Television series

Beverly Hills, 90210

Name: Beverly Hills, 90210
Genre: Drama, Romance
Released: 1990
Cast: Brian Austin Green, Tori Spelling, Ian Ziering, Jennie Garth, Jason Priestley

Coming-of-age

Beverly Hills, 90210 is a soap opera dressed in designer jeans, tracking a friend group through high school, college, and beyond as they face drugs, heartbreak, and the peculiar misery of being beautiful and wealthy. It's earnest and unintentionally funny in equal measure. If you love ensemble drama with genuine stakes and don't mind the melodrama, this defined '90s television.

TVMaze rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love soapy, big-hearted teen melodrama where friendships are tested by every romance and crisis, and you don't mind a show that goes all in on its emotions and its 90s wardrobe.

Skip it if you want restrained, grounded storytelling; the tone swings hard between earnest, melodramatic and sometimes preachy, and the plotting can feel stretched over its very long run.

What it asks of you: Ten seasons and nearly three hundred hour-long episodes, so it's a commitment; you settle in week after week rather than binge a tight arc, and the drama rarely lets up.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Dawson's Creek1998

Another generational touchstone about young people navigating friendship, romance, and identity with wit and emotional intelligence. It shares 90210's soap opera DNA but tightens the storytelling and leans harder into character chemistry.

But If you find self-aware dialogue and pretty actors angsting about their feelings exhausting, this will test your patience. The show's earnestness can curdle into self-parody.

Riverdale2017

A spiritual successor that takes the high school ensemble format and layers on mystery, darkness, and genuine danger. It's what happens when someone remakes 90210 for an audience that wants Twin Peaks instead of after-school special.

But The plot twists become increasingly absurd and the tone whiplashes between teen romance and murder conspiracy. If you need coherent storytelling, stay away.

One Tree Hill2003

A basketball-inflected drama about small-town North Carolina kids growing up together. It captures that same 90210 alchemy of genuine character arcs, group dynamics, and the luxury of time to develop relationships over seasons.

But The early seasons are strong but it runs nine years and overstays its welcome. The later plotlines become increasingly contrived and soapy in the worst sense.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Beverly Hills, 90210

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

thirtysomething1987

Both track the same core dramatic engine: a friend group trying to stay close as life pulls them apart. 90210 is what thirtysomething looks like compressed into youth; watching the original shows you the lineage and what got streamlined.

The spiritual predecessor 90210 grew out of: a group of friends in their thirties maintaining relationships while adult life—marriage, parenthood, careers, mortality—gets in the way. It proves the ensemble format works across decades. Essential viewing to understand what 90210 was trying to do.

But It's slower, more literary, and genuinely sad. The 80s aesthetic will feel dated. If you want plot momentum and romance rather than existential introspection, this will feel pretentious.

The O.C.2003

Glamorous California setting, wealthy teens, explosive romance, and an outsider dropped into an elite social world. It has 90210's polish and emotional stakes but compressed into four tight seasons that know when to exit.

But The later seasons collapse under the weight of increasingly ridiculous plots. The show peaked early and the decline is visible.

Melrose Place1992

A spin-off world that shares 90210's DNA but trades high school for a grown-up apartment complex and goes substantially darker. It's campier, meaner, and often more fun—a soap opera unafraid of its own excess.

But The absurdity builds until it becomes hard to take seriously. If you want coherent character logic, you won't find it here by season three.

Popular1999

A high school ensemble comedy-drama that deconstructs the social hierarchies 90210 took straight. Smart, funny, and genuinely caring about its characters while also skewering the genre relentlessly.

But Cancelled after two seasons, so the ending feels abrupt. The tone is lighter than 90210, which might disappoint if you want heavy drama.

Gossip Girl2007

Upper-class New York teens, byzantine relationship drama, and a mysterious narrator. It's 90210 turned up to eleven—more elaborate, more savage, more committed to chaos and melodrama.

But The show prioritizes plot twists over character consistency, and by the end it collapses under its own narrative weight. The wealth can feel alienating rather than compelling.

Everwood2002

A grief-stricken family drama about a teenager processing his mother's death. It has 90210's earnestness about teen emotion but treats pain as the serious, transformative thing it actually is.

But It's much darker and more genuinely tragic than 90210. If you want escapism and romance, this will hit differently than expected.

My So-Called Life1994

Shorter and sharper than 90210, it captures high school authenticity with a mix of comedy and real stakes. Cult classic that influenced everything that came after, with genuine emotional truth beneath the drama.

But Only one season, so there's no payoff to long-form arcs. The show's strength is capturing moments rather than sustained narrative.

My Own Private Idaho1991

Both are obsessed with youth, friendship, and the fragility of those bonds, but Van Sant's film asks: what happens to the kids who don't have Beverly Hills to catch them? It's the 90210 story told about kids with nothing instead of kids with everything.

Gus Van Sant's masterpiece about male prostitutes and homelessness, featuring a young River Phoenix in career-best work. It's formally experimental, emotionally devastating, and interested in the lives of the young and abandoned rather than the young and privileged.

But It's sexually explicit, deals with addiction and exploitation, and refuses easy catharsis. The narrative structure is fragmentary. It's a very different film from 90210 in almost every way except subject matter.

Fast Color2019

Both are ultimately about what binds women together—mother-daughter and friend groups as the connective tissue of emotional life. 90210 dramatizes female friendship through crisis; Fast Color makes that same instinct the engine of speculative storytelling.

A science fiction family drama about a woman with supernatural abilities reconnecting with her mother and daughter across generations. It's intimate, visually stunning, and trades high school drama for something stranger and deeper.

But It's meditative and slow, with minimal exposition and a genre framework that might feel unnecessarily oblique. The ending is ambiguous. If you want clear answers or fast-paced plot, it will frustrate you.