This week's 90210 amazingly managed to be just about as normal as any other TV drama for once. Straying away from ridiculous teen angst and focussing on much harder-hitting emotional plots brought out some of the best material that the show has put on recently, although it would be nice if more of it actually mattered.
The episode was absolutely jammed with story lines, with Annie's relationship with her new boss Marla perhaps being the most prevalent. There were some major changes in our characters' lives and as much as I hate writing lists, I'd be hard pressed to make coherent sense of the plot any other way. So: Silver's Bi-Polar disorder really hits home after she fails to get into NYU, prompting a downward spiral that leads to Navid and Dixon putting her in hospital; Naomi gets into her dream college, CU, and then takes the next step in her relationship with Max as he accepts a place at Caltech for them to be closer together; and Teddy discovers that his boyfriend has been lying to him about being poor, prompting them to build a closer relationship.
Outside of the main character drama, Ryan and Deb (two characters that I had genuinely forgotten even existed) get a visit from Jen when she is looking to get back into her son's life. The group forms an uneasy alliance as a compromise to Jen taking the baby away from his father and I imagine that will be the start of several more appearances for the supporting cast members, a fairly nice addition when you actually remember how many good plot points have centred around them.
As I mentioned before, Annie's relationship with her boss was pretty much the major driving force behind the episode despite the plethora of things going on, and I was quite honestly surprised that the writers were capable of such a story line. Although suffering from Alzheimer's, Marla manages to convince Annie that the information she found about suicide last week was just research and that she didn't intend to go through with it. After Annie gets her out of the house to attend a screening of one of her 60's films, the two really seemed to be forming a relationship that, whilst cliche in its own way, was charming enough to tolerate at least until the season is up. However, in a minutely surprising turn, when Annie returns to the house the next day excited about their appearance in the newspaper, she is met with a goodbye letter. Add tears and fade to black.
The problem with 90210 right now is that story lines seem to come and go like they leave no lasting impact on the show. The "outing" of Max and Naomi at the end of last week's episode was totally blown over. Is anyone going to care that an old lady died a week from now? Teddy's relationship has been so insignificant but we're to believe that he was insecure enough about it to make his section of the episode have weight? There's more that's wrong with it in the long run, but for each individual episode it works to some extent. It would just be nice if at least Silver's condition and Adrianna's pathetic attempts to get Navid back are drawn out over several episodes, not just abruptly thrust upon us and taken away like the other parts of the plot.moreless
