After taking a couple weeks
to reflect on the series finale, I have to say that it definitely turned out a
lot better than I was expecting it to be. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but
then again the producers weren’t exactly given much warning by the network that
90210 wasn’t going to be renewed for a sixth and final season. Plus, it sounds like
most of what ended up being the series finale had already been filmed by the
time they found out that the show was canceled, so the producers did the best
they could given the circumstances. If I haven’t already made it clear in my
previous reviews for 90210, I’ve always been somewhat willing to cut the show
some slack given the number of times the show changed showrunners over the
years, which is something that started way back when the show was merely in the
development stage.
That being said, I definitely
think the writers should have seen the writing on the wall and planned this episode
as an episode that could serve as a season finale if the show were to have been
renewed for a sixth season, but at the same time give the viewers enough
closure if the show were to be canceled, which is what ended up being the case.
For the most part, I’m okay with how things ended for most of the characters.
The thing that I’m happiest about is the fact that the series ended with Liam
and Annie not only getting back together, but also getting engaged. Personally,
I would have liked the series to have ended with them getting married, but
having them get engaged at the end of the series is definitely the next best
thing. The other thing that I’m very happy about is the fact that the series
ended with Adrianna and Navid getting back together, which if I’m being honest
isn’t something that I viewed as being one of my biggest hopes for the end of
the series until a few episodes ago when Adrianna and Navid once again hooked
up.
As for the things that
disappointed me about the finale, one the things that I found a little
disappointing is the fact Adrianna and Navid spent most of the episode buried
under a pile of rubble from the explosion in the previous episode waiting to be
rescued. However, the episode began with Adrianna being the only who was
trapped under all the debris, but once Navid realized that she was still in the
room where the roof essentially collapsed on her and that it would be a while
before the rescue workers would be able to see if she was okay, he went to find
her on his own.
Navid found Adrianna, and in
typical 90210 fashion, she was okay with the exception of her leg suffering
from a minor injury. Although, they both ended up becoming trapped in some of
the debris after the debris shifted, which led to them talking about their
relationship. Adrianna initially told Navid that she views him as being the guy
that she’s meant to spend the rest of her life with, and that she wanted to
take things slow this time around, which Navid agreed was a good idea. However,
after they found out that there was a gas leak, she said that she didn’t want
to take things slow if they survived their current predicament. Navid once
again instantly agreed with Adrianna saying that they would get a place right
away and not waste any more time. Good, god! Is the word “slow” even in the
writers’ vocabulary? Are they at all familiar with the concept of taking
things slowly? They’ve always done everything way too quickly on this show,
especially when it comes to the pacing of relationships and storylines in
general, and that’s definitely always been one of the show’s biggest flaws.
Perhaps nobody ever told the writers about the expression “Slow and steady wins
the race”.
Anyway, Adrianna was freed
from the rubble and was being treated by paramedics when some of the debris
once again shifted, which caused Adrianna to momentarily believe that Navid was
dead and she became hysterical, saying that they were supposed to grow old
together. Of course this being 90210, that moment literally lasted for just one
second before some paramedics wheeled Navid into the room on a stretcher, and
from the looks of things he only suffered some extremely minor, if any,
injuries. The writers sure do love to create false drama on this show, don’t
they? The paramedics said they wanted to take Navid to the hospital to be
examined though. The others wanted to go with Adrianna and Navid to the
hospital to be with them, but Adrianna said that they would be fine on their
own since they had each other. As Adrianna and Navid were driving off into
the sunset riding off in the ambulance, Naomi called out to them, saying to
make lots of love. Good lord, Naomi, have some discretion when you’re out in
public.
Naomi spent most of the
episode trying to rehabilitate her image after she took the fall for Jordan’s
sister and the whole situation with Prince Harry. Apparently, people didn’t
want to hire her because of what they think she did with Prince Harry. Naomi
being Naomi thought that maybe people would think that she’s a good person if
she simply handed out some bottles of water. As Naomi and Annie were talking
about how her reputation might end up being ruined like Monica Lewinsky’s was
after her whole affair with Bill Clinton, Naomi decided to throw a big rescue
relief event in an attempt to make her look like a good person.
Since the writers seem to
think that Naomi lives in some kind of fantasy world where she has an unlimited
about of money, allowing her to spend thousands of dollars at the drop of a hat
without a second thought and instantly plan big parties, Naomi was able to pull
together her entire rescue relief event complete with t-shirts that had her
face on them and a performance by the Goo Goo Dolls. I have no idea how the
writers expect the viewers to buy pretty much anything that Naomi has ever done
throughout the show’s run. I also couldn’t help, but laugh when Naomi told
Jordan that she wishes that they could just jump on a private plane and go to
Cabo “like normal people”. That line pretty much confirmed my belief that Naomi
is living in a fantasy world, because that’s not something that most normal
people do, because most people don’t have an unlimited amount of money like
Naomi seems to have.
Apparently, Navid is a huge
fan of the Goo Goo Dolls and was extremely disappointed that he was missing
their performance due to the fact that he and Adrianna were trapped in the
rubble. At one point, several of the rescue workers informed Annie that the Goo
Goo Dolls’ concert event that Naomi was throwing was actually preventing them
from being able to rescue the people who had been injured, and Naomi quickly
put a stop to the concert by unplugging the band’s musical instruments. We didn’t
see everything that happened after that, but Annie and Naomi had a nice talk
where Naomi said that she agreed to do a news story about Prince Harry in order
to refund everybody’s ticket money since she had been approached about doing a
story in the news earlier in the episode. Annie told Naomi that she was indeed
a nice person after she said that she was going to donate the money they made
from her benefit to the Red Cross. I have to say that I really liked that scene
given the numerous ups and downs that their friendship had throughout the
show’s run.
Jordan’s mother, Cheryl,
showed up at one point in the episode, saying that Naomi going to the press
about Prince Harry had apparently served as the motivation he needed to get
some help for his problems. Apparently, Prince Harry’s father wanted to meet
Naomi since she’s the one who helped Harry realize that he needs help. Naomi
and Jordan agreed to go along with her request as long as she lets them be
together and not cause problems between them in the future.
The thing that was perhaps
the most upsetting about the way the series ended was the fact that Silver
found out that she has breast cancer. That’s definitely a pretty depressing
note to end the series on for Silver, but obviously the producers were hoping
to continue that storyline if had 90210 been renewed for a sixth season. It was
especially ridiculous that her doctor told her that she does indeed have cancer
on the phone. A doctor would never do that in real life, but this is 90210
we’re talking about here. The writers don’t come across as trying very hard to
have the writing for the show seem realistic. The thing that bothered me the
most about Silver having cancer is the fact that at one point in the episode
Silver stole some pills from some paramedics, apparently contemplating
committing suicide. I get that finding out that she has breast cancer must be
devastating and that her mom died from breast cancer, but I think it’s a little
drastic on the writers’ part to have Silver’s immediate reaction to being diagnosed
with cancer be to contemplate committing suicide. I know that her struggle with
having bipolar disorder has caused her to have periods of mental instability,
but considering the fact that her bipolar disorder is under control with the
help of medication, Silver’s reaction to being diagnosed with breast cancer
definitely doesn’t paint her as being a mentally and emotionally stable person.
However, after she talked to
Dixon and she told him she has cancer, while also lamenting the fact that
Michaela had lost the baby, Dixon told her that he, along with all of her other
friends would be there for her to help her get through her battle with cancer.
He also pointed out that she could always adopt children, joking that she could
end up adopting a good kid, or she could end up with a kid like him, implying
that he kind of views himself as being a bad person. However, Silver told him
that she would be very lucky to have a son who was like him, and after Dixon
left she threw away the pills and called her doctor to tell her that she wanted
to schedule the surgeries and do everything she can to beat the cancer.
Personally, I thought that some of the dialogue during their conversation was a
little creepy considering the fact that they used to date, but I guess I can
kind of understand the sentiment behind what Silver said. I just think the
writers could have written that scene in a different way so it wouldn’t have
had the mildly incestuous vibe that I got from watching it.
Liam was still planning to
move to Australia with Sydney, saying that it was the best thing for everybody,
while Annie was obviously still stuck on Liam, but kept saying that they were
over. Despite the fact that Liam had lied to both Annie and Sydney about the
fact that he had tracked down Old Salty and gotten him to sign the papers,
Sydney found the papers that Old Salty had signed, which prompted her to call
him out on his lies and told him that he needed to finish reading Annie’s book.
That part really confused me
since Liam had told Annie a few episodes ago that he was reenacting a part from
chapter twenty-three of her book with two girls. Annie’s book doesn’t look all
that long to me, so unless those girls just told him about a part of the book
that he hadn’t read, I don’t understand how the book could have twenty-three
chapters and yet Liam still hadn’t finished it, but I’m probably being too
nitpicky about that.
While all of that was going
on, Annie was getting ready to leave for Paris on a private jet with Naomi and
Jordan. Annie was obviously still having second thoughts about moving to Paris
for good, which prompted Naomi and Annie to have another nice talk about the
importance of friendship and Naomi told Annie that she thought Liam was being
an idiot for not wanting to be with her. Annie said that she thought that Paris
was a great place and that she’s sure that she’ll be happy there. While I
thought that was a nice scene, it kind of bothered me that they didn’t mention
the fact that Debbie lives in Paris with Ryan and Jen, but then again, this 90210
where the writers constantly ignored the existence of characters that had been
on the show in the past.
After Annie and Naomi
finished talking, they boarded the plane with Jordan when Liam showed up on his
motorcycle, driving right in front of the plane just as it was getting ready to
take off. Annie had them stop the plane so she could get off the plane and talk
to Liam. Liam told her that he finished reading her book and that he didn’t
care how hard things may be between at times, he wants to be with her and that
he wants to be the guy that she made him in her book. Liam then proceeded to
get down on one knee and propose to her, saying that it was “romantic as hell”
so he wouldn’t take no for answer this time, and I have to say that I agree. It
was pretty romantic, but personally I thought that his second attempt at asking
Annie to marry him in the season four premiere was really romantic too. Annie
accepted Liam’s marriage proposal as Naomi and Jordan watched happily. The
series finale came to an end with Dixon, Silver, Adrianna and Navid all getting
a picture message on their phones informing them that Liam and Annie just got
engaged, while Liam and Annie continued to kiss.
While I am disappointed that
the show was canceled, I feel like the viewers really dodged a bullet after
reading about the producers’ plans for a potential sixth season. Apparently,
they had been planning to do a time jump about six years into the future, which
I might have been fine with for the most part, except for the fact that they
were going to have Liam and Naomi get married at some point during the years
that they would have skipped over. I’m not simply opposed to the idea of Liam
and Naomi being a couple because I’m a major Lannie shipper and I want Liam and
Annie to be together, I’m against it mostly because I always found Liam and
Naomi extremely boring as a couple once they got together in season two.
Once Liam and Naomi got
together in season two after Naomi learned the truth about Jen tricking Liam
into sleeping with her in the season one finale, that to me is when the writers
really watered down the character Liam and sort of ditched the whole idea of
Liam being a rebellious bad boy. The fact that the writers essentially ditched
the idea of Liam being a “bad boy” and instead basically turned him into a guy
who’s generally a good person, but unfortunately finds himself constantly being
screwed over by people is something that always confused me. Perhaps I’m
mistaken, but I always thought that the reason the writers added the character
Liam to the show was because he was supposed to be what I think the writers had
originally wanted to do with the character Ethan, but they realized that while
Dustin Milligan was a good actor, he wasn’t the right fit to be playing a
character who’s supposed to be the biggest ladies man at West Beverly High
School and a bit of a bad boy, but I digress. I simply have absolutely no desire
to see a repeat of Liam and Naomi’s snooze fest of a relationship. Besides,
after season two the writers did absolutely nothing to acknowledge the fact
that Liam and Naomi had once been a couple, so having them get back together,
let alone married, would have just been way too random, even for 90210.
One last thing that I would
like to comment on is the fact that if there was one overlapping theme that ran
throughout the series finale, it would be friendship and how important friends
can be to a person whenever they are going through a difficult time. For
example, despite being in a dangerous situation, Adrianna’s first thought was
that it was good that Michaela wasn’t the one who was in her situation since
she hadn’t found out about Michaela losing Silver’s baby at that point. When
Adrianna did find out about Michaela and the baby, she put aside her own
situation for a moment to call Silver to offer her condolences despite all of
the drama that had been going on between them regarding Mark. When Silver told
Dixon that she has cancer, he told her that he and all of her friends would be
there for her throughout the whole situation. Plus, as I mentioned earlier,
Annie and Naomi had several nice talks in the episode about how important their
friends are to each other, and Annie also pointed out that despite all of her
(Naomi) flaws, she’s a good person and her friends know that. The fact that the
theme of friendship played a big part in the series finale is one of the things
that I love about this episode.
All things considered, the
series finale definitely turned out a lot better than I had been expecting
given the fact that the producers hadn’t been told that 90210 wouldn’t be
getting another season until after most of this episode had apparently been
shot. It sounds like they did get some extra time to make some minor changes to
the episode though, but I don’t know how much this episode differs from the
producers’ original plans for the episode back when they thought the show might
still get renewed for another season.
The most disappointing thing
about the way the series ended for me was that Silver found out that she has
cancer, and yet the viewers won’t get to see how that storyline plays out. The
storyline was still able to end on a somewhat optimistic note though, and the
writers also seemed to be hinting at the possibility of Dixon and Silver
getting back together, which would have been interesting to see, if you ask me.
The fact that Naomi ended up
with Jordan is definitely the other most disappointing thing about the way the
series ended, and AnnaLynne McCord has made it clear that she wanted Naomi to
end up with Max. AnnaLynne even made a video of the ending that she would have
liked Naomi to have, which I think is cool, because it really shows how much
she cares about the show’s fans. A part of me would definitely have liked to
see Naomi end up with Max, but at the same time, if I’m being really honest,
I’m not all that surprised that their marriage didn’t work out. When Naomi and
Max first became a couple, one of the things that I liked the most about their
relationship is that I feel like it gave Naomi a lot more depth as a character,
and she didn’t seem as shallow as I had previously thought she was considering
the fact that Max was supposed to be considered a nerd. Although, I never
thought that he was all that much of a nerd to begin with.
However, as time went on, I
began to believe more and more that Naomi and Max aren’t compatible enough with
each other for them to have a truly long lasting relationship, let alone
marriage. After all, Max is a very smart guy with a lot of ambition when it
comes to her career and comes across as being very mature, while Naomi’s
ambitions have more to do with elevating and maintaining her social status. She
can also be very shallow and self-centered, but as Annie pointed out, she still
has a lot of good qualities and is ultimately a good person. Honestly, I’m
surprised that Naomi and Max’s marriage lasted as long as it did, especially
knowing how prone the writers are to quickly breaking couples up and pairing
them up with someone else. As much as the hopeless romantic in me would have
liked to see Naomi end up with Max, I’m actually kind of glad that she didn’t
end up with Max considering the fact that they are fairly incompatible. I just
wish Naomi hadn’t ended up with somebody who’s as boring as Jordan is.
While I think it kind of
sucks that Adrianna and Navid spent most of the episode trapped in the rubble, their
scenes together were still thoroughly enjoyable, and they were definitely one
of the main highlights of the episode for me. I’m really happy that Adrianna
and Navid ended up together. The fact that I’m so happy about that really
surprises me, because I felt like the writers kind of ruined their relationship
in season three to the point where I didn’t really have any desire to see them
get back together until they actually hooked up again several episodes before
the series finale. I think the reason why that is because everything Adrianna did
in season three, both in terms of how she treated Navid when they were still
dating, and then switching Silver’s medication with placebos really made forget
about the idea of them ending up together. I hated Adrianna for a long time
after that, but I do think that Adrianna has redeemed herself since then, and
it’s not like Silver has been the best friend in the world to her or anyone
else on the show for that matter.
The fact that Liam and Annie
ended up getting in engaged is definitely without a doubt the thing that I
loved the most about the series finale. Ideally I would have liked the series
to end with Liam and Annie getting married, but having them get engaged at the
end of the series is definitely the next best thing.
That being said, I give the
series finale a rating of a B+.
No comments :
Post a Comment