Beverly Hills, 90210

Beverly Hills, 90210 lives on the long memory of the teen soap, where school, status and friendships all stay in the same frame. By our assessment, its strength is that it made suburban privilege and adolescent melodrama feel like a weekly habit, with a cast and setting that became instantly recognisable. The downside is the same thing that gives it shape: once you know the formula, you also know the emotional weather it tends to bring. In practice it is a lot of relationships, wardrobe signals and personal messes arranged around a glossy high-school world. Compared with later teen dramas, it is more openly a classic soap in school clothes, and less interested in realism than in ongoing tension. The name itself keeps 90210 in view, and the catalogue places it in Drama, which suits its reputation.