This is in sharp contrast to the weird dourness of the second of Baywatch Nights, which made the poignant mistake of taking itself very seriously and thinking that a Baywatch spin-off starring David Hasselhoff could be genuinely scary. Hasselhoff would receive the best reviews of his career for the light touch he brings to this boldly stupid new vision of life for iconic lifeguard Mitch Buchannon, a winking self-awareness that suggests he knows just ridiculous everything around him is and is having a goddamn blast.
I was so reluctant to say goodbye to the wonderfully weird, transcendently cheesy universe of Baywatch Nights that when I discovered that pretty much the entire series was available on Youtube I decided that I would re-up and watch at least one episode of the first season of Baywatch Nights, the infamous flop that had the whole world laughing at David Hasselhoff longer, louder and more intensely than usual.īoy am I glad that I did! If you were to slap the phrase “Adult Swim Presents” into the opening credits of “Pursuit”, the first episode to air, geeks and hipsters would declare it the most brilliant exercise in gleefully post-modern television satire this side of Lookwell and Heat Vision and Jack.