Hidden Palms instantly recalls the short lived disaster that was 'Point Pleasant.’ A mostly blond cast of angsty teens brood into their cell phones while bizarre strangeness envelopes them in a sleepy little burb where anybody over the age of thirty is either a moron or evil. If the pretentious promos that demanded you quiver to their forced air of suspense weren’t enough to convince you that
Hidden Palms that missing its own key ingredient, the real thing most definitely will.
Lead character Johnny (played by Taylor Handley) seems to attract suicide for some reason. First, his father commits suicide under some rather strange circumstances, (which they will no doubt take forever to explain to us), then Johnny moves away to escape the madness only to find himself living in the home of a teen who, you guessed it, previously committed suicide.
Flash-forward to the end of the series where we find out Johnny is actually dying from snorting too much hair bleach and the entire series is taking place in his dying gasps. Okay, so maybe, just maybe, they won’t get that cliché with it; but my guess would be it isn’t going to last long enough for us to find out.
More failed ‘Pleasantville’ themes are echoed when we deal with the new kid in town aspect of the story as Johnny becomes either instantly adored, or instantly loathed the second he comes in town. Naturally, it all seems to connect in some imperceptible way to the dead kid Eddie.
The big over-arcing mystery of the series seems, for now, to be just what did happen to Eddie. Some want to know, some want to forget, and it seems some may be willing to go to great lengths to make sure no one ever finds out. If you think you’ve heard this story before, its not your imagination. You really have.
Over all, Hidden Palms is a beautiful thing to look at, but at first glance at least, a terrible thing to watch. The direction was uneven and the suspense was propelled by too much exposition and not enough, well, suspense.
- Jon Lachonis, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image © 2007 The CW)