North Shore

9-7-04 Finally a series I can really like & relate to & look fwd to seeing ea week.

Matter of fact, I actually tape it and watch over again in case I missed anything. The whole cast is fantastic, exactly as they have been chosen for their respective roles. First, I LOVE Kristoffer Polaha as Jason. The role he portrays is that of an honest, kind, respectful, ambitious, helpful integrity-keeping guy who is his own person and can't be dissuaded or bought off. How refreshing to see such qualities portrayed and these qualities actually seem to reflect Kris's personal life as well, as I look over his biography. Brook Burns is PERFECT as Nicole although she sure took her time going back to Jason. How could she hold out sooo long (groan moan). Really challenged him, no wonder he keeps pursuing her. James Remar as Vincent too is perfect. He is such a great character actor and great in this spot. I look for good things from him. Jason (another Jason, ha) is so cute, don't pay any attention to mom, I KNOW you have ambition. My mom always pressed my buttons too, but now I am self-employed and now I too am my own person like Jason Mathews. I loved the way Jason stood up to Nicole's father, although THAT seems to have cost him dearly. Walter Booth is such a control freak. And Tessa I already hate (which really proves what a great actress she is to invoke such feelings in us). The little waitress is as cute as a bug and very lovable. I really do look forward to seeing North Shore ea Monday here in Milwaukee and I do hope they keep it around for awhile. I'm so sick of cop shows, law & order; am now into the lighter side of entertainment. Real life is tense enough for me. I tune in on Mondays to get the feel of sand, surf and romance. Northshore delivers all these and Jason Mathews is MY idea of a refreshing, gorgeous, hunky and and I wish he wasn't married kinda guy who I love to fantasize about. I loved when Jason said to Vincent "I'm not a kid, and you'd better watch YOUR back or Walter Booth will take away everything you love". Couldn't a said it better myself. He kisses like a dream, lucky Tessa and Sept. 6 Nicole herself. Can't wait to see more of the romantic adventures as they progress. And by the way, Walter Booth isn't the ONLY guy out there who won't let go and that kinda thing can get pretty scary when it happens to you personally. I sure hope the ratings go thru the roof. I also intend to send a letter to Fox 6 Theatricals thru the mail, having cared enough to get their mailing address.

Best wishes North Shore.

Although only two episodes of "North Shore" has aired so far, I think it is fair to say that they have been the best two episodes of any show that has aired so far this summer. The pilot episode has certainly been the better of the two episodes that have aired. Pilot episodes for television series are usually kind of lame since the writers have to spend the whole episode establishing the characters and the story of the show, but with "North Shore", the writers couldn't care less about story and character, leaving plenty of room for chicks in bikinis and campy dialogue. I can't wait until next week's episode. Let's hope that Fox doesn't cancel the show before the end of the summer.

It began like a new good show: great cast, good music, beautiful places and good stories. It was so perfect to be true and the story of the workers of a big hotel of Hawaii soon change to the worst opera of the TV (something with a lot in common with Venezuelan "telenovelas") with very bad guys working beautiful and ambitious women who try to win the love of the good main character in a bad way.

If you watch the firsts episodes and, after that, the last ones, you can find two shows: the first: good in every aspect the second: something completely different with the same cast and music in the same place a real freak show without the magic of the first show. What happen?, that's the big mystery (like the last episodes of Felicity).

The first couple episodes may have been a bit awkward to watch. The cast and crew seem to be in their groove now. The writing is good and the stories are fun to watch. All the cast members are likable in their roles and make the characters believable. The background music is a great addition and done artistically, not too loud or no dead spots. If the cast is beautiful, why not emphasize that with close ups. Good camera work with nice shots of the island's sun, sand and blue sky, something missing from all the other shows. It's good to see Hawaii's beauty in the back drop of a little drama and life at a hotel. May be considered a replacement of "friends" in paradise. Is Amanda Righetti as Tessa part of the group? She should be written in as a permanent part. Another idea, James Remar should be written in as a bit mean, shady, opposition to the group, not always but half the time. He seems a little uncomfortable being so nice and hospitable as Vincent Colville. Some may disagree, but a good show to watch.

I'll almost always have something better to do than watch a prime time soap. But I gave North Shore a shot because I wanted to spot locations. My rationale: if I can't currently be in the islands, in my opinion that only place on Earth where a sane person could want to be, I could maybe catch glimpses of some of the places I've been. Oahu is certainly nice enough but boasts only a few areas that would be sufficiently tropical and frameworthy for filming. Sure enough, I did recognize some of them. However, despite the fact that I'm not remotely in the series' target demographic, I'm still sort of watching.

Apparently North Shore is a solid go for season one and will probably get the green for a second season. However, I suspect that the show will run out of believable story ideas before season three, if it lives that long, and be forced to start recycling. There are only so many ways to shuffle the show's sun-splashed but limited deck, just a finite number of credible high-end guests to run past the Grand Waimea Hotel's front desk, and a limited number of romantic permutations. The length of time that contrivance can be disguised by complexity is also finite. The recent episode involving the Vice President's spirited daughter already stressed the believability envelope just a tad. (However, it did give Kristoffer Polaha the opportunity to deliver some beautiful Stink Eye to a thuggish Secret Service agent who tried to coerce him into helping cover up the visiting Veep's intimate indiscretions.)

Although North Shore's characters are somewhat formulaic, they're not entirely without appeal and all handle their chores more than adequately. Kristoffer Polaha's Jason Matthews, the hotel's General Manager, transmits a lot of believable humanity. Jason is respected and liked, qualities that are not often found together in the high-end workplace. The Jason character is very comfortable in his own skin and easy to root for. Brooke Burns, who plays the Grand Waimea's 'Guest Relations' Manager and Jason's former flame, Nicole Booth, has been dinged for her lack of range, but as the emotionally-planed corporate princess, who has been groomed from birth to excel for Daddy, she's just fine in the role. I completely bought her anguish when, in a recent episode she walked in on Jason while he was working it out with Tessa. Nicole had just left her fiancé at the altar to reconnect with Jason. In fact, the sequence made me wince; soapy but so nasty… Corey Sevier's Gabriel Miller, a talented surfer, who longs to turn pro while struggling to outgrow his adolescent goofiness, also works well. Anyone who feels that he or she has a gift but cannot quite find the way to get it across, to make it work, will relate to Gabriel. He's hormonal but still too much of a waterman to forget to tie down a borrowed jet ski, which subsequently rolls off its trailer and lands him in one-finger poi with a local bad boy from whom he borrowed the machine. But it seems that every script contains at least one moment when credibility must go on stand-by. The hotel's concierge from the dark side, Tessa, played with edge by Amanda Righetti, is a girl who could make a guy seriously consider giving up women, perhaps appropriate as Tessa has pretty much given up on men, although she's still up for making a meal of one now and then. It'll be Tessa vs. Nicole in upcoming episodes. I think I know who'll win but the war should be amusing. I've always liked James Remar, who built a career playing borderline personalities. His hotel owner, Vincent Colville, is an interesting against-type play. Colville gives the impression that he already knows everything that will happen and that the Grand Waimea, although dear to his heart, is also just a stepping stone. Still, he's the sort of boss almost anyone would like to have; tough, smart, but always fair.

The thing is, Hawaii is actually a far more interesting place than the environs of the Grand Waimea, and on several levels. But one has to be willing, and sufficiently patient, to see beneath the obvious surface to get at what I'm talking about. Young local (although not necessarily Hawaiian) men with bad attitudes are certainly a part of island life and have always been, right from Captain Cook on, but there's more. Unfortunately, North Shore, whose target audience will, presumably, begin to nod off just past tan lines, will probably not permit the series to mine the real mana and remain happily fixated on who's screwing whom, literally and figuratively. If you were in the islands on 9/11, as I was, sitting beneath the sheltering trees on 'Anini Beach, you may know what I mean. The islands are another place, out of time, almost not of this earth. Viewing televised coverage of the attack on the Towers from there, it seemed that an act of such stunning and precise brutality was simply impossible; the baddest of bad dreams. Against this essential, ancient, fleeting, and fading quality, even the Grand Waimea, ostensibly a perfect hotel in a perfect place, feels a bit like the Pentagon.