Brenda Walsh - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

[TMC]

http://popcultureaddictlifeguide.blo...-and-ugly.html

Whatever the case, today's blog topic is all about the character that Shannen played for four years. Brenda Walsh from "Beverly Hills 90210". Oh, let's have a look at the "Beverly Hills 90210" intro just for old times sake!

Okay, so some of you might realize that I already did a feature on Brandon and Brenda two years ago...but that was a team effort. I'm doing another entry on Brenda Walsh because she was arguably the most interesting of the two, and she seemed to have a lot more interesting storylines than Brandon.

Now, for some of you who missed out on the 1990s completely, many of you are probably wondering who Brenda Walsh is. I keep forgetting that it's been nearly 25 years since 90210 debuted!

(The original. Not the one with Shenae Grimes.)

Anyway, Brenda Walsh and her twin brother Brandon (played by Jason Priestley) used to live in the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota with their parents Jim and Cindy Walsh (James Eckhouse and Carol Potter). Well, that is until Jim gets a promotion which has the family moving halfway across the country from Minnesota to California.

Specifically the uber-rich area known as Beverly Hills.

And, certainly the Walsh family struggled with adapting to Beverly Hills society. Jim did quite well with this, and Brandon eventually found a way to fit in as well, but Cindy and Brenda really struggled with carving out an identity in one of the richest neighbourhoods of America.

I mean, right off the bat during Brenda's first week at West Beverly Hills, she practically kissed the shoes of Kelly Taylor and Donna Martin (Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling) to get into the in-group, completely freaked out over her unfashionable wardrobe, and ended up hooking up with a man not realizing that he had a good 10-15 years on her! Suffice to say, Brenda's time at West Beverly Hills High School was filled with ups and downs, and by the time she moved to London at the end of season four, she certainly had most viewers divided on whether they liked her or hated her.

As someone who has seen a few episodes in which Brenda appeared on, I'm going to be honest. I liked her. And, even though she did some things that make you want to shake your head in disgust, or shake her head to get her to understand why she was acting like a moron...she also had her moments in which she could be a loyal friend - even if sometimes her friends didn't deserve it.

So, to get things out of the way, let's talk about Brenda's flaws. Or, in other words, the reasons why millions of viewers turned into FOX between 1990 and 1994.

First things first, Brenda was a little bit self-absorbed.

Well, actually, she was VERY self-absorbed. She also seemed to lack self-esteem as well, as she was always constantly trying to change everything about herself to get Kelly and Donna to like her. She tried to afford clothes that were out of her price range. She had a fake ID made so that she could go to exclusive Beverly Hills parties. And, she even dyed her hair blonde, which ended up being a huge disaster.

Brenda was also very rebellious - especially in the middle seasons. Whereas Brandon was the child who could do no wrong, Brenda seemed to be the child who could do no right. After all, Brenda was arrested for breaking into a science lab to release animals, she was arrested for shoplifting even though it was her friend who was actually stealing, she was interviewed for a teenage talk show and had her words skewered and edited so much that she nearly lost all of her friends, and on top of all that, she ran away from home to live with her boyfriend, which got her parents so upset that they decided that she needed to be away from her boyfriend at all costs.

Now, granted, maybe sending your daughter to Paris, France as a punishment might seem like an oxymoron to you...but given that Brenda had been steadily acting out since falling in love with Dylan McKay (Luke Perry), you could see how her parents might be concerned. Little did they know that their act would cause Brenda even more pain than she ever imagined...

...but I'm getting ahead of myself here.