90210
The book of Ecclesiastes tells us there is nothing new under the sun. Case in point: The CW's soapy 90210. This retread of Fox's tawdry trend-setter Beverly Hills, 90210 (which aired from 1990-2000) unintentionally reveals the tediousness of programs based on money, sex and angst—particularly when those shows are already as common as houseflies.
90210 takes viewers back to the original show's fictional West Beverly Hills High, tracking Kansas transplants Annie and Dixon Wilson (Shenae Grimes and Tristan Wilds) as they struggle to fit in with their filthy rich peers. What follows is strictly by the numbers. Stereotypical characters include Ethan, the tenderhearted bad-boy jock; Silver, the bitter blogging outsider; and Naomi, the troubled rich girl who befriends Annie and immediately plagiarizes her English paper.
The Wilsons are supposed to be the show's role models, staunch believers in honesty and personal responsibility who reluctantly participate in "family nights." At first, West Beverly treats them like quaint relics from The Andy Griffith Show ("Do you guys go to church or something?" Silver asks derisively). Yet members of the school's love-starved brat pack actually seem to long for family affection ... if not family values.
Most of the Ten Commandments get broken by fifth period. Teens steal, lie, have sex, cheat in every sense of the word, curse, fight, destroy property, drink, buy drugs, visit porn sets (one students' father directs skin flicks) and stab each other in the back. Before 90210's first commercial break, Ethan receives oral sex in the school parking lot.
The Wilson kids aren't particularly innocent, either. Sure, Annie and Dixon make breakfast for their parents and even chat with them on occasion. But Annie still sneaks out to a Not-So-Sweet 16 party and flies to San Francisco with a new beau. Dixon masterminds a destructive school prank. They both get punished but show no remorse, exchanging high fives after the hammer comes down.
Even beyond its crass content, the show has serious issues. Salon.com critic Heather Havrilesky, after watching the materialistic "haves" in 90210, asked if CW stood for "coveting wealth." And many pundits wonder whether the program's rail-thin actresses may foster eating disorders in young, impressionable viewers. A TV Guide poll asked online readers if the girls were too thin, and 87 percent said, "Yes, feed them now."
"I know in discussions at ABC and CBS that 'too skinny' is no good," an unnamed source told Entertainment Weekly. "They talk about it as a minus point. But at The CW it's a different story. They're trying to pull in the Gossip Girl audience, and that's the image: hyper-skinny models."
From body image to thematic content, 90210 is a moral nightmare.
Episodes Reviewed: Sept. 2, 9, 16, 23, 2008