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family soap centered on two very different brothers and the women they love
Type of Series: soap opera
Similar Shows: Knots Landing, Homefront and Second Chances. At first. After 9 episodes there was a re-vamp, and the next 8 episodes were patterned after Melrose Place.
Typical Episode: The first nine episodes were easy-going and sweet. The story of a local boy coming back to save his small town. These episodes had a great gentle humour to them. Particularly the love-triangle that was evolving between Dennis, Trudy and Jennifer. In episode two Trudy decided to inundate Dennis with baked goods, as a means towards getting into his good books. In episode three she buys a computer and strikes up an on-line friendship with him. The early part of the season was full of stuff like that. Charming character stuff.
Episodes 10 - 17 had a harder edge. Much more cut-throat. Corporate intrigue, back-stabbing and sudden death. Still good, but not as good as the first half of the season.
The Inner Light: "The Rope" showed us that, no matter what happens to us, no matter what trappings we have around us, we are still the same people we always were. Indeed, that could be said to be the underlying theme of the series. Dennis was still a bit of a nerd, and he still had a small crush on Trudy. He was still envious of his older brother.
Strengths: Scripts.
Weaknesses: An abrupt re-vamp.
Impressive Characters: My favourite character was Dennis.
Impressive Actors: Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Cassidy Rae and Carmen Electra.
Gosselaar was the star of the show. He's a charming and sympathetic leading man. And he deserved to have a hit with this show. He could have played that character for years.
Rae (now looking older than she did on Models Inc.) was the woman chasing him. Rae is gorgeous, and a very talented actress. Even at her most conniving, Trudy couldn't be anything but loveable - thanks to Rae. Which made us sympathise with the character, and root for her, no matter what she was up to.
Electra joined the cast mid-season as the vanguard of the revamp. Electra had already bowled me over during her term on Baywatch and I was delighted to see her back on weekly TV. Like Rae she's very beautiful, but she possesses none of the on-screen charm on her co-star, so she was perfect for the part of the "bad" baddie, while Rae could continue to be the baddie we liked and understood.
Impressive Episodes: The final episode before the re-vamp was easily the very best. In "The Rope" (Written by Jeffrey Stepakoff) Dennis donates a large sum of money to the local school, only to find out that the money will be used to build a gym named after a teacher that tormented him during his school days. Dennis decides to withdraw his donation.
This decision put him into conflict with everybody around him.
Hardly the ratings grabbing sex-fest of a Melrose Place, but good, good drama all the same.
Impressive Writers: The show was created by Joseph Dougherty. And Bernard Lechowick (a long-time favourite writer of mine, from his days on Knots Landing and Homefront) was among the writing team. Jeffrey Stepakoff was the writer responsible for my favourite episode.
Less-Than-Impressive Characters: Amy, Nick's wife, was a pointless unsympathetic character.
Less-Than-Impressive Actors: A few. Christina Moore, who played Amy Sweeny, was bland. As was Bart Johnson, who played Nelson Tucker, the husband of the woman chasing after Dennis. Finally, Raymond Barry who played Frank Sweeny didn't set the screen on fire, either.
Less-Than-Impressive Episodes: None. Revamps always interest me, so I enjoyed the second version of the show.
Mind you, having said that, I will say that the show was excellent to start with and needed no make-over.
Less-Than-Impressive Writers:
Continuity: Strong.
Rewatchability: Not very high. There are one or two (early) episodes that I'd probably sit through again.
Episode Guide: The Episode Guide Pages is a great place to go for Episode Guides.
Reviews:
Other Info: In Ireland, Hyperion Bay aired on Saturdays at 8 on Network Two. Just before Third Rock From The Sun (9pm) and Profiler (9:25). With The Secret Life Of Men following them at 10:20.
Three Things I Really Like About This Series:
Dennis. The star of the show. He was a nerd in High School. More into computers than Sports. And nothing like his big macho brother, Nick. He had a hopeless crush on a girl who wouldn't look twice at him. Dennis left town, and did very well for himself. Years lafer (in the pilot episode) he's back in town. To save the town. By starting a business and creating a lot of much needed jobs. Now, he's got himself a beautiful girl and lot of respect. So much so, in fact, that the girl he had the crush on, is now giving him that second look.
Trudy. The girl in question. In many ways, the show is her journey to freedom. She's trapped in a dead-end marriage and determined to get out. At first she sees Dennis as her means of escape, but she starts using others too. Finally, however, Trudy starts standing on her own two feet. One never got the impression that Trudy and Dennis should get together - in fact, Jennifer was the ideal girl for him - but Trudy was likeable in her own right.
The new theme tune and opening credits. The original theme tune was bland and forgettable, but the newer one was a real sit-up-and-pay-attention kind of thing. Dennis had bought himself a boat (for no logical reason, except - I suppose - that speedboats are a sexy addition to a TV series!) and it featured heavily in the new credits. So, of course, did Carmen Electra (another very sexy edition to any TV series!).
Three Things I Really Don't Like About This Series:
Christina Moore
Bart Johnson
Raymond Barry
Miscellaneous Comments: 30 October, 1999
Hyperion Bay was a very enjoyable show, buried in a no-win time slot. I enjoyed it. I found it to be charming and humourous in exactly the same way as Homefront and Knots Landing were. Dennis was a hero cut from the same cloth as Mack and Jeff. This was particularly evidenced in the episode where he tried to win Jennifer's trust by calling Trudy over and humiliating her by declaring his total lack of romantic interest in the brutal terms. Thus (of course) earning Jennifer's wrath and confusing him every more.
The show was full of moments like that.
And had it stayed on the air, I would have stuck with it for the duration.
GRADE: B
Review by Michael Leddy
Comments are welcome: rikerdonegal@hotmail.com
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