User Reviews

I really should learn to keep my TV shut when I'm not watching. Again, Baywatch sneaked on me and I'm doing my civic duty here, to warn people from watching this tripe. "When Baywatch Goes Serious" types of episodes tend to turn out really bad and this is no exception.

Two boys need rescuing and Mitch makes a decision which results in the first boy being just okay and the second boy ending up in a hospital, where the doctor tells Mitch that the boy's chances are "anything from permanent coma to full recovery". Can you guess how it ends? Thought so.

Both Mitch and the boys parents blaming Mitch for not keeping his eye on the boy requires good actors and unfortunately none of those involved are. To fill out the episode when you cannot have those gratuitous beach montages, the makers have opted for two awfully bad sequences: Mitch having a nightmare that the barely alive boy is his son, and Mitch trying to let off some steam. By running. In slow motion. While he sees flashbacks of the incident. In slow motion. Until he breaks down and falls to his knees on the waterline. In slow motion. I was seriously awaiting him to yell "Nooooooo!" and the camera to pull up, which would have made this comedic, but then he sees two boys on surfboards, and being off his rail, rushes to rescue them, only to be dragged away by Newmie.

And sure, the parents turn from Mitch-haters to Mitch-lovers in a second in the happy end scene. Just awful. It's less painful an experience if you hit yourself in the head with a baseball bat than to watch this.

Mitch couldn't fail, that'd be too much. Let's get him really close then get a smile at the end. Mawkishness in abundance.

I'm surprised by this one. The entire focus was on a rescue. For once I do not believe I caught the camera ogling "hot bods" as is the usual with this show. So in a way, it was kind of refreshing for this series.

Mitch goes to save two brothers who have never swum the ocean before. Earlier he had befriended them. He found out the younger brother, Bobby, was about to have his 10 birthday. Later Mitch plays a little frisbee with them and says to play in a less crowded area.

CJ was looking after another incident and Mitch had to clear a surfer away with a surfboard when he noticed the two brothers struggling in the water. They had gone after the frisbee that landed in the ocean. Anyway, to sum it up Mitch had to make a choice to save one brother first. Unfortunately, the other brother, Bobby, went under before he could get to him too.

Pretty good scenes catching Mitch's conflict in the water and Bobby calling out to him for help, which would later haunt Mitch. Later more great scenes and the boy is found and then the CPR attempts and shocks. No pulse and no breathing. Later at the hospital he does get a pulse and is breathing but remains unconscious and in bad condition overall.

Mitch blames himself tho he cleared and is said to have made the correct decisions. I thought Hasselhoff did a pretty good job expressing his emotions of guilt and anguish. I also really like Hobie comforting his dad.

I think a weak point was the mother who blamed Mitch for not rescuing her son. Where was she and the dad? Nobody said it. Stuff happens I guess. I also heard her say to the older brother in blame "You were supposed to be looking after him." How must that make the older brother feel? The little boy wakes up at convenient timing when Mitch and Stephanie go to the hospital to give him Hobies' lucky marble, which is when the little boy's fingers start moving. It's a miracle! Uh, boy. Then the mother all of a sudden is hunky dory about Mitch and admits he rescued the boy. I'm glad Stephanie pointed out earlier to the mother that Mitch saved both of them including her older son.

I think it might have been more interesting if the little boy didn't make it and the mother stayed angry at Mitch. The emotional impact of that. But this show is too light to go that way.

Anyway, for a show that is usually so superficial with not-great acting, and the camera usually ogling hot bodies, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself liking this one that was focused only and solely on difficult rescue. Really focused on the business of being a lifeguard and the emotional impact of a child submersion and the possible death and/or not recovering. 8/10.