Because the producers of BH90210-a team that includes all seven stars-understand that a straightforward continuation of the original teen drama just wouldn’t work in 2019. A swing toward horror in the second episode just feels like overkill.īut for the most part, this mayhem works. A few undoubtedly heartfelt tributes to Perry land as non sequiturs when slotted in next to, in one case, a scene where Ian’s wife accidentally FaceTimes him while rolling around in bed with another man. While it’s mostly a tight, soapy satire of a decadent industry-the audiovisual equivalent of a beach read that’s smarter than it needs to be-it sometimes gets sentimental. The tone of BH90210 is bizarre, in other words. Still persona non grata among this crew, Shannen opts to teleconference into the reunion. Not that anyone else’s relationship is thriving. Jennie, who’s been married three times in real life, is facing a breakup. In a nod to the fact that she was cast as teenage Andrea Zuckerman at 29, SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris plays a new grandma. (The real-life Green’s actual much-younger wife is actor Megan Fox.) Sharknado star Ian Ziering’s doppelganger is more sentient brand than human. Brian Austin Green has been eclipsed by his much-younger pop star wife. Sometime filmmaker Jason Priestley punches out a young actor who refuses to take acting advice from the man best known as Brandon Walsh on the set of a superhero show he’s directing. This version of Tori Spelling, who like her namesake has been open about her marital and inheritance woes, is desperate for money when the network cancels her latest reality show. As they converge in Las Vegas for the anniversary, each star gets a backstory that spoofs their real life.
But it’s probably going to be weird as hell.Įven more than your typical Peak TV nostalgia trip, this is a show for the fans-ones who not only watched all 304 episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, but also follow the cast in the tabloids.
You can go home again, this fun, if uneven, satire allows. The surviving alums-including Doherty, who doesn’t share any scenes with her co-stars in the two episodes provided to critics-play exaggerated versions of themselves, gamely acknowledging that their careers remain circumscribed by the shallow roles that made them famous. It’s both a timely sendup and another example of anachronistic, cash-grab comebacks in the Fuller House vein.
7 on Fox, the six-episode limited series BH90210 (not to be confused with the five-season reboot from 2008, in which Spelling, Garth and Doherty all had recurring roles) isn’t exactly a sequel to the late mega-producer Aaron Spelling’s hit primetime soap about eight attractive teens growing up in one of America’s most exclusive zip codes.