Writing this review is difficult for me. This is because I want to give Baywatch Nights a break, and so I may end up being a little biased. I know it wasn't great, but I think it was a good idea:
An "adult" version of Baywatch that sees the city as it is after hours. Whether that means more action, an investigative procedural twist, or more a horror twist... the makers seem undecided. One thing it does mean though, is less sex. The name may imply the opposite, but that's besides the point.
Before I continue, I must state that the two seasons were of differing genres: Season 1 - Mystery, basic procedural/detective fiction; Season 2 - Mystery, supernatural horror.
The reason I believe it was a solid, worthwhile idea is that Season 1's title sequence perfectly encapsulates what I feel the spirit of the show should have been (especially the theme music). Neon and car chases and night-time sneaking around the marina. Sexy, but not in a bikini/muscle beach way, more in a Miami Vice way. But less gritty crime orientated than Miami Vice; more light-hearted.
To its merit, Season 1 was visually pretty good in my opinion. To have taken away the sand and sun of Baywatch completely would have been a mistake... enough does remain (just). Some people may say that narrowly limiting a series' setting will naturally limit the potential for plot ideas. But Bergerac was a crime drama with a somewhat similar setting, yet was able to keep putting out complex stories.
So the problem with Baywatch Nights was that the two seasons were too different in genre/tone from each other - and from the mother series. What I feel would have worked better would be to have kept the action-drama of Baywatch as its base, but continue with the Private Investigator premise (an episode that gets the balance right is Bad Blades S1E2), and to just reconcile the procedural/horror differences episode by episode. So there'd be some slightly supernatural episodes, some slightly horror episodes, some half-procedural action episodes, but all mixed up in the run rather than separated by season. And more references to the Baywatch universe, a couple more appearances by Baywatch characters.
So enough of what I think *should have* been done. What do I think of what *had been* done?
Each episode is self-contained - which I like - but despite this, too often plots are stretched out within individual episodes. However the character chemistry is great and the dialogue between the core leads (Mitch and Ryan) is amusing. The second season didn't take itself too seriously, and it had some entertaining moments; it just suffered from too much filler. Basically I feel that the show had a longer slot than it needed.
In conclusion: Baywatch Nights is to this day widely dismissed and ridiculed, but personally I believe it to be quite underrated (especially due to expectations following the demise of the massively popular Baywatch). But I'm not saying it was high quality or anything. It had unfulfilled potential.
