For some reason I was drawn to Hidden Palms from the moment I first heard about it, and not just for the gorgeous girl in the bikini. I love teen melodrama and have wanted to get in at the beginning of some juicy prime time serial, having missed Lost, Heroes, The O.C., etc. But none of them drew me the way Palms did, and I wasn’t sure why.

Then I discovered it was created, produced and auteured by Kevin Williamson, and my hunch seemed correct. If you don’t know who Kevin Williamson is, it only shows the debased role the writer has in our society. He wrote Scream, which is not only one of the best recent horror movies but one of the best recent movies period. I have the script in book form and reading it only reinforces what a perfect creation it is. The rest of the trilogy was pretty darn good too, the horror equivalent of fantasy’s Lord of the Rings trilogy or science fiction’s (original three, please!) Star Wars. I never saw Dawson’s Creek, which he also created, but it seemed to have been pretty successful and good too. He also wrote the script for the instant horror classic I Know What You Did Last Summer and the mind blowing, subversive The Faculty. He was the hottest writer in Hollywood at one time.

But that’s the problem with fashion – it’s great to be considered fashionable and cool, but it insures that someday the wheel will come around and you will become un-fashionable. A few movie and T.V. less than successes and Williamson sort of fell off the map, and the fact that he’s mostly worked in genres like horror and teen drama that the snobs don’t have much respect for has meant that his return to prime time hasn’t generated much buzz. Maybe because it’s on the generally derided CW network but the reviews I read of Hidden Palms were mostly condescending and dismissive, and it doesn’t get half the attention even a lame new show like Burn Notice gets. But I’ve watched it anyway and, guess what, it’s really good.

The show it most reminds me of is the last serial show I made a point of watching, Twin Peaks, without quite so much self conscious weirdness. But there’s that Lynchian tinge to it, of the gothic darkness lurking under the suburban surface, of hidden crimes and forbidden sex and very strange people walking among us. It’s unfolded quite nicely, with that great sense of structure Williamson possesses, secrets leading inexorably to other secrets, false resolutions and new characters. And, yes, Amber Heard is jaw droppingly nubile (and a good actress too) as the obscure object of desire, Greta Matthews, but the most of the rest of the cast is excellent, too, with Taylor Handley as a studly, sympathetic, wounded central character, the NYPD Blue gals Gail O’Grady and Sharon Lawrence as hot but aging moms, Ellary Porterfield as the girl nerd with an edge and, most intriguingly, Michael Cassidy as the complex, devious, magnetic Cliff. There’s also a scene stealing turn by Leslie Jordan as the flamboyant occasional female impersonator Jesse Jo, the improbable voice of reason and sobriety. The only cast member I’m not as big a fan of is Tessa Thompson as party girl Nikki, who doesn’t seem to me to be hot enough or actress enough to inhabit the role.

I’m so anxious about the show’s survival that I hesitate to say what else I don’t like, but you know me, I can’t help it – except for a brief snatch of Amy Winehouse’s Rehab, the music has sucked, and the little ads at the end for bands you’ve never heard of and never will hear of make me think there’s product placement involved here. The tunes in Scream, notably Nick Cave’s Red Right Hand were perfect and I wish a little more care was taken in finding the right songs. The “next week on” teasers at the end of the show also have the habit of giving away the shocking revelations of the next episodes and wish they were a little more obscure.

But all in all I love Hidden Palms! I really, really hope that despite the lack of buzz the show is successful. Except for The Simpsons and Monday Night Football I don’t watch any other show regularly, and you know that anything that can tear me from my ceaseless creativity (not to mention the Wii) has to be pretty darn interesting. I’ve got my thirteen year old son hooked now too, and his boredom tolerance is even lower than mine. CW has taken to running two hour long episodes back to back lately, which means I’ll be investing two hours of precious UBU time on the show tonight, but I don’t mind a bit, and if you had any sense you’d watch too!

YR PAL,

UBU