did not see the 9/2 90210 premiere bcs the baseball game displaced it from 7 to 10:30pm. was feeling ill, but still up watching the Republican convention coverage, so checked, but the game went into extra innings and on & on! past 11. (& then were going to air new before 90210)
but, good: airs again on Thursday at 7. 'll be there.

What's Alan Watching?: 90210, "We're Not in Kansas Anymore":
Spoilers for the Most. Awaited. Event. Of. The. Year. -- aka the "90210" premiere -- coming up just as soon as I remind you that a blog's true purpose is to cause problems...

Huh. Neither trainwreck nor masterpiece, th new 90210 was *what nobody expected it would be: remarkably faithful in tone & spirit to th orig* advs of Brandon, Brenda, Scott Scanlon & co. ...remarkably chaste. th one kid who seems to be using drugs is heading for a Very Important Lesson. When lacrosse star Ethan dumped mean girl Naomi by declaring "I'm breaking up with us," may as well have been quoting Kelly Taylor's infamous "I choose me!" fr 90210 Coke Classic. If most of the actors, like their 1989 predecessors, looked too old for high school, also seemed a lot more natural -- frankly, th stiffest performer in th entire two hours was Shannen Doherty. Throw in a few cameos by Nat, strains of th orig 90210 score whenever Kelly was having a moment w someone so she had several? like a full on character: cool!, th Hannah Zuckerman Vasquez daughter of Andrea & husband Jesse cameo, & th revelation that "Silver" is, as some assumed think I read confirmation of it, David Silver's and Kelly's half-sister by way of Mel & Jackie's short-lived marriage /yay I love it. since summer 1993 was my main involvement w 90210, when Kelly hkd up w Dylan, & she had stayed in town to hang out w baby Erin: 2008 - 1993 now wld be 15 yrs ld. perfect. I felt surprisingly nostalgic throughout a lot of this.

44 Comments:

-I actually really liked it. wow I feel happy for the writers. they succeeded against expectation. It had enough throwbacks to the original for old fans, but felt like a completely modern show in and of itself. I think they did a great job with casting (Annie and Debbie actually look like they could be related and I liked the little Linda Gray cameo) and the characters were surprisingly multi-dimensional.
One of the things that shocked me the most about it is that it actually seemed realistic. I love the original 90210, The OC, and Gossip Girl, but for all the talk about how 'that's really the way kids are today' they never really had much resemblance to real life. But this actually seems like a fairly accurate depiction of what being a teen is like today (getting text messages, having computers in the classroom, people blogging) without feeling self-conscious about it.

-I enjoyed this. 90210 was never anything exceptional - maybe it was exceptional for its own modest aims? - and that's preserved here. Gossip Girl wastes so much energy trying to be "naughty" and "clever" and rarely manages to be more than quotation marks.

-I have no idea how a tween would compare this to Gossip Girl. All I know is I had a blast. "What is that girl, like, 30?"

-I can't help but think the "what is she, 30?" line directed at Hannah was a reference to her mother's character (among others) in the original series having being played by people so far out of their teen years. At least in the new series, they look like teenagers.
The "classic" characters work both ways. For older viewers, it's a nice throw-back, but for those who didn't see the original series, all they need to know is that the older characters all have histories of their own, but which are already known to older viewers. well done.

-I also felt it was a tamer Gossip Girl, with the kids actually showing up to school once in a while and being called on underage bar hopping. I didn't mind this show at all, and since I'm not much into House, I may watch this more often. I really liked that Kelly had a storyline and I really want to know the father of her baby. It was pretty vague based on her conversation with Brenda. Ironically enough, this may be the teen show that is more relatable for the average teen, when compared to the excessively rich folks of Gossip Girl.

-Did anyone else get the feeling that Brandon was the father of Kelly's son Sammy? Some comment Kelly made about Brenda not seeing him since he was a baby made me think that.

-I think Erin Silver was used in a much better way, as the sort of sanest person who is not a rich bitch and therefore the one Annie could relate to quickest. I guess she is the Donna of the group? I thought she was supposed to be ~ Kelly. but maybe Naomi is more in the role of (early) Kelly, only meaner.

-The original show went off the air in 2000, yet Hannah and Erin are already in high school? I guess that's true soap opera time compression at work. no.. 1993! and Andrea had a baby pretty early on, few yrs later.
--On the original show Erin was born in 1992 and Hannah was born in 1994,so they may have played with the ages a little bit, but not too much.
--Alan: As others have mentioned, both Erin and Hannah were born way before the series ended: Erin when the kids were still in high school, Hannah early in the college seasons. If Hannah's not supposed to be in the same grade as the others (it'd be just like Andrea's kid to wind up as the Blaze anchorwoman as a freshman), then they haven't really played with the ages at all.
-raises the question of Andrea being back in Beverly Hills, but apparently not friends with Kelly anymore.
--Perhaps Hannah is living with Andrea's grandmother in Beverly Hills so that she can attend West Beverly.

-I thought Silver was... um... Mac or that girl on Boston Public with the blog. But mostly Mac. so is Silver the one who says blogs are for causing trouble (as referenced by Alan in his 'just as soon as' intro)? I thought it had been a long time since 90210, but I guess I forgot Buffy and Boston Public and Veronica Mars. It hasn't really been that long since I was "in high school." I don't know how many seasons of 90210 I actually watched, but I'm pretty sure I swore off when Tiffany Too Many Last Names showed up. I still remember a bit about Dylan's little sister or whatever she was.

-I think Silver is my favorite character, but she is more or less Mac. I have to admit to being a bit intrigued by Kelley's son. There was a huge storyline with her when she discovered it was "very unlikely" that she'd be able to have kids, although that seemed to be kind of forgotten about in later seasons of the original. But I wonder if Sammy will turn out to be adopted. Overall, I agree with you and everyone else. It was fine. I'll watch again.

-Much to my surprise, I enjoyed it. I came to support Tristan Wilds and came out wanting to see more. I never watched Beverly Hills so I don't know the who's who of the older generation, but it's interesting and makes me want to know a bit more about it. The actors were all wonderful and, aside from a few cheesy moments, I was rarely taken out of the show outside the commercial breaks. Wilds and Grimes have great brother-sister chemistry.
With Fringe coming up next week, I'm liking the new Tuesday schedule.