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Hidden Palms: Second Chances (series finale)
(S01E08) It's a bit ironic when the show that ends up being your unexpected series finale is called "Second Chances." Unfortunately there will be no second chances for Hidden Palms, and this ends up being the swan song for the series. I was fortunate enough to meet Sharon Lawrence at a party recently, and she said the show definitely isn't coming back. Curse you, CW! Now where will I turn for my need for teens in angst-ridden TV shows? Oh, thats right ... The CW.
It's obvious that they didn't think this was going to be the series finale when they wrote this, nor when they shot it. It doesn't nearly wrap things up in a nice little package, full of snipped loose ends and finished character arcs. It did finally tie up one of the biggest mysteries of the show, but it left a lot of unanswered questions in it's wake. What will Johnny be doing in the aftermath of tonight's show? Did he finally come to terms with his father's death and the whole issue of living in the room of someone who apparently committed suicide?
Talking about characters, this episode had a lot going on from start to finish. You have Johnny in full detective mode, Maria being extremely duplicitous and vengeful, Skip being the same and even choking Maria, Cliff being both creepy and helpful, Johnny's mom and stepdad on the edge of a divorce, and poor Nikki trying to deal with Cliff's incessant advances. I'm not sure why she's so torn up about a guy that she seemed to date for all of a week or so.
Strangely, with all of that going on, it doesn't feel like anything really happens until Liza finds Maria dead of an apparent suicide. However, will we ever know if it was Skip? Or Cliff? Or did she do it herself? Plus they did some really poor ADR by dropping in Liza saying "She did it, she killed Eddie." over the last scene. I think they even stuck an "It's over" line in there. That ambulance scene was a bit heavy on the cheese, if you ask me. Not that you did, but since this show has wound to a close, I'm not holding anything back.
So, Skip has Eddie's laptop, Cliff is still untrustworthy, Eddie apparently slept with everyone, Greta isn't as mysterious as we first thought, we finally know the real truth about who killed Eddie ... and Hidden Palms is no more. So what do you all think? Personally, I loved the show in the first few episodes, back when it was dark and mysterious, but eventually there was a sense of humor in the show, and it wavered between dark and funny and never really found it's niche. Granted, The CW didn't really seem to be behind the show, continually pushing the release date, then making it a summer series, and then ending things early. Now with the news that it'll never be back, what are your thoughts? Is it a good thing or a bad thing?
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