90210
Episode
13: #realness
By:
Carlos Uribe
90210
is a show about wealthy kids who do business and go to college in the
zip. Or something.
Spoilers
Ahoy!
It
can be ridiculous how hard this show tries to be relevant and cool in
the face of rapidly declining ratings. There's a special guest
appearance from Terrell Owens and the title of the episode is a
hashtag. It simply feels like it's trying too hard to keep it's
audience. What is more surprising is that people keep agreeing to
come on the show. It's not like anybody is actually watching this
drama anymore. It's not going to give them a significant amount of
exposure and it's difficult to believe this show is able to pay them
a lot of money. That the show has the budget to actually bring
special guest stars on a regular basis can probably be explained that
this is the money they would have used to pay Gillian Zinser. The
question is whether these guest stars and attempts to reach a young
audience is working or not. It really seems to be failing which makes
one question just how effective is a guest star at getting people to
watch. The idea is that these guest stars will have a fanbase that
will follow them into a show and increase exposure. If they like what
they see then they'll stick around. This might have worked in the
past but I can't think of a recent example where this has actually
saved a show. It's not really a ploy that I'll usually pay attention
to but the episode title really calls to attention on how this drama
is continually losing relevance with it's core demographic. The
actual episode wasn't actually that bad on it's own right.
So
what happens? It's actually pretty sad because it appears that Max is
leaving the show for now. He's going to MIT and cutting all ties with
Naomi. He's not only divorcing her but he realizes that he can't even
be friends with her. Their divorce might be one of the amicable in
television history but their attraction is too strong for them to be
in the same room for long. He does grant Naomi her desire for closure
by having sex with her one last time. It's a pity that the show is
sending him on a bus but it makes sense that they would want Naomi to
be single again. 90210 is primarily a relationship drama so having
it's protagonist be in the dating scene is a natural status quo for
the show to exist in. This opens them up to a lot more story
opportunities that a marriage had closed. Opportunities that the
writers are going to want to explore. At the same time, the door
isn't completely shut out on Max making a return appearance. It's
possible that the two will reunite in the series finale because they
still love each other. I like the idea that they are the ultimate
endgame simply because they share a lot of chemistry together and Max
remains my favorite of Naomi's love interests. It might be because he
remains one of the most realistically written nerds on television and
it's easier for me to relate to him than anyone else on the show.
There
was a large part of the show where it seemed like Navid was finally
given a plot of his own. The secret society he wants to join is just
the show's excuse for Liam to be an underground fighter. This society
leads to him hitting on a hit girl named Michaela. Michaela falls for
his charms and the two go on a date. They seem to like each other but
it's really a way to create more drama in the never-ending Silver
baby plot. That's because Michaela is Shane's sister and Teddy is
trying to get Silver to use her as the surrogate. Just as I thought
that the plot was losing steam, the show manages to throw a wrench in
the works that makes it possibly interesting again. The only problem
is that Navid remains a dull character and his involvement in this
baby drama might truly be what kills it. It speaks a lot that Navid
can't seem to actually get a plot that can stand on it's own but only
works to act as a supporting character. Is there any way the show can
have him go back to Princeton so that the show can write in scenes
for characters who have their own stand-alone lives? If so can Annie
go with him? She remains just the worst.
I
have a feeling that Riley's going to have to agree with me. He's just
passed away and not once does the series try to show Annie being
affected by his death. There's one scene where she jokes about it but
she never actually seems sad about it. It would work if she was in
denial but there isn't a scene that would back this idea up. It
simply doesn't feel like Riley has actually died or that he mattered
to her. There is no funeral scene and the show quickly moves Annie
into the developing the blog storyline. It turns out that I shouldn't
be reviewing television shows but talking about my personal life
because she's quickly able to get a book deal out of it. When the
publisher's assistant tried to state that he thinks this is going to
be the next 50 Shades of Grey,
it's hard not to laugh at the sheer idea of Annie being a talented
writer. Annie only agrees to this deal if she remains anonymous
because she hasn't told her brother that she was a prostitute. Which
brings me to my next point: Riley has just died but that's not the
trauma that Annie is processing. The emotions that are really
bothering Annie is that she's just starting to react to Patrick
paying her for sex. She's been shot, her roommate was kidnapped, and
her boyfriend just passed away but she can't move on from an event
that happened over a season ago. If she's still struggling to process
that she was the kind of person that got paid to have sex then how is
she still surviving? She should be completely and utterly emotionally
broken by now. Of course, if she was then that would be two
characters failing to keep it together.
I
believe that it's time that Liam go see a therapist. I'm not just
saying this because I think therapy scenes can be really strong. He's
recently been kidnapped and he's suffering from post traumatic stress
disorder. It's gotten so bad that he's ready to snap at almost every
scene. He's suffering from an emotional breakdown and it would help
if he got some professional help. It might help make him an effective
underground fighter but it's jeopardizing his acting career. He's not
the only one whose actions are going to hurt his professional
reputation. Adrianna decides that the best way to get out of her
contract is to act out until Dixon releases her. She tries some petty
shoplifting before moving on into actually ruining a show on purpose.
A show where Dixon had planned to trade her contract for clients that
are less established but who haven't dated him. Her actions ruin the
deal and Dixon releases her from her contract because she's
impossible to work with. The plot was fine but I wonder if this means
it's the end of Dixon's label plot or whether he's going to try and
save it. I'm not sure if he'll actually be able to.
#realness
is basically on the same level of quality as most of this season-it's
barely entertaining. It made a major misstep with Annie by rushing
her blogger plot without allowing her to deal with Riley's death. The
good news is that Naomi and Max basically kept me entertained for the
whole hour even if it was watching his time on the show run out.
Here's hoping that the next episode doesn't call attention to itself
on how relevant this show pretends to be.
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