A young lady washes up on the shores of Point Pleasant. Chistina Nickson (Elisabeth Harnois) is half human and, well, her father is the Devil. Since we, the viewers, know this from the beginning, the anxiety we are suppose to feel is just absent. In a world that has all-too-human devils in the form of terrorists of various ilks, are the Devil's daughter and her turmoil actually interesting or scary? In POINT PLEASANT, the answer is no. There is no reason to care about the protagonist. Unlike the old Gothic soap DARK SHADOWS, which had the sympathetic character of the governess Victoria Winter to draw the viewer into the lives and secrets of Collinswood, Christina is vapid and cold; she is virtually interchangeable with her antagonist Paula Hardgrove. In fact, most of the younger characters are identical and bland. Luckily for the viewers, we do have Richard Burgi, Susan Walters, Alex Carter, and Dina Meyer playing the parental generation. They have life and character. They are more than just pretty faces. Grant Show, as the Devil's disciple Lucas Boyd, has great lines. Unfortunately, they fall flat because he is playing against mostly empty, unintelligent, humorless characters. This brings us to another problem with this paranormal fantasy series; well, it just takes itself too seriously. None of the characters has a sense of humor! Humor is a part of being human, even if one is only half human like Christina. We are left longing desperately for the tongue-in-cheek tone of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES. Lastly, the whole premise would fit into a movie. Wow, in fact it has been a movie or two -- THE DEVIL'S DAUGHTER (1973) and TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER (1976). My guess is someone at the network said, "Give me THE OC with THE OMEN," but what we actually have is a snoozefest. (Rating 4/10).
Review of Point Pleasant
