PE.com - Tourism Blog

Un-Hiding Hidden Palms

Hidden Palms, the CW network's summer teen drama set in Palm Springs, premiers tonight at 8 p.m. PST. Could it eventually do for the OC and Laguna Beach what the weekly drama and reality show of the same names did for their SoCal geographies to bring fans curious to see the real places where their favorite characters hang out? Maybe. If it stays on the air.

Early reviews have been less than stellar and most use the typical buzzwords to describe the setting: old, gray, retired.

"Set in the retirement haven of Palm Springs, we follow the adventures of Johnny Miller (Taylor Handley), who was the perfect son and student," before his dad committed suicide, according to a review by Susan Young of InsideBayArea.com.

"He's gone through a stint in rehab and been whisked off to Palm Springs -- where the heat, he's told, drives people crazy," according to a Variety review.

"Frankly, I didn't even know there were teenagers in Palm Springs, let alone an entire social strata of Paris Hilton wannabes and O.C. refugees," according to Rob Salem of the Toronto Star.

Salem went on to question the creator, Kevin Williamson, about why he chose Palm Springs:

"I have gone to Palm Springs a lot in the last few years ... You know, the thing about it is, it's this swank little Dean Martin place that has turned into this retirement community, but what I've noticed over the last three years is it constantly goes under a renaissance.

"It's always going through a change, every 10 years or so. And one of the things that I noticed on one of the visits in the last couple years is there are all these gated communities that have just popped up, seemingly overnight. There's high schools. You see teens skateboarding down the street.

"I don't know ... It's just I've never seen Palm Springs portrayed on television. It's a very interesting world. It's very surreal in a lot of ways. I sort of feel like it's this man-made oasis, and it's plopped down in the middle of the desert, where there's a bit of a facade going on. You could lift the rug or the grass, so to speak, and there's just desert underneath.

"I thought it was just an interesting world and sort of a great dramatic place to set up a story like this."

For more about shows that have been filmed in Palm Springs and to test your pop culture aptitude, check out the story about Hidden Palms and a quiz about other local shows from the P-E's Vanessa Franko.

-- KIMBERLY PIERCEALL
kpierceall@PE.com