Entertainment

Finishing strong

HATS OFF: Larry Hagman (pictured with co-star Josh Henderson) died last month at the age of 81, and TNT is airing his final “Dallas” episodes. (
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When “Dallas” returns for a second season later next month, at least five of the episodes will feature J.R. Ewing, also known (well, in real life) as Larry Hagman.

I was curious to see how they’d handle the last days of J.R., since Hagman died Nov. 23 at the age of 81.

Turns out they didn’t — handle it, I mean.

J.R. Ewing returns as explosive, as mean, as scheming and as downright despicable as ever. Don’t expect a death scene with a fading old soldier.

The most remarkable thing, however, is that even though we all know that Hagman died of throat cancer last month, you will watch the episodes without pitying him, or even thinking how brave he was to work throughout the disease.

And that’s the sign of a truly great villain: we still can love to hate his character, even after we know that, in real life, the actor was fighting cancer and died a horrible death.

In the episodes TNT sent out for review, there is no hint that Hagman is dying. Or that J.R. is about to buy the farm — or in his case, buy out everyone else in Ewing Energy.

J.R., fans will be happy to know, is as horrible as he was decades ago when he was shot and left for dead and the whole world was asking, “Who shot J.R.?”

He’s also as clever. In a scene with his devil spawn of a son, John Ross (Josh Henderson), J.R. doles out his kindly fatherly advice with no hint of irony.

“Love, hate, jealousy — they make a mean martini and when you slake your thirst, we’ll take over Ewing Energy.” Hilarious? Sure. Campy? Definitely. Terrifically watchable? Of course.

In the hands of another actor, lines like that would come off as bad daytime soap. Thing is, I can’t imagine that even Henderson, who is a good, rotten heir to the throne, can pull off the kind of evil that Hagman did with a smile that never had a hint of sneer. He even managed to make the silly, campy “react” soap shots that fade slowly — after a character gets shocking news — look interesting.

In case you were wondering, yes, Season Two of “Dallas” is still filming, and the producers and writers are now scrambling to write in J.R.’s send-off episode for later in the season.

Maybe the producers really believed that Hagman, like J.R., would survive anything, and so they did nothing vis a vis the plotline to prepare fans for J.R.’s timely demise. Hard to believe that could happen in the world of TV, where everything that can be planned is planned because, well, making successful TV is second only to oil for pumping out the big bucks.

Of course, real “Dallas” fans know that J.R. can never die.