90210

90210

Episode 14: Brother from Another Mother

Mini-Review

By: Carlos Uribe

90210 is a show about wealthy kids who do business and go to college in the zip. Or something.

Spoilers Ahoy!

Are you ready for a completely random plot development? Naomi is heartbroken over her divorce with Max but she doesn't want to fill the void with meaningless sex. She wants to have a relationship without the sexual component. She decides the best way to accomplish this is to force her life into her half-brother's life. She has used a private investigator to find him. He's a small business owner who runs his own taco food truck. This half-brother doesn't want anything to do with his sister(s) because he already has his own family. He doesn't know who Naomi is nor does he really care about her. Annie is fine with this because he doesn't want his presence to cause more stress in Dixon's life. When Dixon does find out, he's able to react to the situation maturely because he's grown since the last time there was a half-brother arc. It also helps that the show doesn't really need him to create conflict between the two. Naomi is eventually able to get across to her half-brother as the two decide to open a restaurant. It's a plot that has some real emotion from Naomi as she desperately wants a family. It makes sense this is what she would want after her marriage. She dislikes her dad and she doesn't have a strong relationship with her mom. Her sister is out of the question for obvious reasons. That she would reach out to the only other relative she has makes sense. It's not a bad plot but it's weakness is that it literally came out of nowhere. At least have a scene to prepare us before this episode that opens up the opportunity rather than making it look like the writers just threw a dart and it landed on this plot. Oh, and can this show settle on the character's careers? They keep changing them so fast that it's difficult to really root for them to succeed when they're going to be doing something else when the show gets bored of it. Last season Naomi was throwing parties. This season she's now going be a co-owner of a restaurant.

In other news, there are some other plot developments that aren't as random. Dixon has lost his only client which puts his music label in jeopardy. Since Dixon has yet to find his next calling, Annie decides to help him by throwing a battle of the bands so he can sign new talent. He doesn't find any but he does think he's found the right singer in Michaela. This is going to create further tension between Silver and her surrogate as Silver tries to control every minute of Michaela's life. When Michaela revolts, Silver realizes she needs to stop obsessing over her baby drama so she decides to open some kind of truck business with Adrianna. What will they be doing? No idea but it's just going to be used to create conflict between the two. Adrianna accepts this because she decides to put her singing career on hold again because she's now become known for taking her tops off at concerts. I'm not sure why she's complaining considering how that's better than being known as stealing your dead boyfriend's songs. The music label drama is a bit dull and I was as bored with the surrogate story as Michaela was. Adrianna's plot point makes sense but it merely exposes the short-term memory that this show can have. The final two plots involve Liam and Navid. Liam is now starting to deal with his post-traumatic stress disorder by being in denial that he has it before deciding to confront his past. It's the only character drama this episode has got and it works well. Navid, meanwhile, is being pressured to provide test scores in a physics test for the Cronus society after he uses their calculus scores to cheat. I could care less.

Brother from Another Mother is a barely enjoyable episode that has some strong moments rooted in character but the baby drama is kind of flatlining and I don't care about Navid or the music label.

Other Notes:

I thought Michaela's singing sounded awful.