90210

90210

Episode 11: Project Runaway

By: Carlos Uribe

90210 is a show about a whole bunch of rich kids living in the zip.

Spoilers Ahoy!

Remember the whole Marla inheritance storyline? It's back in full force this week. Realizing that Silver told all her friends that she has gotten the inheritance money, Annie decides to try and find a solution that will benefit both herself and the family suing her. They seem willing to agree to her idea of splitting the inheritance except one tiny hitch. They know that Annie sold Marla's necklace, and their hoping to use that information to make it look like she's only after the money. It's been on the background for so long, that I've lost interest in this storyline. It didn't do anything interesting enough for me to start caring about it, which meant that her story was largely dull and took away from the rest of the episode.

Dixon has managed to go through rehab, and my worst fears were confirmed: the show wasn't interested in actually showing him recover. He's back, almost completely fixed. His storyline was meant to find a way to tempt him to have some drugs, only to use a video of Adrianna performing to keep him from going down the path again. Drug abuse is a great source to get a lot of serious drama and tension, but 90210 isn't interested in pursuing either. For instance, there is a scene where Dixon is given drugs. We don't see him having to fight that temptation. He looks at the drugs, looks distressed, but then whips out his phone and any temptation is gone. It's as if the writers merely pretend that there is a dilemna, but they don't know how to actually write one. The show seems to have had Dixon go down drugs merely because it thinks simply adding drugs is going to make the show interesting or compelling. For the most part, the show has completely and utterly mishandled not only the whole storyline, but it has also messed up Dixon in a way that I didn't like. Hopefully the show will now move Dixon away from drugs towards another, more worthy storyline.

Naomi Clark spends the episode trying to be a fashion designer and trying to beat Holly in a competition. Neither play clean, and in the end they both lose. Naomi gets an internship as a party planner from some important person. This makes perfect sense, since Naomi is always shown throwing great parties. Naomi and Holly seem to be headed to a truce, but then we learn that Naomi unknowingly took an internship from Holly's mother, and internship Holly wanted. This will unmistakable create some drama, but I don't have much promise that it will be entertaining. The show would have been better served if they gave the Naomi-Holly story some actual stakes, but for now their fighting is merely silly and therefore it's hard to care.

Sadly, Navid is back this episode. He mostly spends the whole episode being jealous over Silver, and finishing the undercover job he's doing. The show also seems to be hoping to push the cop handler as a romantic interest for Navid. This show has a character trying to bring down the family crime business, which means betraying his family. It's driven him from his girlfriend and it seems to have ruined his life. Outside of his separation from Silver, it's as if all those internal conflicts he should be having simply aren't there. The story would be interesting, compelling, and good if Navid was seriously having to chose between family and Silver-and losing both in the process. The show never really gives him that choice as he obviously picks Silver. He does seem to be losing her in the process, but the show isn't handling it very well.

Liam has to deal with being a model or being a friend, although he isn't really shown having to go through with that conflict. Essentially Holly hires him to be a model against Naomi, and it's all a silly storyline. Last episode handled the Liam storyline much better, but this one was much more dull. Ivy spends the whole episode feeling sorry for herself. She didn't get that much screentime, but she did have an awesome scene where she sets Teddy straight. As for Teddy? He finally leaves this episode, but the show could have handled his exit much better.

I think part of the problem of this show is that it has too many characters. If the show was willing to center around a character or two per episode, leaving the rest in the background, then the episode could have been so much better. This episode tried to cover too much ground, and in the process it loses any real conflict the characters might be having. If the show had concentrated on Dixon's drug problem and Teddy's exit, I feel like the episode could have been so much better. As it is, the episode was a total mess because too much was happening and this show isn't good at multitasking.