S08.E01: Aloha, Beverly Hills (Part 1)/S08.E02: Aloha, Beverly Hills (Part 2)

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Hawaii promptly commences trying to kill everyone in the gang.

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We've collected all the most important imagery of 'Aloha Beverly Hills'!

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[TeeVee329]

I mean, I guess I understand what the show was aiming for with Carly - that their relationship would help Steve "grow up" by finding love with this working-class woman and becoming a father figure to her son - but why this show, a nighttime soap, thought having a dumb wiener kid around was a good idea during this transitional period is beyond me.

Also, Steve calls Erin "Erin Taylor"?  Uh, nope.  Jessica Stroup wasn't called Taylor on the reboot.

Tara's glee at Kelly getting shot filled me with the spirit of the season. 

[WhosThatGirl]

My favorite thing of the podcast this week was knowing how this episode ended with Kelly being shot and knowing one of our hosts would chose the shooter as the MVP. Because.. yeah.

[txhorns79]

Quote

I mean, I guess I understand what the show was aiming for with Carly - that their relationship would help Steve "grow up" by finding love with this working-class woman and becoming a father figure to her son - but why this show, a nighttime soap, thought having a dumb wiener kid around was a good idea during this transitional period is beyond me.

It's interesting.  They try something different with Carly, it clearly doesn't work and they then give Steve a variation on Claire with Janet.  Now, don't get me wrong, I recall actually liking Janet, but I did think they did a lot of the same shtick with her that they did with Claire.

[Nanna]

I think I'll call my boss and tell her I'll start work a week later after the holidays. Brandon says it will be alright. Jeez, this show.

[CurlyATX]

Carly... so awful! And now here comes mush-mouth Noah!!

[blueroses]

We’re entering the Vincent Young seasons! I can’t wait until Leland Palmer shows up.

[princelina]

These are so funny!  Please tell me that you will hate Noah as much or more than you hate Brandon and David :)

[SoupThrower]

I for one would like to think that Jason is like Superman. How can his hair be that strong?

[WhosThatGirl]

Also didn’t mention this but this might be the first episode I ever saw of BH 90210? It was a rerun of course but it was senior trip and the tv in the hotel had random channels and this was on and I vaguely knew BH 90210 but I caught this because I remember knowing who TAT was because I also watched reruns of saved by the Bell. But yeah.. I remember sitting in a hotel room watching the opening scene of Val screwing up a copy machine. I don’t think I watched the full episode then but I watched most of it back then. 

[TeeVee329]

On ‎12‎/‎26‎/‎2017 at 7:29 AM, txhorns79 said:

It's interesting.  They try something different with Carly, it clearly doesn't work and they then give Steve a variation on Claire with Janet.  Now, don't get me wrong, I recall actually liking Janet, but I did think they did a lot of the same shtick with her that they did with Claire.

At least Janet got a name that didn't start with C - Celeste, Claire, Carly.

[atlanticslide]

On 12/26/2017 at 3:52 PM, Nanna said:

I think I'll call my boss and tell her I'll start work a week later after the holidays. Brandon says it will be alright. Jeez, this show.

I'm starting a new job next week and I couldn't stop thinking about that as I was listening to this and shaking my head in horror at the very idea. And I'm in my 30s with an actual resume, not 22 and fresh out of college with absolutely no experience. Kelly should be down on her knees thanking god that she has a job this quickly out of college and making sure she doesn't do anything to fuck it up (like blow off her first week so she can jet off to Hawaii), and Brandon should be supporting her as the sole breadwinner in the relationship (and apparently one of the only two breadwinners out of the four people currently living in Casa Walsh). 

Brandon's "how do I get the experience without the job?" Huh, you know, I don't know. Maybe take the job offered to you in your junior year that you turned down like a moron? Or take the offer that Susan made to come work with her on Campaign '96 for [Candidate Withheld] that you blew off because your feelings were hurt? Or talk up the two summers you spent working for that Boston newspaper (otherwise known as: experience)? Or use that stupid fellowship money to go back to school??? 

Brandon being all wistful over Tracy is utterly nonsensical. I'm sure it's just because Emma Caulfield had actual work and Jill Novick had nothing else going on, but if they were going to have Brandon get nostalgic about someone, it should've been Susan. Brandon didn't even really like Tracy when he was dating Tracy. Nothing will convince me that he didn't toss out any pictures or mementos of her five minutes after they broke up. 

There's something really odd with former love interests getting engaged really quickly after breaking up with one of the 90210ers. Celeste broke up with Steve right before Season 5 and then Steve found out a few months later that she'd gotten engaged to a Marine or something (not even to the guy she left Steve for). Ray and Donna broke up before Halloween in Season 6 and then he was engaged when we saw him in April or May of that season. And now Tracy's been broken up with Brandon for max four months and is already engaged. Such a weird trend, it's like marriage is the ultimate pinnacle of success, even if you're 21-years-old, so the writers want to make sure that we know a character who's left the show is doing well by telling us that they're engaged. 

[Jax7917]

The only reason why I could see Brandon being nostalgic about Tracy was because at that point he regretted getting back with Kelly so badly and he realized how drama free his relationship with Tracy would have been . Otherwise , I got nothing 

[Bob Lassiter]

"Not sure how Brandon is supposed to use Steve's Amex for rent...or at all, given that it doesn't have a magnetic strip on the back." -- I didn't realize Blue Cross was issuing credit cards along with their insurance cards in the '90s.

So happy to see Rex again! It's been a while.

[SoupThrower]

22 hours ago, atlanticslide said:

Brandon's "how do I get the experience without the job?" Huh, you know, I don't know. Maybe take the job offered to you in your junior year that you turned down like a moron? Or take the offer that Susan made to come work with her on Campaign '96 for [Candidate Withheld] that you blew off because your feelings were hurt? Or talk up the two summers you spent working for that Boston newspaper (otherwise known as: experience)? Or use that stupid fellowship money to go back to school??? 

Brandon being all wistful over Tracy is utterly nonsensical. I'm sure it's just because Emma Caulfield had actual work and Jill Novick had nothing else going on, but if they were going to have Brandon get nostalgic about someone, it should've been Susan. Brandon didn't even really like Tracy when he was dating Tracy. Nothing will convince me that he didn't toss out any pictures or mementos of her five minutes after they broke up. 

Brandon and not Donna should have had it easiest to get a job. But Donna can't do wrong, so yeah.

To be fair he was thinking of better days with Tracy and has to deal with Kelly. Better days...

I like to think that this season is a timeskip because a lot makes no sense on how they acted when they just got out of college. How old would Carly be then if Steve is supposed to be 21/22?

[yousetmeupyoucrud]

On 12/25/2017 at 10:10 PM, TeeVee329 said:

Also, Steve calls Erin "Erin Taylor"?  Uh, nope.  Jessica Stroup wasn't called Taylor on the reboot.

YES!!! I was just re-listening to this episode and I was like "woah uh no!" 

I remember Danny Drennan's recaps being surprised that Brandon didn't want to work in Appleton, Wisconsin cuz that's where his probable hero Joseph McCarthy is from?

Also funny: Felice was shoe shopping at a store called O'Meyer's? Sounds like a feed store.

Edited December 30, 2017 by yousetmeupyoucrud

[scarynikki12]

I can understand Brandon's frustration to a point.  I'm younger than him and I even had family drilling it into my head that, once out of college, you get a job in your field and begin your life.  I was fortunate to have parents pay for my tuition but they were also stuck in the 70s college student mindset where they both paid for school with summer/part-time jobs and couldn't understand why the part-time job I had didn't cover much more than my books and supplies.  They believed me when I pointed to articles and studies that showed how different things have become since their college days but it's hard for them to wrap their heads around that.  The real world after college can definitely be a rude awakening.

But Brandon's problem, like Tara and Sarah pointed out, is that he actually had many opportunities to fulfill the lifelong expectations, but refused them (since he didn't want to leave LA) and then whined about it.  Don't give him the fellowship, don't give him these entry level journalism jobs, and then his whining would make sense. 

I don't remember, did they say how much time has passed?  I want to say it's been a couple months since last season, which then begs the question: why weren't these fools working this whole time?  Brandon's trying to get a newspaper job in LA and is having trouble, fine.  Donna wants to work in fashion but can't get hired (until Daddy steps in), fine.  But they should be working, if only to pass the time.  This is also one of those stories where the gang (besides Val and Brandon) all having the large trust funds we know exist should have been mentioned.  Then their lack of rush to start jobs after graduation makes sense.  Brandon telling Kelly to blow off her start date, and her later deciding to do it, makes sense.  If they have the financial cushion then they don't feel the urgency that non-trust fund grads feel.  Of course, this is long past the point in the series where they want the gang to be living a glamorous Beverly Hills lifestyle (save for things like offering up family boats to strangers) and want them to seem "normal". 

[benteen]

Brandon getting nostalgic over Tracy is like on Seinfeld when George would get nostalgic over his relationship with Susan.  He's be miserable when they were together but was always desperate to get her back.  Then he would be instantly miserable again.

[Jax7917]

I think Brandon liked the idea of Tracy but just wasn't interested in her . She was sweet , drama free , no baggage .. but the thought of a narcissistic , cheating snob sounded better to him I suppose 

[atlanticslide]

12 hours ago, scarynikki12 said:

I can understand Brandon's frustration to a point.  I'm younger than him and I even had family drilling it into my head that, once out of college, you get a job in your field and begin your life.  I was fortunate to have parents pay for my tuition but they were also stuck in the 70s college student mindset where they both paid for school with summer/part-time jobs and couldn't understand why the part-time job I had didn't cover much more than my books and supplies.  They believed me when I pointed to articles and studies that showed how different things have become since their college days but it's hard for them to wrap their heads around that.  The real world after college can definitely be a rude awakening.

But Brandon's problem, like Tara and Sarah pointed out, is that he actually had many opportunities to fulfill the lifelong expectations, but refused them (since he didn't want to leave LA) and then whined about it.  Don't give him the fellowship, don't give him these entry level journalism jobs, and then his whining would make sense. 

Yeah, it's not an inherently wrong or unrealistic storyline, but someone else should've been the focus of it - have Brandon comfortably continuing his education or getting an offer from a smalltime newspaper in LA or something, while Kelly and/or Steve struggles with finding work, and the storyline is about Kelly realizing that her multiple periods of absence throughout college due to drug addition, cult induction, kidnapping, stalking, etc (ie, every stupid decision Kelly made from Season 5 onwards) has led her to be totally unprepared for post-college life even though she was apparently this amazing student good enough to get into Columbia, and Steve, who's never had to work a day in his life and never had any desire to work a day in his life, is the one who's complaining about "I need experience to get the job but I need a job to get the experience" and has no idea where to start.

On another note, I don't really buy that a woman like Val who ran her own club for three years is totally unable to find work in the club or restaurant scene. 

[Earmuffs Mom]

Val as a gold digger or focused on money doesn’t seem so farfected given the firdt thing she told Ginger about was how Steve “would give good credit card.” She went to Jonesy for more money after the Mexican heist to get Dylan’s money back. While she wasn’t such a “gold digger” she definitely enjoyed having money. She’s also coming off being swindled and now being broke. 

[WhosThatGirl]

10 hours ago, atlanticslide said:

Yeah, it's not an inherently wrong or unrealistic storyline, but someone else should've been the focus of it - have Brandon comfortably continuing his education or getting an offer from a smalltime newspaper in LA or something, while Kelly and/or Steve struggles with finding work, and the storyline is about Kelly realizing that her multiple periods of absence throughout college due to drug addition, cult induction, kidnapping, stalking, etc (ie, every stupid decision Kelly made from Season 5 onwards) has led her to be totally unprepared for post-college life even though she was apparently this amazing student good enough to get into Columbia, and Steve, who's never had to work a day in his life and never had any desire to work a day in his life, is the one who's complaining about "I need experience to get the job but I need a job to get the experience" and has no idea where to start.

On another note, I don't really buy that a woman like Val who ran her own club for three years is totally unable to find work in the club or restaurant scene. 

Seriously. I can never get over Kelly even being able to graduate given all her dramas but then again it never seemed like CU was a real school anyway as the gang was always vacationing and really the only time school was brought up was when someone held Donna up at gunpoint on the school tv station or there was a frat party or something like that so how the hell any of them graduated is quite a mystery.

But I mean.. at least they finished college? My teen tv dramas made college a moot point once they realized it was really hard to transition characters from high school and then going to college stopped being a thing so.. while not good at least this show had them actually sort of complete it even if it was terrible and never made sense. 

[CurlyATX]

I think they were trying to capture the whole "Reality Bites" where "talented" kids can't get a job and are struggling- like Brandon is Winona Ryder.  

 Brandon: this is one idiot who normally would have had a job.  Between Jim's connections, work with the "task force" and his general ability to fall ass-backwards into opportunity, this guy would have had a job that he was grossly under qualified for.   Steve: again, another entitled idiot.  Even if Rush and Samantha were cutting him off financially, they would have pulled strings for this dope to find a job.  Remember when Steve worked at some casting agency or something like that?

The ones I can see struggling are Kelly and Donna.  Did they do any interships? How would Kelly talk over her drug history and cult stuff?  Without going to grad school, psych majors would be a dime a dozen (I was a comp lit major and was so sad to realize that most employers didn't value my "critical thinking skillz" like my teachers claimed they would).  It would have been better to see Kelly having to work retail and not be a bitch about it.  Or start at some shitty ad agency (OH!  D&D).  Does Donna have any past experience? Does she even have a portfolio as a stylist? 

And Val should be able to run a club or restaurant.  She's got plenty of street smarts- I could see her running a place that someone else owned.  Why is she being punished? She's the only one who actually EARNED her money. 

[SoupThrower]

I could see everyone on the show getting hired except Kelly.

Brandon: Task force, newspapers, internships

Val: Running a club

Donna: Parents

Steve: Parents

David: Media, and running a club. Could have been in classical music. That would have worked.

No one would hire Kelly especially knowing her history of being in a cult, and on coke, and having a psych degree.

[benteen]

Also, David has experience being a shitty performer and producing shitty music videos.  He also worked at a radio station though that was a college gig, right?

Agreed on Val running a club though she probably wouldn't want to discuss how she lost her money.

Idiot Kelly was also very publicly involved in that cult...

Edited January 4, 2018 by benteen

[CurlyATX]

To be fair, this was pre-facebook/google stalking so a potential employer couldn't just tell from the start that Kelly did that.  However, her resume would be spotty at best.  She screams office admin to me!  Or, snobby retail clerk. 

I forgot that Mel has all the hook ups- who knew dentists are that connected? 

[Kerfuffler]

Brandon's storyline is at least way more realistic than when everyone was throwing jobs and awards at him despite his shitty writing. It's also realistic that he thinks he's way too good for the perfectly decent jobs he's being offered in smaller markets. He's what my dad would have called "too big for his britches," though of course he's way too small for his actual britches.

[SoupThrower]

On 05/01/2018 at 4:24 AM, CurlyATX said:

To be fair, this was pre-facebook/google stalking so a potential employer couldn't just tell from the start that Kelly did that.  However, her resume would be spotty at best.  She screams office admin to me!  Or, snobby retail clerk. 

I forgot that Mel has all the hook ups- who knew dentists are that connected? 

Someone will find out. I mean missing classes in your 2nd and 3rd year of college just give a red flag. 

[Klaw]

On 12/30/2017 at 6:04 AM, scarynikki12 said:

I don't remember, did they say how much time has passed?  I want to say it's been a couple months since last season, which then begs the question: why weren't these fools working this whole time?  Brandon's trying to get a newspaper job in LA and is having trouble, fine.  Donna wants to work in fashion but can't get hired (until Daddy steps in), fine.  But they should be working, if only to pass the time.  This is also one of those stories where the gang (besides Val and Brandon) all having the large trust funds we know exist should have been mentioned.  Then their lack of rush to start jobs after graduation makes sense.  Brandon telling Kelly to blow off her start date, and her later deciding to do it, makes sense.  If they have the financial cushion then they don't feel the urgency that non-trust fund grads feel.  Of course, this is long past the point in the series where they want the gang to be living a glamorous Beverly Hills lifestyle (save for things like offering up family boats to strangers) and want them to seem "normal". 

This is what always bugs me about the show. It's like they don't want to focus on the fact that these are, for all intents and purposes, rich kids (varying degrees of wealth, sure, but with the exception of Val and Andrea, rich) and they want to play up the whole Beverly Hills angle, but then they back away from making them too rich, a tendency which got worse as they got older. I mean, it's insulting and annoying. Like the writers don't want to make them unlikeable. HEY WRITERS, NEWSFLASH the rich kid stuff is not what makes the gang annoying af!!!! It's like they want to have it both ways, so friggin' annoying. 

 

On 12/29/2017 at 5:40 AM, atlanticslide said:

There's something really odd with former love interests getting engaged really quickly after breaking up with one of the 90210ers. Celeste broke up with Steve right before Season 5 and then Steve found out a few months later that she'd gotten engaged to a Marine or something (not even to the guy she left Steve for). Ray and Donna broke up before Halloween in Season 6 and then he was engaged when we saw him in April or May of that season. And now Tracy's been broken up with Brandon for max four months and is already engaged. Such a weird trend, it's like marriage is the ultimate pinnacle of success, even if you're 21-years-old, so the writers want to make sure that we know a character who's left the show is doing well by telling us that they're engaged. 

I never noticed that, but you're right. It's like they want to give  the ultimate love consolation prize to the folks who were dumped by one of the gang, only, it is completely unrealistic that kids that young would run around getting engaged. I knew exactly one married couple - 2 of my best friends - at that age (early 20s), and they eloped. Still married over 25 years! Most people that age feel fortunate to have a boy/girlfriend. And am I wrong that Tracy's fiancé is totally the movie star dude Charlotte wanted to bang in the back of a limo on SATC???? 

sarcastic elvis. *dead* and so true. Oh Noah Hunner, how I already hate thee.

And Donna. OMG, so agree. Why is David in meetings with her boss? And why is her boss cool with it??? Any true professional would be like, what the actual fuck is HE doing here? In HI? On my dime??? And I know Fashion is a business, and I know it is hard work and requires skill, etc. etc. but come the fuck on Donna. You majored in this stuff -- did you get an internship, a job at a boutique, anything? Did you read the trades? Weren't you doing stuff for your sorority so you could learn basic project management skills? Like what the hell were you doing for 4 years other than jerking David around and being thrown down steps by Ray? God forbid Princess has to learn anything the hard fucking way. And you're 22/23, time to grow a spine with your damn Mother and tell her your sex life is none of her GD business. Honestly, what a wuss. 

My only comment re: Kelly is that I love, love, love the scene where she gets shot.* I laugh and laugh and laugh. And I feel no shame at all. Similar to when Nat had his heart attack.

*Of course if she were a real person it would be awful, but because it's Kelly, watching her get blown off her high horse is always a good time.

[CurlyATX]

On 1/8/2018 at 2:51 PM, Klaw said:

And Donna. OMG, so agree. Why is David in meetings with her boss? And why is her boss cool with it??? Any true professional would be like, what the actual fuck is HE doing here? In HI? On my dime??? And I know Fashion is a business, and I know it is hard work and requires skill, etc. etc. but come the fuck on Donna. You majored in this stuff -- did you get an internship, a job at a boutique, anything? Did you read the trades? Weren't you doing stuff for your sorority so you could learn basic project management skills? Like what the hell were you doing for 4 years other than jerking David around and being thrown down steps by Ray? God forbid Princess has to learn anything the hard fucking way. And you're 22/23, time to grow a spine with your damn Mother and tell her your sex life is none of her GD business. Honestly, what a wuss. 

My first real job post college was an office admin.  My parents aren't from here and I was a dope in college so I always spent summers working shitty (but cool) coffee shops and did one internship my entire year at the women's resource center.  Not really great work experience.  To be fair, I also really bought into the crap all my literature professors said about the value of my critical thinking and writing skills for all potential employers.  

Now, I will agree that my battle axe boss would have MURDERED me if I had brought my boyfriend along for anything, even if he paid his own way.  And, she'd be right.

[BBB5]

What in the name of pete is happening with Kelly's boob in the pic right after she got shot???