13 recommendations

Beverly Hills, 90210

Editorial Review

Is it worth taking a journey back to America's most famous zipcode?

Program Summary

Channel:

TEN

When:

8:30 PM, Monday, 8 Sep 2008

Rated:

Type:

Drama

Editorial Review

Breathe a sigh of relief: the new 90210 isn't a total trainwreck.

Nor is it likely to set new benchmarks in quality drama, but the series definitely shows potential to become the next addictively guilty pleasure.

"This sucks," remarks Dixon Mills (Tristan Wilds) in the opening minutes. Luckily, he's not making a dire prediction about the quality of the first episode - he's complaining about having to move from Kansas to California with his family, sister Annie (Shenae Grimes), mother Debbie (Lori Loughlin) and father Harry (Rob Estes).

The family has relocated so that Harry can care for his alcoholic mother, faded actress Tabitha (Jessica Walters, channeling her soused-up Arrested Development character Lucille Bluth). Annie and Dixon are enrolling at the opulent West Beverly High, and so is Harry: he's the school's new principal.

The first episode passes in a blur (there literally isn't a single scene that's more than a minute long) as the new kids meet their super-attractive, unconvincingly-teenage classmates, including jock Ethan (Dustin Milligan), rich bitch Naomi (AnnaLynne McCord) and hipster Silver (Jessica Stroup).

Of course it's not long before Annie and Dixon are exposed to the dangerously glamorous world of Beverly Hills and all the friends, enemies and high drama it has to offer.

Fans of the original Beverly Hills, 90210 will get their nostalgia kicks: Jennie Garth is a series regular, Shannen Doherty makes a much-hyped guest appearance in episode two, and there's plenty of in-jokes that hark back to the classic series.

90210 attempts to be shocking - underage characters drink, take drugs, and get up to very naughty things on school grounds - but seems almost squeaky clean in the age of Gossip Girl and The Hills. This is purely superficial fluff, but there's enough melodrama, genuinely funny one-liners and cast chemistry to justify the return to America's most famous zipcode.

Sam Downing, September 2008

View Citysearch's TV guide.