Beverly Hills 90210 - Season 3 [DVD]

Things continue to plug along at a rapid and highly dramatic pace in season three for the privileged teens of Aaron Spelling's 90's TV classic Beverly Hills 90210. This season the gang tackles eating disorders, gambling addiction, birth, death, incest, infidelity, car accidents, racism, homelessness, and one whopper of a love triangle, along with, of course, the standard high school fare of college applications, SAT scores, and graduation anxiety. 90210 continues to revolve around Minnesota transplants Brandon (Jason Preistley) and Brenda Walsh (Shannon Doherty), though with every season the twins’ Midwestern roots seem to matter a little less. The summer before senior year begins with Brenda and boyfriend Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) still deeply in love, much to the chagrin of Brenda's disapproving parents. To force a little distance, they send Brenda to Paris for the summer with Donna (Tori Spelling), herself the subject of an enjoyable and incredibly absurd French modeling subplot—while halfway around the world Dylan and Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) discover a growing mutual attraction and begin an illicit summer fling. But it’s clear the love triangle between Dylan and best friends Brenda and Kelly remains the heart of the show. Taking a break from all the drama, there are some entertaining subplots this year, many of them involving surprising guest stars (before they were stars), including Peter Krause (Six Feet Under), David Arquette (Scream), and Dean Cain (Lois & Clark).

As in the first two seasons released on DVD, the lack of the original early 90's music is a major disappointment, but the entertainment value doesn't suffer for it. The highlight of the special features is the return of VH-1's John Aboud and Michael Colton. The two comedians' hilarious lampooning of season three in "Everything You Need to Know About Beverly Hills 90210 - Season Three" gently mocks some of the more outlandish dream sequences, Brenda's horrible French accent, and of course, the ridiculousness of many of these highly entertaining but entirely silly plot-lines. Beverly Hills 90210 - Season Three is addictive as ever and incredibly fun to watch - a time capsule, over-the-top soap opera and teen drama trailblazer all rolled into one. --Kira Canny

Synopsis
Television producer extraordinaire Aaron Spelling launched a pop-culture phenomenon with his 1990s teen soap opera Beverly Hills 90210, a landmark series that not only set the standard for '90s teen culture, but single-handedly wrote the rulebook for later shows like Dawson's Creek and The O.C. Created by Darren Star, the glitzy series chronicles the coming-of-age dramas of Minnesota siblings Brandon (Jason Priestley) and Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty) as they adjust to their new affluent surroundings, where they attend the fictional West Beverly High with a tight-knit group of teenage friends: good-natured jock Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering); brainy good-girl Andrea Zuckerman (Gabrielle Carteris); naive virgin Donna Martin (Tori Spelling); aspiring DJ David Silver (Brian Austin Green); blonde siren Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth); and troubled bad-boy Dylan McKay (Luke Perry). The series attempts social commentary by crafting storylines that feature a wide range of issues affecting '90s youths, including alcoholism, drug abuse, sex, and depression. Groundbreaking and iconic, 90210's third series is presented here in its entirety.

All 30 episodes from the third season of the 1990s US teen drama series. In this series, Andrea accuses the new reading teacher of sexism, Dylan's father, Jack, is finally released from prison, and gambling addict, Brandon, gets himself deeper in debt. Episodes comprise: 'Misery Loves Company', 'The Twins, the Trustee, and the Very Big Trip', 'Too Little, Too Late/Paris 75001', 'Sex Lies and Volleyball/Photo Fini', 'Shooting Star/American in Paris', 'Castles in the Sand', 'Song of Myself', 'The Back Story', 'Highwire', 'Home and Away', 'A Presumption of Innocence', 'Destiny Rides Again', 'Rebel With a Cause', 'Wild Horses', 'The Kindness of Strangers', 'It's a Totally Happening Life', 'The Game Is Chicken', 'Midlife..Now What?', 'Back in the High Life Again', 'Parental Guidance Recommended', 'Dead End', 'The Child Is Father to the Man', 'Duke's Bad Boy', 'Perfectly Perfect', 'Senior Poll', 'She Came in Through the Bathroom Window', 'A Night to Remember', 'Something in the Air', 'Commencement:Part 1', and 'Commencement: Part 2'.