Son of the Beach (2000–2002)
6/10
Rude and very funny.
26 April 2012
Casual viewers are warned that this show will stoop to any level to get a cheap laugh. Be ready for some of the rudest double entendres that ever (barely) sneaked past TV censors. Played deadpan straight, this spoof of Baywatch features heroic lifeguards going undercover, and solving crimes such as smashing sex slave rings... basically doing anything but actually watching the beach.

Thin-limbed, soft-bellied Timothy Stack is a sight gag as Notch Johnson, the world's greatest lifeguard. The rest of the cast look better in swimsuits, but have no more grasp of the ridiculousness of the show's goings on than Notch. As the show went on, changes were evident in the cast dynamic. The season three opener was a clever spoof of reality shows that also introduced the manipulative Porcelain Bidet, a new foil for Kimberley, the only character with a sense of irony. The tension between these two provided a novel cast dynamic previously not present within the almost too chummy group. The 'professor' character - an obvious nod to Stephen hawking - went from a one-episode bad guy to become the show's one-man forensic lab. The character of the antagonistic mayor was written out - she appears on a milk carton a few episodes into the final season. Also, star Jaime Bergman became pregnant, and this was written cleverly into the show - she went to Washington D.C. to be a congressional intern, and came back pregnant! The continuation of this storyline forms the three episode finale of the series as the team runs afoul of secret conspirators seeking to grab power in Malibu Adjacent.

Verbally inventive and clever, if rude, and very funny.
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