S01.E01: Em

[AnimeMania]

At Oahu’s North Shore, captain Sonny Jennings and his core team of lifeguards — his lieutenant Em Wright and veteran lifeguards Will Ready and Laka Hanohano monitor the dangerous Hawaiian waters. Meanwhile, new lifeguard recruits Hina Alexander and Kainalu Emerson have a flirtatious dynamic with one another as they compete to join Sonny’s district. Between diving headfirst into difficult and life-threatening conditions to rescuing injured and in need of help beachgoers and surfers, the lifeguards are also dealing with their own personal issues. Sonny and his family are currently grieving after the loss of his nephew Zion in an accident that Sonny feels responsible for while Em reveals a romantic shared past with Will, although Will is now engaged to another woman. And Native Hawaiian lifeguard Laka is intrigued by his new colleague Jenn, a smart, capable and beautiful EMT. The elite North Shore lifeguards face saving the lives of inexperienced tourist surfers and local teenagers while managing their own personal dilemmas. 

Premiere Date: September 22, 2024      FOX    8pm   

Next New Episode: Monday, September 23, 2024        FOX     9pm

Edited September 22 by AnimeMania

[Featherhat]

So I watched so called Baywatch 2.0 having never watched the original. I was interested mostly because I have a couple of family members who are in the RNLI and SLSC and was interested to see how it played out. 

It was ok, pretty standard for a pilot. You have the boss who's the father figure, conflicted between politics to get what he needs and doing the right thing with a family tragedy. The couple that broke up but clearly still have feelings for each other complete with new fiancee who seems to be being set up as an obstacle and unreasonably jealous shrew. Feels like we've seen that potential character a lot. The jokey playboy who enjoys using his position to have fun with tourists but is most interested in the one that said "no". The rookie who screws up and is a nepo baby and clearly hates that the other new female rookie is better than him. Plus island politics. 

I like Arielle Kebbel but I don't think I'm going to be interested in the potential love triangle. I hope they focus on her potential mentorship of Hina and her supporting/disagreeing with Sonny's leadership whilst wanting her own Captaincy. 

Robbie Magasiva as Sonny was fine. It was interesting that he actually caved to soon to be Mayor Emerson and hired his son for the sake of getting the things his section needed. A lot of those type of characters would have turned him down or been forced by higher ups to take Kainalu. Along with the dead nephew angst it seems we're getting estranged/grieving/"wild" daughter angst which is fairly common for this type of character. 

Kainalu, not sure if I want to see his rivalry or maybe love/hate thing with Hina. I guess we'll get a lot of stuff going on with his Dad, again fairly common trope. I did like his snarky "but you still complain" to Laka. There's a bit of personality in him. 

Sea Shimooka, I recognise you from Arrow! She didn't have much to do but she seemed a competent EMT. 

I'll definitely give it a couple more eps to see if it gets more interesting. The pilot was shot last season and it's been held because of the strike so they've had a lot of time to work on it. 

[FnkyChkn34]

I don't know that this show is Baywatch 2.0 - the characters are being portrayed as competent elite lifeguards, and the women aren't... bimbos.  At least not yet.  

I set the DVR, so I'll give this show a few more episodes before I make a decision.

[Featherhat]

9 hours ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

I don't know that this show is Baywatch 2.0 - the characters are being portrayed as competent elite lifeguards, and the women aren't... bimbos.  At least not yet.  

I set the DVR, so I'll give this show a few more episodes before I make a decision.

I haven't watched Baywatch so I can't really make a comparison, I was just saying it because all the reviews I've read seem to either joke about it being "Baywatch 2.0" or say that it definitely is/isn't that. 

One thing I am interested in is them swimming out by themselves to grab the victims in what we are told are 3 storey waves. I know it happens in other places but in such extreme conditions doesn't that increase the danger that two people will end up in trouble no matter how strong a swimmer the lifeguards are? 

Edited September 23 by Featherhat

[Raja]

8 hours ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

I don't know that this show is Baywatch 2.0 - the characters are being portrayed as competent elite lifeguards, and the women aren't... bimbos.  At least not yet.  

I set the DVR, so I'll give this show a few more episodes before I make a decision.

That Lieutenant with the ex working out of her tower seems straight out of Baywatch. And Baywatch when they got on the water was like M*A*S*H not having a laugh track in surgery and the actual the rescues also played like Jack Webb on Emergency showing off the firefighter/paramedics. But now with the top lifeguarding techniques and technology. Did they ever show what the number 1  by tradition rookie felt like when nepo-guard got her spot?

Was the Captain barely being able to hold his qualification with father time breathing down his neck a signal that his story is just a place keeper if this does become a long running series?  In any case it seemed like his station was independent of all the others and he could refuse to hire the newest qualified if he wanted to.

[Featherhat]

47 minutes ago, Raja said:

 Did they ever show what the number 1  by tradition rookie felt like when nepo-guard got her spot?

Was the Captain barely being able to hold his qualification with father time breathing down his neck a signal that his story is just a place keeper if this does become a long running series?  In any case it seemed like his station was independent of all the others and he could refuse to hire the newest qualified if he wanted to.

No, they didn't show her reaction, just Em's (blonde lifeguard) - not sure why the episode was named after her. Hina (rookie) only had about 3 scenes and just reappeared at the end when Captain got permission to rehire her and snark on the guy who's Daddy got him the spot. All we found out about her is that she seems to have been parentified by her mother towards her younger siblings. 

I must have not been paying attention because I thought Captain did well in the qualification and beat his "niece"? If he did only just pass then it might be an issue, although he doesn't seem to do much day to day rescuing, mostly admin and politics. 

[AnimeMania]

14 minutes ago, Featherhat said:

I must have not been paying attention because I thought Captain did well in the qualification and beat his "niece"? If he did only just pass

Captain had 3 seconds left, but it didn't look like he was struggling at all. The timekeeper said he could slip them a couple of extra seconds if they needed it.

[Raja]

22 minutes ago, Featherhat said:

No, they didn't show her reaction, just Em's (blonde lifeguard) - not sure why the episode was named after her. Hina (rookie) only had about 3 scenes and just reappeared at the end when Captain got permission to rehire her and snark on the guy who's Daddy got him the spot. All we found out about her is that she seems to have been parentified by her mother towards her younger siblings. 

I must have not been paying attention because I thought Captain did well in the qualification and beat his "niece"? If he did only just pass then it might be an issue, although he doesn't seem to do much day to day rescuing, mostly admin and politics. 

The promo seemed to suggest a two hour pilot. I don't know if the show was supposed to be mid season but came during the opening of football and before the baseball playoffs caused the pilot to be split into two episodes. Like the first year of NYPD Blue was centered of David Caruso's boss, his ex, his partner, his girlfriend and protégé before he left  after one season and then all the characters where more on their own and the show was about Dennis Franz's Sipowitz.  With Em's the ex, her team, her boss and her protégé in a way Em was the central character at least in the pilot..

The Captain came in behind his LT with the testing Captain taking a beat before saying he passed his qualification and could remain a Captain. 

Not being Hawaiian but trying some  third party cultural code switching explanations As to all the uncles/nieces , towards the Captain and the kids on the beach with the junior of the lifeguard team and nieces, they are just referring to the next generation. They played with it in the first episodes of the Hawaii 5-0 reboot with rookie officer Kono calling the old ex con turned 5-0 informant and friend Kamekono "uncle". But they quickly dropped it I guess fearing the general American audience was confused. 

Edited September 23 by Raja

[shapeshifter]

I think there was more water than soap.
🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊
💏💑👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩👩‍❤️‍👨

So I’ll give it another shot.

2 minutes ago, Raja said:

Not being Hawaiian but trying some  third party cultural code switching explanations As to all the uncles/nieces , towards the Captain and the kids on the beach with the junior of the lifeguard team and nieces, they are just referring to the next generation. They played with it in the first episodes of the Hawaii 5-0 reboot with rookie officer Kono calling the old ex con turned 5-0 informant and friend Kamekono uncle. But they quickly dropped it I guess fearing the general American audience was confused. 

My parents lived their last 30 years on the Big Island. A couple of locals at a business they frequented called Dad “Uncle,” but I think it may have been at least partly because he supported the business. IDK. Dad was a nice guy too. Probably both. Plus it was a jewelry store, and Mom often wore pieces Dad had made, so maybe a mutual respect thing too? I don’t think they ever saw Dad swimming.

[Raja]

11 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

I think there was more water than soap.
🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊
💏💑👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩👩‍❤️‍👨

So I’ll give it another shot.

My parents lived their last 30 years on the Big Island. A couple of locals at a business they frequented called Dad “Uncle,” but I think it may have been at least partly because he supported the business. IDK. Dad was a nice guy too. Probably both. Plus it was a jewelry store, and Mom often wore pieces Dad had made, so maybe a mutual respect thing too? I don’t think they ever saw Dad swimming.

When my wife first came stateside I had to caution her about calling elder Black men that she didn't have a relationship with  "uncle".  That she would have to learn new social codes because  instead of being seen as respectful he would hear someone trying to avoid calling him sir.

[Raja]

26 minutes ago, AnimeMania said:

Captain had 3 seconds left, but it didn't look like he was struggling at all. The timekeeper said he could slip them a couple of extra seconds if they needed it.

I remember hitting the point in life where I still had the endurance to finish but no longer could  sprint to make up lost time.  3 seconds in that triathlon of that distance was not a comfortable cushion in my opinion it was barely qualified. Maybe for the last time unless that agency had a sliding requirement for age groups.

[agathapenny]

I wanted to like this, but damn that was rough.

The pacing/editing was terrible and only highlighted how unbelievably awkward and stilted the dialogue was. I don't know if I can sit through the second hour. The woman playing Em is pretty good and just about manages to make herself sound like how a human would talk, and the guy playing the captain was OK, if rather wooden, but the rest of it is ham-fisted at best, with the characters having the depth of a particularly shallow mud puddle with little to no charisma to speak of.

Seriously, the worst pilot I've seen in a while. the pacing/editing issues reminded me very unhappily of the thankfully cancelled Charlie's Angels reboot of a decade-plus ago.

[blackwing]

I miss Hawaii Five-0 (dropped it after they effectively fired the two Asian leads) and I have fond memories of Baywatch so I was eager to watch this show.

I like it.  It's not great, but neither was Baywatch.  I wish they had given Ariel Kebbel different hair though.  I think she is naturally brunette, but here they pretty much give her the exact same haircut Nicole Eggert had on Baywatch.  It's hard for me not to think of her as Summer 2.0.

There's a blondish guy who is either Cody 2.0 (blond) or Matt 2.0 (relationship with Summer 2.0).

The biggest difference between this show and Baywatch is that there are actually Asians on this show.  Baywatch didn't have any until Jason Momoa in the later seasons.

Hope this show can survive and doesn't get axed.  It's nice to see Hawaii!