S01.E13: Depth Charge

[AnimeMania]

Captain Sonny and the Ocean Safety team face their most dangerous rescue yet when a literal minefield is discovered on the ocean floor. Meanwhile, on the beach, a hugely popular influencer will do anything to capture viral content for her massive following.

Premiere Date: Monday, February  10, 2025     FOX     9pm

[FnkyChkn34]

This episode was so disjointed, and I don't mean the flashback. I liked the flashback, that was fine. But it seemed like they left half of the show on the editing room floor. 

How was Kainalu released from the hospital and perfectly healthy to go to the funeral? Ruptured ear drums, a lacerated spleen, and whatever else... no way. 

We didn't need the story with the new recruits, that just wasted time. I would have preferred more for the main story to flesh it out better. 

[blackwing]

I've complained before that the rescues on this show are so boring and lackluster and over so quickly.  This episode did not disappoint.  I thought this was the most exciting episode yet.  The bomb explosion and rescue was exciting.  I also loved the extensive underwater camera work in this episode.  The turtles, the bombs, the recruits carrying the rocks.

I agree that the recruit storyline was a waste of time.  The storyline with the influencer (how I loathe that word!) was a waste of time.  We didn't even get any payoff.  I at least wanted to see Hina being made into a social media sensation when her ripping into the 40 million viewers lady was posted and re-posted everywhere on social media and that the influencer was exposed as a fraud.

The previews last week made it seem like Will was going to die.  Obviously it wasn't going to be Will, since the coffin was draped in a U.S. flag and the lifeguards are part of a state not federal agency.  I knew it was going to be Kenny since he was the only one of the Navy guys who received a name and they mentioned his wife so they were going for a big emotional impact.  But I was still hoping for Laka to save him and then they have a laugh about the pickleball bet.

20 minutes ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

How was Kainalu released from the hospital and perfectly healthy to go to the funeral? Ruptured ear drums, a lacerated spleen, and whatever else... no way. 

It was one week later, but it did seem awfully quick for him to look like nothing happened.  They at least could have shown him using a cane to indicate he wasn't 100% steady on his feet.

[sweetandsour]

If this episode was meant to be aired this week several months ago, and FOX didn't change anything about the planned airing schedule, then this was the episode slated for after the Super Bowl until the show actually debuted and the low ratings obviously took the Super Bowl slot off the table.

It was more "exciting" than other episodes, I'll give it that, but would have been so underwhelming as the post-Super Bowl show.

I really do like that this show is not sensationalized the way that Baywatch was.  As the only other lifeguard show people know of, the comparison is inevitable, even for the most casual of viewers.  However, the problem is the show isn't giving enough of, basically, everything.

13 episodes in and all we've seen of Will is nice guy of poor character when it comes to women, just flip-flopping and cheating all over the place.  But I don't know anything about why he is that way, so it just rings as empty.  I mean, they couldn't even give us the decency of understanding even a smidge why he was with Julie, besides "rebound."  At least show them laughing, show them legitimately getting along as planned life partners.  All we ever saw was his obvious discomfort into fitting into her world and committing to her.  We don't know why he even proposed in the first place.  Denial?  Well, maybe.  But that makes him look like even more like an empty vessel of very little agency and conviction.

And then we see him and Em having an affair where she, the other woman, is super pissed he's not being loyal in what he said he would do for her, at the expense of his actual partner.  Neither of them address why this time around would be any different and how they will overcome the original reasons they broke up in the first place.  Em just tells him, "it's hard, that's what makes this right."  What is that BS.  Laka was 100% right about everything.

With all of this "telling" and absolutely no "showing," I have no problem understanding what I'm seeing but I just don't care.  I didn't watch Animal Kingdom so I don't know if Matt Kester is actually really good at developing characters people care about, but it is not happening here.  Not even in what seems like was planned to be the most visible and highly promoted episode of the series.

[FnkyChkn34]

I think the show has done an okay job at showing us that Will wanted a more "traditional" life/wife and to start a family, and Em didn't want to have kids.  That's why they broke up but it's been pretty obvious all along that he still loved her.  The second time around, it seems like they were slightly more honest with each other and she said she'd try to make it work?  I don't know.  But I think it was obvious that the show was never keeping Julie around, so they didn't waste much time on her.

Previews for next week look like we'll just get more random hookups or people the show won't focus on, until they finally put Will and Em together in a future season...