Baywatch Hawaii made its debut and I must say that the show has not improved at all from last season. The premier episode Aloha Hawaii was extremely weak to start off the season. Another remake from an old episode. The more talented cast of Mitzi Kapture, Kelly Packard and David Chokachi have decided not to return to the show for their own reasons.

 

The Executive Producers have decided to return to the mistake made during the 7th season. This season revealed very weak acting on part of the main cast with the exception of David Hasselhoff and Jason Brooks. Gone is Classic Baywatch and its California beaches in which it was built around. Say goodbye to those famous red swimsuits and rescue cans, which are now collectors items. We won't be seeing the Buchannon home or Baywatch Headquarters either.

 

We now see the disappointment of yellow swimsuits on the women and red knee shorts with drawstring piping around the waistband on the men. Much of the weak plot just didnt make any sense at all. I have thought of at least fifty ideas to give Mitch good, solid reasons to move to Hawaii and start a Training Center. The reason they gave us just totally clashed with everything he has ever wanted.

 

The episode started out in Hawaii with Mitch sitting on the beach with a growing beard and bandana tied around his head, like some silly, middle-aged gang-banger. He was supposed to be depressed with his life. It's something that a longtime fan of the show couldn't possibly buy into. Mitch rescued a Hawaiian family and the little girl named Hina (Janel Parrish) was saved, but was rushed to the hospital in a coma. His reasons were not valid as Mitch spoke to a Hawaiian lifeguard named Kelelie Rock Keaweamahi. Mitch called him Rock (Vince Klyn).

 

His dad passed SEASONS ago and although Mitch loved him, they just couldn't see eye to eye and as a result, did not have a close relationship. After his father died, Mitch was not shown mourning, but shown getting on with his life. He came to peace with it two seasons later in the Father's Day/5th season episode. And his stating that Hobie was gone off to college wasn't good either. Mitch wanted Hobie to go to college even though the teenager did not want to. Mitch had claimed that he didn't know how to talk to him any more. No one bought this! Mitch and Hobie are close and have had heated disagreements since Hobie was just a little thing. You'd think that there was in invisible umbilical cord attached to them! But now as time has it, Hobie (Jeremy Jackson) had been pushed out of the picture for a younger model. Let's face it, last season during the shooting schedule, Jeremy was considered washed up at 17 for the role. To keep a young image, David Hasselhoff and the little boy who portrayed Tanner Sloan (Cameron Finley) relive the Mitch/Hobie days. It is enough to make your stomach curl. Where are my TUMS?

 

And the Alzheimer's dilemma was finally addressed here. Mitch's mom, Irene Buchannon (Anne Jefferys) was diagnoised with Alzheimer's Disease way back in the 6th season. Mitch and Hobie should have been taking care of her until it got too difficult as Alzheimer's patients get extremely violent due to confusion. But for some reason, this fact was discarded in the 8th season's Diabolique. Irene didn't have the disease and was taking care of little Ashley (a scary thought). Mitch went on with his life as though his mom was a healthy woman. Now the disease had resurfaced as one of the excuses to become a recluse in Hawaii. This REALLY makes your stomach upset!

 

And Mitch said that he still thought about his ex-wife. I couldn't see a problem here. He could see Gayle any time he wanted. Although they divorced YEARS ago when Hobie was little, they remained close friends for the sake of their child. They care about each other. He had come to terms with it enough to have meaningful relationships with other women. He married Neely (Gena Lee Nolin/Jennifer Lynn Campbell) and broke up with her. So, I couldn't see what he had to gripe and whine about.

 

The whole concept of him running a Training Center was illogical to me. Mitch shunned responsibility of running anything. He couldn't stand being a Captain with Baywatch. I couldn't imagine him opening and running a Lifeguard Training Center.

 

He whined to Rock about the little girl and how he had made mistakes. He thought that she was caught in a rip current, but was in a lava tomb. And the girl was now hospitalized in a coma. Rock told him that he didn't know that there were rip currents, caves and lava tombs around the rock pits and about the waves that broke against it. Mitch told him that he had lost his confidence and didn't think that he should be on the beach any more. Mitch went to the hospital to check on the girl's condition. There was no change. After swimming off some of the frustration, he visted Rock who was on duty in his tower. Mitch wanted to talk to him, so Rock got another lifeguard to watch his tower. He told Rock that the little girl's incident had an impact on him and gave him the scoop about his Lifeguard Training Center. He wanted to open it here in Hawaii to handle any given situation. 

 

Mitch had many situations with victims. He had been through this remake before. Seasons ago, it happened with two little boys who were brothers. He had the decision of following procedure and saving one over the other first. He went through Traumatic Stress Syndrome. The scenes in the water and hospital were the same, right down to placing his necklace in the little girl's hand. The other episode had Mitch giving his mother Hobie's lucky marble to place in the boy's hand. And they would have to throw in the birthday for Hina, as for Bobby, it was his 10th. He had been through a lot of problems with rescues, but none had made enough of an impact on him to get him to quit his job and pack his bags for Hawaii to open a Training Center. 

 

Mitch got Jack "J.D." Darius (Michael Bergin) and Jessica "Jessie" Owens (Brooke Burns) from Los Angeles, Allie Reese (Simmone MacKinnon) from Australia, a nineteen year old named Jason (Jason Momoa) who was sent  down from Galveston, Texas and a Hawaiian lifeguard named Kekoa Tanaka (Stacy Kamano). He wanted lifeguard Sean Monroe to run the Center.

 

Later, Mitch visited the hospital to see if the little girl had improved at all. Her father was there. He apologized  that he wasn't able to save her. Hina's father (Ben Wong) told him that he did save her because she was still alive and stop mourning that she was dead. She was alive and was going to have a birthday party. She was going to be 12 years old. He was invited. Mitch informed him that he would be there. He said that he didn't even know her name. The girl's father told him that her name was Hina.

 

Everyone arrived at the Training Center and when J.D. was already dressed, looking for Jessie, he walked into one of the rooms to find Kekoa topless. She hadn't pulled up her swimsuit. He had called for Jessie and stopped in mid-sentence. He kept staring with no effort to look away. Give us all a break here! Children watch this show and this scene was unnecessary. Kekoa turned around to face him with no effort to pull the suit up completely! She even smiled at him while saying that Jessie wasn't there. And all the while, J.D. spent that time listing over her large chest. She was the only lifeguard that was totally SHAMELESS. This character didn't impress me at all and came across as sleazy. It was bad enough that she was awful in the acting department. And for the J.D. character as well. J.D. knew that he was as guilty as sin when he caught up with Jessie. He just should have told her about the  incident so that she would already know about it. She shouldn't have to hear about it later from someone else in particular, if the situation presented itself. But J.D. chose to keep looking at Kekoa, while she exchanged glances.

 

A Hawaiian lifeguard named Kai (Kala'i Miller) confronted Jason about his Hawaiian heritage. Jason wanted nothing to do with it. It was apparent that he was all for himself.

 

After everyone arrived at the meeting, Sean asked Mitch how he wanted it handled. Who was to say what. But Mitch wanted him to handle the whole thing. Sean reminded Mitch that this was his show. He put the money together and set it up. Mitch had confidence in Sean. He could handle it. Sean told Mitch that he wouldn't let him down. Mitch said that he already knew that. It was the reason that he picked him. Mitch claimed to have responsibilities back in Los Angeles to take care of. He would be around to advise as much as possible.

 

Why would we expect to see anything else? Mitch claimed that he was so affected by this little girl's accident that he opened this Lifeguard Training Center, but wanted someone else to run it. Where was dedication and drive from this girl's condition for him to run the Center? It would have made more sense for Mitch to run it and have two assistants to help in his absence.

 

Sean started the meeting and gave them the speech introducing himself and that he had ten years of experience at L.A. County and five years in Hawaii. They were setting up a Lifeguard Training Center. Before any lifeguards were to be invited to the team, they had to know the waters. They must be trained until every member was proficient. He told them that the training would be difficult and dangerous. And that Mitch picked him as team leader. Mitch picked them as members of the team, he didn't. He emphasized that it would be an elite team and that every team had a WEAK LINK. He would find that Weak Link and send him or her home. He did challenge them as if they knew that they were the Weak Link, to do him a favor and leave now. He looked them all over sternly and then said that training started tomorrow. Each one of them wondered who the Weak Link was. They each assured themselve that it wasn't them. 

 

Later, Rock brought Mitch to Hina, who was out of the hospital. She seemed healthy and fully recovered. She gave him a lei that her mother made for him for saving their lives. Hina told him that as long as he kept the lei, that his soul would be in their keeping. It was made out of feathers in which Rock pointed out were for royalty. Hina then reminded Mitch about her birthday party and Mitch told her that he would be there. After he left, Mitch looked a bit closer at the lei. Rocky told him that it was a great honor.

 

Too much emphasis was made on this Weak Link. If you were invited to be a staff member of the Training Center, just train the lifeguards well and let them train others. If you had to go through an elimination process waiting for a mistake for you to get sent home, why even bother with the training in the first place? As I mentioned before, combined with weak acting, the script should have been tossed as it was just as bad as the actors' Cigar Store Indian or even better, Cardboard appearances. The highly touted new writers could have come up with fresh, original stories. The only thing new was the title change for the show and even that was partially borrowed material. For future episodes, I hope that the writers have come up with something more interesting to watch. My Score: 1 Rescue Can