Thunder in Paradise

Stop the haterade...I understand that view point now(considering that you are older and chances are you don't watch silly stuff). But back in 94 as a young child or as a devout wrestling/Hulk Hogan fan living in the US...Thunder in Paradise was a pretty cool show to watch. I enjoyed Thunder in Paradise all 22(I think) episodes of it. I'm not going on a limb to proclaim it greatness...but the show gave me and my younger brother some good entertainment. Sure we recognized the fact that the "force field" around Thunder was incredibly poorly done, and that some...okay..many of he lines were very much corny. But dammit we got to see El Gigante aka Giant Gonzales Jorge Gonzales(who oddly made two appearances in the series as what I think are two different characters), we also got to see our guy Sting play the role of Hammerhead, and we got to see what was a pretty cool boat. At the time I kinda wish that there was a toy line fashioned after it. So in conclusion, the show had its faults, but I'm pretty sure that it was targeted to younger children who will readily take in the fantasy world. As I look back on the show...yeah its pretty bad...but at the same time if TNT decided to air reruns...I'd probably watch or tape them as a piece of my childhood memories.

Thunder in paradise has a few things going for it, a stylish crime fighting boat, hulk hogan and stylish look, sadly those are the only things that's good about this pointless uninspired mess, featuring ridiculously poor dialogue. Silly teleplay, bad acting throughout and many ridiculous episodes, yes 1994 was a great year for television, er for example, but this useless tv show is just too pointless to even conceived, it's a shame, because it's beautiful and stylish to look at, but embarrassing to watch, this is an ultimately empty tv show that doesn't work on any level except for the beautiful boat.

This is a very dull show.

What you have to appreciate is the context. Thunder in Paradise was not about the acting or story or any such nonsense. Hulk Hogan can't act very well. He is not terrible, since all wrestlers have some experience in acting, but Hulk never rose above the wrestling level of acting, unlike some other wrestlers who broke through in Hollywood.

However, this show did combine a number of things that could really appeal to a young boy living in the cold North:

1. The paradise part. The blue water and palms sent you away from your rainy hometown on a little vacation every time you watched this show. It's a similar in effect to reading travel magazines or watching travel shows.

2. The boat, Thunder. It is awesome! It looks like a cooler version of the F117 stealth bomber. It has mini-guns and missiles and other funky tech. The show used computer generated effects for the boat transformations that look ok even today. This boat was the true star of the show that kept a boy hooked.

3. The theme song. This has a lot to do with point 1 on this list. The holiday-themed song just helped transfer you to that vacation setting.

4. Bikini babes.

Thunder in Paradise was a colourful show. Bright sun-lit scenes, blue water, green palms, orange explosions, etcetera. It's not about the acting or camera work or plot. It's about happiness. It's Margaritaville with miniguns. The fact that it was a silly show only underlined the happy attitude it was going for.

If you are an adult, and especially if you are an adult who is already happy with the climate of wherever you live, then you probably would not enjoy this show because it is a poorly acted kids show with a bunch of bikini babes.

This show was not good in the least, but it made up for it by being so incredibly corny that at least you could watch it without being bored. I think at this point in Hogan's career he was trying to wrestle very minimally and wanted to work more on his acting. Well we all know that most of his credits are very horrid, in this show it is the so bad it is kind of good category. This show would quickly run its course and he would once again wrestle quite a bit, but for what it was worth it is probably the most successful endeavor he had as an actor. The show featured him and this other dude as they used this super boat to take down criminals and strange things that borderlined on copyright infringement laws. The boat was a bit absurd as it looked like a normal speed boat on the outside, but then they go below decks and the thing looks like it is the size of a small yacht. Of course, with Hulk Hogan being the star of the show, other wrestlers made appearances which I am sure made the show seem cheap to the casual viewer, but excited young children who enjoyed wrestling back in the day. The one I remember the most is Sting. I can not say that I have seen all the episodes, in fact my best is I have seen perhaps ten or so of the shows. I usually caught it on late at night when I had nothing else to do. Was entertaining for what it was, made me chuckle at the badness of it all.

Thuuuuuuuuuunder, thunder in paradise. There's a hurricane a blowing near over the water. Waiting in anticipation for the action to begin.

I still remember the theme tune from when I used to watch it as a teenage. I used to like the boat and the nice location, it's kinda like poor mans Airwolf or Knight Rider (Or Knight Boat from The Simpsons.) I used to like it as a kid but i'll probably hate it now.