Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Malibu CA, which aired in Syndication in 1998 and 1999.  The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

Is this a good episode of Malibu, CA?  Read on to find out!

Episode 1.7 “Scott’s Old Girlfriend”

(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on November 22nd, 1998)

Scott and Sam’s relationship is going strong.  They’re even planning on spending the weekend in Catalina together.  But then Scott’s girlfriend from New York, Megan (Tsianina Joelson), comes to California for a series of dance auditions.  Scott swears that he broke up with Megan before leaving New York but it turns out that seeing, “See ya,” is not the best or clearest way to break up with someone.  Megan still thinks that she’s dating Scott.

Instead of telling Megan and Sam the truth, Scott attempts to keep them from learning about each other.  Why?  Because Scott is a character in a Peter Engel-produced sitcom and the guys in these shows always did the stupidest possible things.  Scott’s attempt to lie to both of his girlfriends ends in failure and Sam dumps him.

We’re back in familiar territory with this episode.  Once again, for 20 minutes, we see that Scott Collins is the worst person who has ever lived.  The show attempts to make Scott likable by having him regularly break the fourth wall and speak directly to the audience but smirking while bragging about lying to not one but two girlfriends does not exactly make one likable.  His brother Jason is a bit less annoying than usual in this episode but he still helps Scott in his attempted deception so, even if he’s not as much of a sociopath as Scott, Jason’s still a bit of a wimp.  (In many ways, being wimpy is even worse than being evil.)  It’s actually very satisfying when Sam dumps Scott because it’s exactly what an actual human being would do in this situation.  In fact, it’s so satisfying that it actually makes this episode a smidgen better than the ones that came before it.

There is a B-plot but it’s not as annoying as usual.  Stads helps Murray train for a surfing contest, which Murray wins even though he’s torn between his love of surfing and his newly found love for Traycee.  Stads encourages Murray to break up with Traycee so he can concentrate on surfing and, continuing the show’s theme of people behaving in a semi-realistic way, she feels guilty about it afterwards.  But Traycee quickly gets back together with her ex and Murray is excited to have a surfing trophy.  And you know what?  Good for him.  Murray started out as a kind of annoying character but, compared to Scott and Jason, he’s a prince.

Was this a good episode?  Well, no, not really.  Due to just how unlikable the show’s two main characters are, I don’t think there’s such a thing as a good episode of Malibu CA.  But it wasn’t quite as bad as the ones that came before it.