90210

Guilty Pleasures. I don't have many. But the whole teen drama genre can definitely fall into it... well not so much the genre but rather the shows.

Take the 1987 Degrassi Junior High series and Degrassi High. Same show actually. They take place in different school grades. I thought it was a fantastic series. That is if you don't mind the more After School Special feel to it at times. But had some truly amazing storylines and episodes and never once really got bogged down by over the top relationship bullshit. Oh and I believe the tv movie Degrassi School's Out was the first time Canada aired fuck uncensored.

South Of Nowhere was also a great teen drama. It never let the relationship aspect of the series ruin anything.

But... 90210.

I have to admit I have had this odd curiosity about Beverely Hills, 90210. A part of me has always wanted to see what the series was all about. Even more so when they decided to do a Degrassi Next Generation deal. Wasn't until now that I actually decided to give the 2009 version a check.

A Kansas family relocates to Beverly Hills, where their two children adapt to the infamous social drama of West Beverly Hills High

From the IMDB. The two children are Annie and Dixon.

Now Season 1 was just about perfect. It introduces the main cast and they all start off as being interesting. Actually that's a lie. The only really interesting characters were Silver and Adrianna... which is actually rather amusing. Not that the other characters were bad.

It had the typical teen issues. Relationships, drug addiction, mental illness, and just adjust to a new school and crap. The season ended in a rather interesting way that just made you think "Wait! That can't be the end of the season!" It sometimes pushed the drama too far but... over all. Season 1 was worth watching once.

Season 2. Pretty much focused on relationships. At the end of Season 1 Annie is drunk and hits a guy with her car. In season 2 we learn that she is no longer friends with anyone at school and we also quickly learn the guy she hit dies. It doesn't help that Naomi believes Annie slept with her 'boyfriend' Outcasted by all her friends and the entire school she befriends the nephew of the man she kills... and things just get twisted from there.

Unfortunately this fun storyline was pushed towards the back and focused on the whole relationships and the aftermath of a few of the main couples breaking up and such. Blah blah blah.

But getting through all of that drama was worth it. Sorta. Not really. Oh well.

Season 3. Focused on the aftermath of Season 2 finale where Naomi gets raped. The funny part? It's by the same man she falsely accuses of sexual harrasment. She actually recants the whole story and admits nothing happened between them. This was actually a great storyline. One of 90210's better storylines.

Season 4 focused on college and some other drama. Mostly relationship issues. Hell this series is plagued by this. Which can get really annoying.

This review really sucks. So anyways.

Aside from the dumping of relationship drama into the show(I guess teen girls really love this stuff) the biggest problem with the shows is the reuse of similar storylines from past episodes.

1) Psychotic Bitch. While I guess they are different storylines. It makes you cringe on just how easily the characters can be manipulated. In season 4. Liam is hit by a car. Or was that season 3 finale. Sorry I pretty much marathoned this and it's all sorta blurred together.

So Liam is hit by a car by this blonde. Blonde lies about the accident and becomes friends with Liam and eventually boyfriend and girlfriend. Awww. Even after it's discovered she hit him. She also has multiple fake IDs in her wallet. Nope. Liam is just to much in love. This girl would also later try and frame Adrianna for hurting her and some other stuff. What makes it worse is that this is the third or fourth time a Psychotic Bitch has tried to manipulate them.

Of course the first one was Jen, Naomi's older sister. In fact because of her actions Annie goes into a really dark place. While manipulating Naomi out of her money she lets her believe that Annie was the one who slept with Liam. Because of the whole fiasco Annie pretty much pulls the ultimate revenge on everyone. Seriously. Who thought it be a good idea to piss off the principals daughter while attending an illegal after prom party? Sure Naomi wasn't thinking straight but hey... the rest of the kids at the party pretty much treated her like crap afterwards.(still a stupid thing Annie did but... can't blame her)

Then of course there was Annie's cousin who ends up trying to take over Annies life and ruins her relationship with her friends. I understand that the first seeds of doubt the Cousin placed in their heads was during a brutally honest and open gathering where everyone shared their honest feelings and such... So it was the perfect opprotunity. However... they didn't seem to give Annie a benefit of a doubt(is that right phrase) they just assumed it was real. Great friends...

Though my personal favorite was Adrianna. She goes full on psychotic... so far in fact that she begins seeing the dead guy she stole her songs from. Her time being the Psychotic Bitch was great. Though... how anyone ever forgave her for what she did is unbelievable.(I suppose I could spoil it. But... if you are curious just google it)

So yeah. Every season there seems to be at least one of them and it's got really boring and frustrating. Because... everyone seems so oblivious and so easily to manipulate you just want to SCREAM.

2) Sexting and Sex Tapes. Sexting was used twice and a sex tape once. The Sex tape was actually part of a great storyline and wasn't used as revenge. But... Sexting was used twice and after the whole Sex Tape bit they fell flat. I get that Sexting has become somewhat of a rather big issue. The first time it was used, it was used in more of a way to push Annie towards a really creepy guy and to feel alienated. So that was good. But the second time? It just felt... lame. Come on! Arn't high school girls supposed to be the masters of revenge? ... It just added nothing nor furthered anything. While the scene where it happens is great... it just. Would have preferred something different.

I miss Revenge. When is season 2 coming?

That's pretty much it actually. Some of the character changes over the series seems to come out of no where though.

Worth a chance I guess. Some of the storylines are great... but a lot of the series is heavily focused on the whole relationship drama of breaking up and secrets and lies and them making the same mistakes over and over again. Seriously they really should just sit down and talk about all the stupid shit they have pulled over the course of the series.

...

Yay for another horrifible review.