Beverly Hills, 90210

I came to the BH 90210 universe pretty late. I didn't start watching until the third or forth season, but became immediately hooked. Luckily I was able to catch the prior seasons during reruns a year or two later. I've always felt that the Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) character was the heart, soul, and moral center of the series. He had his demons of course, but don't we all. The other majors characters were well cast, and really made you think about the years when we were in high school. But there's one thing that's bothering me, especially since I looked up the IMDb page when the show was finally being released on DVD. I've seen almost every episode of this series. I admit I didn't watch it as much after Jason Priestley left the show. But for the life of me I can't remember a character called Keith, who supposedly according to IMDb was in 291 episodes. Does anyone know who this guy is, or is this a typo by IMDb?

When the show first premiered it, surprisingly, had a lot of depth. It dealt with the problems that most teenagers go through as they are going through high school (sex, drugs, racism, death and AIDS). The only thing that was different about it was the fact that it was set in upscale Beverly Hills. However, when the scene shifted to college, it became more of a soap opera along the lines of its distant cousin Melrose Place. I would rather look at the episodes from the first two seasons when the stories were all done in one episode than look at the garbage it eventually became.

I admit I haven't watched this show for years, so am going on memory here. I watched every episode of Seasons 1-5. When the quality took a nosedive after Season 4 (but Andrea was still around) I started watched it less and less. From what I gathered the plotlines just got more and more ridiculous. The new main actors were all plain like vanilla, like Vincent Young, Jamie Walters, Lindsay Price, Vanessa Marcil, etc. None of the new replacements excited me at all. (Daniel Cosgrove was not bad).

But, in terms of pure gold, the Brenda years, love or hate the actress, Seasons 1-4, were the best. Season 5 clocked in some golden moments too although I hated what happened to Andrea's character, going from brainy nerd to reluctant mother. After that I wouldn't watch anything as a repeat or catch up on what I missed.

90210 was a place where 8th graders like me thought high school would be: We would all have a car at 16, we would have a hangout spot to eat and dance with no parental supervision and that there would be lots of DRAMA!! 90210 has the campiness of Dynasty mixed with 80's after school specials and more guest stars than the Love Boat! Watch it for the love triangles, the cool outfits, hair bangs and it's fun to see where a lot of actors had early roles. Also the seasons of BB and AB (before Brenda 8/10 and after Brenda 6/10) are like watching two different shows with the same name. Luke Perry will always be a dreamboat. In real life, that was not my high school experience, although we did have a Subway across the street to hang out at senior year.

Several years ago, in 2016 I think, I was grabbed by some nostalgia and I started to rewatch "Beverly Hills, 90210". Of course, after three seasons it began to bore me and I moved on to something smarter. Since this month I was in total business and private chaos and I had neither the time nor the concentration to devote more seriously to films, I returned to it again. After the fourth season, I must admit it feels good. When you work from morning to night, seven days a week, this is the right choice to relax before going to bed. I think I'll definitely see it through all ten seasons. Maybe it has no value in an artistic and cinematographic sense, nor in terms of philosophical depth, but it has emotional and nostalgic value for us who grew up in the '90s and it is great for letting the brain out to pasture. And to be honest, it is very well made. Perhaps the stories are Utopian and with fairytale happy-endings, but they also make sense and point. The acting is quite solid and technically there are hardly any flaws. In this genre, only "Heartbreak High" beats it.

8/10