(S01E03)I was pretty unsure of the new 90210 last week. My initial impression was that it wasn't bad, but it could use some work. Now, however, it is week two and I'm pretty sure I was just blinded by all of the curly hair and porcelain veneers--because this was not good.

Now I'm not trying to say that everyone who lives in Beverly Hills is stuck up and/or unfriendly, but come on. I know I'm not the only one who thinks that Annie and Dixon are having the easiest transition into a new school in the history of the world. I moved around a lot when I was a kid, and while I was lucky enough to stop moving before I got to high school, I still went to nine elementary schools. Nine different elementary schools and not a single guy flew me to San Francisco.

My main problem with this show is that for a drama, the conflict is nearly nonexistent. The big story this week? Annie and Dixon's parents want to have family night! ZOMFG! Annie has already made plans with Ty for Friday night and Dixon made plans with a bunch of other people to go to Navid's house to screen the new Bond movie, anzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

So instead of saying, "hey mom and dad; I think family bowling night is a great idea, but we already have plans for Friday. Our Saturday seems to be wide open, however, so can we reschedule?", they make a huge deal about how nobody in Beverly Hills spends time with their family and then proceed to invite everyone they know to "accidentally" show up at Lucky Strike.

Dixon ends up inviting Silver,since he sees her hanging around the school parking lot on Friday afternoon because she's avoiding her house. Now, everybody avoids home every now and then, but Silver has taken it to the next level: she's been staying at the local woman's shelter. THE LOCAL WOMEN'S SHELTER. She did some community service there over the summer, so when her mom drinks too much and she gets scared, she'll stay there. Now I understand that even though Silver is wealthy, she can still have problems and that having an alcoholic parent is a bad situation to be in. However, I would wager that the other women in the shelter have problems that are slightly more ... intense.

Silver also doesn't seem to think she can talk to her guidance counselor sister either, so while Silver is sleeping in shelters and her car, Kelly decides to accept Ryan's invitation to dinner. I like Ryan, but this whole date doesn't seem to have much more of a point than to allude to the identity of Kelly's son's father in the most unsubtle ways possible. They had a lot of HISTORY in HIGH SCHOOL, don't you know.

The other "big" "conflict" in this episode revolves around Naomi, aka "Jacked Up Jesse Spano" as my sister calls her. It's the most sadly predictable storyline ever -- to the point where after watching the first scene, you could call every subsequent scene like Babe Ruth. Hey, Naomi's dad bought a new car on the same day he's supposed to take her someplace; I bet the car is for her! He has to work late so Naomi goes to give him food; I bet he's making out with someone inappropriate! Naomi is shocked and heartbroken that her dad is cheating on her mom; I bet her mom already knows and accepts it so she can maintain her comfortable lifestyle! It's a retread of every "poor little rich girl" storyline ever, and it just makes me tired.

There was a nice scene at the end where Silver tells Dixon her secret and we learn a little bit more about him from before he was a member "of the Cosby family." In the end, Silver leaves home and goes to live with Kelly and her son of questionable paternity.

Other items of note:

- I had read on the 90210 Wikipedia page that Navid is supposed to be Persian, which would have at least been a nice nod to the fact that Beverly Hills has a huge Persian population. However, he made a comment that he received his bowling ball as a bar mitzvah gift.

- Is Shenae Grimes' idea of acting always finding a new way to scrunch up her face? Are there any Degrassi viewers out there who could help me out with this?

- I'm not really digging Ty. He kind of randomly left Annie at the bowling alley, plus he looks like an exceedingly tall elf.

I don't find this show painful to watch; I found myself entertained throughout most of it. However, there's just not a lot to hold on to here. What worries me even more, is that the third episode really didn't build from the first two. It didn't come out of the gate particularly strong, so it really needs to pick up the pace -- and it kind of doesn't.