After having
watched the first three episodes of season five, I have to say that I’m
thoroughly enjoying the season so far. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have any
issues or complaints with this season at this point, or more specially this
episode, because I do. I definitely have some major issues with this episode,
but some of them aren’t necessarily limited to just this one episode. Some of
the biggest issues that I have with the show right now go all the way back to
last season, especially when it comes to Liam and Silver’s storylines.
Although, for the record I’m probably enjoying those storylines the most so far
this season despite the issues that I have with them.
I’ll start with
Silver’s storyline since I simultaneously really like it and have the most
problems with it all at the same time. First off, I like it because while I’m a
guy and I personally can’t relate to it, I think it’s safe to say that her
overall storyline right now has a certain level of relatability for a lot of the
female viewers since breast cancer, ovarian and uterine cancer affects so many
women. As someone who also watches Gossip Girl, I think it’s pretty safe to say
that this is a storyline that the writers of Gossip Girl would never have even
thought of doing. I say that because 99% percent of the storylines on that show
seem to revolve around the characters’ sexual flings, whatever big extravagant
party they’re going to in a particular episode, various schemes that the
characters are constantly concocting and most perhaps most frequently Chuck and
Blair’s sick, twisted and abusive relationship that the writers never stopped
thinking of as a modern day fairytale romance.
While I like
Silver’s overall storyline for that reason, I really do have a lot of issues
with it. First off, I get that she wants to have a baby and experience being
pregnant before she has the surgery that BRCA gene patients have, but I have to
wonder if Silver has even thought about how she plans to financially support
and raise a child on her own at her age, especially when she doesn’t even have
a college education. Not having a college degree definitely limits her job
options. There’s also the fact that she said that she wanted to do this own her
own since neither Liam or Navid are ready to be a father, so she’ll be a single
parent. Sure, Teddy is rich and he has agreed to donate some of his sperm, but
she told him that she wasn’t expecting anything else from him, so unless he
decides that he wants to help support the child financially, she’ll be on her
own in terms of having money to raise the child.
While I’m not a
huge fan of Silver’s storyline with her wanting to have a baby now, I’m going to
try to not fixate on how many issues I have with the storyline. It’s still very
early in the season, so I suppose something could happen that leads Silver to
not have a baby after all, especially since the current writers have always had
the tendency to go all over the place with the characters in the span of just
one season, which is something I’ll discuss a little more in a moment.
In terms of
Silver’s storyline in this episode, Naomi, Adrianna and Annie threw Silver a
“Baby to Be” shower complete with a stripper. Naomi gave Silver a gift
certificate for a photo session with a photographer so she can get some baby
bump pictures taken when she’s about eight months pregnant. I have to say that
for the most part I usually find baby bump pictures rather weird looking. A lot
of the poses that women take in those pictures are just downright awkward.
Personally, I think getting baby bump pictures are just a really bizarre way to
spend money, but I digress.
While the girls
were at Silver’s “Baby to Be” shower she admitted that she still hadn’t made an
appointment to be inseminated and she soon started freaking out about becoming
a mother when she’s only twenty years old. Once again, I have to ask, why is
she so insistent on having a baby right now? I know what her reasons are and
she feels like she can’t wait forever to have BRC surgery, but what I don’t get
is why hasn’t the possibility of adoption crossed her mind? I suppose she could
also freeze some of her eggs, for later when she wants to have kids and use a
surrogate. Plus, has she thought about how having a baby with Teddy being the
sperm donor might affect her dating life? When I say that, I’m not talking
about how she would juggle being a mom and having a love life. I just think
that might make the other guys that she dates feel uncomfortable when they find
out that she has a kid whose father is her gay ex-boyfriend/best friend. I can
see it now: “Yeah, my child’s father is my gay best friend. We used to date
before he came out of the closet…”. Yeah…that would be weird.
Although, the
dating pool on teen dramas have always been rather incestuous for the most
part, especially when it comes to 90210, so chances are that if Silver ends up
actually having a baby with Teddy being the father the show will probably end
with Silver being with Liam, Navid or Dixon, and they’ll already know the whole
story behind that. I know I’m most likely overthinking this whole storyline,
but I would be lying if I said that I hadn’t been thinking about that.
In order to try
and help Silver overcome her anxieties about becoming a mother when she’s only
twenty, Adrianna, Annie and Naomi suggested that she spend the day just acting
like a kid and they made a list of things to do for the day. One of the things
that they did was go to a horror movie in the middle of the day. After they did
that Adrianna told Silver that she needed to conquer her fear of heights by
swinging on a trapeze, which is apparently Silver’s biggest fear. Silver
managed to successfully conquer her fear only to hurt her ankle as she was
climbing off the safety net. While she was at the hospital to have her ankle
examined, Silver ran into a fellow BRCA gene patient named Suzanne who was
there for a post surgery checkup, and after Silver talked to her she decided that
she was ready to make an appointment for the insemination. Also, at the end of
the episode Silver used the gift certificate that Naomi gave her for the photo
session to get nude pictures of herself taken, because she wanted to be able to
remember what her body looked like before she got pregnant, had a baby and then
had the BRCA gene surgeries.
As for Liam’s
storyline, I don’t have nearly as many issues with it compared to the amount of
issues that I have with Silver’s storyline. It was also one of the most
interesting storylines in the episode, in my opinion, because it was full of
drama, and I think that Matt Lanter is doing a great job with this storyline at
the moment. Although, I’ve always thought that Matt was one of the stronger
actors in the cast in terms of each cast members’ acting abilities. I really
liked the first scene with Liam where they were acting like he was being chased
by the police, but it all end up being part of simulation for a video game that
Liam is being used as a model for a character in the game.
Apparently,
since Vanessa was legally tied to Liam as his manager the people who are
developing the video game can’t continue the game’s production without her
signature on Liam’s contract for the project. When someone asked Liam about
where Vanessa was, he was evasive and told them that she was going to be out of
town for a while. Personally, I don’t know how Liam expected that to work as an
excuse for Vanessa not being around since for all we know Vanessa is dead and
will never be seen again. Although, for the record I’m thinking that Vanessa
will miraculously show up alive at some point.
Liam was forced
to once again lie about Vanessa’s whereabouts when an FBI agent named Eugene
who was played by General Hospital’s Jason Thompson visited him. I have to say
that it was a real treat to see Jason on 90210 since he’s one of my favorite
actors from General Hospital. Although, for the record I’m not a very loyal
viewer of the show since I hate how much the show has focused mainly on
storylines involving the Sonny Corinthos and the mob for years now. If I wanted
to watch a TV show dealing with the mob, I would watch The Sopranos, but I
don’t. I’ve pretty much realized that if I want to watch a hospital, I should
just stick to Grey’s Anatomy, which is another one of my favorite shows, but I
digress.
Anyway, Liam
basically told Eugene the same story about Vanessa being out of town that he
told Alec. Apparently, Eugene’s daughter follows Liam on Twitter so he knew
that Vanessa was claiming that they were engaged. Liam made a quick comment to
Eugene about how they met when Vanessa hit him with her car last season, and
Eugene pretty much decided that Liam wasn’t involved in anything bad and left
him alone. However, Liam continued to struggle with the guilt about knowing
that Vanessa was dead, or at least he thinks she’s dead.
One of the
reasons why I liked Liam’s storyline in this episode is that it also featured a
little Annie and Liam moment when they were talking about Dixon, and he also
asked if she knew any good lawyers that he could talk to about getting out of
his contract with Vanessa since she had dealt with some lawyers last season
when she was dealing with the dispute that she had with Marla’s family after
Marla left all her money to Annie.
I liked that
part of the episode for several reasons. First off, I liked it because they
mentioned a storyline that happened last season, and the writers have a long
history of dropping storylines from previous seasons, so I always like it when
the writers do acknowledge storylines from previous seasons. The fact that
Adrianna and Silver are back to being the best of friends after everything that
happened with Adrianna switching Silver’s bipolar medication with placebos in
season three, which made Silver hate her for most of season four is an example
of that. If you watched this episode and you didn’t watch most of season four,
you would never know that Adrianna and Silver had ever had a falling out. The
other reason why I liked that part of the episode is because I’m a huge Lannie
shipper. I really hope that Liam and Annie get back together at some point this
season, and this time I want them to stay together for an extended period of
time. I’m so sick of Annie and Liam getting together only to break up an
episode or two later.
I also liked how
they tied the resolution of Dixon’s storyline in the episode to the resolution
of Liam’s storyline. After Dixon told him that he realized he couldn’t let the
car accident hang over his head forever, Liam decided that he needed to go to
the police and tell them what had happened to Vanessa, because the lawyer that
he met with about getting out of his contract with Vanessa told him that it’s
possible that someone in his situation could go to jail for manslaughter.
However, when he went the police station to talk to Eugene, Eugene told him
that he looked into Vanessa past and discovered that she had a major criminal
record as a con artist so she was probably long gone, which led Liam to decide
not to tell him what had happened with Vanessa. Personally, I think the whole
storyline with Liam knowing what really happened to Vanessa is far from over
and it’s going to continue to haunt him for a while. Although, since this is
90210 I wouldn’t put it past the writers to have this storyline end with
Vanessa end this way, because it’s really hard to tell how they are going to
handle the resolution for any storyline on this show.
While I’m on the
subject of Liam, I have to say that I love Matt Lanter’s new haircut in this
episode. I’ve always thought that Matt Lanter is hot, but I thought he looked
especially good looking with his new haircut.
I also thought
that the whole storyline with Annie trying to help Dixon with his recovery was
pretty interesting. Annie was trying to help Dixon with his recovery, and she
ended up butting heads with his physical therapist, Riley, who was also in a
wheelchair. She and Riley disagreed about how Dixon should handle his recovery,
and she didn’t like how hard he was being on Dixon. Annie ended up taking Dixon
to a support group so he could talk to people about what he’s going through,
but things quickly went south when he discovered that the daughter of the truck
driver who hit the car that Dixon and his friends were in was also at the
support group and he quickly left after hearing her story.
When Annie came
back to pick Dixon up from the support group’s meeting, she discovered that he
had left and when she couldn’t figure out where Dixon went she was forced to
turn to Riley for help finding him. After a little bit of searching, they
figured out that Dixon had gone to the pier, which is where he had been
planning to go meet Adrianna the day of the accident since Riley realized that
he was probably finally processing what happened to him. Riley talked to him
and told him that he needs to stop acting like a victim. He even provoked Dixon
into getting out of his wheelchair.
After Dixon and Riley
talked, Dixon went back to the support group and told the girl about him being
in the car that her dad hit and that her father was a good man. I have say that
I thought the whole thing with the daughter of the truck driver going to the
exact same support group meeting as Dixon went to was rather contrived. I
suppose something like could happen in real life, but I thought their
conversation was a little weird since he never even met her father. Dixon also
participated in the West Beverly Hills High School surf team alumni event with
Liam’s help, which helped cheer Dixon help. I for one like that Liam helped
Dixon with that. Liam sure is a good guy, if you ask me.
I have say that
I’m confused about Dixon’s injury. In the season premiere, I thought they made
it sound like he was permanently paralyzed, but in this episode it sounded like
Dixon will probably be able to walk again one day with physical therapy. Knowing
the writers, they will probably have Dixon become a major marathon runner by
the end of the season, and the whole thing with Dixon being in a wheelchair at
the beginning of the season will be nothing but a very vague memory, because
that’s the kind of thing they do on 90210.
The writers
seemed to hint at a possible romance between Annie and Riley in this episode,
and I have to say that I do think that they have some chemistry. I really liked
the scene where Riley talks about how everyone believes that he went to Afghanistan
to be in the army and that he’s a war hero, but in reality he wasn’t in the army.
Apparently, he was offered a lot of money to do construction there and one
night he got drunk and decided to race some guys back to where they were staying
only to get in a car accident and ended being paralyzed. I can definitely see
Annie and Riley becoming a couple later this season, but I’m still rooting for
Annie and Liam to get back together since I’m a major Lannie shipper.
I have to say
that sometimes I feel like the writers of 90210 take a baseball bat to the
concept of reality and smash it until it’s nothing but dust, and there’s a lot
of things about the storylines that are going on right now that don’t make very
much, if any sense. First off, there’s the fact that Dixon miraculously ended
up being the sole survivor of the car accident that he was in last season, and
the semi truck crashed right into the side of the car that Dixon was on. That
to me just defies all logic, kind of like how in the world of Power Rangers
they act like the moon has breathable atmosphere. Even more ridiculous, on
Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy they once had one of the Power Rangers floating in
space unmorphed, not wearing any kind of space suit for that matter, and yet he
was still alive. Yes, I’m more than happy to admit that I’m twenty-five years
old and I still love Power Rangers. Although, when I watched it as a kid I just
watched it without nitpicking at how silly and outrageous it can be at times,
and I simply enjoyed it. When I watch Power Rangers now, I watch it mostly for
the sake of nostalgia and good fun. However, at the same time I can’t help but
critique it at times in my head, which is something I do when I’m watching
pretty much any TV show. That’s part of why I started blogging about my
thoughts on TV shows in the first place, but I digress.
When comes to
the writing for 90210 being fairly unrealistic next, there’s Liam who went from
buying The Offshore when he was drunk in the season four premiere to becoming a
model to becoming a movie star all by the end of the season. Not only did Liam
become a movie star, but also the first movie that he was ever in was an
instant success and was immediately picked up for a sequel. Let me just say
that it’s been a few months since I last watched season four, and my memory is
a little fuzzy on all of the exact details about how Liam’s acting career came
to be, but based on what I do remember about Liam’s storyline last season the
whole thing started with the commercial that he did for The Offshore. I
remember his acting in the commercial was god awful, and the commercial was
pretty much only good enough to air on TV after a lot of very clever editing on
Silver’s part. I also remember Liam having very little if any interest in
pursuing a modeling career or an acting career, but for some inexplicable
reason he managed to impress people enough to cast him in lead role of a
science fiction movie that became an instant success, which he still didn’t
care too much about. I saw a clip from the next episode where Liam is acting
like a real diva and he doesn’t seem to have any objections to his acting
career now when he and the other guys go camping. Yeah, consistency is not one
of the writers’ strong suits. Both the characters and their storylines are
constantly going all over the place. It can definitely be very random and
frustrating at times, and yet 90210 is one of my favorite TV shows.
Naomi’s
storyline in this episode was somewhat interesting, but I have to say that I it
was my least favorite storyline in the episode. Naomi was determined to become
friends with Max’s business partner, Alec, so she tricked him into meeting her
on a yacht so they could spend time together. Things started off a little rocky
between them, but they soon discovered that they both used to go to the
boardwalk on Balboa Peninsula in order to play when they were kids. Alec also
won a silver unicorn that Naomi had always wanted at an arcade, but the day
quickly went south after Alec kissed her, causing Naomi to run off.
Naomi started to
panic about how to handle the situation given what happened between her and
Austin when she had been dating Max last season. She was afraid that he would
never trust her again and that their marriage would be over. Naomi told Alec
that she needed to tell Max about the kiss and he told her that he would let
her tell Max about it in her own time. Although, as soon as they were done
talking they showed Alec looking at pictures of him and Naomi kissing, so he
obviously set it up so someone would take pictures of them kissing. My guess is
that he’s planning to try and use the pictures to trick Max into believing that
Naomi initiated the kiss so he’ll divorce Naomi. I hope that doesn’t happen,
because out of all the guys that Naomi has dated throughout the show’s run Max
is definitely my favorite.
Navid was M.I.A.
from this episode, and to be honest, I can’t say that I missed him either,
because I didn’t. I actually didn’t even realize that he wasn’t in the episode
until after I watched the episode for third time. Personally, I think that
Navid has been very annoying so far this season. I can’t stand watching him
whine about how he’s rich and thinks he’s a great catch, but he still doesn’t
have a girlfriend. Now he’s saying that he’s done being Mr. Nice Guy, which
really is annoying as hell, but at the same time I am somewhat interested in
seeing where things go with Navid this season.
One thing that
I’ve found myself thinking about a fair amount so far this season is the fact
that there has been no mention of Ivy now that she has been written off the
show. I wish I could say that I was surprised about that, but I’m not. Writing
a character off the show and never mentioning them again as if they never even
existed is pretty much par for the course when it comes to 90210 at this point.
I know that Trevor Donovan hasn’t been a series regular since the beginning of
season four, but I’m still mad that they made him a recurring guest-star again
and kept Gillian Zinser around as a series regular. If you ask me, Ivy had
potential to be an interesting character in theory when they introduced her in
season two, because she was a surfer like the guys and she wasn’t girly girly
like Annie, Naomi, Silver and Adrianna.
However, because
she wasn’t super feminine like the other girls it was hard for the writers to
have her fit into the other girls’ storylines, which made her feel like a
rather extraneous character in my opinion. Whenever the writers did try to have
her interact with Annie, Naomi, Silver and Adrianna it just felt rather forced
to me, Plus, I always found Ivy’s personality and the way Gillian played the
role to be rather unappealing. The way Ivy usually acted and the way Gillian
Zinser played the part made her come across as a female version Eeyore from
Winnie-the-Pooh. I guess I should just be thankful that they’ve kept Trevor
Donovan around as a recurring guest-star and the writers have continued to
acknowledge Teddy’s existence. Personally, I wish they had never made Gillian
Zinser a series regular in the first place, but at least she’s gone now; better
late than never I guess.
I know it
probably sounds like all I did was constantly mock this episode and the show in
general, but I really did like a lot of things about this episode, and I really
do love 90210. Even with all of its flaws I definitely love 90210 way more than
I’ve liked Gossip Girl for a really long time, but you can read more about my
opinion on the two shows in this post:90210 vs Gossip Girl.
All in all, this
was a really enjoyable episode for the most part. Liam and Silver’s storylines
were definitely the two main highlights of the episode for me. Matt Lanter and
Jessica Stroup both did a great job in this episode, especially Matt Lanter
though. Based on the first three episodes of the season, I have to say that I
think season five has a lot of potential to be a very good season.
That being said,
I give this episode a rating of a B+.
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