O.C. Alums Emerge on The CW's "Hidden Palms"

The CW must have had little confidence in this teen drama that TV Guide described as Alfred Hitchcock meets "The O.C." (!), when they decided to leave it for early off season.

In any event, the critics are not exactly brimming with praise. TV Guide goes on to state: "Overwritten and underacted (by the kids anyway), it strings out its weekly climactic shockers — some of them truly unnerving — with artery-hardening blobs of moldy adolescent whining."

USA Today is equally disapproving: "It has never aired before, but you have seen it before. Repetition may not matter much to the show's target teenage audience, a group that is born anew every 10 years or so. But adults can be forgiven for thinking someone slipped in a DVD of an old WB flop while their backs were turned."

You may remember the show star Taylor Handley as the actor who played Oliver, the most hated character on the aforementioned "The O.C." way back in season 1.

Michael Cassidy also starred in the Newport-set drama as Summer's boyfriend Zach in season 2. The youngsters are joined by TV vets Gail O'Grady and Sharon Lawrence.

Handley plays Johnny Hardy, a well-adjusted teenager with good grades and a roomful of sports trophies until the terrible night when his father committs suicide and shatters Johnny's world.

Fresh out of rehab for alcohol abuse, Johnny relocates to Palm Springs with his mother Karen (O'Grady)) and new stepfather Bob (D.W. Moffett).

The neighborhood teens include the beautiful and mysterious Greta (Amber Heard,), the awkward but brilliant Liza (Ellery Porterfield,)) and the secretive Cliff (Cassidy,) who reveals that Greta's last boyfriend, Eddie, recently died.

Sharon Lawrence stars as Cliff's plastic-surgery obsessed mother, Tess.

The pilot airs tonight at 8/7c on the CW.

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