9021-NO

After viewing Tuesday's episode of 90210 last night, I am officially taking the show off of my playlist. I was a 90210 junky back in high school but this "refresh" has absolutely disappointed. The characters are far from likable, the writing is absurd and plot lines even worse. The best part of the show were Brenda and Kelly and they weren't even featured in the past episode. My key nitpicks:

• Why does Annie have to be so perfect? She is written as the nicest person on the planet. Puh-lease!
• Recycled plot lines. Now, I realize that there are only 12 original plot lines (yes, it's true although Google has failed me) but here's what we've been offered by 90210: son given up long ago by mother that father didn't know about, drugs, pushy parents, divorcing parents, work/life balance issues, sex, debt, autistic brother, etc. And not a single plot line has been made interesting.
• I totally called from her first entry into the classroom that the new girl would be an undercover cop. Really. Based on her first sentence. Usually I pat myself on the back for guessing those kind of things but I blame sloppy writing and poor acting in this case.
• You know a show is bad when you start fast forwarding through most of the scenes. I actually enjoy the adults on the show but find the kids to be annoying. You can attribute that to my age but considering I love Gossip Girl and I check in on Hannah Montana, I don't think that's true.

The old show had a rhythm that this one is totally lacking. I think it is because the entire focus of each episode is on all of the main characters. I commented on this in Helen's blog. Where are the extraneous characters with their own problems that the gang helps to solve? Where is the star basketball player that can't read? Or a key activity like a newspaper that gets the kids involved in all kind of mischeif?

And so, sadly, I remove 90210 from my playlist. What about other readers who gave the show a chance? Are you still committed? Why?

PS - In other news, I am very excited that Fringe got picked up for a full season. But why do they call the mysterious guy, The Observer? Could a name be any more lame??? Were the writers afraid to call him The Watcher and step on Joss Whedon's toes?