Here I am again, writing for a blog that possibly no one reads, but every post gets one view, I wonder who this person is. Actually, there's a few Baywatch posts that have two views, weird. I guess sometimes Baywatch fans stumble across this page when Google searching Baywatch. They then see that it's badly written reviews of the show and leave, if you can even all these reviews.
Spoilers Ahead because I don't know how to write without them.
S04E22 - Guys & Dolls
Yet again I'm going to say that I'm not going to write much about this two episodes, but then I probably will. Guys and Dolls is a pretty good episode but nothing amazing, I'll give it credit though, it's the first decent crime based one in a long time. This is probably because it doesn't spend much time on the criminal activities due to the fact that it's a secret that's revealed at the end and the focus is lies and deceit instead.
'B' Story
This is barely a story but I figured I'd mention it anyway - We get some pointless scenes of Steph and her new boyfriend from previous episode, they're very happy together so we get those increasingly hilarious Baywatch montages of a couple being super happy together. They usually involve the couple frolicking about, playing basketball, running on the beach, etc. The story is virtually non-existent, Steph is worried that this dude is going to have to leave because he is in the military, he'll be called away or something. This ends with whatshisname and Mitch pretending to her that he's going to Antarctica (I think), this joke lasts for about five seconds before they tell her he isn't. Baywatch.fandom says "Stephanie’s romance with a Coast Guard officer deepens, causing conflict with Mitch." even though there's no conflict at all.
The funny thing the Coast Guard boyfriend isn't in the next episode and, in fact, he's not mentioned and Steph has a new boyfriend.
'A' Story
Actress A.J. Langer returns as a different character, which Baywatch sometimes does but this is only the second time that they've done it without trying to hide it at all. She looks exactly the same though she does act differently, to be fair. The first time was literally in the episode before this one, 'Trading Places'. The last time A.J. Langer was in a story alongside Eddie, who, if you've been reading my blog, was one of my favourite characters and one of the original cast. She got him into a lot of trouble in that one, it was a good episode.
In 'Guys & Dolls', shes a character called Rachel but it turns out she keeps giving out fake names so her other two names are Nancy and Linda. I think her real name turned out to be Linda but I can't be sure, it isn't important in the story anyway. This is essentially a Matt Brody episode but is doesn't exactly have much to do, he's sort of just there for the ride. Rachel is rescued by Matt (which is funny because Eddie does in the old episode but the results are different) which leads to her telling him about how shes in town for an acting audition. This turns out to be a lie when her dad turns up looking for her, shes run away and her loving dad is there to find her and also tell her that he has a fatal illness. More than this happens but in a nutshell - Matt goes to speak to Rachel, who tells him that her dad is lying, he's not dying and he's a terrible, abusive person.
What makes this episode good is that at this point in your usual Baywatch story, it would be obvious who is telling the truth. Not only is it not, but also it turns out they're both lying. The reality is that they aren't father and daughter, they are partners in crime. They have fallen out over some sort of diamond smuggling and Matt is stuck in the middle. They're both scumbags, basically. I forgot to mention the words 'con artist' this whole time, that's what they were.
S05E01 - Livin' on the Fault Line: Part 1
Summer is Gone Forever
I didn't even notice this new season approaching while I was watching 'Guys & Dolls', it didn't feel like a final episode to a season at all. I say that as if shows have to do that, they don't at all. We're given an updated intro since the cast have changed a bit, yet again. The biggest change is that Summer is gone, I new this was coming since I saw a group photo a while back and she wasn't in it, but I didn't think it was going to be this soon. That's two seasons she had, not much really in the grand scale of things, for a character I thought was going to be a big deal. She was in it for as many seasons as Shauni and she seemed to be the Shauni replacement, in a way, though she turned out to not be that similar. Summers character didn't have much depth but she did grow on me. Her exit was quite sudden, Matt and her are perfectly in love in the previous episode and then suddenly we're told here that they split and she's left Baywatch. This is told to us by her mum, Jackie, who, yes, is evidently in the show two episodes longer than Summer, the reason being is that this is a two part story. When she shows up in this episode, I thought it would be for a single scene where she tells us why they're leaving, but she actually ends up being a part of the story. Not a big part, though.
Of course in reality, Jackie isn't Summers mum, she's an actor, so having her in this episode makes me think that Summers departure was definitely not planned. I don't know if she was kicked off the show or she wanted to leave, I haven't looked it up.
Hobie
It's a big earth quake story. It didn't take me long to remember that they've done this before in an early Baywatch season, possibly season 1. So that means Hobie has been in one of these quakes before but that was a Hobie played by a different actor, so I doubt he'll mention it. This time Hobie is one of the ones trapped under debris, I think I recall he was one of the ones doing the rescuing last time. There wasn't a gap between recording seasons, as far as I know, since we're still in 1994, but Hobie sure is growing up. They finally replaced his section of the intro which showed him looking a lot younger. In the new one, he is no longer a child. His voice is also changing in this episode, I guess this is the Hobie that is to become of the full on adult life guard that I've seen a photo of from a later season. The one which I thought was being played by a different actor since he looks so different. Also because he looks so much older, this was when I remembered that the show went on for so long, that he had time to actually grow up throughout it.
At the end, we see Hobie has created a sand castle. The funny thing is that it's ridiculously good, seemingly made in a short period of time. It's hilarious.
Logan
Some new dude, an Australian life guard and he's a dick, we see this when he has an argument with Matt. Sound familiar? Yeah, he's just like Trevor Cole but doesn't seem as interesting. That's a little unfair because he's barely in this episode but there was something I liked about Trevor, I don't know, he just had charisma. Couldn't they have been more original? Even just have someone or isn't from Australia, they've even had another episode where the Australian life guard is the bad guy. WHat do they have against Australian's? Perhaps it's because English actors are usually bad guys in American things and the Australian accent sounds a bit like an British accent. I'm English by the way, and even though I can tell the difference, I admit, the first few words that came out of Logan's mouth sounded British.
Caroline Holden
Here we have the blatant female life guard replacement for Summer, in fact she literally says it. I didn't recognise her when I saw her in the intro, it is Stephanie's sister from earlier in the show where she turned up for one episode. I remember her acting really well in that one, maybe that's why they got her back. That one was about her and her husband to be but it turns out since then, her husband has been cheating on her, so she ditches him. A welcome addition to the cast since... well, just look at her.
A New Dawn, Sorta
I'm now writing this the day after most of what I wrote about this paragraph, it's after I've seen part 2 so I'm begging to forgot the details concerning part 1, so I'll wrap this up soon. So here's a few observations concerning 'Livin' on the Fault Line: Part 1'
- The beginning spends way too long on a montage of a bunch of characters and extras rollerblading, I thought this was going to have something to do with the episode but it's totally unrelated. We see Matt is teaching a group of youths to roller blade, but this doesn't lead to anything.
- Hobie is with three friends of his in the roller blade montage and for a bit after, one of them is a girl who looks like shes going to be a part of the story, but she ends up saying a couple of lines and then vanishes.
- Matt possibly looks a bit bigger, he sure has been pumping iron.
- As far as I can remember the original earthquake episode, this new one has a lot more people trapped.
- I've spend way too much time on this episode but I must say some more - There's some things in this episode that feel a little... different from the last reason. Firstly the music is a bit different, it isn't worse but it sounds more old fashioned, it's more like mid to late 80's TV background music. Another thing that's different is the camera angles, I can't quite put my finger on it but they seem to move around differently. Maybe this had a different director than usual, I can't be bothered to look it up, though.
- On a related note, there's a couple of scenes that have been badly edited.
- I have mixed feelings, I didn't think this one was bad but something did happen that goes against that feeling; It felt long. In fact I paused it thinking it was almost over, only to see that not only was I only just over half way, but that the episode was only 39 minutes, that's a bit shorter than usual. So this episode did kind of drag.
S05E02 - Livin' on the Fault Line: Part 2
Right, onto the one I only just watched.
Jackie
The main thing to say is that half of episode is taken up by Jackie's rescue, a character that I doubt will even be in the show again. This is because her rescue required the most action, which I didn't realise before. Most of the other trapped people are easily rescued and don't require much time. Moving on, I'd like to say that her and Summer will be missed, I will miss Jackie's beach restaurant thing which was definitely under-utilised. Baywatch doesn't have enough variety in its locations.
Stephanie
The second biggest rescue is Stephanie and then some of the others, saving Steph's boyfriend and his work colleagues. Her boyfriend is stuck under water after diving, which has been done a few times before in Baywatch. One of the colleagues is scared and selfish and all doom and gloom, which is also something Baywatch has done before. This whole rescue is ok but looking back at it now, I'm not interested in it. I wonder if Stephanie's boyfriend will vanish after this episode, haha.
Logan
Logan is one of the life guards who turns up to help Steph. He does something that makes him out to be a worse person than Trevor Cole, so perhaps he'll be more of a full on villain than Trevor was. You see, Trevor started off as a bit of a dick but he was a good person at heart and he changed into a good guy. I really liked that but they've done that before, so if they make Logan more of a villain, that would be cool. Baywatch lacks any regular antagonists.
Hobie
He gets trapped in his garage, his Dad rescues him but he's traumatised for the rest of the episode. He's afraid of going into buildings or under structures, in fear of them falling on him. This was all fine until it's revealed what this was building up to - He wants to go live with his mum where it's 'safe'. Are we really doing this story again? I'm of it, I'm tired of Mitch stressing over it and the drama over it. It was fine in earlier seasons but they've done it too many times now, it was literally a story thread back when Hobie was played by a different actor.
There is a shot a the end that suggests Hobie is actually leaving, maybe he does leave the show for a bit, maybe to go to college or university in real life. However I assume he would return, since I know he's in the show when he's older. Wait, I'm not saying he's going to leave for a long time... he's not, is he? The show would feel weird without him.
Caroline
Not much to say here. As far as long term goes, at first it looks like she might get with Matt, making her the ultimate Summer replacement, haha. However, it looks like she might get with Logan, which I don't prefer over Matt. Maybe the writers always feel like they have to match up any pairs that are new characters. There's also a hint of a love triangle which is quite possible, but Baywatch didn't do a very good job of that last time and didn't give it enough time to grow.
Final Thoughts
Since this one is almost all action, there's not much to say about it, but here's some random final thoughts.
- Near the end, the episode abruptly transitions from the chaos and destruction to everything being fine. As if there's a time skip but they don't make this clear. Suddenly everything is fine but it's clearly not a long time after, maybe it only takes a day to clean up after a massive quake.
- It transitions to a montage of the beautiful people, place and scenario. Which I liked but they use two or three shots of old footage. The one that stands out the most is of a dude jogging on the beach on his own. This shot was in many, if not all of season 1's intro, maybe season 2 as well, I can't remember. My point is, it's been used a hell of a lot. This is lazy, lazier than I've ever seen before in this show. The montage is supposed to be of the present but we're seeing clips from somewhere between 1988 and 1990. I take that back, this HD version of Baywatch has slightly different intros from the original so I'm not sure when that footage was recorded but still, it's lazy.
- I thought I had more to say about this one but I guess not. Byeeeeeee.
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