If you have already seen an episode of "Point Pleasant", then you know that it is a good- versus-evil teen soap about a girl born to a woman from New Jersey but fathered by the devil. But if the show is an unknown quantity to you, and all these positive comments have you thinking of watching (or buying) the DVD, then you are the audience to whom my comment is directed.
Imagine a cross between "Charmed" and "Beverly Hills 90210"; don't buy into the "Buffy" and "O.C." comparisons. If you like the digital effects and production design of "Charmed" (which are actually pretty good) and its mystical premise (which is extremely silly), and the Tori Spelling quality teen soap melodrama of "90210"; then you are "Point Pleasant's" target audience. You should be asking yourself how you missed the boat when it was still playing on Fox. Maybe you need to expand your circle of friends.
Although Grant Snow does a pretty good imitation of Jason Priestly, "Point Pleasant" is hardly on the level of "Tru Calling" (although better than its weaker abbreviated 2nd season). Snow, who looks amazingly like Priestly, is a considerably better actor and the main reason to watch "Point Pleasant". His Lucus Boyd character combines the bad qualities of "Tru Callings" Jack Harper and "Charmed's" Cole Turner (Julian McMahon). Snow has a lot of fun with this role which translates to good viewing.
Also good viewing are the pouty lips of Elisabeth Harnois (an extremely talented actress), who plays devil's daughter trying-to-be-good Christina. Harnois is a former Disney Darling gone bad, moving from "My Date With the President's Daughter" to things like "Point Pleasant" and the "R" rated "Pretty Persuasion" (2005). Those who last saw her 10+ years ago playing Alice in Disney's long-running "Adventures In Wonderland" will get quite a shock. The production crew does a fantastic job with the lighting on all the closeups but the close shots of Harnois are exceptionally good. Based on the quality of these my guess is that at least some of the lighting and makeup people responsible for the closeups of Amy Acker in the "Angel" series were part of the Point Pleasant production team.
Those looking for laughs will find little funny about "Point Pleasant" except the unintentionally hilarious casting. There are no children or old people in "Point Pleasant", only high school kids and their parents. And the series suffers from the age compression syndrome often found in this sort or series. Lacking experienced teenage actors, the producers filled these roles with men and women in their mid to late 20's. The flabby upper arms of the actresses are an immediate tipoff. Complicating things was the need to cast attractive "youngish" actors in the parental roles. So you have a bunch of 35 year-olds playing the parents of actors just nine years their junior. Meaning that mothers like Dina Meyer look younger than their daughters or their daughter's boyfriends.
Even those in its target audience will find "Point Pleasant" a little sluggish but here is the basic premise. Christina, who has been living at elite boarding schools monitored by a bunch MBAs in league with the devil, takes an ocean cruise and washes up on the shores of New Jersey's Point Pleasant. Middle age teen lifeguard Jesse (Sam Page) saves her. Christina moves in with a local family whose daughter Judy (played by Aubrey Dollar) is a Tomboy gas station attendant. Why do they always cast the best looking actress as a Tomboy? Judy is weakest "character" in the series; neither the screenwriter, director, or actress seem able to decide how she should be played and the inconsistency eventually gets quite irritating.
Jesse's girlfriend begins to fret when it appears that she is losing Jesse to Christina. She would really be worried if someone told her she looks older than her mother.
"Point Pleasant" is unique in that the story only appears to be a simplistic "good vs evil" tale. The story is told from Christina's point-of-view and to her (and to identifying audience members) the extremes of good and evil seem equally warped; needing each other to even exist. Christina occupies a more moderate middle ground along with a couple of allies but exploring this concept appears to be something intended for the second season that never happened.
There are 13 episodes on the DVD plus a pretty good behind-the-scenes featurette. Only the first eight episodes were broadcast. Unfortunately the pace really began to pick up at about the time broadcasting ended; with episodes 10 ("Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Choked") and 11 ("Missing") exceptionally good. The last two episodes unconvincingly stumble toward a conclusion of sorts; having to leave open the possibility of another season made a clean finish impossible. If they knew in advance that season one would have to stand on its own (like "The Prisoner"), I'm sure they would have assembled a much better wrap-up.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
Imagine a cross between "Charmed" and "Beverly Hills 90210"; don't buy into the "Buffy" and "O.C." comparisons. If you like the digital effects and production design of "Charmed" (which are actually pretty good) and its mystical premise (which is extremely silly), and the Tori Spelling quality teen soap melodrama of "90210"; then you are "Point Pleasant's" target audience. You should be asking yourself how you missed the boat when it was still playing on Fox. Maybe you need to expand your circle of friends.
Although Grant Snow does a pretty good imitation of Jason Priestly, "Point Pleasant" is hardly on the level of "Tru Calling" (although better than its weaker abbreviated 2nd season). Snow, who looks amazingly like Priestly, is a considerably better actor and the main reason to watch "Point Pleasant". His Lucus Boyd character combines the bad qualities of "Tru Callings" Jack Harper and "Charmed's" Cole Turner (Julian McMahon). Snow has a lot of fun with this role which translates to good viewing.
Also good viewing are the pouty lips of Elisabeth Harnois (an extremely talented actress), who plays devil's daughter trying-to-be-good Christina. Harnois is a former Disney Darling gone bad, moving from "My Date With the President's Daughter" to things like "Point Pleasant" and the "R" rated "Pretty Persuasion" (2005). Those who last saw her 10+ years ago playing Alice in Disney's long-running "Adventures In Wonderland" will get quite a shock. The production crew does a fantastic job with the lighting on all the closeups but the close shots of Harnois are exceptionally good. Based on the quality of these my guess is that at least some of the lighting and makeup people responsible for the closeups of Amy Acker in the "Angel" series were part of the Point Pleasant production team.
Those looking for laughs will find little funny about "Point Pleasant" except the unintentionally hilarious casting. There are no children or old people in "Point Pleasant", only high school kids and their parents. And the series suffers from the age compression syndrome often found in this sort or series. Lacking experienced teenage actors, the producers filled these roles with men and women in their mid to late 20's. The flabby upper arms of the actresses are an immediate tipoff. Complicating things was the need to cast attractive "youngish" actors in the parental roles. So you have a bunch of 35 year-olds playing the parents of actors just nine years their junior. Meaning that mothers like Dina Meyer look younger than their daughters or their daughter's boyfriends.
Even those in its target audience will find "Point Pleasant" a little sluggish but here is the basic premise. Christina, who has been living at elite boarding schools monitored by a bunch MBAs in league with the devil, takes an ocean cruise and washes up on the shores of New Jersey's Point Pleasant. Middle age teen lifeguard Jesse (Sam Page) saves her. Christina moves in with a local family whose daughter Judy (played by Aubrey Dollar) is a Tomboy gas station attendant. Why do they always cast the best looking actress as a Tomboy? Judy is weakest "character" in the series; neither the screenwriter, director, or actress seem able to decide how she should be played and the inconsistency eventually gets quite irritating.
Jesse's girlfriend begins to fret when it appears that she is losing Jesse to Christina. She would really be worried if someone told her she looks older than her mother.
"Point Pleasant" is unique in that the story only appears to be a simplistic "good vs evil" tale. The story is told from Christina's point-of-view and to her (and to identifying audience members) the extremes of good and evil seem equally warped; needing each other to even exist. Christina occupies a more moderate middle ground along with a couple of allies but exploring this concept appears to be something intended for the second season that never happened.
There are 13 episodes on the DVD plus a pretty good behind-the-scenes featurette. Only the first eight episodes were broadcast. Unfortunately the pace really began to pick up at about the time broadcasting ended; with episodes 10 ("Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Choked") and 11 ("Missing") exceptionally good. The last two episodes unconvincingly stumble toward a conclusion of sorts; having to leave open the possibility of another season made a clean finish impossible. If they knew in advance that season one would have to stand on its own (like "The Prisoner"), I'm sure they would have assembled a much better wrap-up.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.