REACTION: 9021OMG Episode 12
Monday’s “9021OMG” podcast covered the beginning of Brenda and Dylan’s relationship on “Beverly Hills, 90210.”
The specific focus was episode 10, “Isn’t It Romantic?”. After becoming increasingly flirty with each other, Brenda (Shannen Doherty) and Dylan (Luke Perry) have a dramatic first date where she meets his father, portrayed here by Terence Ford and not Josh Taylor. Brandon (Jason Priestley) and Jim (James Eckhouse) are none too pleased about the blossoming romance. For virtually everyone else, the topic at hand is condoms and safe sex, thanks to a sex-ed assembly with a guest speaker whom Steve wants to hook up with, unaware she has AIDS.
The episode was directed by Nancy Malone and is the first of many written by Karen Rosin, wife of executive producer Charles Rosin. The Rosins discussed this installment — an obvious favorite among Brenda and Dylan fans — on the “Beverly Hills 90210 Show” podcast last September.
Now Jennie Garth (Kelly) and Tori Spelling (Donna) had their own chance to weigh in…
9021OMG Episode 12, “Lady in Red”
Before I even listened to the new podcast, Tori had me intrigued as she posted the following on Instagram on Friday: “Recorded @9021omgpodcast today & it made me so excited for all the amazing things @jenniegarth, @sisanie & I have coming. I am so excited & I cannot wait to share it all with you in the next few weeks. Stay tuned.”
But they started off off-topic, discussing hair colors and how brunettes are seemingly taken more seriously than blonds.
Tori then suddenly announced they have “really exciting news” and Jennie chimed in that it’s actually two things.
The first piece of news is a virtual Galentine’s Day event — a live podcast — on February 17, something Tori claimed fans have asked for.
Jennie said she didn’t know what a “live podcast” actually is, but told fans to buy tickets.
So, uh, yeah... they’re charging for this. All the details are here.
And unlike a lot of recent online celebrity events that charge for tickets, it doesn’t seem like this is any kind of fundraiser with the proceeds benefiting a nonprofit. What’s more is that while a ticket costs $15, you can pay an extra $100 for a virtual “meet & greet.”
So I guess if you want to give Jennie and Tori your money... you should do it? I guess I’ll probably suck it up and do the basic ticket and recap it all like a regular podcast installment, particularly since it seems this will replace that week’s normal edition.
They teased a special guest for the event before revealing their “boy bestie” Ian will be joining them.
Jennie warned it’s going to be “crazy” and Tori said she doesn’t think people have seen just the three of them interact before, which is apparently a hilarious thing to witness.
There will also be a “special musical guest that has a tie-in to ‘90210’” as well.
The second piece of news is they have “9021OMG” merchandise for sale, which they are encouraging people to buy and wear during the event.
For this, Tori did say a “portion of the proceeds will go to charity.”
Jennie suggested they switch gears and discuss this week’s episode, which Tori called a “major episode in the history of ‘90210’” and Sisanie said she’s been “waiting” for it.
It’s only the 10th episode. You haven’t been waiting that long, Sis.
Jennie gave the episode title and air date while Tori read the synopsis.
Jennie: “We see a sweet side of Steve in this episode. I love it. I love when he gets all sentimental and gooey.”
Sisanie and Jennie were turned off by Dylan and Brandon being all greased up from working on the car. Tori insisted, “But a man in grease is hot, though.”
Sisanie said Brenda and Dylan have been “flirting for so many episodes,” and Jennie and Tori strongly disagreed. Jennie said it came “so fast” and Tori said, “All of a sudden, it was on.”
Jennie called the first hangout between Brenda, Brandon, and Dylan a “threesome date.” Awkward.
There was a tangent about listening to CDs. Tori said she recently found a cassette of “Beverly Hills, 90210” songs, as well as a cassette of them singing “Breaking Up is Hard to Do.”
Tori admitted she wasn’t happy recreating that scene for “BH90210” and “did it with the help of wine.”
Jennie and Tori both reiterated that they thought Brenda and Dylan moved fast and that they didn’t see it coming so soon. Tori offered, "Maybe everything’s just so intense with Dylan McKay.”
Superfan Sisanie didn’t “remember it being so toxic from the get-go” with their first date at the hotel.
I’m actually glad she said this because I have always viewed that first date as toxic and feel like so many fans romanticize it.
Tori: “He’s such a bad boy.” Jennie: “He’s like bad but he’s emotionally available or a little bit too available.” They further called Dylan “unstable,” and Jennie said he showed some “violent action” when he grabbed Brenda from behind.
I was always disturbed by Dylan breaking the flower pot and running after Brenda and grabbing her like that.
That said, Jennie thought they had “good chemistry in that kissing scene.” Tori: “I felt it. I felt it a lot.” Jennie: “Isn’t that weird?” Tori: “No.”
Sisanie: “Are you guys getting antsy for when we get to your kissing scenes?” Jennie: “Probably, yeah... we’ll dissect ours, don’t worry.”
Tori: “They definitely used tongue, right?” Jennie was doubtful, but Tori said the kiss was “intense” and thought the characters would have.
Jennie said Brenda had a “pep in her step” afterward: “I like in-love Brenda. She’s so happy and like jubilant. There’s a new energy about her and I thought that was really cool to see that in other areas, like when she was in her sex-ed class with Steve, she was just more playful and not as serious or dramatic for a minute. I loved that.”
But they were puzzled by how it went from Brenda and Dylan holding hands and having one or two dates to “all of a sudden, they’re just under the assumption they’re gonna be having sexy-time real soon.”
Jennie: “As a mom of teens, makes me a little nervous when they go so fast. I’m old-fashioned in my thinking, maybe not so much in my actions.”
Still, Jennie said she “really respected” Brenda slowing things down at the end of the episode.
Tori brought up the makeout in the Walsh house, calling it “intense” and exclaiming, “That was a lot.”
Jennie asked if they ever got busted by their parents like Brenda essentially did.
Sisanie said she had a “rowdy 18th birthday party,” during which her dad caught her friends hooking up in his home office.
Tori said she was doing “light petting” in a car with a boy once and when she went home, her mom called her out for her shirt being on inside out.
Jennie: “I just assume every time my daughter comes home she’s been making out with her boyfriend.”
For her part, though, Jennie said she never got caught “that I recall,” but revealed her husband “walked in on his sister once” as she was “doing it” when he was only 12.
I’m sure her husband and sister-in-law greatly appreciate her sharing this personal story on a podcast.
Jennie said it was “uncomfortable” and she felt badly when Brandon had to watch Brenda and Dylan being touchy-feely.
They liked that Brandon was concerned about Dylan treating Brenda right, but Jennie said he then “took it a little too far” when he announced Brenda’s a virgin.
Sisanie: “Speaking of virginity, sex ed was another topic. I think we should take a break and come back and reveal when you guys had the talk.”
After the break, Tori wanted to know if they had sex ed in school and whether they had “the talk.” She also wondered, “Does anyone have the talk anymore?”
Jennie said she never got it from her mom and said she would’ve shut her down if she tried.
Sisanie said she didn’t from her parents, but they did have sex ed in school beginning as young as sixth grade. “But then I watched a lot of ‘90210,’ so that was kinda my sex ed.” Jennie: “We taught you everything you need to know.” Tori: “Glad we could be of service.”
Tori said her parents got her a book and Jennie wanted to know if it was the “American Girl” book about your body changing. It wasn’t.
Tori said the book she received was from the ‘70s and she was “fascinated by the saggy boobs and big bush” in it and “missed the whole point of it.”
Tori said she even brought the book to school, showed it around, and got in trouble. Jennie joked she was bringing “pornographic material” to school. Apparently Tori was only 7 when this went down. Eek.
Jennie said she’s tried to talk about this stuff with her kids but they laugh at her “and we don’t end up really getting anywhere.”
Jennie: “They can’t learn this shit on TikTok.” Tori: “I know, but they think they know everything from TikTok... You can’t ever know anything. There’s stuff we still don’t know probably.”
Sisanie pointed out that kids “can just search the internet these days.”
Jennie brought up the sex-ed teacher and they deemed him “creepy.”
They were perplexed by the teacher letting Steve pick up the speaker and Tori didn’t get why Steve was interested in doing so.
There was a tiny tangent about Dr. Ruth.
Jennie said she feels like AIDS was talked about more when this episode aired in 1991 than it is today. Sisanie pointed out how much people were still learning about AIDS at that time, as far as how it’s transmitted, etc.
They were all puzzled by the guest speaker saying to use “foam” in addition to a condom and started theorizing how it works.
I’m not going to get into specifics, but I feel like this podcast gets more X-rated with every passing week.
Jennie eventually changed the subject and said she liked that the episode discussed “the emotional aspects of what is involved when you do have sex with someone.”
Then, for what I’m pretty sure is the first time ever, they gave the writer credit. Jennie: “You know who wrote this episode was Karen Rosin and I felt like it had a woman’s touch when it was talking about those moments.”
Tori: “I feel like we predominantly had male writers so it is nice that Karen wrote that.”
I’d actually be curious to see a gender breakdown — how many episodes were written by women and how many by men.
Jennie: “Karen Rosin, who is the wife of Chuck Rosin, our executive producer. She was great. She went on to write a bunch of episodes so I look forward to rewatching those because I liked her writing.”
Tori: “I gotta say, even though it was the early ‘90s, all the sex talk stuff and how a girl feels and how everyone feels the first time or thinking about the first time, it holds up. I would show that to my kids and be like, ‘Brenda’s a great example.’”
Jennie: “Just show them this episode and you don’t have to have the talk with them.”
Sisanie: “Every episode always goes to some heavy topic. Week after week. This week, the whole AIDS thing came out of nowhere. I wasn’t expecting her to say that... It goes to show the topics your show handled.”
Jennie: “I don’t think we knew that was going to become a thing on the show. But as it started happening, I feel like we all took a certain pride in that. Maybe we laughed a little bit sometimes that like, ‘Oh my god, now what’s going to happen to me this week? What’s our important message going to be like this week?’ But the show had so much other stuff, so many other layers, so much fun with the fashion and the characters and the Beverly Hills of it all. I feel like it was a good balance.”
Tori: “It definitely glamorized teens and where we live, but at the same time, that’s the driving thing — the storylines everyone could relate to no matter what you lived.”
Jennie: “And again, this was a cool thing that kids started watching this with their parents because then they kind of open that door to talk about what they were scared to talk about. So it’s a good conversation-starter for some parents hopefully.”
They all thought it was nicely done the way the speaker revealed she got AIDS the first time she had sex while Brenda herself was contemplating having sex for the first time and how it led her to ask Dylan about getting checked.
Tori: “It’s such a great message because I feel like girls to this day still think, ‘Oh, what’s the worst that could happen?’ They think pregnancy, which is a huge life-changer, but they don’t realize there’s something that can happen to you that you can die [from].”
Jennie: “There’s so many diseases and things now, you have to protect yourself.”
Jennie said she was jumping ahead to her favorite line, which was Kelly saying, “Rule number one: Never rely on the guy.”
Jennie: “I think that’s good. Girls should take care of themselves.”
Tori: “What’s wrong with boys? I want to teach my boys to always step up and be prepared. Don’t be that guy.”
Jennie said she thinks that, even though she doesn’t have boys and can’t speak from experience, she thinks they’ve become more “savvy” just like girls have and are being taught how to protect themselves.
Tori noted how this relates to another aspect of the episode: double standards.
Tori: “It’s part of society — parents treat boys and girls a little bit differently when it comes to sex.”
Jennie: “That’s what Jim did and Brenda called him out on it, which was so cool... It’s true, he was saying it was okay for Brandon and you pat your son on the back and give him a little wink, but with your daughter, her losing her virginity is a question of her morals.”
Tori: “Brandon’s girlfriend got to sleep in the house. They knew what was happening... ‘Jim, do something about your son.’ And he’s like, it was fine, you know. With Brenda, they were just like, ‘No.’ Well, not Cindy, but Jim. Daddy’s little girl.”
Sisanie: “I snuck around in high school for that reason. I never wanted my dad to really know what I was up to.”
Tori: “Important message, you guys. When your teen is of that age and leaving the house, slip them a condom... I would definitely tell my husband to do it with our sons at that age if they’re going on a date. Better they have it and are prepared. It’s embarrassing, it’s not comfortable for anyone, the teen or the parent, but you rather them use it and have it there than being like, ‘Oh, I didn’t get it because I was embarrassed to go somewhere and get it.’”
Sisanie: “You guys are closer to there than I am.” Tori: “This podcast just got really deep.” Sisanie: “It’s just a lot to think about.”
Jennie: “You just do your best as a parent. You give them all the things you learned and all the things you wish you learned and you arm them with all of that and say a little prayer. You can only do your best and you have to just sort of let them live their life to a certain extent. Or you tie them up and lock them in the basement. Either one.”
Tori: “Or in a warehouse in Van Nuys like was done to you for 10 years.” Jennie: “Thank god they locked me up in the stage for 10 years. Think of the trouble I could’ve gotten into!”
Tori: “I do think about that sometimes. We were working so hard from such a young age... I don’t think either of us is that type of girl, but who knows? You don’t know the trouble teens get into... Thank god we had the structure of that show.”
Sisanie asked about shooting on location for the movie theater scene where Brenda is waiting for Dylan and they weren’t sure they would wait for two hours, but “maybe for Dylan McKay.”
Jennie was trying to explain to them the exact location of the theater... I bet 90210 Hunts could help them out.
Superfan Sisanie wanted to know if they had to drive themselves when they shot on location or if they were bused in. Jennie explained they would drive to “base camp,” where all the trailers were, but if they were already on set, they would take them to the location via vans.
Sisanie: “What a fun gig for you guys to be that age.” Tori: “In a fun way. Always going to new places.”
Jennie: “But there was so much all the time... in this industry, you go from set to set, show to movie to show, job to job to job... I feel like so much of my life has been spent on the move and jumping thing to thing that I never settled into anything in particular. There was never a normal, like a baseline for me after a while, because it just becomes this whirlwind and you’re always on the move, always making new friends... and never seeing those friends again for the most part. It’s a weird industry.”
Tori: “It’s like being in the military. You’re always on the move. Military family — I mean, completely different. I’m not making fun of that. The lifestyle is — you never completely let your heart settle in because you know you’re gonna be gone. But probably ‘90210,’ out of all the things you’ve done, probably ‘90210’ was the most. That was pretty consecutive.”
It’s like being in the military? Awful comparison.
And, uh, yeah… 10 years is pretty consecutive. What other gig have you had, Tori or Jennie, that’s lasted for 10 years?
Tori noted how they spent their hiatuses from the show doing TV movies and they would have to “dive in fast.” She argued, “You give your heart and soul and just commit to everyone there. It’s like joining a new school. You go to a new school, but everything is really fast.”
Sisanie: “So there were no breaks for you. When you took a break from ‘90210,’ you jumped right into another project.” Jennie confirmed that and Tori called it a “conscious choice.”
Jennie: “We wouldn’t see each other that much because we were given these opportunities to go do movies of the week and star in them and produce them. So many amazing opportunities in a short period of time.”
Tori: “We were young. Did you ever think, ‘Hey, it’s summer, I want to go take a vacation’? There are some people who did do that. We never did that. We were like, ‘Great, work? Let’s go. Continue. Work, work, work.’”
Jennie started to say she had a baby “soon into the show” and then hesitated because I’m guessing she realized she was wrong — her first daughter was born between seasons 7 and 8.
But her point was, “Once I had a baby, I would always try to plan a little family time before going onto another show and then you come back and you’re right back into ‘90210.’”
They liked that they were “always busy” but… Tori: “You see people now on hit shows and when they have breaks they’re taking these amazing vacations around the world because they’re making great money and they're big celebrities. Looking back, I don’t know, it wasn’t ever our mindset, which is great. We’re both very driven. We still are. I think that’s another thing that binds us to each other, that we have that work ethic. But it would’ve been nice to be like, ‘Hey, I’m just taking — I'm going to Europe for 20 days in the middle of our summer break.’ Just like ‘Emily in Paris.’”
Except Emily went to Paris for work, not vacation.
Reminder: “Emily in Paris” was created by Darren Star, who also created “Beverly Hills, 90210.” This was not acknowledged, natch.
Sisanie said she wondered as they entered the holidays if they would slow down with the podcast or stop recording, but nope. Apparently they even almost recorded on Christmas Eve.
Jennie: “We always make time for work somehow.” Tori: “Hustle, hustle.”
Tori: “The boys took breaks. They took vacations. I feel like Shannen took vacations. I feel like you and I were the two who really always did movies of the week.” Jennie: “Because once you did one, then they wanted you to do another one and you would get offered things and sent scripts and stuff.”
Superfan Sisanie: “I don’t think I’ve seen these movies of the week with you guys.”
She obviously hasn’t. She was also surprised to learn she could still watch them. Sisanie: “I need to do a deep dive into those.”
Tori went on to explain to her how significant such movies were back in the day and how they would keep saying yes to the offers “because you didn’t want to not be relevant. What would happen if we went one summer and didn’t do a TV movie?” Jennie: “We probably felt that would be it. That we’d never work in this town again.” Tori: “Imagine thinking that at like 18 years old. Wow.”
Jennie: “It was a lot, definitely, but I feel like there was so much we learned from doing that too. We learned to be bosses because we had to. We had to learn to suck it up and do what was expected of us and call the shots... [When you start producing the movies] you learn what it’s like to have more control over your work.”
Tori: “It’s nice, right? You have a voice. And people listen to you. It was really nice. It was really productive. But gosh, those hours that we worked. We worked crazy hours and to think [before] Christmas break, you would film all night and then fly to Canada the next morning and go right into production on a TV movie and then come back and go right back to ‘90210’ after maybe having a day off for Christmas and day off for New Year’s.”
Sisanie: “But those are the years you should be hustling in any industry.” She went on to say how she entered the radio industry at 19 and didn’t take any breaks for vacations or holidays for five years.
Sisanie: “You kind of pay your dues. It’s interesting that you guys still paid your dues even though you’re on this hit show.”
Jennie agreed that regardless of career path, you need to work hard when you’re young and then you can “slow down” and “prioritize” later on to create “balance.”
Even still, Tori emphasized her friends were going out and having fun while they had a “very different life than other kids our age.”
Sisanie: “Did it feel like you went to college, though, because you played it on TV?” Tori: “Totally. What do you mean?! I graduated from California University, I’ve told you this! It’s real to me. I have the diploma. I have Donna Martin’s diploma, by the way. I found it in storage.”
Tori said the diploma states Donna graduated from CU with a degree in “science arts” and that confused her. “Like that would never be her. I don’t know why it says that on there. Like they were making a joke... she’s not that smart.”
I’m wondering if Tori’s possibly confused because typically it’s a bachelor of the arts OR bachelor of science. And “science” doesn’t necessarily mean, you know, science. My journalism degree was a bachelor of science.
After a break, Jennie said they should talk about the episode’s fashion. She thought it was “pretty even-keeled” with nothing “too jarring.”
Tori liked Dylan’s trench coat, comparing it to John Cusack in Say Anything.
Jennie, as usual, liked Steve’s shirts. “And the little pants that were so snug on his little tushy.” Tori: “I didn’t know where you were going with that. Why were you looking at his tushy?”
Tori said there’s a “Steve Sanders strut, which is also the Ian Ziering strut.”
Sisanie liked the “Brenda makeover,” or what Jennie called the “fashion montage.” She said they probably had fun filming it... but obviously didn’t remember doing so.
Tori said Jennie was currently wearing an “ode” to Brenda’s fashion and Jennie confirmed she was indeed inspired by Brenda. We couldn’t see what she was wearing, obviously, but she explained she was wearing an “air tie” and “all the hipsters are wearing it these days, but Brenda was rocking the air tie back in the ‘90s. That must be where it came from, the ‘90s.” Tori: “Probably. Everything came from the ‘90s.”
Tori also liked Brenda’s shorts and scrunchy socks, which led Jennie to bring up Tori’s own scrunchy socks that she recently bought and wore even though she knew Jennie would hate them.
Jennie: “You can go shopping right now? I didn’t even know that. I should get out.” Tori: “You won’t like it.”
To Tori, that she purposely wore socks she knew Jennie would notice is evidence of how “tight” they are.
Sisanie’s favorite line of the episode was Brenda saying to Jim, “And if I’m ready first, then what? Should I lie and sneak around?” Jennie: “Good job, Karen Rosin.”
That’s actually kind of funny in hindsight, because Brenda did end up lying and sneaking around.
Tori paraphrased her favorite exchange, which was Kelly telling Brenda to take a bubble bath after watching Dylan from afar and Brenda saying she needs more than that and Kelly saying “ew.”
Jennie also liked the exchange Kelly and Brenda had in the school hallway about Dylan pinning her to the mattress. Tori: “Kelly had some zingers.”
Sisanie: “We have some questions, however, we just have time for one.”
Well, maybe if you didn’t go off on tangents every few minutes...
Apparently Jennie and Tori could see the questions and Sisanie asked if there’s “one you would rather answer.”
Jennie: “Let’s talk about Courtney’s question.” Tori: “Ugh, what’s wrong with you?!”
Courtney’s submission: “Can you talk more about friendships with Shannen? Wasn’t Tori friends with her in the beginning and then they went out to clubs together? Were Jennie and Shannen ever friendly? Or were they too different? Did the three of you ever hang out?”
Jennie: “Yes! We totally hung out. We were friends. There were really great moments when it was the three of us. I have great memories of us all hanging out and laughing — like doing that scene in this episode. Whenever we worked together, we had a great time.”
Tori: “We did. There were plenty of times when three of us went out... I definitely had very different friendships with each of them.. I kind of had my friendship with Shannen and my friendship with Jen, and then they would merge, all of us, because we were together all the time. That’s what happens.”
But Tori conceded she did go clubbing with Shannen, whom she viewed as older and cool. Tori said Shannen made her want to fit in, while with Jennie they would do things “at the same level.”
Jennie: “Shannen and I, we had great times together and we also had times that weren’t as great because we’re just two — we’re two Aries women. We’re both very strong-minded... two rams, we would lock horns sometimes.”
Superfan Sisanie: “Would that be with things that were happening on the show or with your personal lives?”
Jennie: “It was always show-related, whether it was on camera, off camera, behind the scenes, whatever. It was never about personal. I don’t think Shannen and I ever hung out on a personal level too often just the two of us that I recall. We would work it out. We would somehow work it out and we continued that working relationship. I felt like it went as good as it could go in those circumstances.”
Tori compared it to high school and said Jennie and Shannen are both “alpha women” and “speak their mind” while she’s the Taurus who wants everyone to get along.
Tori: “It was always show-related, but it felt personal when it would go beyond that.”
Superfan Sisanie: “Between the four of you girls, even Gabrielle, would you guys ever fight about clothes? Or was it always specific, like Kelly’s outfits are these or Donna’s outfits are these, or would you fight like, ‘I was supposed to wear that top in that scene!’”
Really... is Sisanie new or something? Because a “superfan” she ain’t.
Jennie confirmed they did have such fights and Sisanie was SHOCKED.
Jennie: “There were wardrobe battles, makeup, hair battles. ‘Why is she wearing her hair like that? I was going to wear my hair’ — I don’t remember anything specifically.”
Tori: “You do remember the red dress incident.” Jennie: “I do but I think I don’t really remember it accurately.”
This story is infamous and has been told over and over and over and was even parodied on “BH90210,” but apparently this was breaking news for Sisanie the superfan.
Tori recounted how they were doing a photo shoot and not everyone could wear the same color. But they were each given a selection of clothing that included a red dress and they each picked the red dress to wear, leading to drama.
In Tori’s mind, this is the wardrobe stylist’s fault for giving them all a dress of the same color if they couldn’t all actually wear the same color.
Tori and Jennie didn’t remember exactly who chose what dress first but that there was a “battle” over it and it was one of the rare times they fought.
They pointed out how they were ultimately separated in the eventual photos (one of which you can see here) and said that the boys mocked them about the dispute as they took the pictures... and did so for years after, including now, 30 years later.
Tori was getting flustered all over again as she recounted this and Jennie joked that Tori has PTSD, but more seriously told her she looks good in red and should wear it.
Tori then quipped that they should both wear red for the Galentine’s Day event.
Sisanie: “I think we should end with that, ladies!”
Jennie: “There’s no question you can’t ask us, you guys. We will talk about all your questions. I picked that question because I felt like people wanted to know that and maybe we don’t want to talk about it, but let's talk about it. Why not? Send us questions.”
That means fans can ask what happened between her and Tiffani and she’ll answer and answer truthfully? Jennie may come to regret putting this offer out there…
Sisanie: “I think as a fan, you heard all these rumors and you just didn’t know what was true, especially because there was no TMZ.”
Tori: “I love that you can google the red dress fight and it comes up. That’s crazy.”
Sisanie: “I literally googled ‘90210 red’ and then as I was writing ‘dress,’ it suggested ‘fight.’”
And yet Sisanie didn’t seem to know about this til now. Go figure.
Sisanie: “Episode 11 is the homework assignment.”
Jennie: “You have a whole week to watch episode 11 and then we will convene and we will talk about it. We'll break it down.”
The show ended with Sisanie plugging the live event and the merchandise, and then Tori asking if there’s some place fans could send in pictures of themselves wearing the new merch.
Sisanie said they should just post pics of themselves on Instagram and tag the podcast so they can repost it, and Tori theorized about flashing the pictures on-screen during their event. So, all of you who want to do that... have at it.
Better late than never? I’m torn between giving them credit for actually citing the episode’s writer and thinking they don’t deserve credit for finally doing something it took them 10 episodes, more than two months, to do. Regardless, I hope citing the writer — and other crew members — becomes a regular occurrence. These episodes didn’t direct themselves, they didn’t write themselves, and they didn’t produce themselves. So let’s really give credit where credit is due, especially if you’re going to be giving your favorite lines every week.
I do think they gave the discussion of virginity, sex, AIDS, and double standards the seriousness it deserves. But I’m pretty tired of hearing, especially from Tori, how hard their lives have been because they’re actors. It can come across as tone deaf and lacking perspective.
If my calculations are correct, the episode they’ll be discussing during the live podcast with Ian is “Slumber Party.” To a certain extent, that isn’t a bad selection as Ian shares the B storyline in that episode and has an emotional scene. But given how seminal “Slumber Party” is for the female characters and how beloved it is by fans, I hope wherever the discussion with Ian goes doesn’t overshadow talk about, you know, the actual slumber party. Of course, we have the next two weeks to get through first…
Reminder: TeenDramaWhore premium subscriptions include perks like exclusive content, fan interviews, trivia parties, and Zoom chats with the genre’s key players. Subscribe here!