Customer Reviews

Beverly Hills 90210: Season Eight

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Maybe it's the nostalgia... or maybe it's the beauty of the boxset where you can become really engrossed in a t.v. show, watching episode after episode like reading chapter after chapter of a really good book you can't put down...
But I had quite low expectations of season 8 of 90210 on dvd and it turned out to be much better than I remembered.

I remembered this as the season that the show started to wane but actually this season was another fine run of the show.

It starts off a little rocky with the silly daytime- soap- type amnesia storyline for Kelly. But once the show got going, it was another solid year of ups and downs for the gang of friends we've grown to know and love over the years.

This year actually starts off a lot quicker then previous school/ college based seasons. The gang are thrown into the real world at last...

So this season sees Kelly and Brandon slowly tire of each other , Brandon's infidelity, the show continues to tackle social issues like drug abuse, gay rights, teen pregnancy etc. through Brandon's work as a journalist and Kelly's work at a clinic, Donna and David drift apart, David loses the club, gains some fame and loses it again, Valerie and David get back together, Val continues to be the most fun character with her bitchy antics, Steve looks like he has grown up the most when he dates single mother Carly until mid-season when Hilary Swank (Oscar winner!) leaves... we are also introduced to Noah, a kinda Dylan -esque rich guy with lots of baggage but he comes across a lot more likeable and less self-pitying than Dylan ever did!

This season's highlights for me:
St. Brandon slips up at last when he meets Emma. Although it seems so out of character for Brandon to cheat... it kinda underlines how bored Kelly and Brandon are of each other by now and how there really is no future for them...

Val's juggling of the rich guy Cooper and supposedly poor as a pauper Noah was also fun,
More glimpses of the vulnerable side of Val (the drug/rape affair, the HIV fear) really humanised her as more than just a bitch again this season.

Noah was a welcome addition, Carly was never really rounded out as a character and her being written out mid season was kinda lame ... they didn't try to integrate her into the group much this year... she was more of a 2d stereotype- the struggling single mom.. it was a shame the writers didn't round her character out more...

And this season sees a proper cliff hanger for the show this year... with Val leaving us dangling about her fate...

All in all, this was a good season. Season 9 really will be where the show dips... with Val and Brandon both leaving early on , the show suffers... Brandon always was the heart of the show- the solid sensible one and Val was always so much fun..

Enjoy!

as we all know season 8 is coming to DVD november 24th first off season 7 was great ending season finale with the cast gaduating now we get to see them in the real world we see donna and david move back in togther for a short time in the season and we also see kelly and brandon struggle with what to do about their realship when she gets shot and has aminisia and what the gang does to try and help and we also see the last full season with Jason Prestly as brandon 2 more to go after this november go get yours when it comes out i know i will also 1 more season till the return of luke perry lets keep the final 2 coming

Beverly Hills 90210 is one of the BEST drama series, I have ever watched! So far, CBS/Paramount has released the first 7 seasons, which I have collected.

CBS/Paramount should keep up the good work releasing Beverly Hills 90210 in season sets.

Season 8 is where Brandon, Kelly, Steve, David, Donna, and Valerie enter the real world. They also meet Carly Reynolds, Noah Hunter, and Steve's future wife Janet Sosna, in season Eight.

Beverly Hills 90210 The 8th Season should be released in 7-disc set containing all 30 episodes.

Please keep releasing Bevely Hills 90210 in Seasons sets!

Beverly Hills, 90210: Season Eight is when this groundbreaking drama started losing steam. The storylines became bizarre and lifeless and Hilary Swank was suddenly cut from the show without warning. I believe this was Jason Priestley's last year with the show and Season 9 and 10 were not the same without him - he was the heart and soul of this '90s hit. Jennie Garth is one of my favorites but even her character, Kelly Taylor started getting annoying especially with that whole amnesia storyline, blah! Donna (Tori Spelling) and David (Brian Austin Green) finally seal the deal and the gang graduates from College. Pretty much a safe, bland season but not as horrible when other shows jump the shark.

has anyone noticed that there are missing scenes. ive only noticed one so far but if theres one there could be more. in the episode "the elephants father" david sings keep it together for jasper and his band. then jasper asks him about it and he says he wrote it for donna and then jasper says she sounds like a cool girl but on the dvd version this is all left out. has anyone noticed any other missing scenes in any of the other seasons? it is so not cool if they are leaving out scenes. these seasons are like 50 bucks a pop

I've never seen Season 8, and I'm just about finished with this DVD set. The tone of the show changed a bit this Season, and it's obvious that the writers were running out of the ideas. But moreso than the stupid plotlines (kelly having amnesia and recovering her memory in the span of about 2 episodes, Donna and Noah being thrown together, etc.) and the force-feeding of "real-world" situations and social commentary (David befriending a troubled gay teen, Donna's new assistant being a "cutter", Kelly dealing with sexual harrassment in the workplace, Valerie contemplating donating bone marrow to a pedophile, Steve becoming involved with a single mother, the whole sweatshop storyline) it's the way they were presented that was the most annoying. I found myself saying "huh?" a couple of times, like, things would happen or the characters would be talking about something and i would feel like i missed something. Carly didn't have any interaction at all with anyone but steve for the first few episodes and then out of the blue in one random episode she's friends with all of them. Then Valerie is the one who is head over heels for Noah while he pushes away and then all of a sudden one episode it's the other way around and then she's suing him for rape??. And maybe i missed it, but I don't remember Donna and Val even discussing going into business together and in one episode they are already talking about their clients. It's very confusing. Not to mention, it's extremely annoying when David goes through his "moods".

Even though Clare was really annoying the last season (7), her presence (and sense of humor that she had from seasons 5-6, and some of 7) is greatly missed here, with new characters Carly and Noah being forced into the group, it didn't feel at all natural. And everybody knows that Noah was a sad attempt at re-creating a brooding, rich, rebel without a cause "Dylan" character. The only really entertaining moment this season was when Donna slapped Valerie and told her to go to hell. Seems the writers had had enough of Val and Kelly being arch enemies because they really threw Donna into the mix this season. Speaking of Donna, she was SO serious and glum! Anyone else remember when she used to be happy, had a sense of humor and used to be the comic relief in the show?? She was SO drab in season 8 you'd swear she was on downers or something.

All in all season 8 is pretty boring. I've heard it's the worst of the 10, so I can't wait to watch the other 2.

If you think Season Seven was terrible, wait until you see Season Eight. Now, that is a stinker. So, the new theme of the season is...Let's Save the World (And Be a Hypocrite at the Same Time). So many contradictions, so much bad writing, so much recycled junk stories, and so many incomprehensibly "whatever" moments...`tis the Soap Opera season to be utterly forgettable. I think the Reunion episode is the worst of Season Eight with the finale coming a close second. While watching the former, I am thinking the entire time, "What reunion?" because the 90210 gang is as clique as it comes. No one made a lifelong friendship outside of the group during high school, and the audience never really knew anyone else from high school setting at West Beverly High. If there was a handful of them making cameos, well...we didn't see any of them there. Just random characters that we never saw before. So, it would have made a lot of sense to have a one terrifically boring reunion at either Donna's apartment or Brandon's house. When (the old looking) Andrea Zuckerman shows up for the reunion, it is almost as if she is a unrecognizable character who used to be in 90210 eons ago. Not that she was memorable anyway. The latter episode, it is nice to see Jim and Cindy Walsh back together making a cameo appearance, yet something is so strange about it: they are practically strangers to Seasons One to Five audience. I just find that one amazing, and the message is apparent: the series is officially over. It is simply dead without a pulse. Worst of all, there are two more seasons to go. Wow, it is going to be very hard for me to stay motivated and chug along through the episodes. Let's go through the list of characters, shall we?
Brandon Walsh: Gosh...can there be a more sickening character than Brandon on the show? Because he is so full of bags of turd, I just want to punch him in the nose. One episode, he was defending himself in an argument with Kelly that he had morals to uphold. Hello! Brandon, you have no morals whatsoever to speak of; they all disappeared in Season One. Let me count off what Brandon is: he is a cheat (two times on Kelly!), an addicted gambler, a uncontrollable drinker, a violator of professional conduct (slept with three women via workplace romance and helping Steve to get away, among many things, with a fraternity prank by deleting video), a drunk driver, a person of temper tantrums, a womanizer (had a lot of one night stands including one with a stripper and was going to have one with a lesbian while struggling with the post-breakup with Kelly), an academic cheater, a stalker, and an annoyance. Also, he let Kelly to get shot in the belly because he wanted to act tough! Brandon...just shut the hell up. Five more episodes left in the next season, and Brandon is gone forever.
Kelly Taylor: The darling of the show is back. Poor Kelly, she gets shot in the belly and suffers amnesia from it at the beginning of Season Eight. I am happy to see her not to get married (is that so predictable or what?) to Brandon in the end. For some reason, I feel she can do much better than her current situation.
Donna Martin: Wow...what happened to Donna? She sure resembles Mr. Hyde much of the season. She used to be so happy, naive, and charitable yet during Season Eight, she has gotten so bitchy and somber. Her hairstyle is so awful that it reminds me of a toxic waste dump. The mix of colors seems all wrong to me. She becomes the seventh regular cast member to (is this getting old already?) abuse drugs. Donna designing her clothes, boy...ever seen her wearing her own designed clothes at any time of the show?
Steve Sanders: I used to like him in the beginning for about five to six seasons, and then, I've started to get weary of him. He just has this same, boring routine with women, and it seems to me that it's all he needs to make his life complete. Quite frankly, I am getting sick and tired of it. If he loved Carly and Zach so much, then why not move to Montana with them? What's so freaking hard about it? And he sure got over it pretty fast. Besides that, as it is a big recurring problem with just about every couple in the history of the series, there is virtually no chemistry between Steve and Carly. As hard as it is to believe, Hilary Swank is the one out of all actors and actresses of the series to make it big outside of the show.
David Silver: *sighs* The talentless musician with a need to control people that revolve around him, David manages to disgust the hell out of me in every episode that he appears in. I am just really surprised that he only got a year probation for indirectly shooting at Gwyneth's arm with a gun (how boring, reliving Dylan's paranoia all over again). And she sure didn't show any feelings about it afterwards. How convenient. His relationship with Valerie is one of the biggest reasons why the series sank further through the abyss of mediocrity because it is a big nothing. And I wasn't even aware that they were together at any point of the time despite the lack of chemistry between the two. Remember that he saw a $2,000 check get bounced on him for his jingles work? How stupid was that he decided to be paid in form of clothes? He really has no idea how business works, does he?
Noah Hunter: While it is easy to somewhat like him, Noah sure comes off as an idiot the entire season. His actions and methods of dealing with many situations are questionable and puzzling at best. I just don't see him with Donna because there is absolutely nothing between them that indicates love. Probably it's another ploy by Tori to get what she wants like how she did with that firefighter stud (yeah, like it will happen). Why did Noah have to bail David out by paying the loan shark? And why did he have to stay in Beverly Hills and waste his time with the gang? There are so many better places to waste time in and better people to hang out with.
Valerie Malone: *yawn* Do I really care? Bye-bye, Valerie...she will be gone after seven episodes in Season Nine. Her crap wasted my time, had nothing to do with reality, and drained every remaining amount of energy left in the series. Every time she reasons things out, it's like watching her trying to square a circle. I'm just tired of her; she should have been cut out at some point during Season Eight. Oh, the HIV test? Let me save you the suspense: it's negative. This shouldn't shock you either: nothing bad ever happens to the regular cast members. And they always recover in an amazing pace.
Nat Bussichio: I understand that he had been on the series as long as everybody else has been, and I understand that he is part of the opening credits. But let's be real: does he really serve any purpose whatsoever for 90210? He just cooks hamburgers and runs a restaurant where the gang will congregate from time to time. If you haven't noticed, Brandon had never talked to Nat at any time during Season Eight, considering that he used to look at him as a second father figure from beginning seasons. Wow, things have changed a lot, ain't they?

Finally, from time to time, the introducing opening credits will have a moment of corniness from time to time. But this one may have taken the cake: it's the one where Brandon and Steve are bouncing off each other by their chests. Also, if I look at the subsequent rolling credits showing names of the guest stars, I find the MTV style editing incredibly annoying. If you look at many of the cuts, they are actually old ones from early 90's, showing a lot of people wearing extremely out-of-date fashion clothes. Speaking of laziness, look at the many subplots during Season Eight. I believe that every single of them, except for a couple, was touched at one point or another in the past seven seasons. Some of them were touched so frequently that they got very stale.

All in all, I just can't believe Beverly Hills 90210 survived for two more seasons; Season Eight is simply a disaster.

On the whole this set was exactly what we've been getting for the last 7 boxes
HOWEVER, the transfer/encode on the final disk is awful, the final episode of the Wedding of Brandon and Kelly has really terrible "slo-mo" moments where the movement of the actors is jumpy and jerky (like the end of act bumpers on teh Melrose latter seasons) which really detracts from watching the episode

I really hope this is an abberation rather than the standard for the final two seasons

This show is all real life problems that happen.Some of the things that happen are kinda stupid.But for the most part it is a good show.And it can help in a way.So you should start from the first season.I think most women would like it allot

I just finished watching Season 8... and the only thing I can complain about is that it took so long to release it.. and the fact that some of the show descriptions are wrong.. specifically the last episode of Brandon and Kelly's wedding... on the DVD synopsis there is a totally different description of the show than what truly happened.. which kinda confused me... hopefully the things that said were going to happen on the last episode will be on season 9.. Hope they hurry up and come out!!