Hidden Palms

Wow. The last couple of minutes of Wednesday's two-hour chunk of Hidden Palms supplied the first non-predictable moment of the entire series so far. Cliff's having an affair with Eddie's mom! Yikes. They still kind of borrowed that plot line from The O.C., but I didn't see it coming. In retrospect, it doesn't seem particularly off-base for Cliff to be involved with a middle-aged woman, because I spent much of the first hour wondering if he was not just a little too interested in his own mother. Thank goodness it's just his dead best friend's mom that he wants.

Speaking of Cliff, he may be the devil personified, but I love him. Not since Sark have I been this taken with a villain. Michael Cassidy has just run away with this show, which I still find shocking because as The O.C.'s Zach, he was cute, but hardly remarkable. I think a perfect season ender for Hidden Palms (esp. since it really doesn't look like there's going to be a season two) would be Cliff taking Johnny out too and then turning on the charm again when a new kid moves next door. My favorite Cliff moment this week:

Johnny: What did happen to Eddie?
Cliff: Hello?! Where have you been? He offed himself!

OK, there are other people on this show and for once I have something to say about a few of them:

Liza is pathetic. Eddie was her "secret friend." Seriously? How very elementary school of them. I remember when Full House did the episode where Stephanie was the "secret" girlfriend of "Duck Face." They were in like the first grade. Liza is old enough to realize that if someone isn't willing to tell his "cool" friends that he's your friend, then he's really not your friend. Get some self-respect, Liza.

Johnny's inability to golf was especially astounding because I remember him being quite the little golfer a few years ago when Oliver took all The O.C. kids to Palm Springs.

The girl who plays Greta is not an especially great actress. Which is funny because everyone thought Mischa was the acting weak link on The O.C.--it must be the curse of being the love interest girl. Now I'm all for anyone yelling at Jake Kane, but Greta was enunciating her insults to such an extent that it was painful.

And Nikki... doesn't her dad or her boarding school--or the state of California for that matter--mind that she, a 16-year-old girl, is now living on the couch of a random late-middle aged, former alcoholic and drag queen?

Eddie sounds like a pretentious little schmuck, what with his copious blogging and journaling and his snooty condemnation of Tennyson.

So, I wonder if Greta and Cliff really slept together or if that was just the cover story. I realize that now we're operating under the assumption that Eddie was murdered, but I could understand how he might have felt suicidal if he found out that his best friend had slept with both his girlfriend and his mother.