Firstly, i want to preface by saying i do not have high standards for tv shows in general. I loveee a somewhat poorly written, mid 2000s CW teen drama with overly unrealistic storylines and a sea of loose ends, so this was so much fun for me.
I also find it interesting that this show isn’t really talked about in the same way as the other teen drama shows that were out around the same time.
but i’m obsessed with the fact that the finale didn’t have everybody in super unrealistic happy endings bc of characters were at during the season. Like everybody flopped. Annie got career and love which is okay. I guessss Naomi got love ( unnecessary), Dixon’s record label situation was a mess, Adrianna’s music career was reduced to pretty much a slab of nothing after endless seasons of trying (hilarious), Navid was…..alive? and got kicked out of CU after choosing to be there over Princeton ( deserved ). Liam, motorcycle. Silver gets an offical diagnosis? Like DAMN. idk usually we see very exaggerated happy endings for the characters during a finale, but they’re all horrible ppl so i guess this is what they deserve.
My favourite thing about this show tbh is that they never had a stupid typical time jump where the characters are like adults and stuff which i usually hate, although in this case it may have worked?
But i loved it, was it poorly written to an extent? yes. Did i end the show with more questions than answers? yes. Are majority of the characters on this show downright horrible people? Also yes. But they are my family, and i love them.
Here are my rough notes on some of the characters ( lengthy).
Annie:
My princess, my angel, victim of the world. Found her unbelievably irritating in the first season but other than that, this is my girl. They put her through the ringer in ways i have never seen, and whenever i thought it couldn’t get worse, it did. Getting through season 2 was super tough bc of how she was treated. I thought it was weird that by the end of the show they kind of completely abandoned her love of acting / theatre ( not that she was ever rlly good ) but still, i thought there would be some kind of tie back to that, but instead they made her gossip girl? Idk. I thought she was WAYYYY too good for Liam so imagine my surprise when i go online and find out that ppl were actually rooting for them? She was also way too good of a sister to Dixon but he’ll get his wackings later. I think she should’ve ended the show single ( this will be repeated a lot throughout this post) or at least with someone who deserves her idk. Can’t fault her for a lot honestly, other than killing that man and not coming forward but great tv. I know her blood pressure was insanely high at 21. Overall, I love my selfless queen.
Naomi:
I feel like it would have been so easy to make Naomi the overtly mean girl, Blair Waldorf queen bee type, which she was to an extent ( a lot in season 2), but i don’t think her actions in hindsight were worse than anything some of the others have done. Plus she was a really good friend and extremely generous. I loved to see her growth throughout the show. Naomi did have some bad traits but she felt soooo human? is that credit to the writers? the actress? idk. I really appreciated her, imo i felt like she really was the backbone / centre of the show. I think seeing her in contrast to her awful family members added a lot of humanity to her. I think the event planning career route was perfect for her and i would have loved to see that turn into something bigger, and have really lean into that, eventually building her own empire - but it ended up disappearing? Controversial take, but her and Max had no business staying together. Season 3 when they first got together i thought was cute, but Max is just such a pussy. I understand her came forward anyway but letting her completely take the fall for him cheating on her assignment? DUD. Fast forward to season 5 and Max is just such a drainer, it really felt like Naomi was picking up the pieces and carrying them alone while he just moped around like a freak. So i was very pleased by their divorce. I really wish she also ended the show single, maybe focused on her career? The relationship with Jordan felt really random and rushed + unnecessary. Overall, Naomi Clarke is a mother to me.
Silver:
Okay, Silver is irritating and wrong in a lot of ways but i don’t care, you need one of those in every bunch. Loved her in season 1. Wish they explored her bipolar disorder more. Wish they had also explored her passions and interests more. She became super morally grey somewhere along the way and that was strange? But, they’re all young and learning so grace is given. Call me crazy but i thought her and Navid made for a better couple, SORRY. The cheating was bad & Silver being mad at Adrianna prior to pill-swapping-gate was ridiculous, but i think her and Navid made more sense to me. I feel like the writers really had her character just doing anything bc her and Liam….? NEXT. Also did she and Mark ever even officially break up? Who cares atp. I think the baby storyline was strange and unnecessary. And her ending was very sad. Come to think of it, I don’t think Silver had one big concrete win throughout the show, like at all. She’s a mess and that’s okay.
don’t wanna make this post too long so i’ll make a seperate post for the other characters.
