A New Stage of Life, and a New 90210!

     90210 was never a high school show. The sexy story lines, and extravagant plot devices (often relying on exorbitant spending on the part of super-rich characters) are much better suited to independent, college-aged 20-somethings living alone/together after high school.
To be fair, originally, Beverly Hills, 90210  was a high school teen drama. Brenda did her homework. Brandon wrote for the school paper. Kelly tried to shed her “bimbo” reputation. Dylan suffered from recurring alcoholism while living independently… OK, so it always had its Beverly Hills aspects. But as the series progressed, the soap operatic qualities that now characterize the show (as it’s remembered) emerged, and not until the characters reached college did it fully embrace extreme melodrama.
Remaking the show for a new generation, starting back in high school, proved problematic, since the independence, financial and behavioural, that the characters are expected to possess force it completely out of the realms of high school realism. This is not a teen drama, ascribing to the tropes and characterizations of the genre that has come before it. This is college-soap, over-the-top, but plausible.
Now, beginning its fourth season, 90210 has regained the ground of its predecessor that proved so successful: young adulthood. Dipping freshly into all the wealth of human experience and emotion that we discover after high school graduation, the new season actually seems to be coming out with new potential. (Although it’s possible that it all just seems fresh to me because I skipped the last season that effectively put all the people in their current places/relationships. It kinda feels like I got to skip the slow, boring bits that set them up for this new premiere, and “real life.”) I’m actually kind of excited!