Fox’s ‘Rescue: HI-Surf’ Is an Average Workplace Drama, but With an Exceptional Tropical Location: TV Review

As far as first-responder dramas go, the new Fox series “Rescue: HI-Surf” is pretty by-the-book. The respected leader is haunted by trauma beneath his stoic surface; the plucky newcomer serves as the viewer’s entry point into a tight-knit crew; not a single cast member has an ounce of extraneous body fat. 

What distinguishes the show, besides the involvement of storied producer and pilot director John Wells (“The West Wing,” “ER”), is its setting. The lifeguards who serve as our heroes are stationed on the North Shore of O’ahu, a place with stunning scenery and, more intriguingly, a host of knotty local issues specific to a geographically remote tourism hotspot. The more “Rescue: HI-Surf” leans into this distinction, the better it gets — although the show is often content to linger on the telegenic, tropical surface.

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Created by Matt Kester (“Animal Kingdom”), “Rescue: HI-Surf” combines the iconic red swimsuits of “Baywatch” with the backdrop of “Hawai’i Five-0.” Captain Sonny Jennings (Robbie Magasiva, New Zealand accent fully intact) leads a crew tasked with patrolling a stretch of beach that’s as mobbed by inexperienced surfers and swimmers as it is isolated from emergency services and potentially dangerous. The opening title cards declare the North Shore’s famous break “the most dangerous wave in the world,” cresting in shallow water over a bed of rocks.

Without resorting to “9-1-1”-level extravagance — there are no babies stuck in pipes in the pilot, just a Floridian daredevil knocked unconscious in the water — the missions assigned to Sonny’s crew generally aren’t substantial enough to fill 43 minutes of runtime. Between hikers caught in flash floods, kayakers stranded by a strong current and college kids sucked into a sandpit, “Rescue HI-Surf” tries to develop the lifeguards into an attraction in their own right. Sonny is wracked with guilt over the recent drowning of his nephew. Em (Arielle Kebbel), his de facto second in command and would-be successor, tries to work against institutional sexism while engaging in halfhearted flirtation with her colleague Will (Adam Demos), an Aussie aspiring firefighter.

Kebbel is not convincingly cast as a hard-charging tomboy, and it’s difficult to care about the romantic entanglements of two beautiful, childless adults, no matter how many times we’re explicitly reminded Em and Will used to date. A more productive source of tension is between two rookies: Hina (Zoe Cipres), a working-class North Shore native, and Kainalu (Alex Aiono), whose father is their town’s mayor-elect. Hina finishes first in their training academy class, but Kainalu initially gets her spot on Sonny’s team when his dad promises the unit more desperately needed funding.

Sadly, Kainalu’s parent appears only in the first of four episodes shared with critics in advance. The most interesting version of the show could delve more into the politics that determine the characters’ working conditions; it’s rare for a series centered on public employees to address such dynamics inherent to the job, especially in a place with challenges as unique as O’ahu’s. Hina resolves to move out of her family home, only to run headfirst into the island’s acute housing crisis. Meanwhile, native Hawai’ian Laka (Kekoa Kekumano) ribs Kainalu for attending Punahou, the private academy best known as Barack Obama’s alma mater. But “Rescue: HI-Surf” isn’t entirely on the side of squeezed middle-class locals over the wealthy and/or transplants; lacking local connections, Will’s transfer to the fire department runs into issues.

Like the surfers who flock to the Shore, it would be easy for “Rescue: HI-Surf” to coast on the beauty of its surroundings, gliding over azure waters onto a palm-dusted beach. Moving forward, however, I hope the show leans into the aspects of its story that complicate the narrative of Hawai’i as paradise. (The Maui fires, for example, haven’t been mentioned yet.) Kekumano is best known for portraying one of the few local characters in the first season of “The White Lotus,” which was criticized by some for focusing on the clueless guests over the people they were inadvertently exploiting. The best version of “Rescue: HI-Surf” could be a corrective to that point of view, though time will tell if it opts to pursue that possibility.

The first two episodes of “Rescue: HI-Surf” will premiere on Fox on Sep. 22 at 8:00pm ET and Sep. 23 at 9:00pm ET, with remaining episodes airing weekly on Mondays at 9:00pm ET.