I ragazzi di Malibu

I'm a huge fan of 90s dramas, and always give them the benefit of the doubt, even the bad ones. But regarding this one, I'm not sure why NBC thought revamping the show into a dull 90210 copycat, after a flawed yet promising pilot episode, would save it from general disinterest. The « after school special » turn the show took after the premiere, ringed false and disingenuous. With unnatural acting and over-dramatization, music cues before and after each scenes, and too many closeups. Exactly like they did later, on 7th Heaven. The show looked more like a sitcom than a teen drama. Now the casting was decent, and packed with up and coming TV actors, looking back. But it should've been its own show, instead of trying to copy others style and recipe for success. The irony of it all, it inspired future teen dramas, that yet managed to play their own cards right, copying it...

Without hyperbole, this was easily the greatest show in the history of the world. Though short-lived, it will remain forever in the hearts of its numerous fans, fulfilling an integral function that can neither be adequately explained nor casually dismissed. Set in Malibu, the useless and repugnant disaster capital of the world, the show documents what happens when a group of "poor" Valley trash children are bused to wealthy Malibu High School. High drama ensues, as a forbidden love affair between bad boy Zack and nice girl Chloe blossoms, angering members of both of their respective cliques. There are of course a number of fascinating sub-plots, including Chloe's bouts with bulimia, Teddy's battles with insanity and Flipper's attempts to woo the beautiful but vicious and vapid Charisma Carpenter. Each of these plot-lines draw the viewer into a Byzantine network of twists and turns, sacrifices and betrayls, promises kept and innocence lost. Once watched, it is literally impossible not to become hooked on this most illicit of legal narcotics. The show featured a mighty cavalcade of current stars, from Keri Russell of "Felicity" to Charisma Carpenter of "Buffy" to Christian Campbell of "Trick" to Walter Jones of "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers" to Randy Spelling of "Sunset Beach." As obviously impressive as this is, it is nothing compared to the stable of young hotties assembled by the Maestro himself, the inimitable Aaron Spelling. From the nascent beauty of Charisma Carpenter to the ripe Katie Wright, each episode was a veritable buffet of eye candy. Overall, it would be downright foolish to attempt to think of a show higher in quality than the one and only "Malibu Shores." What Leon Trotsky was to international communism, so this was to television. What Mankind is to the WWF, so this was to television. What Billy Madison was to cinema, so this was to television. For anyone who has the misfortune of not having seen this magnificent show, I urge you to see it by ANY MEANS NECESSARY. Quite simply, it's just that good...

I remember how excited I was to hear that Keri Russell and Tony Lucca were doing a show together. "The Mickey Mouse Club", or "MMC", was my favorite show growing up and I was thrilled that two of my favorite people from the show were going to be working with each other again. I had no idea what the show was going to be like, but it turned out to be a great show. There were always some issues going on with the characters, but the issues were always things that could, and did, occur in real life. There was also always a good ending, or a moral, to the episode. It wasn't at all like the teen shows that we have on now. It was a quality show. It seems to me that shows like that never last, and it's a shame. Each cast member was very talented, and proving it is the fact that they all, well most of them, went on to do "bigger" things after the show. I would give this show ten stars. :) **********

Wow, I agree with the other person's comments. It is finally nice to see someone with such a fantastic taste in TV.Are you a fan of the NBC soap Passions too, by any chance? Malibu Shores......what can I say? It was filled to the brim with clever cultured references to todays youth, pop bands and scandel, and was superlative in every way imaginable. I'm not underestimating Aaron Spelling, NBC's maverick genius, of programmes such as Dallas and Sunset Beach (both utter genius and high quality), but this time he really did come up trumps with this utterly compelling and watchable masterpiece. From Fliipper's mismatched attemps to woo Ashley, to Mouse and his friendship with the rich gal Julie from the valley..... from that Bad Boy Zac with the upper crust Chloe to Nina and who could forget her's and Teddys unrequited love for each other? Teddy, that's a name we don't hear enough these days. I may have only seen about 13 episodes of this wonderful metaphor of what youth is today, but, people, I reassure you watch this great show and the love and lives of those life-like characters of Malibu Shores will remain with you forever. And fans of Susan Ward will be very pleased to notice the 20 somethings life-like portrayal of a High School Sophmore, with which she followed up her performance as Meg from Sunset Beach, to Randy Spelling (give that kid a Soap Emmy!)'s graphic portrayal of Flipper. He played the part of a poor kid so very convincingly, and I wish him all the luck in the world for his foray into rap music. Watch it, or you will be missing out on a graphic study of the teenage psyche!