I have a deep love for this show. I remember it aired at the same time as Gossip Girl, which was huge in comparison. Granted, it was a better show, but something about 90210 made me love it more.
The positives are: it's witty, the actors are good and there's tons of drama, even though it gets very teeny and overdramatic a lot of the times. On the flip side, it's often very intruiging with some juicy and dark storylines, scandals and plot twists. The negatives are that so many of the problems the characters have are often based soly on really stupid misunderstandings, and some storylines are beyond ridiculous you end up skipping them. Some storylines don't even have a conclusion, and it's pretty annoying.
To me, Annalynne McCord is the absolute star of the show, and she's honestly too good for it. Her character, Naomi Clark makes the whole show worth watching for me, she's incredible. I also really like Shenae Grimes aka Annie. They both have the most character development and are the most interesting characters with a great chemistry and very entertaining feuds that comes and goes.
The show has a rocky first season, still with some great moments, but season 2-3 is when the show really found its footing and shined. Then it kind of goes off the rails again with really stupid storylines, but my favorite characters are still worth watching.
It is what it is, it's teeny and ridiculous and soapy, but they really lean into it in a way that it doesn't take itself too seriously, so you can just have fun with it.
