The Reality of Dr. 90210
Jessica Chen
The popular reality television show, Dr. 90210 is set in famous Beverly Hills, a district known for its beautiful faces and prosperity. Beverly Hills is also one of the most competitive places for cosmetic plastic surgery. This plastic surgery show features the lives and surgeries of both patients and their doctors who are all in pursuit of "perfection." By focusing especially on the life of Dr. Rey Roberts and his patients, the reality show Dr. 90210 strives to pull the stereotype of Beverly Hills as an ideal down to reality through the use of personal accounts of significant events.
The name of the show itself, Dr. 90210 exhibits an air of ideality. 90210 is the famous zip code of Beverly Hills, an area known for its ideality. The name Dr. 90210 itself, dehumanizes the doctors into a mere stereotype by referring to them as one - a first-rate doctor practicing in Beverly Hills. The introduction to Dr. 90210 shows scenes of people with ideal faces. These scenes allow viewers to obtain a strong impression of Beverly Hills as an ideal. Furthermore, in the reality show, "real" scenes of Beverly Hills are briefly displayed in order to portray the common perceptions of the district. These subtle, but important scenes include palm trees, gorgeous people relaxing on the beach, and the famous high-class shopping district of Rodeo Drive; these scenes serve as a sampling of the stereotype of Beverly Hills as an ideal place. A notable detail in each of these carefully chosen scenes is the weather. A brilliant blue sky is always present in the back ground. The blue represents perfection of the environment itself. The perfect weather is merely another addition to the ideality of Beverly Hills.
The main doctor featured in Dr. 90210 , Dr. Rey Roberts, seems to have a perfect life fit for the stereotypical ideality of Beverly Hills on first glance. He is a highly respected young surgeon with the desire to succeed in the Beverly Hills area. Dr. Robert Rey, born in Brazil to a single mother, spends his childhood in the ghetto, and comes to America in pursuit of the American dream. He obviously has accomplished his dream of attending Harvard Medical School in order to become a surgeon. His never ending stream of patients demonstrates that his dream to succeed in Beverly Hills is becoming reality. He is one of the most well known doctors in the area due to his immaculate technique. In addition, Dr. Rey is in very good physical shape; he exercises almost 6 times a week to keep his healthy image. Dr. Rey is married to his loving wife Haley and has adorable children. They live in a beautiful, expensive home in Beverly Hills. His home life is outwardly ideal. Obviously, Dr. Rey seems to lead the perfect life a surgeon in Beverly Hills is assumed to lead.
But, as with plastic surgery, appearances are deceiving. Dr. 90210 pits the ideal ideas of Beverly Hills, seen in all those montages, against Dr. Rey's and his patients own realities to allow viewers to visualize the significant contrast between the stereotype of Beverly Hills as perfection and the reality of Beverly Hills. In this reality show, the real lives and problems of those who live in Beverly Hills are brought out. All is not perfect in Beverly Hills. Ironically, while the idea of plastic surgery focuses on perfecting the human body by fixing flaws, such flaws are evident in Dr. Rey himself, the man who is the tool used by patients to reach "perfection." It is evident to the viewers that Dr. Rey's home life is far from perfect. First of all, although his wife Haley is an attractive woman at first glance, viewers discover that her thin figure is a result of an eating disorder. According to Pamela M. Prah, "many Americans blame the nation's obsession with appearances for causing eating disorders" (126). As a cosmetic surgeon's wife, Haley is obviously affected by her surroundings in Beverly Hills and may even feel pressured to keep an attractive thin image. Most likely Dr. Rey's patients judge Haley as the wife of their surgeon and expect her to maintain her youth since she has unrestricted access to the most famous cosmetic surgeon in the area. When Dr. Rey eventually discovers her eating disorder, he is extremely upset. Furthermore, although Dr. Rey has an 8,500-square-foot mansion, he directly tells the audience that because of his mansion, he cannot spend as much time as he would like at home with his family. Instead, he must keep working in order to pay off expenses. Dr. Rey essentially works his entire day; his schedule starts at seven in the morning and ends eleven at night. The Industrial Engineer has found that "working long hours drives up the risk on injury and illness...and the risk has nothing to do with how hazardous the job is" (17). In addition to distracting him from family life, the viewers are aware that Dr. Rey's lengthy work hours are extremely stressful and may eventually affect his health, causing him more injury than good. Dr. Rey is seen falling asleep immediately without spending time with his family first after returning home from a full day of work due to exhaustion. Additionally, the fact that Dr. Rey practices martial arts and attempts to obtain his black belt is a sign that he does not conform to the stereotype of perfection and happiness in Beverly Hills. Placing a high value on improving his martial art skills, Dr. Rey risks his whole life and career. The black belt test involves brick breaking which is especially dangerous to a surgeon. His hands are the key to his success in surgery, yet he continues this risky sport. He seems to reach for more although he is materialistically satisfied and seemingly enjoys his wealth and high status in society. The struggles Dr. Rey and his family go through despite his successful career help viewers discard the perception of people in Beverly Hills as an ideal.
The reality of Beverly Hills is emphasized additionally by Dr. Rey's interaction with patients. The mere fact that Dr. Rey with his practice located in Beverly Hills has many local patients demonstrates that despite its ideal outer appearance, Beverly Hills is the home of much dissatisfaction. His patients obviously are not happy with themselves although they are wealthy. They choose to use their wealth to correct and constantly enhance their appearance in an attempt to become more satisfied. From research by Elizabeth Haiken , it has been concluded that "those who [seek] surgery [share] a belief that Americans 'read' faces, [run] them against familiar stereotypes, and from this [make] assumptions about identity and character" (81-97). This pursuit of perfection may stem from their own disappointment that they do not fit the ideality stereotypical of Beverly Hills. The patients of Dr. Rey demonstrate that they believe they cannot be fully identified with Beverly Hills until they have undergone cosmetic procedures. As seen in Dr. 90210 with returning customers, aesthetic procedures performed such as Botox do not produce a permanent result and must be performed repeatedly. Expert Carol Lewis has discovered that "people don't seem to mind repeating the procedure every four to six months in order to maintain a wrinkle-free look" (11-14). The surgery patients obviously only appear younger for a small period of time since they choose to undergo the procedure over after experiencing a relapse from their temporary satisfaction. Many patients have had previous surgery in a futile effort to improve their lives. According to People's magazine, "the ease of modern surgery--minimal scarring and recovery time--can be very appealing [and] even addictive " ( Schneider 60-67 ). They come to Dr. Rey with requests for subsequent surgeries because they are still not happy with their image. Evidently, the numerous tedious surgeries still have not allowed patients to achieve the perfection that symbolizes Beverly Hills. In their ongoing quest for perfection, the patients still experience anxiety and pain from the surgeries no matter how much modern surgery has advanced. The pain causes them discomfort for a period of time and is a constant reminder of the long healing process. This pulls down the ideality of Beverly Hills further; even while the patients are trying to self fashion themselves to fit the ideality of their hometown, their uncomfortable experiences are far from desirable.
Dr. 90210 pulls the ideality of Beverly Hills down to reality by placing emphasis on the hectic lives of doctors and patients in the show. Looking past the stereotype of Beverly Hills, the audience discovers that people living in Beverly Hills experience the same human feelings of insecurity. This reality show is evidence that outer appearances can be deceiving.
Works Cited
Haiken, Elizabeth. "The Making of the Modern Face: Cosmetic Surgery." Social Research 67.1(Spring 2000): 81-97.
Lewis, Carol. "Botox Cosmetic: A Look at Looking Good." FDA Consumer July-Aug. 2002: 11-14.
"Long Work Hours are Sickening." Industrial Engineer: IE Oct. 2005: 17.
Prah, Pamela M. "Does Hollywood 'Cause' Eating Disorders?" CQ Researcher 10 Feb. 2006: 126. 2 May 2006
Schneider, Karen S. "Facing Off Over Plastic Surgery." People 18 Oct. 2004: 60-66.
