The CW's 90210 (Review after 10 Episodes)

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

Hehehe, after ten episodes of watching The CW's 90210, I'm now ready to make my post-premiere review on how the show is going.

So far, 90210 has maintained its momentum on keeping up with the different stories it had unraveled since the Wilson stepsiblings' transfer to West Beverly High School. One of the siblings Dixon recently entered to a relationship with Erin "Silver" Silver while his sister, goody-good girl Annie is now in a relationship as well to Ethan Ward although in secret because he recently broke off (for the second time) with bad girl Naomi Clark (the not-so-sixteen year-old-looking hoodlum in curls). The Wilson patriarch, Harry, was surprised to know that his ex-high school fling (Naomi's mom Tracy) had a son with her and that she hired a private investigator to locate their child, much to the dismay of Harry's wife Debbie who want Tracy to be out of their lives completely. Meanwhile, "sniff-and-lick" druggie Adrianna Duncan almost died after having an overdose from "Coke" and had recently entered rehab. Helping her recover is Navid Shirazi who finally proved his usefulness in the series. After directing the school play, Brenda Walsh decided to leave Beverly Hills for the time being while Kelly Taylor, after receiving a phone call from ex-flame Dylan McKay, decided to take his son for a vacation with his dad.

For the plus points:
1. I finally get the chance to appreciate the character of Navid because he's been a dormat character for pretty much the first quarter of the show's first season. I just hope that the writers would be able to keep the dynamism infused to Navid throughout the show's run.
2. "Hithit-at-tikim" Adrianna was recently given series regular status after public interest towards her grew. I like how within ten hours, this particular character grew and made viewers understand the kind of situation that she is. Being a former child star with an aggressive stage mom as her manager, it's hard to imagine on what she's going through right now.

The climax of her addiction to cocaine on the 8th episode was artfully done well and it was made in good taste! While it's too early to tell if she's going to leave her past as an addict behind completely, I expect a lot of twists going on around her especially that boost given to the character needs to stay as long as possible.

3. Unlike the original adaptation where there weren't much of a storyline given for the Walsh twins' parents, Jimmy and Cindy; those of the Wilson's have one. Given that the number of premarital sex and teenage pregnancies have been on the rise for the past 10 years I think it was a good move to put this issue into light, especially on how the thought of having another sibling affected not only Harry and Debbie but also to Dixon and Annie. Since the missing kid appeared at the end of Episode 10, this ought to make an interesting plot for the characters to resolve.

4. I could also see an early friction of ideologies between Harry, who's the principal of West Bev High, and the campus "crush ng bayan" teacher, Ryan Matthews. This conflict would culminate in a decision on how the school should be run, especially how Harry handled the drug trade problem (even having to hired a teenage-looking female cop in disguise who got the hots for Mr. Matthews). I would like to see this dwell on further in order for the show to remain realistic.

Minus points:
1. It's sad to see that Jessica Walter, who's playing "Hip Lola" Tabitha Wilson was demoted to recurring status. I love seeing her in scenes where she get to say such witty lines, and is pretty much of a comic relief. But given still of a lack of an ongoing storyline dedicated to her, she'll only be seen on scenes where she is most needed (mostly concentrated within the Wilson mansion).

2. Again, the realism of the show is still not seen among the younger actors especially on how they deal with their ongoing love triangles and the like. A) Dixon-Silver is still playing safe on their relationship especially that the former is still pretty much have a lot of 'first times' yet to be met. B)Naomi's reaction towards the blooming relationship between her ex and half-sister Annie is b*tchy in the sense that she has too much insecurities around herself. Yes, I know that she has a lot of things going on around her, but the way she's acting is so not how a sixteener should act. C) Annie's being too naive among her other traits is what pulling her down as a character. Not a good thing if she is supposedly the one of the main central characters in the series. I just hope that her being a 2D character would end once she bore the brunt of Beverly Hills life. Among all the characters she's the weakest. I won't be surprised if Shenae Grimes, the girl who portrays Annie Wilson, is being compared as a "carbon copy" of Shannen Doherty, who played Brenda Walsh in the original.

3. Another aspect that needs to be given more emphasis on is having 90210 remain a teen-oriented show not only in terms of how young the characters are, but also in terms of how they deal with their lives as actual teenagers. I'm looking for something as extreme as date rape, sexual harassment, cliques, peer pressure, and student suicides as well as not so extreme as actual classroom conversations, high school dilemmas, basketball,prom, actual involvement from the school administrations, an existing student council girls talking about how big their pimples are, and even barkada trips among other things.

Over-all, 90210 improved in some aspects but there are other sectors they need to improve on. If the producers want to show issues that truly affect the youth then they should show it. What I'm seeing now is what the original BH90210 looked like in their later seasons in the setting of tis first season. I'm looking forward on how the rest of the 24-episode season would fare.