Customer Reviews

Point Pleasant - The Complete Series

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

**MAY CONTAIN SLIGHT SPOILERS*

"Point Pleasant" is a gothic soap opera created by Marti Noxon, best known as the woman who writes great depressing stories on The WB's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". I am a huge fan of "Buffy" and "Angel", but I personally enjoy "Point Pleasant" better.

Now don't get me wrong. This show has serious problems, it's biggest one being that the pilot was specially designed to best ensure a pickup by FOX. It has many elements of "The OC" and FOX was right in thinking it would work best with "The OC" compared to the other shows on their schedule.

"Point Pleasant" has loads of potential. Everything is there. A great premise, capable actors, beautiful locations, character backstories, everything that was there could have become a huge ongoing battle between good and evil, with the forces of heaven and hell battling on Earth. And I do believe that's what it would have become if the writers were able to run with it.

What 13 episodes there are, however, are still good even with their faults. The actors aren't exactly award-winners, but they get the job done quite nicely. Elisabeth Harnois, our protaganist, is the perfect choice for the daughter of Satan and a God-fearing woman. She's beautiful, and usually angelic but can become overcome with her hellborn powers in an instant. Harnois is good at instant transitions and I love the scenes where her character knows that she's too weak to drown her evil nature but doesn't know what to do. Anyway, the series opens up on Point Pleasant, New Jersey, although we're not sure if this is Point Pleasant or the town of Point Pleasant Beach. There's a difference. But it's a nice day with hot girls sunbathing on the beach, but an otherwordly storm quickly gathers and runs everyone off the beach. Jesse, a young lifeguard, spots something floating in the ocean and swims out. It's Christina. He takes her to the Kramers since the roads are closed so the doctor can look at her.
Soon Christina is living with the Kramers, and befriends their daughter Judy, whose older sister died years earlier. Her mother still has not gotten over it.

The show begins to shed its allusions of "The OC" immediately, although it does not completely do so until about the fifth episode. We see the characters evolve. The town whore soon stops her ways and tries to make things right, the love triangles become actually important to the actual story, etc. The series uses LOTS of symbolism and is very, very smart with it, proving that it is not the shallow waste of time people claim it to be.
The character relationships and the things that happen are important to whether the townspeople will be on the side of evil or the side of good. Judy's mother realizes that she is not crazy like people believe, but she has a connection with the spirit world and may be psychic. We also discover that Jesse died as a child but came back, and he is destined to kill Christina, the Antichrist, even though they have an unbearable attraction for one another. This adds much flavor and promise to the show, as Christina does not WANT to be evil and tries fighting it, yet people keep having visions of what she's destined to do to the town, and it's not pleasant. (Pun not intended.)

As different as the two shows are, "Point Pleasant" could be compared to "Dark Shadows". Both are a part of an extremely rare breed. How many gothic/horror soaps appear on television? Not many at all. "Dark Shadows", both the 60s and 90s versions, are also favorites of mine. And the short-lived CBS horror drama "American Gothic" was similar in style to "Point Pleasant", so if you like those shows you might want to check out "Point Pleasant".

Other things I'd like to point out is the EXCELLENT music used in the opening title sequence. It was written by Danny Elfman, who also did the "Desperate Housewives" theme song and has done nearly every Tim Burton film. The music used throughout the show, while not written by Elfman, is also good and sets up the atmosphere nicely. The filmwork is also nice, and looks great in widescreen, and a blue film is used quite a bit and it can be effective.

Overall the show is good, but it's no surprise many "Buffy" fans were displeased, because the two shows are completely different. However, if you are into dark, religious themed shows and movies or you just like creepy supernatural adventures, "Point Pleasant" is definitely worth a buy or rent.

"Point Pleasant" was just another one of the wonderful, original shows FOX is known for--known for introducing and then barely giving a chance before cancellation, i.e. "Wonderfalls", "Firefly", "John Doe", "Tru Calling". This show got better and better with each episode and had me hooked, even though there weren't nearly enough episodes. Unfortunately, FOX decided to cancel it before we could see the 'scariest episode yet' that was advertised. What a shame. I was hoping that it would be released on DVD so that I could watch the episodes over again and see the ones that were never aired for the first time. This show was clever and inventive. It had mystery, horror, interesting relationships and great chemistry between the main teenage characters. Grant Show also did a wonderful job of playing the show's villian. I hope this show does well on DVD. I'm definitely looking forward to the release of this DVD set.

In this compelling gothic, modern-day comedy/thriller television show, Christina (the child of the devil and a mortal woman) comes to Point Pleasant, New Jersey to search for her mother (whom she thinks abandoned her). Christina soon discovers her true identity as the devil's own child. With this discovery also comes Christina's new ability to make people and events act on her behalf. It is through the love of the Kramers, however, that Christina's good side is strenghtened as her evil side awakens. Now it's an all-out battle between good and evil. As Boyd, a once mortal man-turned devil's advocate, says of Christina and the world, "...she will bring it to it's knees."
CHARACTERS (contains a few spoilers!):
CHRISTINA NICKSON (played by Elisabeth Harnois)- Devil's daughter
BEN KRAMER (Richard Burgi)- Meg's husband; local doctor; takes Christina in
MEG KRAMER (Susan Walters)- Ben's wife; has delusions due to Isabelle's death; can see the future becasue of her detachment to reality
JUDY KRAMER (Aubrey Dollar)- Ben and Meg's daughter; becomes like a sister to Christina
ISABELLE KRAMER (unknown)- The late eldest daughter of Ben and Meg; died in a surfing accident
JESSE PARKER (Samuel Page, a.k.a. Sam Page)- Christina's love intrest; rescued Christina when she washes ashore on Point Pleasant
PAULA HARGROVE (Cameron Richardson)- Popular girl; Jesse's ex; Terry's new love intrest
AMBER HARGROVE (Dina Meyer)- Paula's mother; works with Boyd
LUCAS BOYD (Grant Show)- Works as devil's advocate; tries to seduce Christina to the evil side
TERRY BURKE (Brent Weber)- Obsessed with Paula; falls in love with her; has a critically-ill father; works with Boyd.
RANDOM FACTS:
-created by BUFFY, THE VAMPIRE SLAYER co-producer Marti Noxon
-shot on location in Vancouver, Canada
-Christina's mother was born in Point Pleasant
-Christina's conception was immaculate

This show never aired in my home country, and all I knew about the show was what I'd read on the Internet. When it aired in the US, it got mediocre reviews at best. Even the Buffy fans, who tuned in because of Marti Noxon's involvement, seemed largely disappointed.

So when I decided to order it anyway, I didn't have extremely high expectations.

I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. While the show was far from brilliant, I did find myself being drawn in from the first episode and eagerly wanted to find out what happened next.

The premise of the show is very interesting. I think that the way in which the plot was set up was quite well done. The gothic look and feel was also different from what you see in other shows, and provided the perfect setting for the plot. The show was also quite "gutsy" in its use of religion, which is not something that you would normally find in a TV show.

However, there were also some major flaws. Firstly, the show's blending of soap opera and supernatural drama often didn't work, with some episodes focussing too much on the soap elements. Yes, the show's exploration of how the supernatural elements would affect human relationships was interesting and essential, but could simply have been done a bit better.

The show's second major flaw was the pacing. The show started off very slowly, with the focus clumsily shifting between different characters. Luckily, this was resolved by episode five, at which point things started moving comfortably. Unfortunately, again, the pacing flaws returned during the last two episodes when the writers tried to cram too much into each episode. This is however somewhat understandable, given the fact that the show had been cancelled and they only had a few episodes left in which to resolve the story.

Another flaw was the writing. The writing wasn't bad per se, but there were certain points where the dialogue was really atrocious, almost the kind of lines that you would expect in a low-budget daytime soap. Also, character motivations were often forced and not allowed to develop realistically. As I've already mentioned, towards the end of the series the writers tried to cram way too much into too little time. Given the show's premature cancellation, one couldn't really expect a total resolution of all plotlines, but I was still disappointed with the ending. While the build-up to the final ending was commendable, the payoff wasn't worth it as no plotlines were really resolved, with a mostly open ending. This does leave quite a bit of room for the series to continue in some way or another, but given the show's lack of success this is quite unlikely.

The show's biggest flaw was the casting, particularly that of the teenage characters. The two lead actors, Elizabeth Harnois (as Christina) and Samuel Page (as Jesse) give lacklustre performances at best, not really managing to pull off the emotional depths required of their characters. Brent Weber (Terry), Cameron Richardson (Paula) and Marcus Coloma (Father Tomas) are almost laughably bad, giving the kind of terrible performances you would expect from a really LOW-budget show (such as 'Passions').

The acting isn't all bad, however. Aubrey Dollar (Judy) is the one teenager who gives a really commendable performance, while most of the adult actors are also very good. However, Grant Show (Lucas) and Dina Meyer (Amber) steals the show with performances that are simply stellar.

Overall, the show definitely had some major flaws, but it was still good enough to become a delicious guilty pleasure for me. It was certainly better than a lot of high-rated shows still running, and the cancellation was really premature and undeserved. However, I can't imagine the show running for three or more seasons as I felt that the plot simply didn't provide enough potential for more than two seasons.

Regarding the DVD set, the video and audio quality is consistently good and the behind-the-scenes featurette is worthwhile (though too short), but it would've been nice if they'd included some commentaries at least. Still, at less than thirty dollars it's definitely a worthwhile purchase.

I can see why Fox cancelled this show. The first four or five episodes were frankly pretty slow and boring. HOWEVER, they still made a mistake in cancelling it. Even Marti Noxon, the main producer, admitted on the "making of" featurette that they really didn't know what they were doing when the show first started. But after those first few episodes that aired, the show did come together and become something really good. Unfortunately, Fox (in its usual haste to cancel anything with any real promise) had already cancelled the show by the time the really good episodes were filmed and they never made it on tv. If you saw this show on tv and weren't thrilled by it, buy the dvd anyway. The later episodes that never made it to air show how good this program could have been if it had been allowed to continue and definitely make Point Pleasant a worthwhile purchase.

This show was different then all the other crap out there. Marti Noxon is fun, witty, and smart and she was getting somewhere with this. FOX has this thing where they love to cancel shows after 5 epsisodes exp. Wonderfalls, Tru Calling (Both Great shows) these were the shows I actually liked and now they are gone. The one thing YOU can do is buy the DVD's. SO please do!=) PP is so interesting and if you loved the Omen then you'll love this. Just because it deals with religion doesnt make it bad just more challanging. It's fresh and fun. Let's show FOX that removing this show was a BAD move on their part!!! BUY! BUY! BUY!

How many shows are there on TV that you can't wait to see each week? Not many, right? This show was certainly worth the wait. Some episodes were better than others, but the show overall was a nice change from crime scene investigation and reality TV shows. Imagine if some of the most popular TV shows in history had been given only a handful of episodes to prove themselves? We'd have missed countless classics. This show definitely had the potential to be something fresh and offbeat. Too bad we'll never know what might have been.

Following on the heels of Firefly and Wonderfalls, Point Pleasant joins the ranks of great shows cancelled by Fox before it had a chance to find its audience. The story centers around Christina Nickson(Elisabeth Harnois), a girl who falls off a boat, is rescued and then taken in by the Kramer family in the town of Point Pleasant. But Christina's father isn't her real father, her real father is is in fact Satan himself while her mother is a human who she has never met. I starting watching this show because Dina Meyer was in it. I'm a fan of hers, in particular of her portryal of Oracle on "Birds of Prey"(another great show canceled too soon, this one by the WB, that's one show Fox doesn't get the blame for, and puts Dina as starring in two shows canceled prematurely). Dina plays Amber Hargrove, a hot single mom, and the town whore. On lesser shows that's all her character would remain, but as the series goes on she's not as one dimensional as she seems, another reason why Point Pleasant is a superior show. Relative newcomer Elisabeth Harnois is excellent as Christina. As the series opens, she appears to be a sweet innocent girl, but with a few flashes of darkness. With each episode her character gets a little bit darker, as the part of her that is her father fights for supremacy. You can't help but feel sympathy for Christina, you're cheering for her good side to win out. Elisabeth plays both sides of the coin so well. If the right opportunities present themself, she will be a breakout star in the next few years. Also must give high marks to Grant Show, who is the main villain in the series, Satan's right hand man who is there to encourage Christina's dark side. Harnois, Show, and Meyer are the top actors on the show, but the entire cast is capable. As other reviewers have noted, the series starts out much like a supernatural version of the O.C., but with each episode, it becomes more supernatural drama and less teen soap opera. Series cocreator Marti Noxon said the show found it's identity about halfway through, then Fox canceled it after episode 8 just when it was hitting its stride. What's even more unbelievable is they replaced it's timeslot with leftover episodes of Tru Calling, a vastly inferior show that Fox had already decided to cancel. After buying the DVD, I watched all 13 episodes in four days. It gets better with each episode as it builds momentum. If you watched the eight episodes on TV, it is definitely worth buying the DVD to watch the last five. If you watched Point Pleasant and gave up on it before the eight episodes aired, get the DVD and pick up where you left, you won't regret it. And if you never watched Point Pleasant and are looking for a good supernatural drama, get it. Be warned, the series does not end with resolution, all the more reason there is more story to be told. A Point Pleasant TV movie or miniseries would be great. If that's ever to happen, the DVD sales will be a major factor. So all Point Pleasant fans should spread the word. Buy it as a gift, if you don't have it yourself yet, put it on your Christmas list. Point Pleasant should go on.

I was extremely upset when FOX cancelled this show! It is truly a compelling gothic drama that I would say is the modern-day Dark Shadows (with the devil's daughter instead of a vampire). As others have written, the chemistry between the actors is great (and let's face it, Grant Show is hot!). I was pulled into the fresh and inventive storyline from the very first episode! Definitely needs to be put back on the air!!!!!!

As a UK viewer of this series, I, like our friends across the water was devastated when the series was cancelled and joined the many petitioning for it's release, at least on DVD. It would appear someone actually listened! So I am waiting patiently to see those final episodes and enjoy a FULL series of this fantastic show, bring it on!