When I was growing up Beverly Hills 90210 was one of my favorite shows. Even though the kids were rich and spoiled, as I became a teenager I related to a lot of things on the show. Evidently I still do, and with the new version of 90210 that hit the boob tube last year, the aspect of true teenage struggle is still there. Within the first episodes of the series premier the character Adriana, portrayed by Jessica Lowndes, struggles with the disease of addiction. From pill popping to snorting lines, the character really falls into the worst of it during the first season. With the help of her friends, after she overdoses and nearly dies she enters a rehab.
Where most shows go wrong after this, 90210 did it right. Adriana’s addiction didn’t just end with a trip to rehab. There is talking of attending meetings in nearly every episode where there is a main storyline for Adrianna. When the second season begins, we see a fresh faced, new hair Adrianna who really seems to be working a program. Soon after an old flame gets in the middle of her relationship with her boyfriend, her recovery is on the brink. After attempting to win her ex back, she fails and relapses and begins another downward spiral into her using.
That is where we are left off up until this point. It is not so much that this is the first show to really follow the life of an addict, but this is a prime-time, teenage centered drama that depicts the lives of the rich and spoiled Beverly Hills High students. There is a stigma that still exists today that drug addicts are broke, homeless, junkies who live on the streets and steal everything from everyone. With the portrayal of Adrianna as a well off, talented, beautiful girl who suffers from the addiction, the reality of the disease is made concrete. I relate to this girl, not so much the outside, but the inside. The feelings of desperation, and pressure from her family, and her ability to just not stop until its that bad is everything I have gone through in my addiction.
The relapse and need for meetings is portrayed so perfectly that you almost forget she is this beautiful starlet who was almost dead and using when pregnant in the first season. When she is upset, her best friends know that she needs a meeting. The support shown throughout the show that this is a real disease that does not discriminate is surprising. Many shows on TV have characters that struggle with a drug problem, but unless it is a drug addiction specific show, usually the characters return back to normal life.
Even if you think of 90210 as a snobby, over dramatic show that doesn’t portray real high school students, it does. Maybe not in looks, or in every storyline, but in Adrianna’s case the depiction of an addict is so real. It is refreshing to know that there are people who are not afraid to talk about addiction as a disease and show the world that it is real and can be anyone.
