Baywatch Season 3 and Review - S03E04: Rookie of the Year

My last post has two views?! Wow, scary. Maybe it's wasn't a real person.

Falling Behind on Baywatch Reviews and Still Missing Shauni and Eddie

I haven't written a blog post since the the 13th of June, which isn't a big gap compared to back in the day but it is for Baywatch reviews. I've fallen behind since I watch one episode almost every day. My last post was about the episode called 'Tequila Bay', I'm way ahead of that now. My pace of writing about Baywatch was already slowing down and I'm afraid it will probably only get worse. I'm still enjoying the show even though I do still miss Shauna, Eddie and to a lesser extent, the other old characters. Then again, they did all work together as a team, naturally, so it did feel nice to have them all together.

Getting to the End of Season 3 - Small Issues

The enjoyment factor is waning a little though, since more and more of the stories are starting to feel similar to season 1 and 2 episodes. They are often told a little differently and it doesn't happen loads, but I can imagine it becoming more frequent as the seasons go on. I wanted to write about these in more detail but since I've fallen behind, I can't remember the specifics, so here's just some vague examples off the top of my head - Hobie has a dream in-which is dad is injured, or killed, I can't remember which, while rescuing someone. He warns his dad who doesn't believe it but Hobie's warning eventually saves him. The dangerous event actually does happen. Wasn't there an episode just like this before? I can't quite remember it but there was some about a dream, for sure. Maybe it was Hobie again, but this time season 1's Hobie (the other actor). Isn't there also an episode in Season 3 where C.J. also has a premonition style dream? There's also a 'B' plot where it turns out that C.J. is addicted to gambling in casino's, I'm pretty sure there was an old episode about Eddie having similar issues, possibly in season 1. And then there's Harvey, who was only in season 2. He also had a gambling problem, if I remember correctly.

Another observation about season 3, about half way through the season, the Mitch focused stories become very frequent. Mitch is alright but there's just too many at that point.

I may have to skip reviewing most of season 3, or I'll just blast through them, writing only a few words about each. But for now I'll try to catch up.

Review - Season 3, Episode 4: Rookie of the Year

I'm going to review the rest of this season from the perspective of someone who has now seen all of the season, simply because I'll find it hard not to. Stephanie and C.J. move in together, they spend barely any time on this story, it's not important. I might be wrong but they may only spend two scenes on this story. Basically Stephanie is the tidy one and C.J' isn't.

The main story is about the rookie life guards competing to see who will be hired. We of course already know who gets the jobs because they are in previous episodes, in the intro and they're not extras, unlike almost everyone else who are competing.

Notes and Observations

- I had this episode running in the background, is it just my imagination or does it look more colourful than the last episodes of this season? Maybe they changed cameras.

- For season 3, I hate to admit it but the montages, especially the ones with under water shots, are often better than the ones in season's 1 and 2. The music, which I think was all replaced for this remastered edition, is also a bit better. Some of it actually sounds quite good and fitting, unlike some of the older, bootleg sounding tracks.

- It's funny how low effort the screenshots are for this episode on baywatch.fandom.com.

- Matt's dad is in this episode, he's quite a good actor and I kind of recognise him. Even though he's the typical mean dad character, I do like the dynamic between him and his son. Unfortunately we barely ever see him again, maybe he'll return in season 4.

- Guido Torzini briefly shows up, I didn't know he was going to be on the show so much at this point. He was in season 3 so much, that I'm surprised he's not in the title sequence. He'd have to be at the end, though. Guido is the most in your face comic relief character I've ever seen on a non-comedy show. I guess I'm used to him by the end of season 3, but he is supremely unfunny. The joke is that he's a got a foreign accent and that he's not fit like everybody else. The weird thing is that he's literally never not trying to be funny, he feels like a dated character type even in 1992. Harvey Miller in season 2 was a comic relief character but I guess he didn't work out, so the show creators decided to ramp it up to 100% with Guido. I don't know if he continues to be in it after season 3 but I doubt it, since I never saw a picture of him online back when I was watching season 1 and didn't care about spoilers.

- We briefly see that Matt Brody has the hots for C.J. but this is only touched upon once or twice after 'Rookie of the Year' and only a tiny bit. It's then completely dropped for the rest of season 3, they have a platonic relationship, it seems. So to recap - Summer like Matt at the start of the season but they never mention this again after, I think, one episode, and then Matt doesn't get with C.J. I'm not even saying they make a story out of these, what I mean is they don't even explain why these characters don't get together. Funny thing is, I guess that makes the show unintentionally more like real life. So anyway, it makes me realise that Matt really wasn't the replacement for Eddie. Perhaps the writers thought it's best to have characters occasionally only have one episode relationships with a guest star, since it gives them more freedom. But does it? I'm not sure. I guess if Shauni and Eddie stayed in the show, the writers would always have to come up with scenarios around the fact that they are married. Of course, that opens doors to a whole host of other stories. I think other shows after Baywatch realised the potential for long running stories about relationships, love lives and love triangles. That's made me realise something - I can't believe I've watched three seasons of Baywatch and there hasn't been a single love triangle. Before I started this show, I thought that was going to be a main focus.