Filmsane

I’m not sure if he would have accepted to be a part of the Beverly Hills 902010 reboot or not, but after watching the pilot episode of Fox’s re-imagining of the beloved 90’s teen classic, all I can say is… Thank God Luke Perry is not alive to at least watch this crap.

And the Beverly Hills gang is all here in the long announced reboot. Yup. Even the 90’s wild child Shannen Doherty is in it, and frankly… the reboot is not good. Yeah. There! I’ve said it. The aptly titled BH90210 is yet another lame, desperate attempt from Hollywood to get us hooked on relics of the past solely thanks to the 90’s nostalgia that’s been rampant in the past few years.

What’s to look forward to in the reboot? Well, the same actors from the original series just 30 or so years older. Some of them are in their early 60’s, and with desperate attempts to look decades younger. Probably the most tragic in terms of looks is Tori Spelling but the rest of them are not lookers either. And what’s the purpose of the reboot you might ask? Well, each of the 7 remaining actors play a fictionalized (almost Meta version) of themselves. In the very first episode, they all gather together for a fan convention. And as it goes on, and after a series of hijinks, they begin to contemplate getting back together to make a reboot of the show that made them famous.

And I have to give it to them. They’re willing to laugh at their expanse and to distort even their reality. For instance, Brian Austin Green is married to Megan Fox in real life. But here in the reboot, he’s married to an African-American singer named Shay (played by La La Anthony). Go figure that one out! The rest of them are all willing to admit their failed careers, their failed (or failing) marriages and their failing bank accounts that’s its kind of funny and pathetic at the same time.

Let’s face it… This is their last desperate attempt to cash in some money, to get back to the public eye (even for a little bit) before Fox pulls the plug too. Aside from the self-deprecating humor aimed at their failing careers (and not that stellar private lives), there’s not that much humor in any other place. The reboot is not clever, witty, sharp or interesting, and the world is now realizing that the actors are not that good of actors anyway. Oh and about Luke….  I’m not even happy in the way Luke’s death was addressed and don’t get me started on the lack of imagination regarding the intro. It’s the same!. You’d think that when you’re trying for a different angle, the intro would also differ from the previous one.

But the thing is… The show in its present format doesn’t know what it wants to be. And that is it’s biggest offence. It doesn’t know its audience and it’s confusing even to the audience that grew up with the original series. That’s me BTW. The original series was sometimes melodramatic, sometimes confusing but it had a clear picture of what it wanted to be. Which is not the case with the reboot.

I’m going to pass BH90210. Maybe the Frasier reboot is going to be somewhat better.