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"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.
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