Gossip Girl

I am going to try and stick to shows that are on Netflix, since most people are subscribers or pirating someone else's account.  They have a great variety of shows and for unlimited access at $9.95 or something a month, it can't really be beat (They should start paying me).  I'll throw in the HBO/Showtime shows at some point because those are top notch. Now I give you a show that I would compare to the first love of a person's life.  The beginning is great, you stay up way later than you normally would just to spend more time with them, when your'e not around them your'e thinking of the next time you will be together.  Then right around season 3, or the second time you two have broken up and gotten back together, things go from amazing to what the f*ck have I been doing for the past two years.  You relish time apart, resent the other for "making" you check in from time to time.  You both know that you should no longer be together, but you are in too deep.  Until finally one of you grows a pair and ends it.  For me this was when the last episode finished of this horribly addictive teen drama called.............GOSSIP GIRL.



I will be the first to admit that I watch good tv and I watch terrible tv.  This show falls somewhere in the middle, skewing towards terrible.  I tend to shy away from most reality tv shows as they just seem to make me mad for one reason or another.  Basically cause I want one of my own, but there is nothing like a great BAD tv show and for a while that is what Gossip Girl is.  From the start you will be hooked and most likely mow through season 1.  After that, you will watch it by the mathematical equation I like to call- (Free Time + Pure Boredom + Pain Tolerance to Bad Acting and Implausible Situations) - (Ability to stop watching bad tv) * (How badly do you want to find out who Gossip Girl is - Looking it Up on the Internet).

Intended Audience- This one is fairly simple, the GG audience is females between the ages of 16-Alive.  Ladies if you want to watch a show with your man, this is not it.  Orange is the New Black is a much better option.  Save this show for when you have some alone time and an hour to kill.  I watched it because I was travelling, had down time, was told I would love it, loved it, and then had to find out the secret.

Where to Find it- This too can be found on Netflix, all six painful seasons.  Mercifully season 6 is only 12 episodes.

Show Synopsis- The show is centered around four teenagers that live in Manhattan, and one outcast that wants to fit in.  Throughout the course of the show there are more excuses for social events then you could ever dream up.  They throw parties, attend galas, have debutante balls, put on fashion shows, and are the hottest socialites regarding all things NYC......That is just season 1.  Anyway, everyone screws everyone else over, and throughout the course of the show there is this mysterious blogger named Gossip Girl that finds out and posts everyone's darkest secrets. The tried and true recipe of, get together, breakup, kinda get back together, cheat, promise not to cheat, get together again for the last time, repeat, is a staple of this show.

My Review- For the most part I have kind of given away how I feel about this show already.  That being said it does have its merits.  Blake Lively is nice to look at, but you will grow to hate her if you watch the show all the way through  (Possibly in real life and all things acting.  She was good in The Town, and o.k. in Savages, but I really can't take her seriously anymore after 6 seasons of this).  The male protagonist is pretty much a douche and I imagine that is why we have not seen him in anything since.  His hair alone in seasons 5 and 6 really made me dislike him, not sure if that is his call or not, but I blame him.  You start out really disliking Leighton Meester's Blair, but she will kinda grow on you.  At least she stays true to character for most of the show.

The real star of the show is Ed Westwick as Chuck Bass.  Slimey, repugnant and, way too mature for a 17 year old.  There are a litany of reasons to hate Mr. Bass right out of the gate.  I think he even gets a little rapey in the first episodes.  At some point along the way your feelings will turn and you start to root for the guy you once despised.  You want him to go to Europe to drink and gamble for the Summer. Watching the things Chuck does is much like when you dream of what you would do if you won the lottery, but around age 22, and all of what you wanted was extremely hedonistic.

There are a remaining few topics I will touch on before I close the Gossip Girl chapter of my life for good.  First, I am not sure what traffic is like in NY at any given time of day (most likely bad), but these people will go cross town just to walk in on something they were not supposed to see (happens roughly 1,843 times), or to meet up with another character and have a two sentence conversation.  I am too lazy to drive across town for events way more important than Blake Lively is having a "just got a new haircut" party.  In fact if the real Blake Lively was making sandwiches at my local Subway, I wouldn't be willing to travel 10 minutes for a $5 foot long.  Second, CELL PHONE PASSCODES??  Its bad enough they seem to leave them all over the place, but say some unknown person is spreading gossip all over the internet, I think I would not only be deleting all text conversions, but I would certainly have a passcode on my phone.  C'mon!  I guess this show works me up a little bit, I had no intention on writing this much.

Finale- We find out all we ever wanted to know about the Gossip Girl gang, including who GG really is.  Sadly it makes me want to rewatch the show to see if that explanation holds up, which I don't think it does, but if I rewatch and proved right, who really wins??

Eye Candy- No shortage here.  Here are the top 4, most of them sleep together on the show at some point.


In Summary- Watch it if you like bad TV.  Gossip Girl has the same career arc of NY Mets pitcher Dwight Gooden (For non sports people insert River Phoenix/Amy Winehouse/James Dean).  It starts strong (Rookie CY Young winner) and fades quickly, but at that point you're hooked (liked he was hooked on drugs for so long), so you will finish it.  Finally it will end, and you will move on to better things in life, remembering the dark places Gossip Girl/Drugs once took you.  If you have seen it, I would love to hear some opinions.  As harsh as I think I am being, I bet my review is kinder than most.