properly details the weight of the decision being made by Belichick, while also spotlighting just how unlikely the rise from Brady was. Damien Woody recalls with astonishment that Brady made a rah-rah speech to all of the Patriots veterans about how he'd be doing his part to lead the team, and Tedy Bruschi remembers kind of laughing at Brady's effort.

--The Bryan Cox hit on Jerome Pathon gets some nice placement. Real die-hards of the early days of the dynasty look at that hit as the moment that the 2001 season really started. 

--Some sweet camcorder footage from former defensive lineman David Nugent captures rookie Tom Brady around his new house. Some of the never-before-seen or very-rarely-seen footage helps the episode along as it retells stories that most New Englanders have heard countless times before, and seeing a 23-year-old Brady chugging food and being generally goofy is part of that. (Nugent tells some good stories about Brady used to slam controllers and intentionally freeze the Nintendo whenever he was losing at Tecmo Bowl. The man has never taken well to losing.)

--A "Sports Final" clip featuring Bob Lobel, Steve Burton, Bob Ryan and Dan Shaughnessy gets a nice extended play. And what kind of company man would I be if I didn't note how great it was? The clip involves Lobel stirring the pot by introducing the potential for a quarterback controversy once Bledsoe recovered from his injuries. Everyone agrees that Bledsoe will get his job back.

--Robert Kraft stated clearly that he didn't agree at the time with Belichick's decision to keep Brady as the starter once Bledsoe was medically cleared to return. "I didn't feel good about it. And I felt that Drew was treated unfairly," Kraft said.

"The Dynasty" Episode 2: "The Snow Bowl"

--The second episode has just two areas of focus: Tom Brady's origin story, and the Snow Bowl. For longtime Patriots fans, there's not too much new information here. Yet the behind-the-scenes draft day footage from 2000 showed Belichick apologizing over the phone to Brady for making him wait so long.

  --Ernie Adams made his series debut and let his opinion on sports writers be known.  "It's just a lot of people who don't have a clue what they're talking about, frankly." Hey! Not nice. Scott Pioli also did his best Ernie Adams impression.

--More camcorder footage, this time of a seemingly inebriated Tom Brady playing pool. It's crazy that such a tape probably sat in a box in a dusty attic for decades before being unearthed here.

--This is just an idle thought, but during some of the highlights from the 2001 season, it just looks like a different sport than the NFL we watch today. Bigger, bulkier, slower, basic. A camera shot outside the Patriots' locker room after the Snow Bowl shows a bank of pay phones available for player use, for perspective. The fact that Brady was playing as recently as two seasons ago remains ludicrous. 

--One major criticism from me comes during a recreated drive to the stadium for Ernie Adams, during which some sports radio clips are played. The sports radio clips sound ... fake. Manufactured for the purpose of this recreated drive to a stadium. One of the "sports radio callers" sounded an awful lot like Tommy Guarino, a popular Boston sports fan on Instagram who appeared in an interview in the first episode. Another "caller" said, "I am very concerned that we're gonna turn into a big, fat pumpkin." And a third "caller" said, "We're gonna lose the final game in Foxboro Stadium. I'm afraid we're all gonna get our butts handed to us." It all sounded fake. Radio footage from January 2002 is presumably difficult if not impossible to track down all these years later. But omitting it rather than recreating it -- if that's indeed what took place -- would have been the better move. Likewise, having Adams recreate his drive to the old stadium on a snowy Saturday night wasn't necessary to telling the story.

--A couple of quotes on the Snow Bowl stand out. Robert Kraft said, "The snow just came continuously, and we tried to clear it by the rules, but as little as we had to. I know I'm not supposed to say that, but that's the truth." And on the tuck rule, Brady said, "It felt like a fumble to me, and it looked like a fumble to basically anyone else. Except that's not the way the rule was written. So, we didn't write the f---in' rule!" That Tom Brady has a real pottymouth in this series.

--Look, as far as Snow Bowl documentaries go ... this one is excellent. Great footage, great encapsulation of most of the events of the night, and great commentary from the players involved. Again, you surely know just about all there is to know about the Snow Bowl if you've followed the Patriots already. But the presentation is very well done.

--The episode ends on a cliff-hanger, as Tom Brady is seen getting injured in Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship Game. We'll see how it works out for the team next week in episode 3. Perhaps that Bledsoe guy will make another appearance.

Michael Hurley is a digital sports producer for CBS Boston. He's worked at WBZ for more than 10 years. Previously, he covered Boston sports for NESN.com.

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Dynasty: 5 things they kept the same (& 5 things they changed) in the reboot.

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10 most ridiculous schemes from sitcoms, ranked, the last kingdom already has the perfect prequel series.

The 1980s was a thriving decade for family drama series, with popular shows like  Dallas, Dynasty , Knots Landing,  and  Falcon Crest  dominating the ratings. Nothing could compare to those shows.

However, if you missed out on your opportunity to watch  Dynasty  the first time, you're in luck. The show was brought back as a reboot in 2017 on The CW . Now in its third season, the reboot is younger and sassier than the original series. Fans love the modernized storylines, but some fans of the original show might be disappointed.

RELATED: Dynasty: 5 Things That The Reboot Does Better Than The Original (& 5 Vice Versa)

So, how is the reboot the same as the original? And, in what ways is it different? It's time to revisit the Carringtons and the Colbys.

Still A "Family" Show

We're using the term "family" in the sense that this show is all about family, but it's not exactly appropriate for all ages (keep that in mind). The original 1980's series glorified the family units of the Carringtons and the Colbys. Various family members were often vile and villainous, but they were still a "family."

That hasn't changed in the reboot. At its core, the show centers on family businesses. This leads to heated arguments, and many of the fights have been adapted to the modern age for today's viewers. If you loved to watch the families fight in the 1980s, you won't be disappointed with the reboot. The drama is still there.

Your Favorite Characters Are Still There

Did you love the Carringtons and the Colbys in the original series? Good news! They're back, but just as fresh, new faces. The core characters (Krystle Carrington, Alexis Colby, Blake Carrington, Fallon Carrington, etc.) are still with us but portrayed by a new cast.

RELATED: MBTI Of Dynasty Characters

It might be difficult to imagine anyone else playing Alexis Colby than Joan Collins but give Nicollette Sheridan a chance. You might have loved Linda Evans as Krystle Carrington, but Nathalie Kelley delivers a strong performance. Elizabeth Gillies shines as Fallon Carrington, and Grant Snow is an appropriate replacement for John Forsythe as Blake Carrington. The characters might look different, but they're still up to trouble.

Bring On The Fashion

You couldn't have  Dynasty  without glamorous fashion. It has always been a stylish show. Viewers admired Joan Collins' stunning wardrobe. Luckily, the reboot stayed true to its roots by offering fun, dramatic costumes. Only this time, the show features modern trends.

Costume designer Meredith Markworth-Pollack, who previously worked as a designer for  Gossip Girl ,  makes sure the costumes are always the centerpiece of any scene. You often notice the costumes before anything else.

Co-creator and producer Stephanie Savage commented, "She's great with being in touch with new trends." Markworth-Pollack also created costumes for "fun themed parties" and any dramatic scenes.

All About The Fights

Fans of the original  Dynasty  probably remember that some of the most memorable and famous scenes from the show involved intense fights and bickering sessions between family members, lovers, colleagues, and more. Viewers lived for those fights and couldn't imagine the show without them.

Thankfully, that hasn't changed with the reboot. It is just as edgy as the original series. The reboot involves plenty of physical fights (face-slapping is still the best), as well as verbal arguments. Who doesn't love a good catfight? Just like the original show, fans will discuss the fights and arguments with each other like they're on the show themselves.

Focusing On Women

The original  Dynasty  heavily focused on the female characters. Women would clash over basically anything, but the catfights were often over a man. The reboot also focuses on women but in a whole new way.

Feminism is the spotlight of the new series, especially on a "liberated woman." Krystle and Fallon are career-hungry women who fight to gain dominance in the family business. Executive producer Josh Schwartz commented, "Both of these women are ambitious career women. They want to run this business."

Savage added that the original show "really found itself" when Krystle and Fallon clashed. She said, "They're competitive, they're both smart, they're ambitious. You have the great head-to-head and [we're] kicking it off with that great catfight."

Change Of Location

The original  Dynasty  was set in Denver. However, the reboot decided to change things up a little bit with a new setting in Atlanta. Schwartz called Atlanta a "realistic location for the family to be based in." He added that the creative team of the reboot felt like the original location wasn't integral to the show.

Atlanta is a growing city in the South, especially for wealthy families. It makes sense for the Carringtons and the Colbys to reside there. Schwartz also explained that the creative team felt the location wasn't the most important part of the show, so they chose Atlanta and it was the final decision from the very beginning.

There's More Humor

The original  Dynasty  had very serious undertones. It was a drama and catfights ruled the show. There wasn't much room for "funny moments." While the reboot is certainly a drama, there are more comic undertones to balance out the dramatic scenes.

The catfights are counter-balanced with comic interludes, making the scripts more colorful and dynamic. Don't be surprised to see fighting mixed in with an occasional sarcastic comment. According to the creators of the show, it's necessary for this specific reboot. Schwartz also commented, "We have a really funny cast, so we wanted to be able to write toward that."

It's Less Homophobic

In the original series, Blake Carrington's son, Steven, was gay, but the characters weren't too accepting of this. Of course, this was the 1980s, so it was a different time period with more traditional values. But the reboot is completely different. Steven is out and proudly accepted by his family and all who know him.

Schwartz commented, "The relationship between Blake and Steven is not about sexuality. Steven is confidently gay, and Blake accepts that." Instead, the father-son pair manage to clash over other issues, including environmental causes.

We can safely say this is one change to the show that was definitely for the better.

Changing Krystle's Name

In the reboot, Linda Evans' character, Krystle Carrington, has been updated to Cristal (played by Nathalie Kelley). This was an intentional change to reflect the new dynamics of the character. Cristal is now Latina and originally from Venezuela, reflecting Kelley's Peru roots.

"This modern version represents a more current picture of what's happening in America. The diversity of the cast really represents that," Kelley said. "To weave that into the narrative of  Dynasty  is really exciting and important to talk about the geopolitics of Venezuela on a CW show."

This name change also goes along with other multi-cultural additions to the reboot.

More Politics And Liberal Views

Society has changed drastically since the 1980s. The reboot reflects the current era and politics, particularly large political families, including the Trumps, Clintons, Kennedys, etc. Schwartz commented, "We are definitely living in an age of dynasties. Whether it's the Trumps or the Clintons or the Kardashians or the Murdochs, our news is filled with the worlds of family dynasties and that was exciting for us."

The show is more relevant to today's politics and liberal views. Storylines reflect the narrative of American society, focusing on social themes and demographics that align with today's trends in culture, interpersonal relationships, and political and societal perceptions. You are definitely watching a version of the show in 2020, not 1980.

NEXT: 10 Best CW Series According To IMDb

• Dynasty (1981)

June 17, 2024

The Online Edition of Texas Woman's University's Official Newspaper - The Lasso

Review: “Dynasty” final season was stunning, but not as legendary as original

After five years of dramatic and insane storylines, CW’s reboot of “Dynasty” comes to a bittersweet but expected end. 

Throughout its five-season run, “Dynasty” started out as a show that played homage to the original 1980s Dynasty. The reboot of “Dynasty” paved the way for a new, modern take on the hit 80’s show by casting actors who are people of color, representing the LGBTQ community through many beloved characters, and having strong, independent female characters that showcase a sense of female empowerment for a whole new generation of women. As the show progressed, it became confusing and overwhelming, due to its major cast changes and baffling plots.

The fifth and final season partly made up for the disappointment it has given the viewer for the past three seasons, there were still some aspects of the show that made no sense and lacked the dramatic, legendary feel that the original “Dynasty” had and continues to do so to this day.

The sublime plots that were included in this season included the Cristal Carrington ( Daniella Alonso ) doppelganger plot, where her brother replaced her with a lookalike named Rita, and the introduction of Blake Carrington’s ( Grant Show ) brother, Ben Carrington ( Brett Tucker ). These two plot lines were an amazing part of this season because they were both well written and were a popular storyline in the original show. 

Another part of this show that was eloquent was the character development of Alexis Morell Carrington Dexter’s ( Elaine Hendrix ). When the show started, she started as a character that desired to get her place back in society and her family back together. In this season, she finally got her happily ever after and married Dex Dexter ( Pej Vahdat ) (one of the popular characters from the original series), and is now on decent terms with her daughters, Fallon ( Elizabeth Gillies ) and Amanda Carrington ( Eliza Bennett ). 

Another well written storyline this season was Fallon’s marriage to Liam ( Adam Huber ), and her fertility struggles. At the end of the last season, their marriage was in turmoil but both were able to get through that phase and were able to come out stronger than ever from that obstacle during this season. But, the surprising news of her infertility brought a sense of sympathy towards her character as many women can relate to her struggles, and the storyline will help spread awareness towards this topic.

Whilst, the best part of this season is Cristal’s character development because she transformed into a better person, which helped make viewers love her anymore. This season, she inherited her family’s company, rebuilt her relationship with her husband, Blake, and gained the confidence she lost after losing her baby in season two, which made her a well beloved character in the series, and gave a nostalgia feel that the legendary Linda Evans did during the run of the original “Dynasty.”

Although the sour chunk of the show included boring characters that no longer needed to be on the show, Michael Culhane ( Robert Christopher Riley ), Sam Jones (Rafael de la Fuente ) and Kirby Anders ( Maddison Brown ). At this point in the show, there is no purpose for Michael to be on the show after the end of his engagement to Fallon in season two. While the same goes for Sam because there was no use for his character to be on the show after the end of his marriage to Fallon’s brother, Steven ( James Mackay ). 

And another useless character is Kirby. Towards the middle of season four, her father, Joseph Anders ( Alan Dale ), was killed in a car accident. Joseph played a major role in the show as Blake’s butler and right hand man, which made some sense for why she should still appear on the show, but after his death, there made no sense for Kirby to still be on the show, even with the unnecessary storylines they give her. This simply shows that the characters only kept them around to attempt to add spice to the show, although failing to do so miserably in the process.

And yet, the worst part of the show this season was the acting of Michael Michele . The way that Michelle potrays Dominique Deveraux is a complete abomination to the marvelous legacy to the character, in which Dihann Carroll potrayed  in the original Dynasty. Michelle’s portrayal of the reboot’s Dominique is just disgraceful because she portrays the character as cheap, crude, tacky, and a woman who has no class, as opposed to the Carroll’s version.

In the end, the revival of “Dynasty” was stunning in its own way, but not as legendary as the original Dynasty was. With the modern take of the first soap opera, the female empowerment shown through the series, the majority of wonderful storylines, and partly superb acting, the show was adequate in its own right.

Clarise Tujardon can be reached via email at [email protected].

Published in Entertainment and Reviews

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I absolutely want season 6 for Dynasty! Loved it

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Dynasty Warriors Review

Yet another bad video game movie..

Dynasty Warriors is now streaming on Netflix.

Dynasty Warriors isn’t the video game-to-film adaptation you’ve been waiting for. Dating back to 1997, and composed of nine separate games, the hack-n-slash action franchise is a single-player tactical role-playing game that on first blush lends some potential for a cinematic rendering. For one, the over-the-top battles should equate to big-screen action sequences. The epic world-building allows plenty of creative flexibility. And the historical lore ought to imbue the proceedings with a potent aura. But director Roy Hin Yeung Chow’s Dynasty Warriors is a two-hour slog, missing the dumb hijinks and sharp fighting precision needed for an ultra-fun adventure.

The script for Dynasty Warriors is tragically underwritten. Three traveling soldiers Liu Bei (Tony Yo-ning Yang), Guan Yu (Geng Han), and Zhang Fei (Justin Cheung)—drawn together by honor and loyalty to the Han dynasty—work to restore the child emperor Liu Bian to the throne following the takeover of his nefarious chancellor Dong Zhuo (Suet Lam). Chow and screenwriter Chi-long To expect viewers to have a healthy dose of prior knowledge. It’s why the characters are without any type of backstory: how the trio of warriors came to unite or their individual origins. But unless you’ve played one or more of the games, you’ll be totally lost.

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Worse yet, Chow makes little effort to connect any of the hanging threads. The most powerful fighter in Dong Zhuo’s army, Lu Bu (Louis Koo), surprisingly falls in love with his commander’s unknown lover Diao Chan (Coulee Nazha). The committed Cao Cao (Kai Wang), a loyal servant to the young emperor who’s prepared to sacrifice everything and everybody to restore the Han dynasty to power, carries out a bloody heinous crime that’s never revisited.

And the three soldiers, who are granted a trippy hallucinogenic vision and powerful weapons by the mystical Master of the Sword Forge Castle (Carina Lau), never display the combined might one would expect from such magical abilities.

With regards to the ragged visual effects, the onscreen production value barely rises to the level of The Last Airbender. The large-scale confrontations between armies are rife with ghastly visual artifacts. Likewise, the soldiers’ robotic movements, akin to barely rendered stick figures, distract from the vicious scale of the carnage. The charitable inference would say these shoddy graphics are meant to hark to earlier gameplay iterations. Even if one affords such excuses, this is a film, and that carries a certain expectation of style and quality -- both of which Dynasty Warriors lacks.

Chow further disrupts the line between cinema and gaming through cheap, repetitive compositions meant to mirror the game’s cutscenes. It’s as though he began designing a game first. Gave up. And then repurposed the already shot footage for the film. The visual narrative choices make the underlying story to Dynasty Warriors incomprehensible, adds unnecessary fat to a bloated two-hour runtime, and barely provide the aesthetic quality of a low-res screensaver. If you want to watch a series of overexposed landscapes streaming in succession, skip this film. Turn on your television. And let the Chromecast slideshow do its cheaper work.

The 12 Worst Video Game Movies of All Time

It’s difficult to quantify exactly what Dynasty Warriors does well. The gilded Han-era production design does add a resplendent sheen to the onscreen action. As do the vibrant, colorful armor. But that’s about it. The performances are without merit, struggling to add a coherent emotional throughline between the “1 vs 100” bloodshed. It’s why the final third of the action flick feels rushed. The soldier trio face-off in an anticlimactic battle with Lu Bu: replete with movesets like lightning-charged Spirit Bombs — only for the story to jump ahead five years into the future wherein Bei and Cao are now frenemies.

One can only guess that Chow and Co. want to turn this into a movie franchise. That would be a mistake. As they’d have to figure out what a movie is before making more.

The film adaptation of the video game series Dynasty Warriors, by Roy Hin Yeung Chow, disappoints at every turn. While the film clearly worships its source material, both narratively and aesthetically, part of changing mediums is cohering to the rules of the present artform. A route Chow seems to purposely thumb his nose toward. At one point a character explains, “Only out of chaos do heroes emerge.” At the core of this messy big screen interpretation is less than chaos. It’s nothingness. A film that even heroes can’t save.

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Netflix's Dynasty Warriors Review: Yet Another Bad Video Game Movie

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Dynasty (2017), common sense media reviewers.

Drinks, diamonds, and drama galore in fun, soapy reboot.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this TV show.

The ethics portrayed on this show are incredibly m

Fallon Carrington has a point when she talks about

Hair-pulling, slapping, wrestling -- your standard

Sexual references galore ("get off," "banging," et

Expect to hear words like "bitch," "hell," "bastar

These characters live luxuriously and flaunt it. I

Champagne and martinis seem to be constantly flowi

Parents need to know that Dynasty is a glitzy reboot of the 1980s nighttime soap opera smash of the same name. Although there's no outright nudity, there's a lot of sex and "Meet me in the pool house, chauffeur!" type activity, which means suggestive conversations and simulated lovemaking. Verbal arguments…

Positive Messages

The ethics portrayed on this show are incredibly murky, and a high value is placed on money and power over family, friends, and the environment (the head of the Carrington family is a big proponent of fracking).

Positive Role Models

Fallon Carrington has a point when she talks about being underestimated by males in the business world, but she's also materialistic as all get out, and uses underhanded techniques to get what she wants. Her brother Steven is idealistic and cares about clean energy issues, yet still enjoys the luxurious fruits of his oil baron father's labor. Other characters cheat on their spouses, stalk people, and steal. Best to look elsewhere for role models.

Violence & Scariness

Hair-pulling, slapping, wrestling -- your standard soap opera-type stuff. There's an oil field explosion that results in a worker being covered with painful-looking burns and bruises.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Sexual references galore ("get off," "banging," etc.), and sexuality is often used as a tool to control and manipulate. No actual nudity: Body parts are strategically covered with bedsheets and the like during simulated sex/make-out scenes. Blake Carrington's son Steven is gay -- and although this fact makes him uncomfortable, Blake's not above using it to his advantage when negotiating business deals.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Expect to hear words like "bitch," "hell," "bastard" -- nothing much stronger. Fallon refers to a pair of business bros as "douche bags."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

These characters live luxuriously and flaunt it. It's all about fancy clothes, gigantic diamonds, tooling around in a Rolls-Royce or Mercedes. There's talk of purchasing Major League Baseball teams (the Atlanta Braves), and references to Cessna airplanes and tech companies like Spotify.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Champagne and martinis seem to be constantly flowing on this show (very handy, if you need a drink to throw in someone's face). Lots of meetings, business and otherwise, take place in bars.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Dynasty is a glitzy reboot of the 1980s nighttime soap opera smash of the same name. Although there's no outright nudity, there's a lot of sex and "Meet me in the pool house, chauffeur!" type activity, which means suggestive conversations and simulated lovemaking. Verbal arguments can turn physical at times, and there's a whole lot of drinking going on. The show portrays a world that revolves around money, sex, and power -- and the sleazy things people do to get it.

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (11)
• Kids say (53)

Based on 11 parent reviews

What's the Story?

In DYNASTY, Fallon Carrington (Elizabeth Gillies, Victorious ) is the magnetic, whip-smart daughter of famed businessman Blake Carrington (Grant Show, Melrose Place ), who flies home to Atlanta expecting to hear she's been made COO of daddy dearest's multi-billion dollar company, Carrington Industries. Instead, she's beyond horrified when she arrives to find not a promotion waiting for her, but a new rival for her father's affections: Blake's middle-class employee (and fiancée!), Cristal Flores (Nathalie Kelley, UNreal ). Fallon and her idealistic brother Steven (James Mackay, The Leftovers ) are reeling from this news, and while her brother is happy to give his mysterious stepmother-to-be a chance, as far as Fallon is concerned, this is a declaration of war. She teams up with her dad's biggest rival, billionaire tech magnate Jeff Colby (Sam Adegoke, Switched at Birth ), and thus begins her path to revenge.

Is It Any Good?

Fans of the original '80s version of the soap will enjoy tuning in to see how the CW has updated and tweaked the formula. They've done this in part by adding more racially diverse castmembers, and even gender-swapping some of them. Just one example: Heather Locklear was a fan favorite in the OG story as troublemaking Sammy Jo, while in this version "Sammy Joe" (Rafael de la Fuente) is the gay, Latino cousin of Blake Carrington's new fiancée, Cristal. The good news is, this version of Dynasty is still as over-the-top ridiculous, glamorous, and sleazy as ever. You're not likely to come away having learned any great truths about life, but this snarky, fluffy show does make for near-perfect "guilty pleasure" viewing.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the way Dynasty depicts people who have grown up with extreme wealth. How might this affect a person and the way that person relates to others -- especially those with less? Do the Carringtons behave like any people you know in real life? Are their problems relatable?

How does the show treat Steven's homosexuality? Do you think the way he is treated by the people around him is an accurate depiction of real-life attitudes?

How do your relationships with family members compare to the relationships between the four main characters? How do you use communication skills to maintain positive relationships? Do you think the Dynasty crew is good at communicating?

• Premiere date : October 11, 2017
• Cast : Grant Show , Elizabeth Gillies , Nathalie Kelley , James Mackay , Sam Adegoke , Robert Christopher Riley
• Network : CW
• Genre : Drama
• TV rating : TV-PG
• Last updated : April 14, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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TV Listings

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Dynasty: The Movie

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Pilot for the series about power, passions and greed among the oil-rich in Denver. John Forsythe, Linda Evans, Bo Hopkins, Dale Robertson. Fallon: Pamela Sue Martin. Steven: Al Corley. Claudia: Pamela Bellwood. Laird: Peter Mark Richman. Jeff: John James. Cecil: Lloyd Bochner. Michael: Wayne Northrop.

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Dynasty: Season 1 Reviews

Dynasty needs to be a little bigger. A little broader. A little more off the wall.

Full Review | May 22, 2019

The new Dynasty is ridiculous, but it isn't plausible. It failed the first rule of drama - I didn't believe it.

If you're looking for a fun, trashy nighttime soap with politics that (probably) won't make you cringe, Dynasty fits the bill.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 22, 2019

[Josh] Schwartz, [Stephanie] Savage and [Sallie] Patrick are trying to combine the campiness of the original with the banter-heavy rhythm of their previous shows, and the combination just doesn't work.

It could be fun, so long as it doesn't try to make you think too much. That's pretty much Dynasty in a nutshell.

Full Review | Jun 12, 2018

I'll never watch this again. Dynasty reminds you of all the bad ways in which the world has changed. It's not niche or interesting to have a soap opera about people who are merely undeservedly loaded any more.

Full Review | Nov 13, 2017

Blake's first wife, Alexis, is MIA in the pilot, an hour that is occasionally fun but too often ho-hum.

Full Review | Oct 25, 2017

The trying-too-hard Dynasty reboot on The CW [is] a show that just doesn't deliver the sleazy charm of the original.

Send this one back to the lily pond.

No one is ever going to mistake Dynasty for fine drama, but it's very entertaining.

Full Review | Oct 21, 2017

It's trashy as hell, but every single piece of action comes from character. These people know what they're doing.

Full Review | Oct 19, 2017

Minor spoiler: There is an actual explosion. That's the right instinct, Dynasty! Subtlety will get you nowhere.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Oct 16, 2017

Rebooted, Dynasty remains ridiculous, but far less fabulous.

Full Review | Oct 13, 2017

The Carringtons are television royalty. The original Dynasty aired from 1981-1989 and it's still as relevant as ever in the current television landscape.

Gotta say though: this one works, so it's all good.

That being said, it's still too early to call whether the CW reboot has what it takes to follow in Gossip Girl's footsteps or not ... but it definitely is putting forth a whole lot of effort, some of which does pay off.

Full Review | Oct 12, 2017

CW's Dynasty deserves a shot. It's fairly entertaining with guaranteed cliffhangers that are certain to remain throughout the season.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Oct 12, 2017

I can't wait to see how this turns out. I love rich people problems.

It would be fine for Dynasty to be derivative if it weren't so darn bloodless.

On the surface, Dynasty is a show about a super wealthy billionaire, Blake Carrington... But it's all about what's beneath the surface; a drama that's vigor stems from his daughter, Fallon, and his much younger bride-to-be, Cristal.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 12, 2017

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‘The Watchers’ Review: The Shyamalan Dynasty Gets Off To A Slow Start

Ishana night shyamalan's debut film is a twisty, high-concept mystery/dark fairy tale. it's also a pale imitation of her father’s patented style..

It’s become a cliche to goof on that 2003 Newsweek cover that declared M. Night Shyamalan “The Next Spielberg,” just in time for his critical hot streak to cool off and plunge him into a decade-long drought. Instead, let’s start goofing on the way Night is becoming the next Coppola, hiring his close family as cast and crew in his occasionally self-financed productions in the effort to build a dynasty. Though they’ve been involved in M. Night’s projects for the past few years, 2024 marks the Summer of the Shyamalan Sisters, with both Saleka (age 27) and Ishana (age 24) stepping into the spotlight in front of and behind the camera, respectively. Saleka, a singer and songwriter, plays a massively successful pop star in M. Night’s latest feature, Trap , out this August. Ishana, an NYU Tisch graduate who has cut her teeth as a writer and director on her father’s Apple TV+ series Servant , has just made her feature directorial debut with The Watchers .

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Even as someone who frequently whines about nepo babies, I feel a little crappy opening a review of a filmmaker’s first feature by writing about her father. I actually have way more respect for the way Ishana and Night have clung together on the press tour , never obscuring the nepotism at play, than I do for the countless young actors or directors whose deeply entrenched Hollywood legacies you have to dig around for on Wikipedia. Like any kind of privilege, nepotism doesn’t sting just because someone gets opportunities that others don’t, but because those who benefit get so defensive when it’s suggested that favorable conditions contributed to their success. Wear that name! Own that privilege! Be a good sport for the jokes, then prove the doubters wrong. Make us believe you’d have made it if you’d been just another kid from Philly.

But since I’ve gotten to this point in the review and have yet to go into any details about the film, you’ve likely guessed that The Watchers did not convince me of much. Worse, it is precisely what I’m sure the young director hoped it wouldn’t be—a pale imitation of her father’s patented style. The Watchers checks almost every box you’d expect from an M. Night film. It’s a twisty, high-concept mystery/dark fairy tale that follows a small cast across relatively few locations as they uncover each other’s secrets while spouting dialogue that sounds like it was written by a space alien. But The Watchers is missing the secret ingredient that transforms M. Night’s movies from weird, forgettable, self-indulgent fantasies into mesmerizing cinema: the mastery of blocking and camera movement that earned him the “next Spielberg” moniker in the first place.

The Watchers is based upon a novel by A.M. Shine with a premise that already sounds like a Shyamalan movie. A young pet shop employee with a dark past (Elle Fanning) is captured by strange, unseen beings who keep humans in a display cage and watch their behavior every night. But are she and the other three captives simply pets, or is there a more nefarious purpose behind it all? Like Signs , The Village , or Old (a movie I quite like, actually), it has the makings of a solid 30-minute Twilight Zone episode that overextends itself via a string of twists that each make the story less interesting. Like any good thriller, information is strategically withheld to build intrigue, but then it’s simply dropped in the audience’s lap with no impact at all. The characters are paper-thin, each reduced to essentially one trait that is explained by one underwhelming secret.

There is, however, a single shot that shook me awake and had me performing the “Pointing Rick Dalton” meme in the theater. Fanning and another captive (Olwen Fouéré) are hiding in the roots of a rotting tree as one of the monsters passes above them. The camera begins on the two women, tilts quickly up to catch a glimpse of the skittering monster, and then slowly returns to its initial position, where Fouéré’s character now has a hand clasped over Fanning’s mouth, stifling a scream. “There it is!” I nearly exclaimed aloud for the two other filmgoers at my screening. “There’s that good Shyamalan shit!” I was not stirred from my slumber a second time.

It is, of course, deeply unfair to expect cinematic mastery from a 24-year-old first-time director. People forget that before exploding onto the scene with The Sixth Sense , M. Night Shyamalan directed two other features that practically no one saw, even after he became Hollywood’s next big thing. Ishana Night Shyamalan ’s first feature, released wide by Warner subsidiary New Line Pictures, is going to be critiqued more harshly by more outlets than most filmmakers’ work ever will be. That sucks, but that’s the other side of nepotism. The good news is that, as the offspring of a successful movie producer, Ishana Shyamalan is going to get another crack at directing a feature film if she wants it, regardless of whether or not the critical or box office response warrants it. You could call that deeply unfair, too, and she might very well agree with you. Fairness is not the issue here. The movie is bad. Her next one might be great. More artists should get the chance to try and fail like this, not just the ones with famous dads.

• SEE ALSO : Will Keen On Playing Vladimir Putin On Broadway in ‘Patriots’

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Our frequently updated list shows the latest free games available from Epic Games Store, IndieGala, Steam, Fanatical, GOG, and more as well as new and upcoming titles added to subscription services like Game Pass, PlayStation Plus, Prime Gaming, and Humble.

Metacritic's 14th Annual Game Publisher Rankings

We reveal the past year's best and worst video game publishers (based on their 2023 releases) in the 14th edition of our annual Game Publisher Rankings.

The 20 Best PC Games of 2023

We rank the highest-scoring new PC games released in 2023.

The 20 Best PlayStation Games of 2023

We rank the highest-scoring new PlayStation games released in 2023.