Shame-ninja that I am, I’ve been stealthily watching Gossip Girl behind your backs for weeks. My explanations include strike starvation, a love of pretty faces and a respect for any scripted show that films in New York… but at the end of the day, I guess I just love teen smut as much as everyone else. In my attempt to devote as little attention as possible to reality TV in 2008, don’t be surprised if this is the first of several Gossip Girl reviews.
Ahhh, watching this with an open mind really let’s me get into Kristen Bell as an narrator. It may be amateurish and vapid, but I think that’s what they’re going for. Listening to the blogger narration makes me wonder if there actually is a Gossip Girl blog. There is! The CW has also recreated the Upper East Side on Second Life. Encouraging tweens to join a virtual world where most avatars have perpetually erect penises isn’t the most responsible thing to do, but kudos for being so Web 2.0, guys!
The episode starts with a brief, illegal pool party at the school that’s cut short when an extra drunkenly slams his head against a pole and falls into the water. I realize this an absurdly fake and glamorous portrayal of high school, but I can’t help but mourn how square it makes my teen years look in comparison. Then again, if I had grown up with kids this attractive, I would have made a much greater effort at being social. Anyways, everyone is under suspicion of having a key to the school and punishment will be severe. My attention to the plot drifted as my envy for the cast’s wardrobes overwhelmed me. Good thing there was a turtleneck to pull me back. Anyways part II, it turned out that Serena was the one who broke into the school, but she accepted responsibility for her actions and was not really punished. This bit is poorly developed because the writers were really feeling Serena’s icy mom this week. Too much screen time is devoted to the adult subplots of Gossip Girl. Kelly Rutherford is certainly a step up from Mrs Walsh and her mom jeans on 90210, but she’s no Kirsten Cohen.
The major struggle of any teen soap is the on-again, off-again romance of its leading couple, but I don’t see how that is going to work for Dan and Serena. They’re both too oddly mature and infatuated to ever mess things up, though I suppose that will change in time. At least with The OC we could count on Ryan’s silent rage and Marissa being an ambisexual, drug-addled moron to tear them apart on a monthly basis. Gossip Girl is just eye candy in its purist form. It’s not as smart or funny as similar shows have been in the past, but they don’t really care and neither do I. The current show is an admirable evolution from last summer’s pilot. I just wish everyone would stop saying “van der Woodsen” so much.
She’s no Kiki Cohen but she is growing on me.
I can’t believe you have been watching behind my back and we have not been discussing. You know i loved GG from the start!