Hidden Palms

Taylor Handley is cute, and a pretty good young actor. I have seen him in movies. So I gave this new series a try. He is a great lead here in a night time soap set in Palm Springs. Handley has a natural acting ability, and he should not be judged solely on his pin-up good looks.m He is actually talented.

The supporting cast is not bad either. The story lines are interesting and addictive. Without giving away spoilers, I just wanna suggest you give this new series a try. Nice looking cast. Slick production and editing. And great location shoots. I hope CW picks this excellent new show up for a 2nd season in the fall. And, Taylor Handley is pretty hot!

Johnny Miller (Taylor Handley) moves into Palm Springs, California. He hates his mother Karen (Gail O'Grady) and her new husband Bob Hardy (D.W. Moffett) after his father's suicide a year ago. He's a recovering alcoholic with Jesse Jo (Leslie Jordan) as his new AA sponsor. His science nerd neighbor Liza Witter (Ellary Porterfield) is an admirer from afar. He falls for the enigmatic Greta Matthews (Amber Heard). Cliff Wiatt (Michael Cassidy) is his next door neighbor who claims to be a friend to the previous occupant Eddie who committed suicide in his room. Tess Wiatt (Sharon Lawrence) is Cliff's outrageous mother. Nikki Barnes (Tessa Thompson) is the last new kid in the upper class oasis community who also has an alcohol problem. Johnny starts getting IMs from a person claiming to be Eddie.

Kevin Williamson returned to TV after 'Dawson's Creek' but he lost that teenage connection temporarily. He tried to tap into his love of murder and mayhem but he needed to show Eddie's death in the first episode. If the pilot showed Eddie's murder and a cover-up, then it would have hooked the audience on a murder mystery right away. Of course, the most photogenic of this beautiful group is Amber Heard. I was actually more interested in Liza but she turns into a secondary character for episodes 2 and 3. It was perplexing at the time to introduce a main character in the pilot and then sideline her. Williamson tried to make O.C. with a mystery but I was never invested in the mystery and the teens are much less likable.

Hidden Palms had potential as a murder mystery teen drama. The writing is surprisingly solid and the whole cast does a great job. Fans of both The OC and Veronica Mars will notice familiar faces and appreciate the concept.

Sadly it had the misfortune of airing right after The OC ended which coincidentally also starred Taylor Handley as well in its first season. So people were a bit burned out on the "outsider/loner in a new zipcode" premise which is why the ratings were low resulting in HP's cancelation.

But Palm Springs provides a very interesting backdrop to watch the story unfold. All 8 eps of S1 are currently on YouTube for free. Worth a watch.

Forget the WB, Hidden Palms should uproot to NBC. I'm usually not a fan of the soap opera-types either, but this show really had me on the edge of my seat & looking forward to the next episodes.

I didn't actually work on this show, but I know some of the crew/cast & the casting director, so that's how I heard of it, and honestly I watched the pilot expecting to see a good attempt at a Dawson's creek-type show. What I ended up seeing was a great ensemble, with Handley & Cassidy coming over from the OC, and Amber's oh so mysterious yet sexy performance as Greta (she's in Pineapple Express, coming out August 2008, go see it!), everyone gave it that real-life, but not real feel to it. Like it's a sort of twilight-zone community trying to be normal. Oh, and if you want to see a woman with classic beauty, watch it for the lovely femme-fatale Valerie Cruz. Valerie, I AM single and happy to take out a young cougar anytime!

And the fact that there was always something dark and sci-fi to it, but before it got to be too "out there" to be real, its revealed to be a genius plan by one of the characters... keeps you guessing what's real and what's not. I thought the writing was great, the acting was stellar, and the photography and production value was much better than I expected for a WB series.

I'm glad to say I've helped bring back Family Guy, and I think if everyone who loves this show speaks out, we can resurrect Hidden Palms and it's haunting plot can continue.

-Jeremy

Hi. I am an Adult with kids. I would like to comment on Hidden Palms. We LOVED the show, and have been looking forward to seeing it AGAIN. This time HOPEFULLY ALL Summer!!! My kids and I could not wait until the next show. I agree with other comments that were said, the show is as Great as One Tree Hill, and Dawsons Creek, and GREAT shows that once were or STILL are around. PLease give Hidden Palms another shot. We need good SUMMER shows. I really hope that Hidden Palms does come back out. We will be looking and listening for the details of this show. This time though, I HOPE it is for the ENTIRE SUMMER, NOT just 8 shows. This show is even as good as Greys Anatomy!!!! It left you hanging by the seat of your pants!!!!