Last Night's "90210": Obtuse Angles and Soon-to-Be Love Triangles

As far as I'm concerned, in the world of teen dramas there's the original Beverly Hills, 90210, and then there’s everything else: One Tree Hill, The OC and Gossip Girl (posers), Degrassi (too Canadian) and Everwood (let's just say I Never-wood watch that tedious hot mess). BH90210, on the other hand, boasts TV’s all-time best couple, (Brenda and Dylan); the best high school hangout, (The Peach Pit), and epic, generation-defining episodes like "Donna Martin Graduates." The main reason why I loved it, though, is because I too switched schools during high school like the Walsh twins—and like Brandon, I was a budding journalist whose friendship with his sister was the bomb!

Given my infatuation, it makes sense that I'd dutifully watch the next-generation 90210. I literally jumped for joy when I was given the chance to recap this show for Vivo por TiVo, and I'm especially thrilled to be kicking things off with last night’s fantastic new episode, which I already knew would be racy after my chat with 90210 co-star, Michael Steger.

It all started with Liam throwing Naomi up against a locker at West Beverly High, where the two shared one passionate kiss after another and, er, some not-so-innocent dry humping. Then, suddenly, an alarm goes off, and poor Naomi discovers that this was all a dream. Cut to the opening credits (Could I care any less about credits at a time like this? Nope.), and Naomi’s back at West Beverly, only this time it's real and she's stuck in boring math class, learning about geometric shapes and obtuse angles.

Like the mysterious bad boy he is (Naomi hilariously notes that "he doesn't even have a MySpace page!"), Liam enters the class late and gets picked on for not knowing the answers to complex math questions. Naomi sees her opportunity and volunteers to be Liam's math tutor, but when he refuses, she asks him to take her "for a ride" instead and ends up in the passenger seat of a no-holds-barred drag race through a seedy part of town. The old Naomi, who used to cry all the time, would have no doubt been terrified and plotting her escape. This Naomi, however, was yelling, "Floor it!" She's like a born again badass, and I love it.

Before the night is up, Liam and Naomi share a passionate kiss before he abruptly opens her door to let her out of his car, without so much as a word. I'm liking everything about Liam so far except the fact that he's kinda rude to everyone. Overall, though, it was a pretty good first date for this budding couple.

As one relationship began, another came to an end. After weeks of constant bickering, Ethan finally told Annie that he needed to be single. Word on the street is that their breakup has more to
do with the producers' interest in starting a love triangle (a la Brendan-Dylan-Kelly) with Naomi, Liam and Annie. I'm completely in favor of this, considering Ethan and Annie had zero chemistry, but it was still a sad night for poor Annie, who shed many a tear as she experienced her first heartbreak.

Those tears, however were nothing compared to Silver's (Jessica Stroup) hardships. For weeks she’s been acting like a straight-up loca, and in last night's episode, she presented her teacher with a video project of her and Dixon having sex in a storage closet (can you say mortifying?) The last two minutes of the episode get pretty darn scary, because Silver shows up at her teacher's apartment to blame him for the whole thing, accusing him of wanting payback against her for a blog post in which she called him a child molester. Yelling and smashing bottles ensue. Personally, this scene was a little too extreme for my taste. I felt like I was watching a horror movie, and for a teen drama, that's not good.

But all in all, it was a great episode. It's obvious the writers are beginning to flesh out the narrative and finding ways to leave us wanting more. I already can’t wait for next week’s episode, which shows Silver getting into even more trouble and also marks the return of Jennie Garth. Hooray!

What did you think, Vivo por TiVo readers? Has 90210 improved, or are you ready to stop watching?