Yes, I loved seeing Jennie and Shannen’s, I mean Kelly and Brenda’s, return to West Beverly High, but the storylines were predictable and the cheesiness made me sick. I understand it was a series premiere so they had to explain every character’s back-story through dialogue but it was just not well executed. What I want to know is, is the show really this bad or am I just too far removed from the show’s target demographic?
For an old timer like me the highlights were seeing Joe E. Tata’s Nat back behind the counter of the Peach Pit and the shout-outs the original series, like including Andrea Zuckerman’s daughter Hannah Zuckerman Vasquez as a student at West Beverly (and the anchor of the West Beverly Blaze) and having Kelly Taylor and David Silver’s little sister Erin “Silver” Silver as one of the show’s main characters. I thought Jessica Stroup as Silver was actually one of the show’s bright spots.
Another highlight of the new show was Tristan Wilds as Dixon Wilson a.k.a. Brandon Walsh. As opposed to most of the “students” at West Beverly, his character didn’t seem as forced and his storyline was somewhat believable. I was surprised to see how much of the show focused on the adults in the extended cast. I know Cindy and Jim Walsh were an intricate part to Beverly Hills 90210, but it felt like Harry and Debbie Wilson (Rob Estes and Lori Loughlin) were actually stars of the show. I guess this new version of 90210 is taking a page out of The O.C.’s playbook.
I can’t say for certain that I’ll be watching another episode of The CW’s latest masterpiece, but if I do it’ll be interesting to see how the show balances such a large extended cast, including three holdovers from the original series. It seems like almost too many characters for a show trying to establish its footing and gain an audience on a struggling network. Now if they could only give us an Ian Ziering appearance maybe they could get some of Dancing With The Stars’ audience to tune in!But don’t just take my word on how bad 90210’s first episode was. Just check out all of these great reviews on what a train wreck series premiere was!
90210 airs every Tuesday night at 8/7c on The CW.