I don't know if 90210 jumped the shark (https://www.reddit.com/r/BeverlyHills90210/comments/8admp6/beverly_hills_90210s_jump_the_shark_moment/) when Shannen Doherty left and Tiffani-Amber Thiessen came in, but do you agree that Brenda despite having her own bitchy moments, was generally morally grounded? Even though Brenda could be a mess (https://www.reddit.com/r/BeverlyHills90210/comments/jhwbzv/would_brenda_have_became_a_villain_if_shannen/), and made a lot of mistakes, she was surprisingly complex for a teen show heroine.

In comparison, it seemed like Valerie was designed to be an all out archetype soap bitch (https://boards.soapoperanetwork.com/topic/38912-soap-opera-archetypes/). They tried too hard to make her out to be a villain in other words. The whole draw initially of Valerie Malone appeared to be what if Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, who had previously played the wholesome nice girl Kelly Kapowski on Saved by the Bell (basically the position that Tori Spelling played on 90210) went to the "dark side".

I mean, try to imagine Kelly Kapowski sleeping with all the other girls' boyfriends, faking a pregnancy, blackmailing people, getting arrested for prostitution, killing her rapist father in self defense and then covering evidence to make it look like a suicide, etc.