Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Let’s face it: When you heard that the entire surviving original cast was going to come back for a revival of Beverly Hills 90210, your first thought might have been, “How was this going to work?” There was a reboot seven years ago where many of the actors reprised their roles, and it seems that a middle-aged reboot might be just sad. But Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling hit on a genius idea. So bear with us while we talk about this meta-tastic reboot….
BH90210: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A shot of the Peach Pit. Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestly) still owns it; David Silver (Brian Austin Green) and Donna Martin (Tori Spelling) are still nuzzling in a corner booth. Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) is behind the register, serving a 3-minute egg to the persnickety Andrea Zuckerberg (Gabrielle Carteris); Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering) is Steve Sanders. “I love when we’re all together!” chirps Donna. Then all of a sudden a portal or something forms in the wall of the diner…. and Spelling wakes up.
The Gist: Tori is sitting in the coach section of a Vegas-bound flight with Jennie; the two are still best buds. They’re going to a 30-year reunion panel for Beverly Hills 90210 and Tori can no longer afford anything but coach, what with six kids, her husband Nate (Ivan Sergi) out of a job and her latest reality show cancelled due to lack of interest.
They’re both nervous about seeing everyone again, especially given how everyone last left things when the show ended 20 years ago. Tori still has feelings for Brian, whom she claims took her virginity around the same time David took Donna’s. David is a stay-at-home-dad, and is starting to chafe at taking a back seat to his pop star wife Shay (La La Anthony). Jennie, whose third husband just left her, is struggling to keep her teenage daughter Kyler (Karis Cameron) from acting before she’s 18. And she hates the idea of seeing Jason again.
Jason is a TV director who can’t get his indie film financed; he runs afoul of SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle when he punches out the young star of a superhero show who mocks him as a has-been. His wife Camille (Vanessa Lachey) is also his publicist, though she seems to be more the latter than the former lately. Gabrielle has just become a grandmother (!). And Ian is busy promoting his various brands, including a silly lifestyle book from his wife Stacey. He thinks he has the perfect marriage.
When they all meet in the lobby of the hotel, it’s awkward. But the panel is a success, with the addition of an Instagram video drop-in from Shannen Doherty, who is an environmental activist, holding a tiger cub and riling up her fellow castmates. Some comedic hijinks ensue when Tori realizes how much the show is making off her name and image and she’s not seeing any of it — despite the fact that her late father produced it. Also certain people sleep together, others start to rekindle some old feelings, and one of them finds out that she wants to explore her sexuality. But Tori realizes once again just how special this group was.
On the plane back to LA (Brian borrowed his wife’s private jet), the gang accidentally finds out that Ian’s wife is cheating on him, which starts an insult fest. But the attention the hijinks in Vegas (a stolen dress is involved) have attracted gives Tori and Jennie an idea: Why not bring the show back in the Age of the Reboot?
Our Take: The idea behind BH90210, a concept created by Spelling and Garth, is pretty bonkers. The surviving original cast play themselves and not their characters (except in select segments). There are real elements of their lives as part of their characters — yes, Carteris is actually the SAG-AFTRA president, at least for now — but their spouses and families are fictional (though we wonder why Tori’s husband Dean McDermott wasn’t recruited to play Nate… would have been a fun in-joke). We’re not sure if the relationships between them are anywhere close to what’s portrayed, but there are elements of real life in there too. Of course, they acknowledge Luke Perry’s death a couple of times, most touchingly with a toast to him on the plane back to LA.
But somehow, all of this works. The first episode leaned heavily on the comedy, mainly because it’s silly to see these middle-aged people try to relive the show they did when they were in their teens and 20s (or in Carteris’s case, late-20s). Also, watching the fictional versions of these well-known actors work out their attractions and dislikes is a delight. We know that most of them don’t take their squeaky-clean images from 30 years ago seriously, and are always game to make fun of what’s been going on with them since then, so to know that all six of them are OK focusing on what has made them punchlines in recent years — Tori with her reality shows, Ziering with his constant branding and Sharknado movies, Priestley with his pugnacious reputation — makes the whole affair relaxed and fun.
In the first two episodes, there are burgeoning storylines that are just as dramatic as anything the original show had, and that may take over the dynamic of the six stars trying to get this reboot off the ground, but what’s 90210 without some outlandish drama?
Sex and Skin: The two people who sleep together have “network TV sex”, with very little skin, and a lot of sheets and strategically-placed pillows covering what needed to be covered.
Parting Shot: Jennie still doubts Tori can pull off the reboot, especially after the incident on the plane. “Didn’t someone say ‘You can’t go home again?'” But she and Tori settle in to watch an early episode of the original show, both knowing a reboot can work. That’s when we see Priestley and Perry in the car as Dylan shows Brendan around the beach. In another touching tribute, the camera zooms in on Perry’s young face and freezes.
Sleeper Star: We are firmly in the “Jennie Garth is funner than you realize” group, and have been since we saw her in the sitcom What I Like About You. We all know how goofy Spelling can be, but Garth is an exceptional comedic actor in her own right (her expressions and eye rolls are an underrated part of her toolset) and the two of them make a good team in the scenes they’re in.
Most Pilot-y Line: Gabby Carteris seems to be getting the short end of the plot stick in the first two episodes, but it’s not like Andrea had the juiciest storylines on the original show (though she did have a baby in college).
Our Call: STREAM IT. BH90210 is more than just a nostalgia trip; it’s genuinely funny and surprising, and the gang still has the same chemistry they had 30 years ago.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.
