“Back in the day if u did a tv show called surf dracula you’d see that fool surfing every week in new adventures,” a famous viral tweet posits. “But in the streaming era the entire 1st season gotta be a long ass flashback to how he got the surfboard until you finally get to see him surf for 5 min in the finale.”
“Surf Dracula” comes to mind while watching “Rescue HI-Surf,” not just because of the subject matter, but because there’s a surf rescue in the first five minutes of Fox’s Hawaii-set action series. “Rescue HI-Surf” is an old school broadcast drama that values efficiency and immediacy in its storytelling. It delivers what its title promises before the pilot’s opening credits roll.
The series hails from creator and showrunner Matt Kester and executive producer John Wells, who directs the first two episodes and gives it a distinctive visual style (more on that in a bit). “Rescue HI-Surf” combines the high-stakes workplace drama of Wells’ earlier shows like “ER” and “Third Watch” with the beachfront setting of his more recent TNT crime drama “Animal Kingdom,” on which Kester worked as a writer and producer. Like Wells’ classic procedurals, “Rescue HI-Surf” is focused on the daily work of professionals doing difficult jobs that save lives, in this case lifeguards patrolling the gorgeous but perilous North Shore of Oahu. The show doesn’t spend a lot of time with the characters at home, because these characters’ lives revolve around work, so even their interpersonal conflicts and romantic relationships are work-related.
The series throws a lot of lifeguarding and surfing jargon at viewers and expects them to keep up, a hallmark of Wells’ shows. Surfing was a big part of “Animal Kingdom,” which followed a family of career criminals in the surfing town of Oceanside, Calif., but “Rescue HI-Surf” is fully immersed in surf culture, set as it is in one of the world’s surfing capitals.
“Rescue HI-Surf” is very simple. The lifeguards save people who get caught in dangerous situations in and around the water, and in between rescues they flirt and argue and joke around. Their stories are all well-worn TV arcs that can be grasped within a few seconds of viewing.
Everything you need to know about the five main characters can be described in a single paragraph: Captain Sonny Jennings (Robbie Magasiva) is a stoic leader silently grieving the drowning death of his nephew. Lieutenant Em Wright (Arielle Kebbel) is a powerhouse lifeguard trying to balance her respect for Sonny with her own ambitions of becoming captain. She has a romantic history with Will Ready (Adam Demos), an affable lifeguard who’s trying to become a firefighter. Will’s engaged, but he and Em still have unresolved feelings for each other. Kainalu Emerson (Alex Aiono) and Hina Alexander (Zoe Cipres) are rookie lifeguards. Kainalu is the rich kid son of a local politician (Shawn Hatosy) who put his finger on the scale for his son to get a good assignment, while Hina is a working-class striver who earned her position all on her own. They don’t get along, but they’re attracted to each other. And Laka Hanohano (Kekoa Kekumano) is a young hotshot who works hard and plays harder. The writers aren’t interested in going much deeper than that, at least in the four episodes available for review.
The storytelling is familiar and formulaic, but in a charming way broadcast TV viewers will enjoy. It has no pretenses about being anything besides a likable lifeguard procedural. What “Rescue: HI-Surf” lacks in originality, it makes up for in aloha vibes. There isn’t a lot of tension in the rescues or the relationships — everything always seems to work out — but its relative chillness for an action show makes it easy to hang out with. Like all John Wells procedurals, it’s fairly grounded, without overly soapy plots or rescues that obviously strain credulity beyond the sheer volume of them. The characters are thinly drawn, but they aren’t characters that require a lot of psychological depth, they just need to get the job done. Their conflicts are realistic problems of romance, finance, workplace disagreements and grief. The actors have good chemistry — especially Demos and Kekumano, who could carry the show if for some reason it became a buddy first responder drama instead of an ensemble — and look fantastic in bathing suits. It’s a fun world to spend time in.
“Rescue: HI-Surf” won’t win any Emmys for its workmanlike writing, but that’s not the most important thing about the show. Its aesthetics elevate it above the procedural pack. Throughout the first two episodes, Wells establishes an appealing stylistic identity for the show that makes a point of authenticity. The show is mostly filmed outdoors, with a long depth of field and a wide frame that emphasizes Hawaii’s natural beauty. You can see mountains, water or sky in most shots. A lot of the show takes place out in the water, with the camera floating and diving alongside the actors. You truly feel like you’re there with them. The cameras are all shaky handhelds that give a sense of urgency, and the cuts are quick, with no shot more than a few seconds long. There’s very little obvious CGI. The show’s visuals are a triumph of style over substance. They make the story into a delivery vehicle for beautiful images in a way that usually isn’t satisfying, but really works here.
The big concern about “Rescue: HI-Surf” going forward is that it will become boring. Even through four episodes, the rescues start to feel a little repetitive. With several events per episode, they may exhaust the number of exciting ways to save someone on a beach faster than anyone would like. And the will-they-won’t-they storylines may burn too slowly and mildly to sustain interest. Eventually, the characters will have to be fleshed out, and by that time it may feel forced.
But overall, the look is so gorgeous, the atmosphere is so pleasant and the straightforward storytelling is so satisfying that “Rescue: HI-Surf” is worth saying “aloha” to. It’s a high concept procedural that would make “Surf Dracula” proud.
“Rescue: HI-Surf” premieres Sunday, Sept. 22, on Fox and streams on Hulu.
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