90210 Episodes: A Brief Comparison

I remember watching the Beverly Hills 90210 episodes during my angst-ridden and rebel-funking, teenage days. It’s quite difficult to pinpoint the reasons why I liked it, although I can probably cite “experience” as my main reason for this. As someone who was uprooted from Arizona to California during my junior year, I was able to relate well with Brenda and Brandon. It was hard to really pinpoint where reality starts and infatuation begins. All I know is that I easily felt a close connection with the Walsh twins. And the funny thing was, I considered them my bestfriends during my high school years as well.

Now, 19 years later, there is a new generation of students attending West Beverly High. Unlike the old one where everything revolved around Brandon and Brenda Walsh, the new “90210” makes a lot of characters stand out on their own. Sometimes, it’s not difficult to be overwhelmed from the cornucopia of bodies fighting for some dominance in the silver screen.

This time, the story starts with Harry Wilson (Rob Estes). He decides to move his wife and his two kids, Annie (Shenae Grimes) and adopted son Dixon (Tristan Wilds), from Wichita Kansas to Beverly Hills, California.

One thing that is similar from both 90210 shows is the difference between the actual age of the characters compared to the age of the actors who were depicting them. When you watch the show, it is really hard to distinguish who is the teacher and the student. For instance, there is a love triangle that’s happening between Annie, Ethan (Dustin Milligan), who is the hunk of a Lacrosse star, and Ty (Adam Gregory), the richest guy in school. The truth is, I thought Annie was already in a relationship with Ty, considering he looks older than their English teacher, Ryan Matthews (Ryan Eggold).

Another interesting thing that I’ve observed is the discrepancy between the age of the characters and the situations they are in. In most cases, these teens are placed in situations that only an older person is allowed to do. For example, the Pit (It’s not the Peach Pit anymore) offers alcoholic beverages to minors. There was this one scene where Ethan’s girlfriend, Naomi (AnnaLynne McCord) was seen downing the spirits. Funny thing is, she’s only 15 years old. Now, isn’t that sweet? What’s more, her teacher, the cute and baby-faced Mr. Matthews, is sitting next to her. What was his reaction? Nothing. No astonishment or surprise --- as in nada. However, he did inform the bartender not to serve her, so we should give him a bit of credit for that.

In terms of reunion, I was glad to see that there were familiar faces to tie the show around. Shannen Doherty is again back as Brenda Walsh, and she has just come back from London. Jennie Garth is also there, and she is still Kelly Taylor. However, she is now the guidance counselor of West Beverly Hills High, and is the love interest of Mr. Matthews. The man who played the owner of “Peach Pit” in the original series is still there, although he’s decided to upgrade the diner into a nightclub and simply call it, “The Pit.” Even Andrea Zuckerman’s daughter did a cameo appearance in one of the episodes. How cool is that?

I think one of the problems of the show is that it has trouble setting up the identity of the characters. The truth is, there are just too many -- unlike in the original series, where the writers focused more on a few key characters and then slowly built from there.

Although the original 90210 was not really spectacular as well, I think they made it work really well because of good organization and character development. Sadly, the new 90210 episodes lack both of them, to say the least. In my opinion, this new series has yet to prove itself.

By: Joe Owens

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A Computer Engineering student and loves to travel. Reading current news in the internet is one of his past times. Taking pictures of the things around him fully satisfies him. He loves to play badminton and his favorite pets are cats. For more inquiries, you may want to visit 90210 Episodes