Judging by the first episode, North Shore should be the cure that ails us. It's refreshing in that it doesn't take itself too seriously, but is written well enough that there should be no problem sucking you in for the shortened summer season.

North Shore takes place at an upscale hotel in Hawaii. In case you can't tell that the people there are rich, our feisty waitress MJ lets us know that the guests "spend more [to stay] one week than she makes in a year". Flanking MJ are the bartender Frankie and the lifeguard Gabriel. The real story is Jason, the Guest Services manager, and all of the crazy guests that are sure to wheel in through the episodes.

To complicate things for the pilot, Jason's ex-girlfriend Nicole, who happens to be an heiress to a hotel fortune and also used to work with Jason, also manages to get herself hired at the same hotel. And surprise of surprises, they are going to have to learn to work together and resist the urge to fight, have sex, or both. Jason is the local boy, so he is naturally a favorite with the staff. You can tell he is humble and easy going because he drives a vintage pickup to work.

The first major problem to deal with is with Gabriel, the lifeguard. As with most hotels, the staff are discouraged from mingling with the guests. Complicating matters is Veronica, the 15 year-old jailbait who tempts Gabriel with such lines as "Let's meet up after my bikini wax". While Gabriel must refuse such charming advances, Jason pretty much has his lay of the land, so to speak. When the tennis star "fresh from her win at Wimbledon" arrives at the hotel, she becomes Jason's top priority, which of course involves a late night dinner and some crazy pool sex.

Along the way, we start to get a feeling for a few of the other characters. We learn that MJ grew up with Jason and she wants to make a living designing a clothing line. The bartender has a brother who runs a body shop, and Nicole must warm up to him to cater to a particularly annoying customer who needs a Lamborghini, not to mention somebody to pick out his shirts. We learn Nicole broke Jason's heart and MJ hates her for it. And despite the high prices, we learn that the hotel is understaffed, as the bartender must also schlep supplies around. What, they never heard of a barback in Hawaii?

The most important development is that we meet Jason's father. Unfortunately, the show takes a turn for the generic as we learn that Jason's father not only runs a surf shop, but makes his own surfboards. To top it off, he is all zen and philosophy, and painfully slow. Although Jason obviously confides in his father, I would probably not go back to this guy for advice very often; seeing as the solution to all of the problems in the world start out with paddling into the ocean on your surf board, which is only slightly less impractical than floating to Tahiti to forget your girlfriend.

Poor Gabriel. After his time at work, he does some surfing, where Veronica makes another pass at him. He refuses again, but Veronica manages to find his place later that night and break into his house. In a desperate attempt to knock some sense into him, she takes off her top and tries to kiss Gabriel. When he refuses again, she says that Gabriel forced himself upon her and got her drunk. To make matters worse, Gabe's biggest aly, Jason, is taken off the case since the general manager Vincent Colville(played by James Remar, last seen with his unit flopping around Sex and the City) thinks Jason's friendship with Gabriel will cloud his judgment. Jason and Nicole trade some barbs over class differences (a general undercurrent to the show if you haven't picked up on it yet).

After some thought, Nicole talks to Veronica, relates her own sad adolescence, and suggests that perhaps there are better ways to get her mom's attention than showing the lifeguard some skull. My suggestion to Gabriel? He could have nipped this whole problem when it began if he had found a hotter, preferably older hotel guest to have sex with so Veronica wouldn't get any ideas.

To finish the show, North Shore gave us a few twists. It turns out that Cari, our tennis start, was photographed in the pool with Jason. When Jason heads to her bungalow to apologize, we find out that Jason was acting the beard, and Cari is more interested in getting filthy with her (female) publicist than she is with doing the dirty with Jason, and the photo of her kissing a man won't hurt her career. Before Jason has time to get upset, he has to track down an actual paparazzi and destroy some incriminating film, all in the name of the hotel.

Posted by J-Unit on June 15, 2004 12:35 AM