In TV
During my OC Discourse days, I learned that The CW network was filming a new teen drama similar to The OC. Being on The CW is reason enough for me not to watch a show, but I went out of my way to see the premiere of this one because it takes place in Palm Springs, right near my hometown.
The most obvious thing that I fixated on was how similar and different the show was to reality in the desert. One choice quote hit the nail on the head:
Palm Springs isn't exactly the most happenin' place ... The thing about this town is ... it's all retired grays, gays, and streets named after dead people, which means we're in the minority. People come here to die, so it's the short end of the stick for us.
So true! There is a constant exodus of young people from the desert. As soon as kids graduate high school, they leave for San Diego, LA, or other coastal cities. And yes, it is a huge magnet for retirees and an older gay community. Being a twenty-something in the desert has got to be tough because there just aren't a ton of people your age.
Another interaction topped it off:
Johnny: Your mom has way too much time on her hands.
Cliff: Welcome to Palm Springs.
So they've got down the boring part of the desert pretty well. There was one other thing that they did pretty well, which was the golf course scene.
Johnny, the protagonist, chases a girl out onto the golf course, and they play in the sprinklers. This is actually something we used to do when we were in high school. We didn't really run in the sprinklers, though, because the water in them is recycled sewer water. I wonder if the actors were told about that...
The lighting in the shots was done really well. It looked like a real, full moon night of doing crazy stuff on a golf course. The one obvious difference is that there weren't beautiful girls running around the golf course when I was a kid. It was more like a pack of adolescent boys in a borrowed golf cart acting stupid.
One obvious thing that the show got wrong is the wardrobes. Johnny is seen wearing black pants with a matching hoodie in the dead of summer.
There's also a party scene at the clubhouse, where most male partygoers are seen in suits and sport coats. Maybe the creators should have read a climograph of Palm Springs before making costume decisions. The average summer temperature is over 110 degrees. Nobody wears hoodies in July! I've had to wear a suit a couple times in the summer and it's about the most uncomfortable thing ever. That's why the old, rich people all wear brand name polos.
Enough with the aesthetics, though. Let's look at some substantive stuff.
It's painfully obvious that the show is trying hard be the next OC. The character archetypes are poorly reused. Johnny is the quirky outsider that Ryan and Seth embodied. Gretta is the untouchable girl that Marissa and Summer were. Even the scene cuts and transition music are the same. The opulent party scenes were an OC favorite. More glaring is that the actors for Johnny and Cliff actually had minor roles in The OC. Johnny's parallel character in The OC (Oliver) was also recovering substance abuser.
Despite the similarities, stealing parts from The OC formula isn't going to do much for Hidden Palms. The show goes desperately wrong by centering attention on one protagonist. One of the things that made The OC interesting for a large demographic was that the plot lines extended beyond Ryan and even beyond the four core characters. The peripheral characters were developed well enough to give them their own compelling stories. Hidden Palms mostly follows around Johnny. We never learn much about the other characters, which made my interest wane fast. It's clear that what little we do learn about other characters is only because it will have a future impact on Johnny.
Besides being boring, I can only think loathing thoughts about Oliver from The OC because the acting in Johnny is so similar. If you didn't like Oliver in The OC (and who did?), you're not going to like Hidden Palms.
Despite all its downsides, there was one really amusing turn of events. At Johnny's AA meeting we are introduced to Jesse Jo:
Ok, seems like a quirky old lady. Nothing special there. But then --
She's a cross dresser. It's a pretty inventive character that could lead to some interesting plot lines. But, we might not get to see enough of Jesse Jo to have those plots play out. One quirky character among a sea of bland ones isn't enough to carry a show.
Was it ironic that Johnny said he liked to watch the ship sink in Titanic? Probably. The premier garnered only 1.86 million viewers, and the critical reception has been less than favorable. So, don't expect to see too much more of Hidden Palms.
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