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"90210": a guilty pleasure featuring hot women of all agesI swore I was only going to watch it once — and I had myself convinced that I was telling the truth. The idea of a Beverly Hills 90210 spin-off made little sense to me, and it was pretty much a given that it was going to be bad.
And, of course, it is kind of bad. The girls are too skinny, and the student population is too white. The school seems to have only one teacher. The brilliant Jessica Walter is reduced to a cartoon Lucille Bluth. And where’s the West Beverly Gay-Straight Alliance? Nevertheless, 90210 has been on long enough to find its groove, and I’m hooked. I do take a little comfort in the knowledge that there’s at least one person I respect who also likes the show. Diablo Cody wrote a paean to 90210 in Entertainment Weekly a few weeks ago, complete with suggestions to make it edgier. (Her primary suggestion is to “Brendify” it, i.e., to increase the stupid behavior/self-destruction quotient.) And I know how they got me: The show led with über-notstalgia. Kelly Taylor was all over the place.
Baby Erin (now known just as Silver because she’s a rebel) is one of the main characters. And then there was a drunken Jackie Taylor cameo. Brenda was back. Kelly and Brenda even hung out at the Peach Pit — with Nat! Yes, it makes no sense that Kelly is a guidance counselor. And unless absent parenting is genetically pre-determined, it is completely unbelievable that Dylan Mckay would be such a crappy father to Kelly’s baby. But still, they threw the old-school fans a whole lot of bones. The new characters have their charms. Lori Loughlin, as Annie's mom, is hot. And Annie, although a bit smarmy, is still cute and appealing. (Silver certainly seems to think so. Is it really Annie’s brother she wants?) And Naomi and Adriana, when not behaving as soap-opera villains, demonstrate a fair amount of complexity as they deal with quasi-realistic rich kid problems: divorce, drug abuse, the sudden appearance of a previously unknown half-brother. The final hook for me, though, may be the South of Nowhere-esqueness of the show.
We have the earnest Midwestern girl with the adopted African-American brother. (I’m hoping Rudy Huxtable turns up as his long-lost mother.) Midwestern girl immediately is drawn to the rebel girl and has a complex relationship with the queen bee. There’s even a mysterious half-sibling, à la Kyla. And then, of course, there’s Maeve Quinlan, as the bizarro Paula Carlin.
I realize, of course, that the better description is that South of Nowhere is evocative of Beverly Hills 90210, and that the fish-out-of-water paradigm is standard television fodder. (Weren’t Brenda and Brandon Walsh really just the '90s Elly May and Jed Clampett?) But still, the similarity was eerie enough that I found it mildly surreal when South of Nowhere came back on the air and I was watching both shows simultaneously. If only Annie and Silver would fulfill their Spashley destiny.
Are you still watching? Submitted by on November 21, 2008 - 1:00pm. |
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90210
honestly...
i'd written it off as, well, boring. buuut youve convinced me i might need to give it another chance. especially with the SON reference, which is all i could think of during the pilot (god i wish annie were gay). plus, the music is insaneeely good. actually, if theyd put it on after gossip girl, i might just be hooked.
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http://rightmindleftcoast.wordpress.com
Done
I watched the pilot, just to see what it was about. I wasn't allowed to watch the original, so I didn't have any expectations (although I did love Charmed so I wanted to see Shannon).
I thought it was basically a lame version of SoN. All the boring parts of SoN that I want to fast-forward through and none of the Spashley gayness.
Plus, because it was sooo SoN, it just felt like they were forcing Spashley to be straight! And I just could not buy that Silver, at least, was straight. She was gayer than Ashley.
And if you watch SON then...
Silver
Silver hooking up with a chick is just a matter of time.
Well at least in a perfect world.
I agree
Just who will it be though. Will it be someone already on the show or someone new comming on.
Edit: I do like this 90210 better then the original.
Blondes rule! and the rest of you drool. LOLI admit it...
I watch it...
The orriginal casts's highschool graduation episode aired like a week before I graduated from Highschool in 93'
I like how this show encompases both generations.
Ohhh and Laurie Laughlin??? Added bonus! She has been a subject of day dreams since... her full house days!
Anne....
Thank you! my girl and I been trying to figure out what show we remembered Laurie from and couldnt remember the name of the show.
Blondes rule! and the rest of you drool. LOLNot loving the idea of Annie N Silver...
Now Silver and Naomi together would make my day!!! Two bad asses going at it... (whew! the screen suddenly fogged up for a sec!)
AnnaLynn McCord (who plays Naomi) is too damn sexy, especially when her hair is curly. (not a fan of her with straight hair)
Silver & Adriana...
I watched the pilot and
I watched the pilot and on-line with an open mind. I liked the OC (first and second season), so I get the soap opera thing. But I wasn't impressed.
None of the characters are remotely like-able. The girls are so skinny its creepy. See above (AnnaLynn's ribcage). Annie IS so incredibly smarmy I feel like I can't trust her for a second. She is NOT Spencer Carlin at all.
Silver just seems rebellious just to feel special. They might as well dye her hair a billion colors and label her a scene kid.
Naomi is so obviously fake that I can't see why anyone would wnat to be her friend. At least Madison had humor and sass.
The boys are all dumb. I loved Ryan on the OC, but I can't like any of the boys on this show, even her Annie's brother.
And it's badly written.
All in all, I was left when the credits rolled with complete apathy toward clicking on the next episode. I frankly didn't want to waste my time.
The weight issue really bothers me though.
That girl who plays Annie was hotter back on Degrassi, when she was 10 lbs heavier.
And the new girl Silver? Check out this video. Not only does she kiss Heather Graham (YES!), but she also is a few pounds heavier, and in my opinion, a million times hotter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-dhLz7Xpy8
Weight...
...was one of the things I noticed from the start, too. They're so frail-looking. When I watch other teen dramas like SoN, at least I can say the characters don't look that drastically undernourished.
I watched the pilot, and I liked it...just not enough to watch it regularly, I guess, =I.
Thanks
Sannie ftw!
Finally, someone else sees the potential for some good girly lovin'.
Jessica and Shenae do a great job with their characters, IMO.
And yes, they did start off the season a bit skinny, but over the course of the episodes aired so far, they've improved. They'll be fine.
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"There's no higher purpose than service to others." (Eckhart Tolle)
the first few episodes
Turns out that...
NOT "all ages"
The claim in the headline for this post is that the show features "hot women of all ages." It does not. It features hot women up to about the age of 45. Women live to be over 80. Do the math. I will try to forgive this oversight by assuming that Ace is extremely young and therefore unaware of the sexy world of women over a certain age, but it really is silly not to notice how relatively young ALL the women on the show are.
(I would love to be proven wrong by learning that the mention of the 67 year old Jessica Walter was meant to be understood as a mention of a hot woman but it did not seem to be so.)
Silver and Adrianna
That's the pairing I'd like to see. If not together, then I'm holding out hope that one of them turns out to be gay. It's nice that this show has a variety of likeable pairings, though, all involving Silver, haha (Silver/Annie, Silver/Naomi, and Silver/Adrianna).
Set me free, leave me be. I don't want to fall another moment into your gravity.
I think....
Silver is the most likely one of all the girls that would be gay. The only thing though is I don't see her with anyone on the show. i think they would introduce a new character that Silver becomes friends with.
Blondes rule! and the rest of you drool. LOLSo has anyone else heard this news...
INteresting stuff about the actress who plays Naomi (AnnLynne McCord):
http://www.on205th.com/2008/11/annalynne-mccord-might-be-lesbian.html
Set me free, leave me be. I don't want to fall another moment into your gravity.
re:video
Did anyone else notice how all the men that were following them seemed old enough to be our fathers or grandfrathers?
Blondes rule! and the rest of you drool. LOLSilver////Annie?! No.
Someone linked me this article, and I had to make an account just to comment. How could someone possibly compare the lam, lackluster, no chemistry, sorry excuse for a friendship between the horrible Annie Wilson and the awesome Erin Silver to the amazingness that is Spashley?!!! NEVER AGAIN, please.
The only thing worth time on 90210 is Silver/Dixon and Adrianna. And sometimes Naomi if she's being bitchy and awesome.
I still cannot even understand how people see Silver/Annie in a slashy way, since they aren't even believable or interesting as FRIENDS. While I don't LIKE Blair/Serena or even Brooke/Peyton that way, at least I can see where others see the slashiness, but I just don't see anything like that in Annie/Silver in the slightest, let alone anything that could ever come close to Spashley.
Spencer Carlin is absolutely adorable in her small town, naive, good girl way. Annie Wilson just grates on my last nerve.
confused
i've watched both SON and 90210 since the first episode and i dont understand how anyone who's seen both shows can make any comparison with Spashley and Silver and Annie. it's supposed to be about the substance of the characters and the storyline and the relationship being devolped... not just having two hot girls together for the sake of having two hot girls together. if you think about it that's no better than what the networks do all the time for ratings, for sweeps, to be racy. how can a couple be taken seriously and any progress be made if we're still willing to sacrifice quality for quanity. there isnt anything in the least romantic about Silver and Annie's friendship and putting them anywhere in the same universe with Spashley is an insult.
Silver is golden
I'm still watching for one reason -- Silver. She's the only one who can act on the show and she's just smokin' hot. Would love it if she went gay since her story line with Dixon has really gotten boring.