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 Baywatch Nights, a detective show that ran in Syndication from 1995 to 1997.  The entire show is currently streaming on You tube!

This week, Mitch and Ryan head out to an abandoned ocean oil rig.  Do they find love or do they find a glowing green slime monster?  Read on to find out!

Episode 2.3 “The Rig”

(Dir by Jon Cassar, originally aired on October 13th, 1996)

Donna is super-excited because she’s saved her first person as a lifeguard.  (Apparently, the nightclub is no longer a thing and Donna is no longer a cynical and tough-minded businesswoman.)  She tracks down Griff and she tells him about it.  Griff is impressed.  Donna wants to tell Mitch but he’s not on the beach!

Instead, Mitch and Ryan are investigating a deserted oil rig.  A few weeks ago, the crew of the oil rig died under mysterious circumstances.  The official story is that they fell victim to cabin fever or maybe a mass delusion.  But Diamont thinks that maybe something paranormal has happened and he has asked Mitch and Ryan to check it out.  Despite the fact that this is the third “paranormal” mystery that Mitch has investigated in as many episodes, he remains a skeptic.  Ryan, however, thinks that it is possible that the rig was attacked by some sort of prehistoric one-celled organism.

And it turns out that Ryan is right!  Ryan and Mitch find themselves being threatened by a green gelatinous goo that eats away at everything from metal to skin.  Joining Ryan and Mitch is Claire (Jennifer Campbell), whose boat was earlier attacked by the goo.  Claire does very little in this episode and there’s really no point to her being there, beyond the fact that the show’s producers needed someone to wear a bikini and to scream.

Featuring an absolutely ludicrous monster and a finale that involves a self-destruct mechanism slowly counting down, The Rig is actually a lot of fun.  It’s totally ludicrous and silly and everything that an episode of something like Baywatch Nights should be.  Mitch and Ryan make for an entertaining team.  Angie Harmon’s naturally sarcastic delivery contrasts nicely with David Hasselhoff’s most earnest style.  The Rig is at its best when it just follows Mitch and Ryan as they flirtatiously argue about the paranormal while walking around the abandoned rig.

And fear not!  Mitch survives his meeting with goo, jumping off the rig at the same moment that it explodes.  We get a little bit of slow motion, followed by a short of an obvious dummy crashing into the water.  When Hasselhoff jumps off the rig, the night sky is pitch black.  When he emerges from the ocean, the sun is shining.  That’s type of easily avoidable continuity error that makes Baywatch Nights so much fun!

This was a fun episode.  Next week, Mitch gets involved with a UFO!