90210. New Drama. Same Zip Code.

As a society, we expect certain things. We spend good money on something we expect it to be good, whether it’s food, a car, a movie. There’s a high level of expectation going on, like we’ve all of a sudden all of us have become frighteningly aware of the universe and its many intellectual plateaus and we’re constantly searching for the answers that we’ve never gotten before. As adults, we have a higher level of expectation or just certain shit we’d accept. So what happens when you’re expectations runs too high and the thing we’ve waited for the most was dead on arrival? You’re disappointed. That’s right. You start running the gamut of emotions. Betrayal. Disloyalty. Anger. All of things you’d expect from having high expectations say for a parent, a spouse, a loved one, a friend or a relationship. So why in the hell are we doing this for television?!

This brings me to the new 90210 show which premiered last night on the CW. I didn’t know what to expect. So I went into this with very little pretense, but some trepidation that this would be a severe showing of wafting intellectuality. After waiting for a few months and finally watching the new 90210 show last night, I was left with one absolute conclusion – I’m old, although, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

I am not going to recap the show in any way, if you haven’t watched it, go look online for the numerous articles about the season premiere, if you need to. I am addressing one thing and one thing only and that’s expectations.

Here’s what I did expect: A new show, not really written for my generation. So I actually had an idea of what was going to happen in the first episode and I knew it wasn’t going to be anything like say anything on HBO. So you get back to those expectations. And they were high for this show. News articles were written on how people were skeptical about it, because there were no advanced screenings. How will it live up to its predecessor? Well it can’t. It never will. Because it’s not 1990 anymore people! Different Times. 90210 is not curing Cancer. It’s a television drama and as with all dramas, they are slight exaggerations of real life, teen life to be exact. So when something really happens to someone that we know, we’re able to say “Wow, that’s like an episode of Desperate Housewives!” So again, as adults, if we told someone via text message that they were being cheated on, we’d probably say that’s some high school shit right? So when it happens on show about high school kids, why are we so surprised that something like that is a plot device on the show?!

I’ve been reading all this hoopla online about how the new show is bereft of any original ideas or its one big music video, or more pretty people, with money and pretty problems, but see that’s the gist of it. That’s the gist of all the shows that are on and are just like it. Its The Hills, The O.C., Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill and god help me, even Degrassi: The Next Generation – all of them. They are aimed at one audience and one audience only – teenagers (more than likely teenage girls). Not twenty-something’s or thirty- something’s who remember growing up with this show. Hell, we shouldn’t even be watching this, but for those of us who did, keep in mind, they didn’t write this show for us, even if they did bring a few old characters from the original show.

Times have changed. Situations have changed. The ways in which we communicate have changed. High School has changed considerably and the things that kids are doing now, I never did. This new 90210 reflected that. When I was younger and waited to get into high school, I looked to that show as a way of gauging how it would be, how my life would be. Needless to say, my high school wasn’t West Beverly, but I saw the show for what it was; simply teen drama. Don’t get me wrong, the show wasn’t outright terrible. I can name several that are, but it is what it is and what it will always be; simply teen drama.

This is really in a response to the amount of criticism that I’ve read. Really bad and negative reviews have gone out and I can see why CW didn’t send out advance copies. Critics can be vicious, especially ones that want more from their scripted television shows, particularly from a continuation show that defined a generation a decade ago. They’re going to compare it to the other shows like it, who isn’t? However, the critics are not teenagers anymore. We’re not teenagers anymore. Most of us won’t get the reason for texting everything we feel or how easily it was to be betrayed and/or make friends from one instant to the next.

So if anyone went into this show thinking it was going to be Hamlet you’re just as lame for thinking it could be more than what it is. It’s taking the teen drama to the next level, not all wanting to be Grey’s Anatomy here. It’s being brash and bold and maybe not executing it right, but if memory serves me right, the original show got heat for being crap as well and then bam, 10 seasons later, it’s still on the air giving birth to shows trying to captivate audiences the same way.

I loved 90210 growing up. It was the 90’s, it was cheesy. Instead of Liz Phair, we got Paula Abdul on the soundtrack. For me the show didn’t get good until the epochal episode where David Silver became cool at the Prom. Go back and watch them, you’ll see. If not, most of the original cast of the first show is still around haunting basic cable channels. So you can see them in other places.

I just believe that we are asking way, too much from this show. Way, too much. We’re all older now. The same truths and reality for us is much different than it is nowadays and I believe we’re losing sight of that, above all when it comes to shows like this. It has a place, as much as reality shows, or the Wonder Years did. The teenagers of today are faced with more than I ever had to and this show reflects the changing times. Was it horribly acted at times? Yes. I mean, we’re not dealing with Olympia Dukakis or Sally Fields here. We’re talking about young actors and actress who will be idolized as the next teen sensations. How many of us hated High School Musical or thinks that Gossip Girl is sickening? You know why?! Because we’re not teenagers!