It's an interesting idea to throw these two elements together into one show, but it doesn't work well here. At least not in the episode I saw.

It began with shaggy-haired heartthrob Johnny (The O.C.'s Taylor Handley) witnessing his drunkard father's suicide. Cut to a year later, when the formerly clean-cut teen is just out of rehab (Amy Winehouse playing in the background is the first of many all-too-obvious soundtrack choices) and moving to sunny Palm Springs with his mom and her new, slick-haired hubby.

Johnny's hatred for the stepdad isn't masked too well, as he rolls his eyes and looks away whenever the guy walks into the room. Johnny's mother (Gail O'Grady) is the show's resident queen of denial, wishing out loud that her son wouldn't bother with those pesky, post-rehab AA meetings. Geez mom, thanks for the support!

Johnny is just as much of an enigma. Over the hourlong episode, he sulks, laughs, flirts with bikini bombshells, relishes in being the new guy that all the rich kids are falling over themselves to meet, and then seems sad at an AA meeting while listening to a drag queen on stage speak about being a fish out of water. He should really pick a character trait and go with it.

Did we mention that every teenager on Hidden Palms is witty, well-read and knows exactly what to say in any given situation? Sorry, Kevin Williamson, but even prime-time soaps should have some basis in reality.

I won't even get into the mysterious subplot surrounding the mysterious death of the mysterious boy who once lived in Johnny's mysterious new room. You get the point. There's way too much going on in this show, and to care about the subplots, you must first care about the main plot. And I couldn't really figure out what that was.

So, instead of getting into a show that fails to live up to even the bad O.C. episodes, I'll just spend my future Wednesday evenings watching Reunited: The Real World Las Vegas. Did anybody see that, by the way? Alton is totally lying.