North Shore - no day at the beach

June 16, 2004

I love the beach. The waves, the sunsets, it’s all good. Even the seagulls can’t ruin it for me. So, it’s with much sadness that I withhold my Tube Talk stamp of approval for FOX’s new show North Shore.

Not even the gorgeous Hawaiian beaches were enough to maintain my interest during the show’s debut Monday night. Believe me, I really wanted to like this new drama. It was one of the few new summer series I was actually anticipating.

TV Guide called it “Melrose Place with tan lines and room service.” I wish.

This was no Melrose Place. Oh sure, the cast is beautiful and there was the requisite make-out session in the pool. But the clever writing, the stinging one-liners, and the villain-we-love to-hate that defined Melrose, were noticeably absent on the North Shore.

How a show featuring the romantically linked staff of an exclusive Hawaiian resort could be boring is beyond me, but it is. Even the two main characters are flat and lack chemistry.

Former Baywatch beauty Brooke Burns plays Nicole Booth to Kristoffer Polaha’s Jason Matthews. The wealthy Booth and the working-guy Matthews used to be involved. When she takes a job at the resort where Matthews works, sparks were set to fly. Too bad, they didn’t.

The series just seemed too familiar. It’s a little bit Hotel, a lot of Las Vegas and a pinch of The O.C. But unlike those shows, its cast lacks the charm of a lead actor such as Vegas’ Josh Duhamel. And while it’s similar to Las Vegas, it doesn’t have the one ingredient that cements that show: The entire ensemble cast is interesting.

I’ve only seen one episode thus far, so perhaps North Shore will improve. But I was looking for some mindless summer fun, and The O.C. it ain’t. North Shore hasn’t found its direction.

If you want to give it a try, catch it Mondays at 8 p.m. But I predict the only waves this series will make are the ones captured on film in those beautiful beach scenes.

Originally published 6/16/04 in The Exponent Telegram newspaper.

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