90210 Premier Thoughts
First up, given it was a 2 hour premier, I’m not about to attempt to recap it. I wanted to watch the premier to soak it all up and get acquainted with the show, not sit and take notes for a recap. Sorry! Plus there is the whole “I’m bad with character’s names till a few episodes in” thing. If you missed it, the premier is set to repeat on Thursday, and I’m sure it will be online to watch on The CW’s website. More than anything, I want to use this post more to give my thoughts on the show, given I watched the original (up until Brenda left at least).
The first thing I noticed was that aside from the zip code, the theme and Brenda and Kelly; this show seemed to be more like “The O.C.” than 90210 to me. Granted “The O.C.” played off 90210 in a big way, but still . . . The whole lacrosse team/jocks seemed straight out of “The O.C.” Given how quickly they went there, I was left with an “O.C. taste” in my mouth.
It seemed like the Kansas kids were accepted by the cool kids a little too fast. I don’t even remember Brenda and Brandon being taken in that fast. I mean we were all in high school once, let’s be honest here . . . the cool rich kids would not be drawn to the new kids from Kansas. I know it’s TV, but a tiny bit of realism would have been nice.
Can we talk about forgiveness? I’ve never seen such backstabbing forgiven in five minutes. BJs in the car, smearing blogs, fights on the team; all forgiven just like that! That concerns me, as so far there doesn’t seem to be the evil bitch of the show. Everyone just gets over what each other seemed to do to one another. It does seem like the popular girl is headed to be the evil bitch, which isn’t shocking to be honest. Oh and was it me, but did she remind anyone of Jessie from “Saved By The Bell?” Well, Jessie when she was in “Showgirls” that is!
Drama all unleashed within the first hour also is a bit shocking. I get they had to really drop the bombs to keep us tuning in. But cheating boyfriends, unknown kids given away for adoption, a “story” about Dickinson’s adoption. It seemed like there were a lot of huge bombs dropped in the first hour. I thought wow, where will they go from here? It’s no surprise that the second hour didn’t seem as engaging to me. Two hours was a lot as well, so it’s no shocker attention span started to go.
Predictability, from the son’s problems with the team to the whole popular girl plagiarizing the girl’s paper, there was a little too much predictability going on for my tastes. The only thing they didn’t do was expose the token lesbian or gay within the first hour . . . though I am suspect of Kelly’s sister to be honest.
Finally Laurie Laughlin, or the lack there of of her. I love her and I felt she was under-used. I hope this changes.
Aside from my gripes, there is enough here that will make me tune in at least for next week and see where things go. I liked Kelly’s kid, who clearly is Brandon’s unless there is a big “Dylan” bomb dropped. I want to know the drama behind the son’s adoption. I want to know who Rob Este’s kid is (you know that is gunna be some shocking dating drama most likely). Also let me say it was very smart of them to prominently feature Kelly and the return of her mother in the promos for next week. Way to make fans of the original return!
I did not get to see last night. Was Kellys kid hers or was he adopted. In the original show Kelly learned she was not able to have kids. This was a big drama after she and Brandon lost there baby.
09.03.2008 at 7:12 am
I watched the first fifteen minutes and then turned it off….after I knew Jessie Spano wannabe was going to copy the girl’s paper. I don’t know – I just couldn’t get into it which is sad b/c I was really excited about it! But I still have Gossip Girl on my DVR!
09.03.2008 at 9:44 am
Love, love, loved all the adults on the show!! Hated all the kids except Silver. Really didn’t care for the casting of either of the Kansas kids! I will be watching next week to see the return of Kelly’s Mom and to find out if Dylan or Brandon is the fatherof Kelly’s child but, unless the get new actors for the kids or the kids lame roles get better then I won’t be watching. I wish the show revolved around the adults and the kids were the secondary story line.
09.03.2008 at 11:05 am
Glad to hear I’m not the only one who was disappointed. I was really excited to see Lori on the show and where is the dad from? He looks very familiar. I thought it was cool that the character “Silver” is on it – totally forgot that Kelly’s mom married David’s dad (that dirty dog)! Did you catch mini Zuckerman at the beginning doing the morning announcements? I wonder how she is going to come into play? I also thought the same thing about Jessie from SBTB! Too funny… I may watch one more but I was expecting more out of the premier.
09.03.2008 at 1:12 pm
Hey KelBelle, i think mini zuckerman is Andrea & Jesse’s kid they had right before they left…
09.03.2008 at 2:13 pm
oh and the dad was on Melrose Place for a bit
09.03.2008 at 2:14 pm
I bet the son given up for adoption is the teacher who was at the bar with the kids. He’s not much older than them from the looks of it, and the son would be in his early 20’s. I didn’t get to watch the whole show, but it should be interesting if it lasts. I can’t wait to see Kelly’s mom, and to have her sister be on was kinda nostalgic too. I just hope it lasts long enough for them to work out the kinks.
09.03.2008 at 6:19 pm
Oh that’s a good thought!
09.03.2008 at 7:36 pm
I actually liked it. I was a huge fan of the original series. Of course I enjoyed the cameo of Jesse and Andrea’s daughter along with the catch-up moments with Kelly, Brenda, and Nat. But I also really liked several of the new characters. All four main cast adults (Debbie, Harry, THE GRANDMOTHER, and the hot English teacher) were excellent. I also really liked Erin ‘Silver’ and Annie Wilson. I think the new series has potential.
First order of business: Hire Jennie Garth full-time as a main cast member. Continue to bring on guest stars like Shannen, Tori, Brian Austin Green, and Jason Priestly throughout the first season to tie the new to the established. Continue to allow the new teens to capture the hearts of the young first-time viewers while – in The OC style – coming up with great storylines for the adults to keep the original viewers tuning in for more than catching up with old friends. We need substance and engaging storylines on both fronts.
09.03.2008 at 9:33 pm
You know I watched all the reruns of 90210 on FX along time ago and they lead me right up to the series finale. I believe the series ended with Donna and David getting married. Kelly was not with Brandon, she was dating some guy named Sam. They were planning on getting married too. But then Dillon came back to town. Sam saw all the old feelings with Kelly and Dillon and decided to bow out. The show ended with Dillon and Kelly kissing and embarking on a new relationship. Brandon was never there. He sent a video full of mushy stuff to Donna and David at the wedding. I would have thought if Kelly’s kid was Brandon’s that Brenda would have reffered to him as her nephew or something….
09.04.2008 at 9:50 pm
Kelly mentioned something to Brenda about “how she hadn’t seen the kid in years” and she wanted her to spend time with him. Would be odd considering Dylon was her ex 🙂
I stopped watching 90210, but a friend told me something about Brandon offering to have a kid with Kelly when Dylon didn’t? I don’t know.
09.04.2008 at 10:03 pm
About the series finale. Kelly was dating Matt in the last episodes. But they broke up in the last show because Kelly found out Matt cheated on her when Dylan and Matt went to the desert. But really all along Kelly wanted to be with Dylan. So they show Kelly and Dylan at the wedding pretty much together. As in it would be a new start for them. So I assumed they wanted you to know they were back together. But what I don’t get is if it IS Dylan or even Brandon’s kid, how can they not bring back Luke Perry or Jason Priestly??? You can’t call some other actor Dylan or Brandon. That woild NOT work!! I am VERY interested in this story line. Love to see what Brenda’s character will go through, LOVE Erin “SILVER” great idea to include her. Im sucked in for the next couple weeks for sure!!
09.05.2008 at 12:14 am
As far as the baby’s father goes, I think they are hedging their bet to see who they can get…Jason Priestly has said he would only come back as a Producer. I heard Luke Perry was on another show but can’t seem to find anything about that. I also liked the adults and Silver, but was pretty unimpressed by the younger cast. The Dylan wannabe was LAME. I am not sure why little miss Kansas was even interested in him. He had not personality at all, no mystery. He seemed like a cardboard cutout of a rich kid. I watched the original back in the day, so I was really interested to see what happened to everyone, even if they don’t show them, at least have someone talk about them! I’ll tune in again to see what happens next…
09.05.2008 at 11:21 am
I’m so glad I wasn’t the only one unimpressed with the younger cast, with the exception of Silver!
09.05.2008 at 7:56 pm
I am watching it now on tape. I kinda like it but I really dont think it will last that long. Too many of the characters are thin copies of other characters from other shows (including the orginal 90210, Melrose, Saved By The Bell, and the like) which is not good.
09.05.2008 at 10:42 pm
I loved the burn on Hannah Zuckerman-something. When she was reading the news on the TV and someone in the background says. “God how old is she? Like 30?” That was a great hit on the old 90210. I lvoe Jessica Walters as the Grandma she plays the drunken role very well (see Arrested Development).
09.08.2008 at 12:05 pm
I had read that Brian austin Green wouldn’t be able to do the show as he is busy taping for a show on Fox the terminator , Luke Perry wouldn’t do it because it wasn’t Aaron Spelling Jason Preistly would only direct, and Tori Spelling pulled out as she didn’t like that Shannen and Jennie were getting more money per epsidoe
I am going to still give the show a chance by the way the girl who plays annie also plays Darcy on a show called Degrassi The Next generation
09.08.2008 at 6:26 pm