Beverly Hills 90210

You can take 90210, yes indeed. You can take it and you can keep it because the original Beverly Hills 90210 was where it's at. This came along at an age where I should have known better but that has never stopped me and never will.

The revamped 90210 sums up everything that is wrong with our perfection obsessed culture. The women are painfully skinny and everyone really is just too glamorous. If you look back at the wonderful early seasons of the original 90210 you can see that they had a cast who did not look perfect. Andrea (despite being 32 and way too old for the part) was normal looking. Brenda had a wonky face (as my brother told me many a time - yes, he watched it too) and Walsh ma and pa did actually look like normal human beings. Even Kelly, who was meant to represent the perfect Californian blonde, had a rabbity look to her.

Oh but it was marvellous. BH90210 tackled issues. A particular favourite was Brenda's lump in her breast. Discovered, dealt with and never mentioned again all in 50 minutes. Shannen was my star of 90210 and Brenda was the best character for my money. The show never quite recovered when she left (although naturally I still watched). I know people hate Ms Doherty but I have a soft spot for her. I didn't think Charmed was quite the same after she left that either. Although kudos to Valerie who had one season of being sassy and fun before they gave her issues too.

And the couple of BH90210 was undoubtedly Brenda and Dylan. A close runner up is the Andrea/Brendan romance that never quite happened. But it was all about the Romeo & Juliet love story of B&D that did it for me. Needless to say I loved Dylan. Luke Perry has done nothing of note since but we'll always have his unfeasibly large forehead and his angsty Dylan McKay.

Hands down most annoying and irritating character - Brendan Walsh. Preachy, smug, boring and somehow a pin-up, I never understood the appeal of him. Second most annoying character - Kelly. Oh my god but she was so annoying and whiney. Therefore Brendan and Kelly together was a snoozefest. Tori Spelling was the freakiest character and her breasts almost had a show of their own in later seasons. She did however have the classic 'Donna Martin Graduates!' storyline. You can buy a t-shirt!

There was an innocence to BH90210 that 90210 simply doesn't have. We worship at the altar of Aaron Spelling television - this was one of his finest hours.

I leave you with the opening credits from seasons 2&3 - the best ones. Enjoy!