Point Pleasant (TV series)

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Point Pleasant

Series title card
Format Teen drama
Noir
Mystery
Starring see Cast
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes 13 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive
producer(s)		 Marti Noxon
Running time 60 min. with commercials
Broadcast
Original channel FOX
Picture format 480i (SDTV)
720p (HDTV)
Original run January 19, 2005 – October 25, 2005
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Point Pleasant was a television series that first aired on the Fox Network in January 2005. It was cancelled in March 2005 due to poor ratings.

Point Pleasant boasted many of the same crew behind the scenes as Fox's other shortly withdrawn series, Tru Calling. In fact, Point Pleasant received the greenlight just three days after production ceased on Tru Calling. 13 episodes were filmed, but due to poor ratings, Fox only aired episodes 1-8 in the United States. Episodes 9-11 aired in Sweden, all episodes appeared in New Zealand on back to back weekdays in mid 2007, and the last two episodes are included on the DVD release.

Much of the music featured in the series was replaced for the DVD release due to licensing issues.

The show's executive producer was Marti Noxon, who worked closely with Joss Whedon for several seasons on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. For this reason, Point Pleasant initially drew in many of that show's fans, but Point Pleasant had a distinct "soapy" flavor, more in the vein of shows like Melrose Place or The O.C. than Buffy. The resulting drop in viewership eventually led to the show's cancellation. Advocates of the show, however, point to its gothic tone, its tempered, surprisingly subtle use of special effects, and the potential of the overall plotline as solid reasons the show should have stayed on the air. The plots were surprisingly sophisticated, and emphasized humanity's cruelty to one another, as primal reasons for evil.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

A young girl named Christina washes up on the shore near Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey during a violent storm. After being resuscitated by lifeguard Jesse Parker, the girl is taken in by the family of a local doctor, the Kramers, and quickly befriends their teenage daughter, Judy. The show follows Christina's attempts to discover who she really is, and to learn what happened to her mother, who disappeared shortly after Christina was born.

It soon becomes apparent that Christina's presence has a strange, profound effect on the people around her. Emotions are heightened, repressed feelings and secret desires awakened, and inhibitions weakened, turning what once were friendly competitions into bitter rivalries, romantic rivals into violent enemies, and so on. And if that wasn't enough, freakish 'accidents' have a way of befalling those with whom Christina becomes angry.

Meanwhile, sinister forces have their eye on Christina, believing it is the girl's destiny, as the "child of darkness," to "bring [the world] to its knees." Christina is the child of Satan. The resulting tension between the good and evil aspects of the girl's nature, with the viewer always left in doubt as to which side she will ultimately choose, provides the basis for much of the show's conflict and suspense.

Christina is plagued by terrifying visions of death and destruction, glimpses of the dark future she seems destined to help bring about. Meanwhile, a handsome, charming stranger named Lucas Boyd arrives in town, determined to help guide Christina toward her destiny, and Jesse Parker, who has become romantically involved with Christina, discovers that he may be the only one who can prevent the girl from ushering in Armageddon. Ironically, as the 13 episodes closed, it was the continual betrayal of people who Christina cared about, and plain human cruelty, that brought out the darkness in her. If Christina "fell" into darkness, she did it not because of the evil influences around her nor her Satanic bloodline, but the supposedly good ones who betrayed her so bitterly.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Names in Point Pleasant

Many of the names in Point Pleasant, through serendipity or planning, are Biblical in nature or otherwise allude to religious themes.

Character name Significance or origin of name
Christina Nickson Christina is a feminine form of Christ. Nick, often appearing as Old Nick or Nicholas, is a nickname for the Devil, with the suffix -son meaning son of. Unlike some languages, English has not adopted a patronymic to express daughter of.
Jesse Parker Jesse is the father of David, one of only four men, according to some rabbinical sources, who died without committing sin.
Lucas Boyd Lucas, an allusion to Lucifer used in the Christian Bible as a synonym for Satan. Boyd means blondheaded.
Judy Kramer Judy derives form Judith, a woman who decapitated an invading general. Judy nearly gets a knife through her throat in the television show but someone else is smote in the same way in her stead.
David Burke David, a chosen man of God, who was the son of Jesse. Notably David conquered the fortress Jerusalem, brought about the death of Uriah, whose wife David had illicitly impregnated, then married her but the child was killed, and his son Absalom rebelled against his father and was killed in the unsuccessful rebellion which fact David lamented. Burke is a Middle English word that means fort or fortified settlement.
Ben Kramer Benjamin was the next to favourite son of Jacob, to whom Joseph revealed himself in Egypt, another of the four men who died without sin.
Anne Gibson Anne in the form of Anna is an elderly prophetess around the time of Jesus' birth. Hannah/Hanna/Hana/Chana is one of the wives of Elkanah who remains childless until she prays in the Temple and is blessed by the High Priest Eli and gives birth to the prophet Samuel. Gibson is a combination of Gib, a diminutive of Gilbert which translates to bright promise (or perhaps bright youth/young man) and -son meaning son of.

Other names that have a Biblical or religious connection:

  • Lucinda
  • Matthew
  • Paula
  • Sarah
  • Tomas
  • Isabelle (means Devoted to God)
  • Mark
  • Nick

This constitutes half of the named characters listed on the IMDB page. Nine of the fourteen characters appearing in half or more of the episodes have this sort of name.

[edit] Trivia

  • The fictional Point Pleasant, New Jersey bore little resemblance to any real town in New Jersey. The town as depicted was a mashup of Point Pleasant, New Jersey, the neighboring town of Point Pleasant Beach, the town of Seaside Heights, which is nearly 17 miles south, and the neighboring town of Bay Head with liberal doses of the OC. This was a point of contention with many local residents who protested the series both for not accurately representing the local community and for associating the towns with such a dark subject. The creators of the series missed a prime opportunity by not making the series more like the actual surroundings. The real towns have an interesting mix of long-time Barnegat Bay descendants and sophisticated New York transplants.

Interestingly, the several Main Street shots showing sidewalk cafes, shops, and even a local trolley line were actually scenes filmed in downtown La Mesa, a suburb of San Diego.

  • Executive Producer and Co-Creator Marti Noxon allowed several connections to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, including bringing in Adam Busch to play Wes. The two had previously worked together on Buffy, where she was a writer and producer, and he played Warren Mears, one of the sixth-season villains.
  • The 9th episode "Walking the Dead" was meant to be the last episode to air on Thursday, March 24, 2005 at 9:00 PM ET. Due to the American Idol "wrong number" incident, American Idol was shown instead. The episode was never shown on FOX, making the 8th episode "Swimming With Boyd" the last episode to air.

[edit] Episodes

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Main article: List of Point Pleasant episodes