Welcome to the North Shore! You have to admit, it doesn’t have the same pizzazz as ‘Welcome to the OC, bitch’, but I’m excited to be here nonetheless because there’s something refreshing about Rescue HI-Surf . In the day and age of countless reboots and spinoffs, we’ve got something FRESH. Something different.
It’s something unlike anything else CURRENTLY on television. And that’s something to celebrate. If you come into the pilot thinking you’re in for anything in the same stratosphere as Baywatch (the only true show you could compare this to), then you haven’t paid attention to the marketing rollout, which has made a point to focus on the rescues over the drama.
That’s no shade to Baywatch. I, for one, was a massive fan of the series at one point because it was silly and light, and the bathing suits were cute. And I also wanted to know which lifeguards were hooking up at any given time! Sue me! Of course, there are personal elements in this one, such as entanglements, exes, family dynamics , and the like, but it’s mixed in with a healthy amount of actual lifeguarding, a profession that doesn’t always get the kind of credit it should.
Being an open-water lifeguard is a TOUGH job, and on the North Shore, it’s a necessity. The first hour plays as a set-the-scene more than anyone else, which is what a pilot is supposed to do. It’s not overstuffed or hard to follow, but keeping things relatively straightforward leads to an hour that feels like it’.