Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing Pacific Blue, a cop show that aired from 1996 to 2000 on the USA Network!  It’s currently streaming everywhere, though I’m watching it on Tubi.

This week, TC goes surfing!

Episode 4.9 “Cutting Edge”

(Dir by Terence H. Winkless, originally aired on October 18th, 1998)

When an up-and-coming surfer named Kenny Slaughter (Reed Ferichs) is pressured by a corrupt surf board salesman named Rip Cutter (Matt Battaglia), TC befriends Kenny.  He and Kenny go surfing.  They discuss the philosophy of catching a great wave.  “Are you sure you’re a cop?” Kenny asks.

Uhmm, Kenny …. are you kidding?  TC is the most uptight guy on the beach.  Everything about him screams “cop.”

This episode is an example of something that happened quite frequently with Pacific Blue.  One of the bike cops would befriend someone and the viewer would be left to wonder how that could have possibly happened.  Friendship usually requires a modicum of likability and that’s something that no one on this show seems to have.  Whether it’s Chris saying, “Just doing my job,” after nearly running someone down with her bicycle or Cory rolling her eyes every time that she has to deal with anyone younger than her, there are literally no likable bike cops.  Even this episode features Cory complaining about the attitude that Kenny gave her when she arrested him while he and Rip were having a fight on the beach.  It’s hard not to notice that almost every episode features Cory complaining about someone’s attitude.  It’s a bit of a cliche but it’s true.  If everyone you meet is a jerk, that means that you’re the jerk.

TC assigns Monica to work undercover in Rip’s surf shop.  This means that Monica has to frequently come over to TC’s apartment to give him updates.  Because TC can’t tell anyone that Monica is working undercover, Chris gets suspicious about why Monica is always coming over.  Chris and Cory being paranoid about Monica has been going on for nine episodes now and I think that, narratively, it might be a good idea to just move on from it.  It wasn’t that interesting to begin with and, at this point, Chris and Cory are just coming across as being overage mean girls.

Anyway, this episode actually felt like an abandoned Baywatch storyline.  TC’s no surfer.