DYNASTY -Series Review

Premiere Date - October 11, 2017

The story starts with Fallon and Steven being called home by their father, Blake Carrington to meet his wife-to-be, Cristal.

Fallon Carrington (Elizabeth Gillies) is a smart and ambitious woman, who is also the Head of Acquisition for Carrington Atlantic, an energy company founded by her grandfather and handed down to her dad.
She expects to be named the Chief Operating Officer only for her to find out that her rival, Cristal Flores (Nathalie Kelley 'The Vampire Diaries') has been sleeping with her father Blake Carrington (Grant Show) and plans to marry him.

Blake Carrington is a deceptive man who has his way of making people carry out his agenda by making it seem like he is doing them a favour. His gay son Steven happens to be one of these people.
Steven Carrington (James Mackay) is an environmental activist who opposes his father's plan to exploit native American land.

The trailer of this series displayed a brawl between Cristal and Fallon, but after seeing the first episode, I couldn't find anything about Cristal that makes her look intimidating to Fallon. Don't get me wrong, Nathalie Kelley will play a good rival to Elizabeth Gillies character, I am not just seeing the rivalry yet.
We'll probably see more of that in subsequent episodes.

I like that this show has a twist and a build up with different stories to look forward to.
The guy Steven had a one night stand with happens to be Cristal's nephew, Sam 'Sammy' Joe (Rafael de la Fuente 'Empire'). This might make you think Cristal's marriage to Blake was planned out, but I don't think that's the case here.
The last scene of the first episode, shows Claudia Blaisdel, accusing Blake for the death of her husband, Matthew Blaisdel (Nick Wechsler), the company's chief field engineer who happens to be Cristal's ex. This makes me wonder if his death was an accident or not.

I am looking forward to how Fallon's fondness for Jeff Colby (Sam Adegoke) and her secret affair with her driver, Michael Culhane (Robert Christopher Riley) plays out.
Cristal has a secret past which no one but the Carrington family's Butler, Joseph Anders (Alan Dale) knows about (this is not a surprise as butlers seem to know everything). But, that's not the case here as Joseph is in charge of hiring staffs.

Fallon decides she doesn't want to be a shadow cast of her father, she wants her own company with her own name. She then makes an investment deal with Jeff and becomes the Chief Executive Officer of Carrington Wind Brier, which now makes her a competition to her father. This is an act of rebellion against her father's decision to marrying Cristal, and making her the Chief Operating Officer.

I am really looking forward to the story build up with more twists and drama. This show has a good start and Elizabeth Gillies as Fallon is just perfect.

VALOR - Series Review

Premiere Date - October 9, 2017

This military drama tells the story of Nora Madani (Christina Ochoa) and her Commanding officer, Captain Leland Gallo (Matt Barr 'Sleepy Hollow') two Shadow Raiders- an elite unit of U.S Army helicopter pilots. After a failed secret mission in Somalia, they both return to camp and later discovers that two other military officers  were captured during the operation and still alive, they seek to return to duty and rescue them.

I like that the show is giving us other stories to look forward to. Apart from their private and professional lives, you look forward to secrets, lies, bravery, guilt as well as government conspiracy.
Nora seems to be the main character, she is one of the first female pilots and will do what she can in order to keep flying. Nora tries to convince everyone that she is fit to fly again after the mission in Somalia. Her boyfriend, First Lieutenants Ian Porter (Charlie Barnett) isn't convinced she is ready to fly and the CIA officer assigned to investigate the mission, Thea (Melissa Roxburgh) doesn't trust her.

 

After lying in their debrief, Nora and Gallo agrees to keep the details on what happened in Somalia a secret. There are flashbacks of the mission in Somalia that explains what exactly happened.
Like how they discovered the prisoner they were retrieving was an American soldier thought to have been killed in action in 2014. How a mysterious Richard Lasky is the reason the soldier was taken captive and Nora killing  Richard while the unidentified soldier ran off.

Gallo and Nora begins to question why they were sent on the mission in the first place.
I guess someone on the inside knows something they weren't telling the others.
And I would like to know if these two will follow orders or do what they think is right.

Unlike 'The Brave,' and 'SEAL Team' , this show uses secrets, lies and government conspiracies to build up its story. So asides the action, you look forward to seeing how Nora and Gallo deals with the secrets, what other secrets, lies and conspiracies are yet to be known and how the whole story unfolds.