Beverly Hills

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.

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.

This series aimed at teenagers and young adults was a major hit during the 90's. Leading the pack was the turmoil-ridden saga of rich kids at West Beverly Hills High School who all faced the common problems of love, pregnancies, drugs and family crises subjects that are somewhat more common to youth and young adults. The best stories centered on the Walsh family, newly arrived in town, in particular fraternal twins Brandon (Jason Priestly) and Brenda (Shannen Doherty). The gang then included friends Kelly (Jennie Garth), Steve (Ian Ziering), Andrea (Gabrielle Carteris), Donna (Tori Spelling), David (Brian Austin Green) and moody Dylan (Luke Perry). Later other characters came on like Tiffani-Amber Thiessen while others had left. In the final season of the show most of the original cast had left the cast saw many changes during the ten year run. Most of the stars became major celebrities due to the success of the show.

hit of its period, it remains charming. for courage to present many closed problems of teenagers. for its friendship spirit and nice characters. for art to be universal and to propose models. for music and beauty and drawings of dreams and a really good bad guy as new James Dean and a good guy , source of best solutions, for a new generation to hill of Hollywood and, sure, for the definition of freedom not only as state of soul but as guide for actions. it was beautiful and charming and fascinating. and, like each piece of a lost age, it is a precious memory. more important after you forget the details and discover than the years of youth are almost smoke and dust.

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