Wow, it's almost like the writers of 90210 read my blog from last season, aptly entitled "9021-Meh." In that entry, I listed some problems with Season 4 and brought up some examples of the show's higher quality in seasons 1-3.
In comparison to last year, when the show was just a bloated, washed-up corpse of its former awesome self, Season 5 has seen a seemingly effortless segue back into fresh, fantastic adventures. In fact, with its tawdry shenanigans and stepped-up pace, 90210 now has more in common with the original Melrose Place than with its actual namesake. And I always had more of a soft spot for MP.
Here are some of the most impressive aspects of Season 5 so far:
1. It's not just the Naomi Clarke show. We all love Naomi, but last year, every single episode was centered around some new ridiculous gambit of hers, inevitably involving costumes and/or girl-on-girl wrestling. Despite AnnaLynne McCord's charm, it was too repetitive and stupid, and threw a wrench into the ensemble structure of the show.
Now, not only is the focus back on the whole group of characters, but each one has a legit, interesting plot (even lame characters like Dixon and Navid always have something to do that moves the plot forward in conjunction with other, better goings-on). Naomi still has her crazy exploits and her costumes, but it's dialed back to an agreeable quantity per episode.
2. Psychos galore. Last year was so banally lacking of crazy ne'er do wells as to be quite disheartening. Now, not only has Arielle Kebbel (this girl needs her own CW show!) fabulously transitioned her character Vanessa into a full throttle nutbag, (last year she was just kind of conniving and selfish) but we also get Natalie Morales as Liam's second loony stalker, his obsessed cop security detail Ashley (is she even really a cop? LOL).
This is so wonderful. Liam should have five million obsessed stalkers. It's the best plotline ever, so why limit yourself,90210?
I loved seeing Jasper and Crazy Cousin Emily come back for the 100th episode. Seeing these crazysauce friends from past seasons brings back memories of where the show always hit its stride: in suspenseful, soapy thrillerland.
3. No more Ivy. Despite Gillian Zingser's best efforts, Ivy never got a single plotline that wasn't a pointless, depressing timesuck. The show's better off without her.
4. Much better writing. In this respect, 90210 is almost unrecognizable from its faded facade last year. On top of the amped-up, much tighter pacing and multiple, interlocking, engaging storylines, there are some moments of genuine warmth (especially in the friendships among the characters), and even shocking, random spurts of real wit (see Annie's hilarious run-in with Cousin Emily in episode 100).
5. Cool stuff to come. Due to the way each character's storyline is currently positioned, the season has nowhere to go but up. Annie is apparently starting to compile a memoir of all the messed up shiznit that has happened to her. Liam is caught between two zany lady-villains. Silver's gearing up for motherhood and hopefully shifting out of last season's warmed-over leftover: her stale love triangle with Liam and Navid.
Meanwhile, I love how Evil!Dixon has emerged, responding to Ade's infidelity with music-biz blackmail. Since Dixon's always been loathsome, why not have him go full evil? Genius idea. This frees up Adrianna's admittedly nonexistent conscience for her feelings for hottie Taylor to further develop.
I hope to see more of Teddy, a fun and delightful character who deserves to be a series regular again.
Naomi's marriage to that irritating plot device known as Max must end, the sooner the better, and with his work troubles mounting while he blames his extremely helpful wife, this seems to be nearing its fruition. I don't know if we'll be seeing Max's manipulative business partner Alec again; he clearly had a thing for Naomi and was a decent foil, but I'm not impressed enough to root for his return unless the writers come up with something really interesting for him to do.
By the way, how cool was it that Naomi's hair was an Easter Egg in Episode 100?!
As for Annie, her love interest Riley is certainly likable, though I'll never stop rooting for Lannie Redux. That seems possible after Liam finally confided in Annie about his cover-up of Vanessa's accident. It bears a lot of meaning that Liam turned to his ex at such a moment; he would not have told anyone else about this, and for good reason.
By the way, just as a sidebar, memo to Liam: falling a few feet onto soft beach sand? That's never going to kill anyone on a primetime soap. Just sayin'.
All in all, fans have a right to be just as excited to see where 90210 goes from here as we were burnt out and disappointed a season ago. It's a rare gift to see a show rebound like this so fully.
