Return to "90210"

It's the event of the admittedly unexciting fall season.  The return of "Beverly Hills 90210."  As a faithful devotee of the original series (at least until the appearance of "Dawson's Creek" moved my attention elsewhere), I am on pins and needles awaiting the premiere of the CW's reboot.  However, a small cloud darkens my hopes that the new series could ever dream of taking the place of one of the defining series of the '90s.

Yes, Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty are returning to the halls of West Beverly to give the original "90210" viewers a scrap or two to hold on to.  And yes, the media has gone crazy reviving the hype of a show that was past it's prime 5 years before it went off the air.  The New York Times even devoted a full article (which seems a little whitewashed in my opinion) to the phenomenom that was "90210."  But early reports have me thinking that the new series will be lacking the one ingredient that set the original Beverly Hills brats apart from the other teenage shows - a heart.

What made the original show so easily relatable to tweens and teenagers of the '90s was the fact that these kids (however wooden their delivery) were experiencing the same problems that we all experience, only to a slightly heightened extreme.  They dealt with issues of teen pregnancy, drug abuse, STDs, teenage sexuality, death, depression and more honestly and openly.  Yes, they drove Porsches and belonged to country clubs, but they were also real kids with real problems.

I'm not seeing that same reality from the new cast.  They're all beautiful people in the mold of "Gossip Girl" and there seems little hope of getting any afterschool special episodes that don't involve doing heavy drugs and having promiscuous sex.  There will never be another leading man as righteous as Jason Priestley.  Never a bad girl as relatively harmless as Shannen Doherty, or a snob turned good girl as angelic as Jennie Garth.  And no matter how many imitations come down the pike, there will never be so troubled a bad boy with sideburns as long as Luke Perry's.

So, yes, I've already added the new "90210" to my TiVO, but I'm keeping my expectations in check.  Here's hoping that the new kids prove me wrong.  But I'm betting in the case of "90210," you can't go home again.