If I’ve learned anything from all the medical dramas I’ve watched over the years it’s that the governing rule of doctors is: “First, do no harm.” And that’s all I really needed from the new 90210. That it do no harm to the memory of a show I once raced back to my dorm room to watch immediately after intermission ended while ushering for a college production of Crimes of the Heart to find out which character was going to die a tragic death! (Even though we all knew it was going to be a cop out and be Scott who we hardly saw at all during the second season!!)

I loved the old pre-graduation 90210. All that I wanted was for the new one not to besmirch the memory. (Wow. I just used besmirch in a sentence.) To do no harm. And it didn’t. In fact, I kinda liked it. Didn’t love it, but it’s got room to grow.

What I enjoyed the most—aside from the shout outs to the original show (Andrea’s daughter!)—was that they kept the brother/sister angle. In the original 90210, Brandon and Brenda were freakishly close. Almost best friends, even. Which is kind of weird, but kind of the core of the show. At least in the early days. The new Brandon and Brenda (Dixon and Annie) have that potential. Again, it’s not there yet, but the writers are writing it in that direction and I’ll be tuning it to see how it goes.

Is it just me or is it beginning to look like a great time for the teen dramas? The season premiere of Gossip Girl made me absolutely giddy in the pure evil of Blair and her “mother Chucker.” Jenny’s slowly making her way back into the spotlight with Eric’s tentative help. Nate didn’t grate. In fact, he was the most fun I’ve ever seen him be. I can’t WAIT for Vanessa to get back into town to see what she brings to that mixed up mix. And Serena and Dan were kind of fun in their maudlin, whiny way. I love these two characters, I just wish they weren’t suffering from the dreaded curse of “Well, we got them together, now we’ve got to find ways to keep them apart” plot device (See: Roswell, Dawson Creek … any teen dramas, really.)

And then there’s Greek. I can encapsulate my love for this show in one line of dialogue from last week’s episode: “Help me Toby Kwan, you’re my only hope.”

Awesome.

I’m always wary when people go around saying one show is like another show. Like how they’ve been calling Privilege, “Gilmore Girls meets Gossip Girl.” Honestly, I wasn’t sure I was even going to watch it. Until I saw the first commercial for it during Gossip Girl. One clip in particular had me laughing out loud and immediately adding it to my TV viewing schedule. All I’ll say is that it has to do with a taser. I just hope the rest of the first hour lives up to that moment. If it does, I’ll definitely be back.

Oh, who am I kidding? I’ll be back even if it doesn’t.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 6th, 2008 at 11:40 pm and is filed under TV Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.