Despite the fact that it revolves around standard-issue teens with troubled, rich parents, it pushes the formula a few steps . . . make that several steps farther.(New York Post)Don't believe the critics who tell you "Hidden Palms" stinks after they watched only the first episode…. This is a seriously involving serious show. A show about something. (Newsday)A soapy delight of hard bodies and dirty doings.(Miami Herald)While much of it is silly, corny or clichéd and relies more on easy effects — the power ballad, the overwrought sex scene — than on the subtle explorations of people and place that the pilot seems to promise, the series is, on the whole, highly digestible summer fun. (Los Angeles Times)Hidden Palms goes where other series have gone before and suffers in the comparisons. Veronica Mars has told mysteries with more finesse. Twin Peaks was odder with its eerie atmosphere. Dawson's Creek supplied sophisticated teen dialogue with more verve. (Orlando Sentinel)Remove the sex, sociopathology and possible filicide, and you will still be left with a quite inspiring home design show.(The New York Times)A perfectly serviceable teen drama. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette)"Hidden Palms" isn't totally odious. After the bad acting in the initial daddy suicide, the show calms down and holds mild interest for its bikini hotness, cool blue pools and unapologetic stupidity.(Chicago Sun-Times)Even the dialogue is mediocre, a surprise coming from Williamson.(Entertainment Weekly)To the producers' credit, this storyline advances fairly rapidly; it's just not that engaging or surprising.(Variety) "Hidden Palms" would be more engaging and addictive if the acting were more distinctive.(Boston Globe)Mostly silly, pretentious, soap opera-style TV with an escapist mentality and the subtlety of an avalanche.(Hollywood Reporter)It may be harsh to suggest his "Creek" has run dry, but as a followup exploration of teen anxiety, "Hidden Palms" offers little but scenic and human scenery.(New York Daily News)Unfortunately, the smarter-than-thou riffs that may have seemed amusing and fresh back on Dawson's Creek now simply feel dated and rehashed.(USA Today)Overwritten and underacted (by the kids anyway), it strings out its weekly climactic shockers — some of them truly unnerving — with artery-hardening blobs of moldy adolescent whining.(TV Guide)"Hidden Palms"… starts out feeling like it could be a guilty pleasure but ends up being something you want to hold face down in a full kiddie pool.(Seattle Post-Intelligencer)You're likely to find more fascinating figures and intriguing dramatis personae in the latest catalogue from J. Peterman, and somehow Peterman comes off as more emotionally authentic.(Washington Post)
Compiled by Bryon Rudd
