90210

Welcome to Orange County 90210, bitch!

The Beverley Hills 90210 sequel series 90210 is one of the more interesting series launching in 2009 due to the wealth of history that underpins it. BH 90210 was the show that launched the notion of the prime-time teen drama series, emulated by shows like Dawsons Creek, The OC, Gossip Girl, and many, many more. Even series like Buffy: The Vampire Slayer have BH 90210 to thank for various plot, content, and structure conventions.

And so when reviewing 90210, it’s difficult to ignore that past. As a spin-off series of sorts, it doesn’t back away from its origins, but now comes with so many of the new conventions and expectations of a teen drama that have been built upon by the many BH 90210 imitators.

So, what’s it about?
Annie and Dixon Wilson are two teens from Kansas who are forced to move to Beverley Hills with their parents Harry and Debbie. Harry’s mother Tabitha is a former actress who now has a drinking problem, prompting Harry to move his family so that she can be looked after. The family are forced to deal with the culture shock of now living in Beverley Hills – a world that is astoundingly familiar if you’ve turned on the television in the past 20 years.

Who’s In The Darn Thing?
Shenae Grimes (Degrassi: The Next Generation) is seemingly the focus of the show as Annie Wilson, with Tristan Wilds (The Wire) as the adopted brother Dixon. Trash-soap favourite Rob Estes (Melrose Place, Silk Stalkings) portrays the family father (and principal of West Beverley) Harry Wilson, with Lori Loughlin (Summerland, Full House) as the mother Debbie. Jessica Walters (Arrested Development) stands out and completely shines in a character that is barely removed from her Arrested Development character.

Additionally, Jennie Garth and Shannon Doherty have recurring guest roles as their BH 90210 characters Kelly and Brenda.

What happens in that crucial first episode?
The family rock up to meet grandma and live in their new home. Quickly they are whisked off to school. Annie befriends the schools popular bitch, Naomi, of whom steals Annie’s term paper to use as her own. Annie also also reunites with an ex-boyfriend named Ethan.

Meanwhile Dixon tries out for the school lacrosse team where he is blamed for starting a fight. Ethan knows that Dixon didn’t start the fight, but lies to protect a team mate, but eventually realises the error of his ways and comes clean about the incident. But, not before Dixon SMS’ Debbie to inform her that Ethan is cheating on her.

Riveting stuff, no?

Is it actually any good?
As stated earlier, 90210 is in an interesting position in which it has tried to retain the general ethos of the original series. That is to say that while it seeks to look hip and edgy as it deals with teen issues, an undercurrent of nice family values belies the entire series. At the same time, however, the genre has moved beyond that. The OC was clever in the way it blended the drama of the teen protagonists with the drama of their parental figures. 90210 takes this on board, but combines it with the approach of Degrassi: The Next Generation which also incorporates the lives of the protagonists of its original series, but showing them at their current station in life.

The show does make a few small missteps. First of all is the origin of the family moving from Kansas. It would have been nice to see the characters in their former hometown prior to moving to 90210 to at least create a sense of juxtaposition between their old and new lives. As they form in the pilot, they feel simply like new TV characters with no sense of history. The fundamental changes in their lives subsequently seem non-existent.

The second issue is that the teen characters are supposedly angered by the fact they had to move and are supposedly testy with their father. It’ difficult to accept this when it seems to be smiles-a-plenty.

90210 is lightweight and has very little going for it for discerning, adult viewers. That said, one could do worse. As long as there is nothing scheduled against it of note, the show should do okay. It’s difficult to imagine anyone going out of their way for this series, though.

90210 commences tonight on Channel 10 at 8:30pm