When The Secrets of Sulphur Springs premiered on the Disney Channel, I did a key word search on the title and "gay" yields: "this series is about two married gay men who get a divorce so they can marry other men." Unlikely for a Disney Channel teen com, but maybe there are some gay subtexts.
No, it's a ghost story-time travel mystery written by people who can't spell "sulfur."
Ben (Josh Braaten, top photo) and his children, Griffin (Preston Oliver), Wyatt (Landon Gordon, left),and some girls, move from the Big City to the tourist trap...er, resort of Sulphur Springs, Lousiana, where Ben grew up. They are going to re-open the creepy, haunted Tarant Inn.
Thirty years ago, young Ben and a girl named Savannah sneaked into the Tarant Inn. He heard an odd noise and went off to investigate, and when he returned, she was gone! He is trying to work through the trauma and guilt, and the suspicions of the townsfolk, who think that he...well, this is the Disney Channel, so let's just say "knows something about the disappearance." So he decided to come back?
This is a teen series, so eldest son Griffin is the focus character. He immediately meets the Girl of His Dreams, who happens to be mystery obsessed and anxious to help investigate the mystery. They discover a secret room at the inn that leads to the distant-past year of 1990. There they meet Savannah, alive and well, but constantly being pestered/hit on by the young Ben.
It's a soap opera all around, back then: Young Ben (Jake Melrose, left) has an abusive father (Jim Gleason) and a stalker, the Mean Girl Jess, who is constantly trying to sabotage his budding romance with Savannah so she can seduce him. These are 13-14 year olds on the Disney Channel, so no s*x acts will actually occur, but all the tropes are there.
Meanwhile Griffin's sibs, paranormal enthusiasts, try to contact the ghost of Savannah to find out how she...um...disappeared.
More after the break
The grown-up Mean Girl still lives in town w ith her young son Topher (Johari Washington) . Could she have been responsible for the girl's...um... disappearance?
Spoiler alert: We find out what happened to Savannah in Episode 8. Surprise! She's not dead! She used the portal to go back in time to 1960, where she's grooving on Camelot with a hip foster family. But there are plenty more mysteries to solve, and a lot of time traveling. The portal works in 30-year increments, so how about 1930? 1890? Or ahead to 2050?
Beefcake: No. The show is occupied almost exclusively by women and girls. But some of the adult actors are cute, like Floyd Anthony Johns (below) as a cop, and some of the teen stars have grown up into hunkoids.
Gay Characters: No.
Gay Subtexts: Since Griffin spends all of his time surrounded by women, he has no change to buddy-bond with anyone except Topher (whom he barely talks to) and the Young Ben (whom he interacts with only through the girlfriend).
Skip it or Stream It: What do you think?
See also: Ian Winningkoff: From "Sulphur Springs" to "Grease," with some teen idol costars and hunky Danny Zukos
Preston Oliver: Teen idol with four tv roles, two boyfriends, "Ask Me" Toney, and some nd*e costars
New Orleans Guys: Eight Cajun c*cks and bulging backcity boys for your crewe
The show sounds like a pass- but who it the hot shirtless guy in the first photo?
ReplyDeleteTo answer my own question the top photo is Josh Braaten, 44. 6'3'' and single. He is a very active actor
ReplyDeleteSorry, I accidentally got the names mixed up. Josh Braatan plays Griffin's father, Ben
DeleteNo problem you gave me a reason to do search on the handsome Mr Braaten
DeleteSeducing a 13-year-old boy. Well, they got 90s heterosexism right. Can't show two guys kissing, but middle school boy knocks up teacher and everyone congratulates him, wishes they had a teacher like her, etc.
ReplyDeleteMy continued loathing for this godawful decade.
Of course, I assume this portal also has a way of making sure you end up on Earth and not in outer space? Recalling the sun revolves around the galactic center.
Time travel stories never worry about the movement of Earth through space. Or materializing inside a wall. Or the fact that the atoms that constitute your body existed back then, so now they are in two places at once.
ReplyDelete