Prime Video is bringing back a genuine 1990s icon, and it looks steamy in the extreme
Baywatch is back
It doesn't get much more '90s than Baywatch – even if the show technically launched right at the end of the 1980s. A show that launched careers and made sex icons out of most of its stars, it also brought up a generation of viewers with the idea that there was basically no job more heroic than being a beach lifeguard, and now it's back.
After a pretty terrible movie in 2017 with The Rock in a mainline role, this series looks like it's a bit more of a faithful reimagining of what Baywatch would look like in our current times, and it's coming to Prime Video at the start of 2027. The fact that it just got its first trailer (and it's a pretty long one) shows that Amazon hopes it has a real hit on its hands, here.
As with the old Baywatch, while much of the conversation will remain on the frankly ridiculous cuts of the swimwear being worn by female members of the team, this revival does seem to be going 'equal opportunities' when it comes to beauty standards – every single one of its cast seems to be the most absurdly buff person imaginable, whatever their gender.
The head of the team is none other than Stephen Amell as Hobie Buchannon – the son of David Hasselhof's iconic character from the original show. He's the captain of Baywatch now, and he's built like a superhero (which makes sense, since he played Green Arrow for so long). He's good at what he does, and loves doing it, but doesn't see one major twist coming.
That twist is his biological daughter, Jessica Belkin as Charlie Vale, who rocks up out of the blue hoping to join Baywatch and do what she was born to do (save people). Hobie's going to have to wrestle with whether he can watch his daughter do such a dangerous job without intervening, but also with whether stopping her would mean having no relationship at all.
Beyond that, there will doubtless be accidents, rescues and conspiracies to uncover, as well as steamy romances to watch between various members of the crew, all of whom are stupidly beautiful. It looks like it could be a really indulgent, fun time – but we'll have to wait until 2027 to get a better sense of that.
