Critical Reception
As of May 31, 2007, the show had a composite score of 45% based on 22 reviews at Metacritic. Linda Stasi of the New York Post called it "the best rich kid show to appear on TV since that other California show died." Diane Werts of Newsday said the show "is enough to make me forgive The CW's entire sorry first season".
However, there has also been negative reception of the show. Mike Duffy of the Detroit Free Press said the show is "luridly derivative" and that "there's nothing remotely hip" about it. Charlie McCollum of the San Jose Mercury News said the show "spends far too much time exploring the whiny angst of the teens". Tom Shales of The Washington Post said of the show, "you're likely to find more fascinating figures and intriguing dramatis personae in the latest catalogue from J. Peterman."
The show has also come under fire from the Parents Television Council, which called the pilot episode "cliché-ridden" and claimed the overall plot was inappropriate for its teenage target audience because of its depiction of underage drinking, parental suicide and sex, the pilot and finale episodes being named the most offensive television programming of the weeks of their respective broadcasts on the CW network.
Read more about this topic: Hidden Palms
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