Hidden Palms is a 2007 American teen drama series directed by Scott Winant, produced by Kevin Williamson and Scott Winant and written by Kevin Williamson.
Johnny Miller (Taylor Handley) is a teen and high school who has a good life going... until the night his father committed suicide. Johnny took alcohol and drugs because he found himself unable to cope with the loss. He gets out of rehab and ends up in Palm Springs, California. The whole place seems like a paradise, but it turns out that there is a dark side to the place. It seems the community has never been the same since Edward "Eddie" Nolan (J. D. Pardo) died under mysterious circumstances. Now, Johnny is very much interested in finding out what happened to Eddie, as well as trying to win the heart of the mysterious teenage girl Greta Matthews (Amber Heard).
This show lasted for only one season, eight episodes, and from May 30, 2007 to July 4, 2007 before it was cancelled.
Has a recap page.
This show provides examples of:
- Big Bad: Alan 'Skip' Matthews is revealed as this in the very last episode.
- Broken Ace: Johnny usually to be a star student and athlete, but his father's suicide broke him badly.
- Driven to Suicide: Johnny's father suicide at the start of the series is what drove him and his mother to move to Palm Springs. Maria Nolan supposedly kills herself, and Eddie's death turns out to be murder instead of suicide.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Johnny began to drink and use drugs in order to cope with his father's suicide. He's in rehab at the start of the series.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Greta and Johnny's first time gets interrupted when her father Skip walks in on them. They're both mortified and cover themselves with pillows but Skip just laughs it off.
- Intimate Lotion Application: In the pool club, Johnny takes his shirt off and asks pool attendant Eliza if she can help him rub sunscreen on his back. She's clearly distracted and nervous by having to touch him shirtless and admits she usually only does these things to old ladies.
- Mr. Fanservice: Both Johnny and Cliff get their fair share of Shirtless Scenes.
- Ms. Fanservice: Greta is the designated provider for fanservice, being often in a bikini or other Fanservicey situations.
- Official Couple: The growing romance of Johnny and Greta is a major part of the story.
- Posthumous Character: Eddie Nolan is established as dead at the beginning of the show. However, finding out the circumstances behind his dead is the driving force of the plot.
- Recovered Addict: Johnny is fresh out of rehab at the start of the series.
- Sexy Surfacing Shot: Greta gets a close-up shot of her climbing out of a swimming pool in a bikini just as Johnny and Cliff are talking about her.
- Short-Runners: Was cancelled after it's first and only season, which only had 8 episodes.
-
Spiritual Successor: Was supposed to be one to The O.C. but it was canceled after eight episodes. - Toplessness from the Back: When Greta and Johnny are about to have Their First Time, Greta takes off her clothes until she's topless, but she's only shot from the back.
