Couples Counseling as ‘Last Resort’

This time, it’s for love. That’s the premise, anyway, of the latest so-called reality series.

“The Last Resort,” a half-hour show premiering Sunday at 10 p.m. on ABC Family, has a big island and a bunch of attractive couples but little else in common with other prime-time survival contests. The question on this miniseries is not who will last long enough to strike it rich or even who will fool around with whom but whether the couples will leave Hawaii with their fragile relationships intact.

Over five consecutive nights, host Kala’i Miller and two therapists will guide four couples in crisis through various exercises aimed at helping them determine whether to take part in a “recommitment ceremony” or go separate ways. In the premiere, the couples jump off a cliff while holding hands, slow dance and then spell out their conflicts as we eavesdrop on their sessions with the “relationship coaches.”

The couples seem to have an ordinary array of issues:

* After two months of marriage, the pregnant Mirit fears that Allan no longer is attracted to her.

* Teresa, who met boyfriend Gordon online, feels “suffocated” by his 20 phone calls a day.

* CoCo, who has been dating Lance for five years, suspects he may be messing around on her.

* Steve feels stuck in the middle because his disapproving mother won’t speak to his wife, Leslie, despite seven years of marriage and three daughters.

This is the unscripted programming version of an after-school special: Viewers are meant to learn something.

“The Last Resort” may have honorable intentions instead of eviction votes and strategic flings, but it offers little pleasure, guilty or otherwise.