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Premierewatch '07: 'Gossip Girl'
Gossip Girl is going to get me in trouble, and not because I'll copy the characters' decadent behavior ... although a martini seems like a nice companion for viewing this. I think this show is going to bring the mean out of me.
I'm serving up spoilers here ... with two olives.
There's always that one girl that everybody can't seem to stop talking about (like my college roommate who had a Scarlett O'Hara complex and whom all my male friends dated but couldn't quite tell me why they found her attractive). In Gossip Girl land, it's Serena van der Woodsen, who's played by Blake Lively. I hate to say this, but Lively looks a little old. In some scenes, it looks like she could be Blair's mom -- her hot, teenage pregnancy mom, but a mom nonetheless. I can almost believe that she's been abusing her liver with too much alcohol.
Yeah, I get that Serena is kinda pretty and built, but really? What did she do at 16 that makes everybody's Blackberry blow up when she arrives back in NYC? Why is Dan obsessed with a chick he barely knows? Why is Nate so smitten when he's prettier than she is? And why does she run around for the beginning of the episode looking like a hot, misplaced gondolier with her stripey shirt and scarf tied around her neck?
Anyway, Serena's back in town because her little brother Erik slashed his wrists, which mom Lily euphemistically calls "visiting Aunt Carol in Miami." Nobody else knows why she's back so suddenly though, and Blair is just plain jealous because she suspects Nate has a thing for her best friend. Well, little does she know that her friend and boyfriend had a thing a year ago on a barstool.
The Humphreys are supposed to be the regular folk, but they're annoyingly gravitating towards Serena as well. Dan wants her as his girlfriend, Jenny wants to be her, and dad Rufus ... well, he just might want her mom Lily since his own wife is off doing whatever.
And Serena is good now. No more drinking for her ... unless she's at a bar. After a showdown at the Met, where Serena realizes that she's not invited to Blair's Kiss on the Lips party, the two kind of reconcile over drinks. They even get sappy-cutesy and call each other S and B. Hey, that's Gossip Girl's shtick! (Might I add that it's nice to hear Kristen Bell's wicked voice again? And did you notice that Mark Piznarski -- whose namesake is Piz -- directed the episode? I miss Veronica Mars.)
And no more sleeping with Blair's boyfriend. After all, this Dan character gave Serena a great excuse when her mom asked why she didn't want to attend the stupid party. Yup, attending a concert by one of Rolling Stone's Top 10 Forgotten Bands of the '90s is just so wholesome and perfect for the reformed bad girl.
Let's see if she stays reformed. We've already seen her get her drink on again, and perhaps the deliciously fiendish Chuck is right thinking that Serena is a bit like him -- given to indulging her baser nature. It's not like she didn't know that Nate was Blair's boyfriend when she slept with him.
And little Jenny just has "Victim" written all over her. Not only did she allow Blair to use her calligraphy sweatshop skills to create invitations for the party, but she's woefully ignorant about Chuck, even though she ought to know his reputation. She needs to get on the Gossip Girl site she makes fun of Dan for reading.
And Chuck is bad, bad news. Love him. He's such a sneering villain. I want him to twirl or caress his weird ugly scarf. I mean, he tried to seduce Serena first by giving her a grilled cheese sandwich with truffle oil. Diabolical. I admit I'd be weak enough to accept the sandwich of sin myself. He's a bit less creative with Jenny, going for the whole talking and getting her sauced on champagne route. I expect better material and maneuvers in the future, Chuckie boy.
So here's how it all plays out. Serena is avoiding Nate because of her guilty conscience, and once he confesses his cheating to Blair (as they're about to seal the deal -- classy), she mandates that he will ignore Serena from now on. Even though Jenny secures Serena an invite to Kiss on the Lips, she decides nice guy Dan is the better option and goes on a date with him to see Lincoln Hawk, his dad's band.
At the party, Jenny catches Chuck's lecherous eye, and she impresses me with her one-handed thumb-texting abilities by surreptitiously texting big bro Dan for help. He and Serena come to her rescue by crashing the party and putting Blair's as-yet virginal panties in a twist. Dan punches Chuck (he's had a rough few days what with the whole knee in the groin with Serena) and they all exit triumphantly and hail a cab.
A few other random thoughts:
- How does every single girl on the show have perfect lips? Is it a combo of lipstick and gloss? Any liner? What shade?
- Is it just me, or did Nate get blonder in the jogging scene with his dad and then go back to being darker?
- Isn't Nate a bit young to be having an existential crisis?
- I can't help but be disturbed by Taylor Momsen (Jenny), who was only 13 when the pilot was shot. And lines like, "Oh my God, my daughter's a woman" don't help. She's actually playing her age, so it's more disturbing than watching the actresses who play Blair and Serena because at least they're both in their early 20s.
- How did Jenny get up to the roof with Chuck? I mean, she was already worried about him downstairs, enough to text Dan, and then she's like, "Oh, okay I'm going to go with you up to the roof where there's more privacy for you to maul me"? Is she really that dumb?
How was this for a first episode? Are you hooked? Who do you love? Who do you hate?
I'd admit I was going to watch solely for the sound of Kristen Bell's voice, but I ended up getting hooked. There were definitely scenes where Lively looked like she should be out of college, not still in high school. But I guess they all kinda looked older. And Penn Badgley is suddenly one of my new favorite people.
I will definitely start watching.
It was teenage drama, but the fun romantic entertaining kind. And I want to find out why Serena was so popular, what happened to her brother, how her mom and Mr. Humphrey know each other and on what level, and all sorts of other stuff.
I was a really avid reader of the books.. but there's a few inconsistencies in the show that are really hard to get past..
but whatever. I guess it's just "based" on the novels.
Psh. TV ruins everything!
Ratings for the first episode were disappointing, 3.65 million viewers. I doubt that's what CW was hoping for. Perhaps those will improve as time goes by, but I'm betting against it. Next week the competition will be tougher.
As for the content. Teens doing drugs and alcohol? Teen suicide? A party with a date rape? Talk about cliche. I'm guessing it won't be long until someone starts questioning their parentage.
David | Sep 20, 2007 10:49:41 AM | #Not a bad start, clearly not the greatest pilot, but far from horrific either.
I'll give it a couple of more episodes before I decide whether or not to keep it or dump it.
BTW, it is just me or does Leighton Meester (Blair) look a lot like Minka Kelly (Kyla from Friday Night Lights) now that Leighton has got rid of the blond hair?
Rishi | Sep 20, 2007 3:22:45 PM | #I posted the following in another blog here on zap2it but I'm repeating myself because it seems that I had the same feelings as some others did after watching the first episode.
I have to say, based on the pilot episode only, I don't see what everyone else sees in this show (e.g. "it's one of the fall's best new shows"). That doesn't mean I won't keep watching! Do you hear that, CW (and networks, in general)? I won't automatically give up on a show after just one episode!!!
As for Penn Badgley, aka "Dan", I've liked him for a long time. This guy's been on more failed WB series than anybody on TV (i.e. Do Over, The Mountain, Bedford Diaries, probably others I can't remember!) and still he keeps working on their shows! If anyone deserves a hit show, it's him! I hope Gossip Girl is the one.
Robin | Sep 20, 2007 6:44:52 PM | #I work in a bookstore where teens are always buying Gossip Girl (I call it trashy teen porn) and I vowed never to watch the show. Then I found out Kristen Bell would be narrating so I had to watch. And while I hated the majority of it, there were a couple things that have me curious enough to watch more.
Ralyks | Sep 20, 2007 11:11:01 PM | #I, too, was sucked in when I heard Kristen Bell was narrating. And I was also a little sucked in. I mean with this many hotties... Penn Badgley, Leighton Meester... how can one resist? It won't be a show I can't miss, but I will definatley catch it when I am around.
Mandy | Sep 21, 2007 9:01:00 PM | #Loralei!!!
Where are you????
I miss you!
Rory!
Sookie!
Emily!
Paris!
Where are you???
I miss you too!
I was convinced that Jenny was the mysterious Gossip Girl. Their voices sound alike.
This show is so dumb and so cliched. Like, a rich teenage boy who doesn't want his whole life planned by his parents? I've never heard that before...
And what kind of a drama queen is little Jenny anyway, sensing danger enough to text her brother, but not enough to get away from the creep? I hope she is meant to be attention-hungry, not stupid.
I'm not planning to watch the second episode.
Strock9 | Sep 24, 2007 9:49:39 AM | #
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