Baywatch - S05E05 - Air Buchannon

What a weird episode but not like you're thinking, it's not a weird story like that one where Summer was getting horny with a ghost. Did I forget to write about that one? Yes, ghosts exist in the Baywatch universe. It's not a rare comedy episode like that one where Eddie hits his head and dreams that the cast are in an approximation of a Gilligan's Island episode. No, it's weird fr a host of reasons but mainly because there's no clear real stories until nearer the end, sort of.

When I first started watching Baywatch, I read online some people say how much better the first three seasons are and that they had proper stories, or did they day that they had stories, period, I can't remember which. Is 'Air Buchannon' the start of that trend, will this become the norm if I keep watching? For now though, I need to make something clear - I liked this episode. Perhaps because of its novelty but also because Baywatch's stories started to copy earlier episodes quite some time ago, which I've complained about before. Really since around the start of season 3, it's been repeating similar stories from season's 1 and 2. So having it the way it is in this episode is fine with me, however a lot of things about this episode would definitely label it as a real shit one by most viewers. I should explain what they actually do in this one, shouldn't I/

So here goes. It's a load of small, mundane stories that just happen. they are even more mundane than usual, even when the show is trying to make it look like they aren't. At first I thought it is called 'Air Buchannon' because he's going around doing random jobs but no, it's called that because someone steals his Hang Glider. This is a weak connection and just shows how much of a non-story this episode is, because normally the titles explain what's going on it the simplest of terms. Let's make a few notes concerning the bits that stand out, because I can't think of any other way to write this.

- Firstly, it starts with another rollerblading montage just like the last episode and it's long again, too. This is just the start of the oddities. Just like the previous one, rollerblading also ends up having nothing to do with the episode, at least they briefly mention it in the last one.

- We then see an extra doing Tai chi or something and she looks bad at it, then again, I know nothing about Tai chi.

- We then get the premise of what I guess could be called the 'A' story, or maybe the 'B' story? I'm not sure because even though there are two stories that get plenty of screen time, they're also scatter shot. Mitch and Steph have to do a 24 hour shift and this the main reason we get small stories, because we see them going around doing small rescues and stuff. But why would a life guard ever have to work for 24 hours? I'm not sure if that's a real thing. Also Mitch briefly mentions what happened with him and his ex-wife a few episodes ago, he also did this in the previous episode. It's unusual for Baywatch to acknowledge past stories.

- It's around this time that I noticed something I noticed in a previous episode but forgot to mention. Season 5 introduces diegetic sounds, most notably people talking on the beach. This is welcome even though in the previous episode there was a moment when it was too loud. The show has probably always had it but it's improved in season 5... or has it? Perhaps me noticing it means it's not as good, since it's supposed to sound natural.

- We then get C.J. telling some surfers that they are on a non-surfing part of the beach but it turns out this is not a story. I think this is around the time I started wondering what this episode is actually about.

- An old dude has a heart attack, I think, but it looks like he's just out of breath. Mitch and Stephanie are some of the life guards called to help and here is where we get another weird moment. The show spends quite a bit of time showing them actually driving there, they don't normally do this in Baywatch. They'll usually show them arriving in their yellow van jeep or maybe them getting into it at the start of the journey, at most. This part also leads into nothing again, we simply get told later that the hospital he was taken to said he is fine.

- I'll take this moment to point out again that I did like this episode even though I sound like I'm complaining. 'Air Buchannon' is good simply because we get to see the sights, sounds and atmosphere of this, admittedly unreal, place. Which sort of leads to the next bit.

- This is kind of hilarious. It's at this point I noticed how many bikini babe extras are throughout this episode. This show has definitely got more horny over time, gradually since the start. It was always there but I'm now starting to see what this show was known for back in the 90's. As in, I never watched it back then, not even once, but you know how the most strong opinions rise to the top in society and this was one of them. Well, the main one. You'd hear about babes, slow motion running, David Hasselhoff and Pamela, even though she's still not in it much. At that's about it, that's all you'd hear. Oh, also you'd hear it was crap but clearly it had something because it was immensely popular. Maybe it was just the TNA? I guess TV was the only way a lot of people could get their kicks, back then.

- The next weird thing to happen, though it's only weird for me, is that Charisma Carpenter appears as a guest star! I know her as Cordelia Chase from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, my favourite TV show of all time. Hobie and her start a thing together, will she be in it more after this? I doubt it.

- Next random this to happen is two boys hang glide in a place they aren't supposed to. One crashes but he's OK, he doesn't need rescuing, which is a first! He breaks the glider which leads to him and his make stealing Mitch's one later. These two are the closest to villains we have, they're just dicks though, basically.

- We get a random guy in the life guard switch box (call centre thingy) throughout this episode but there's a scene just after the hang gliding one where it seems he is not an actor at all. Who is this guy? I'd still trade my life with his though, his real life or his screen life, haha.

- Next weird thing is another montage... why would there be another one in an episode that already is going nowhere? Wait I answered my own question. Nice montage, I like. Funny thing is that it shows real people, which makes the beach babe extras stuff I mentioned earlier stand out even more. It really does highlight how fake this show is, the beach is and probably was never like this. We see real people who are wearing more, are less attractive and also there are far, far more guys. The earlier scenes with the extras were almost all women. Also in this montage, even though Mitch and Steph are driving around, you blatantly notice that two beach babe extras have been assigned to walking next to the car in almost every shot. I guess it was the shows attempt to offset the normies. Also the regular people are so much more densely packed than shots with extras.

- The next bit actually made me laugh. A bunch of cyclists and roller bladders crash into each other and the show makes it out to be so serious. There's about five of them and they literally can't get up and are moaning in pain, it didn't look like a very bad collision! One woman is saying she can't move her legs. These's people look way younger than me and I crashed my bike, I flew over the handle bar, onto my hands and scraped them. I was bleeding and I had sprained my wrists. I think I was 40 years old (so maybe last year) and I could still get up and walk. I could also just about ride still, though I stopped because it was painful. No way would those extras be that banged up.

- Next we get a hard cut to a montage of Hobie and Charisma Carpenter having fun. Yes, I'm going to call her that because I can't remember her character name. This cut from an apparently serious accident to fun times is funny. Also are they really giving us another montage? Is this the beginning of the show running out of ideas?

- Up next is Hobie has a house party, I'm getting tired and I can't be bothered to talk about this one. It's basically the other "main" story along with the Mitch and Steph one. It just leads to those dickhead boys stealing Mitch's Hang Glider and then an action rescue scene at the end where Hobie and one of the boys crash into a cliff. Yeah, Hobie grabs onto the Hang Glider while the other boy is taking off, for some reason. Even though he could have easily confronted him about the theft after he had landed. It's not like he was going to glide off into the sun set with his stolen goods. His mate is standing there with the car still.

- The next scene is Mitch and Stephanie getting horny, this, as well as the stuff I talked about earlier, makes this the raunchiest episode I've ever seen. Ya know, by Baywatch daytime TV standards.

- This bit is a part of the above but I'm separating it because it's so weird. They do a flashback of Mitch and Stephanie moments, one of which is of them meeting. She doesn't appear to be wearing a wig though so did they actually think ahead to shoot this before she cut her hair off for this season? Or perhaps it's an unused scene from an earlier episode, though that would have had to be a flashback too, since when Steph is introduced, she already knows Mitch. She's already dated him, too. Some of these flashback scenes are from previews episodes, however, since I remember them. They jump from black and white to colour, which is also a bit odd.

- That's about it for the stories, there was more but I can't be arsed, I've already gone into too much detail. The episode ends with Mitch and Hobie chatting while walking on the beach, something that the show does a lot.

Random, Out of Order Notes

- I rarely spot bad ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) in Baywatch but Hobie get's the worst one I've seen in Baywatch. I think it was when he's in his kitchen talking to one of the Hang Glider thieves.

- Not much to about new character Logan in this one, he's not in it. Also since his debut, he's at the tail end of the intro so perhaps he's not going to be in the show much. I find it odd that Stephanie is right at the end and has always been near the end, even though she's in it a lot. She's in it a lot more than cop guy, who I always forget the name of, even though she's in it more. In fact I'd argue that she's the 3rd most used character behind Mitch and Hobie, especially now that Summer is gone.

- I really liked the music in this episode. Most wouldn't like it but it's so 90's, it sounds like some 90's PlayStation games background soundtrack.

- This is a random place to put this but I forgot to mention this ages ago; Like I said earlier, Baywatch rarely mentions old stories and characters that have left. However, Matt and Summer move in together at one point and it's into the boat that Shauni and Eddie lived in! They actually mention this.

Baywatch - S05E04 - Baja Run

An alright episode but nothing special besides some of the sites.

'B' Story

A continuation of the Logan, Caroline and Matt love triangle and it definitely is one since it is confirmed that Caroline does sort of fancy Matt too. It is implied that they've gone on a date or two but they were just basic ones like dinner. I say that, it's not that they tell us this but Caroline has a date planned with Matt in this episode and it doesn't come across as their first, to me. However Caroline forgets about this and it leads to her telling her sister Stephanie that she's chosen Logan, because he's fun and Matt is too serious.

I'm glad this happened because it looked like this story was going to mimic the old one where Summer couldn't choose between Matt and Slade. After this, the story diverges even more; After Matt makes no effort to hide his jealousy for Logan, he gets with C.J. This was surprising but I welcome it and it is perhaps an unintentional call back to their first ever encounter where Matt was clearly eyeing up C.J., that was two seasons ago when they were introduced. I don't think the show had them be anything but platonic after that.

This burgeoning romance is first shown in a cute little scene where Matt and C.J. are hitting a boxing bag, it's a bit more spontaneous and human than most scenes in Baywatch, perhaps it was improvised. The second part is shown in your typical Baywatch romance montage of two people frolicking and kissing. In retrospect this pairing is rushed like a lot of them in the show, so I'm afraid it probably won't last long and is just a diversion from the original route of getting Matt and Caroline together. I wouldn't be surprised if this happens in the next episode.

I almost forgot to talk about Logan. He is shown to be a nasty piece of work in this episode, for sure, so he's far worse than Trevor Cole. I don't mean he's a villain in the way that we get thieves and murderers in one-off stories, but he's definitely the most nasty life guard we've had in the main cast so far. That's not saying much though, since they've all been so super nice so far. It's a nice change but I doubt he'll stay this way. I can't believe he payed a dude to attack a woman so he can rescue her, they make an effort to make him look 'not that bad' though, by showing him tell the attacker that he went too far.

Later on, Caroline see's Logan snogging the woman he rescued so he knows he's a piece of work now. This will most likely lead to her trying to get with Matt.

'A' Story

I was thinking while watching this that the story is way better than the other, but now that I think about it, not a whole lot happens. The thing that stops it from being trash is that John D. Cort returns for a one off, which is very welcome. Looking on baywatch.fandom, I see this is the last time he's in the show, which is real sad for me. Well, besides appearing in the 'Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding' but I barely count that because it's way later and the more I watch the show, the more I realise that this Hawaiian movie thing is probably going to be just a bunch of cameos. Will he be totally blind? It's about ten years later so he should be but I get they come up with some excuse, saying he's cured because otherwise that would be way too much of a downer for a reunion movie. Come to think of it, I'm fine with that.

Back to Baja Run. John D. Cort is still going blind, a thing they introduced last time he appeared for a one-off, which I still think is ridiculous, unnecessary and depressing. I guess on the one hand, it is something different for the show to do for once, but why to such a believed, cool, season 1 character? At least they don't focus on it this time but it's still a thing, since they couldn't just brush it under the rug. This show is pretty silly and loose but in John's last appearance, they did point out that his condition is not treatable, that he is going to go blind.

Anyway, onto the actual story - There's not much to it to be honest, it's just an excuse to show some Baja racing. Is that what it's called? I can't look it up because my internet is down at the moment. The episode is called 'Baja Run' so Baja is a part of it, at least. I'm OK with this though, it looks cool and fun, it makes me wish my life was like that, just like a lot of things in this show.

I don't know why I'm even going to bother saying anything about the rest of this story. John has an expensive artefact, he hides it from some bad dudes who want to steal it from him, Mitch doesn't know, bla bla bla. I don't recall when but I'm pretty sure they've done this story before. Like I said, it's really just an excuse to show Baja racing because the artefact is hidden by the side of a road.

Summer and Jackie

That's it for that episode but I have some other random thoughts to air. As we all know, Summer and her mum Jackie are gone from the show starting with this season. I've already said it but they will be missed, Jackie's actress was real good and Summer's sudden split from Matt and her job wasn't explained at all. I know this is just silly show from decades ago so I'm not that bothered, but it's an observation that Baywatch will make out characters to be important and in love and then just end it unceremoniously. Also I forgot to say something in my write up about the last episode - Jackie doesn't have any speaking scenes after she's rescued, she's basically just screaming for help for the whole thing and then leaves the show. Just something I wanted to point out, haha.

S01E01 - In Deep

No, I'm not doing a review of this episode (yet), it's just yesterday I decided to watch the original intro but I ended up watching five to ten minutes of it. It's a shame I didn't write about the first two seasons because I like the origins of media and for some reason the first two seasons of Baywatch aren't represented as much online as the later ones. Before I continue, to clarify, this episode is sometimes listed as episode 2, since the pilot, which is more like a movie, is sometimes episode 1. I'm watching Baywatch on Freevee, episode 1 is the pilot probably because their database software has no way to list an episode 0.

It might be nostalgia but the little I watched of this does seem better than season 5 episodes. Not by a lot though, Baywatch hasn't changed loads so far and the changes have been gradual. The thing that stands out the most is the charisma of the characters in 'In Deep', especially the guys, though this might be because I only watched about ten minutes. Mitch is the main character and is always in the show so I'm not counting him, he hasn't changed.

For all the praise I've given 'new' Hobie for getting better and better at acting, I'd forgotten how charismatic and natural the original one was. It's also funny to be reminded how much older he was, he's probably about the same age that Hobie is now in season 5, so new Hobie has finally caught up with him. Old Hobie is still better though, how he has conversations with his Dad is so much better.

We also have Craig, again, the charisma is high in this one. Basically the acting is just better all around. John D. Cort isn't there from the start but it doesn't take long for him to join and I think he's another good example of the early characters being better. Seeing him appear for the last time in 'Baja Run' today reminds me again of these original episodes.

You barely see her in the first ten minutes but there is of course Shauni as well, my favourite life guard. She's the reason why I re-watched the old intro because I still connect part of the music to her slow-motion run, even though she's no longer in it. What I mean is that the intro music is the same in season 5 but there's a part of the music that I connect to Shauni. In this episode, we see Eddie acting stand-offish towards Shauni. It's funny to see the tired old cliche of 'if the boy is mean to you, it means he likes you' here.

Not that you see any of this at the start of this one, but watching this does remind me that under water scenes do look better in later seasons. Even though it is still obviously shot in a swimming pool. I remember that in season 1 and 2, not only are the camera angles and clarity not as good, but they also barely put in rocks and stuff on the bottom! It was so blatantly a swimming pool. If I re-watched those now, they'd look even worse.

Baywatch - S05E03 - Aftershock

Yeah I'm still writing about Baywatch, for some reason.

Been There, Done That

'B' Story

We start off with this one but it turns out to have very little screen time, it's Matt and Logan not liking each other, partly because they both fancy Caroline. Is this a love triangle? I don't know if it is if none of them are attracted to Matt. Caroline might like him but we haven't had her say anything either way. This is partly because both her and Logan are so new to the show, they've barely had any time to do anything. Not only have they rushed into the Matt vs. Logan scenario but also the Matt fancies Caroline one, too. He only just split up with Summer and we haven't seen him mention her or act sad at all. Now, this is not to say that he is supposed to be a bad person, what I mean is that the writers have decided to pretend Summer never existed, at least, in the stories involving Matt. This isn't a huge deal, it's not like having Matt be all mopey would have been interesting, but it does feel unnatural after two seasons them both being madly in love.

Oh wait, except they weren't, were they, because there was a love triangle involving them and Slade. The Matt and Logan rivalry has been done before - It's a combination of Slade story and the old rivalry between Eddie and... who was it? Oh, I think it was John D. Cort. They weren't in a love triangle but John was introduced to the show after Eddie and Eddie didn't like him. They work out their differences and become great friends. This does all happen very quickly, I admit, but yeah, this new Logan thing is played out just the same. This story doesn't go anywhere so I'll leave it at that.

'A' Story

At least we get to see Caroline in the other story, shes stunning, but the 'A' story is quite unbelievably played out. We spend most of the episode on this one, I don't know what to say, this entire episode isn't exactly bad but... Gayle and Mitch want to get back together again, Hobie is happy about this and then they don't get back together. I can't believe they did this story again, they've done it so many times before.

Since I'm watching this show decades after it aired and I'm watching four or five episodes a week, perhaps it's unfair to criticise it for certain things. Back in the day, viewers would miss episodes and there would be larger gaps between them watching them, so perhaps they'd not notice when stories were re-told. The only tiny differences are that it's Gayle who is really into the idea when it's usually the other way around, and that they decide to re-marry, immediately.

As in, right now in the same episode! Even Stephanie remarks that isn't Mitch rushing, though this is because shes jealous. I knew this episode was coming because I looked at Gayle's baywatch.fandom page months page months ago because I decided I didn't care about spoilers when it comes to this character. Probably because of this exact reason, when she comes back into the show for normally one episode, it's usually the same story. However, I didn't know this one was going to be so soon, I thought I'd read that the wedding episode was way in the future, like, season 10 or something. I kind of do regret reading it now, because I already knew that Mitch runs off to save people literally just before he says "I do" at his wedding. So Gayle decides it still annoys her now he puts his job first. Is this the last time we see her? Maybe. I'll look it up later.

Small note about Hobie which I forgot to say earlier - I was wrong about what I said yesterday, even though he did leave to go live with his mum at the end of the episode, he is back straight away in this one. Over is fear of earthquakes and ready to get back to normal, making the drama from 'Livin' on the Fault Line' pointless. Well, what I mean is it took away the weight of the situation.

Random Thoughts On Baywatch

- Logan looks a bit weird in the intro, I first noticed how he looks before he was added to the show, when I saw promotional photos of him. He looks pretty normal in the show, though.

- Maybe they feel like they can get away with re-using story-lines because they change the cast quite often.

- I might be imagining it or it's creeping in very slowly; The heroics of saving people is getting more extreme, or amplified. I don't mean the action, stunts or size of the situations are getting bigger, I mean they're making out the lifeguards are more like super heroes. Imagine a parody of Baywatch, which I'm sure there were many back in the day, were the gravitas of the situation is turned up. They're still mostly just diving under water to grab someone, but it's made out to be more amazing now.

Baywatch - S04E22, S05E01 and S05E02

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.