Gossip Girl: Discussion Thread

[Sylph]

Sorry, Toups, I have to disagree. It was bad beyond belief! Nothing like the great years of The O. C. and nothing like Melrose Place! There were no obligatory scenes characteristic of the genre, and where one might have seen those - they were so awfully written and played, it's amazing!

The dialogue was medicore at best (I'd say lousy), some scenes had no reason to be there and they were badly structured. And what The New York Times critic said - the cast had no chemistry! Plus, as much as Kelly Rutherford has some kind of charm - she's so misplaced in the role of Serena's mother.

I expected over-the-top and campy teen soap, but this was just something completely different! No surprise - since Stephanie co-wrote the teleplay...

The music was also out of place - I mean, Serena's comeback with the oud playing in the background (What Goes Around... Comes Around).

[Sylph]

Heroes. With its moody noir tone and offbeat writing.

[Toups]

LOL I know there are/were some really good pilots.

I liked the show and I hope it does well enough to get a full season. I'm adding it to my watch list.

[Sweet_VeeVee24]

I will admit I love the book series....

I'm not going to trash the premiere....simply because I thought that Melrose and 90210's pilots were not all tha great, but wound up loving both shows.

[Matt P.]

I hate Josh Schwartz (met him and disliked him) and I hope that this show gets cancelled. In my opinion he abandoned his loyal fanbase of The O.C. The show could've gone on for a lot longer if he hadn't ended it short to move on to Gossip Girl. He should've continued to write two shows at the same time, and I'm not talking about CHUCK, many writers do it! I'm really getting sick of the same teen soap opera format...rich kids equal drama. It's worse than that crap that MTV shoves down our throats in reality format. Let's see a variety, let's see the rich fighting with the poor or the middle class.

[Sylph]

Oh, it will get cancelled. But I'll wait for episode no. 2 to confirm it.  You're right, Matt, that The O. C. would have lasted longer had he been more involved - the moment Stephanie took over and Allan Heinberg was gone, it all dissolved into trash.

And writing two shows at a time (Gossip and Chuck) is what will doom this show, that is if he doesn't supervise Stephanie more than he did at The O. C.

Matt, when did you have the chance of meeting him?

[tina m]

Wow, I actually liked it. Sure, it wasn't 100% played out like the book series, but really, I thought it was awesome. I'm a huge fan of the books, and the characters (Blair, Serena, Nate, Dan) are exactly how I pictured them. Expect Jenny, in the book they make a big deal of her big boobs, lol. Some things are different, like Serena's brother Eric didn't try to kill himself in the book series, he's actually at college. And the band Serena and Dan went to see wasn't his dad's, but his friend (and later girlfriend Vanessa, who I hope they bring on the show)'s sister's band. I really loved watching it, it capictured my attention, I loved the drama, and how they didn't forget "You know you love me". I hope they don't cancel it! Let's hope the ratings are good, I love this show.

[Sylph]

The CW's "Gossip Girl" premiered to a 2.4/4.

[JER Soaps Fan]

I didn't know Bell would just be a voiceover. It's despressing to think she was kickin' BUTT last year as 'roni' Mars and this year, IS A VOICEOVER.

I tuned in JUST to see her.

GRRRR.

[Sylph]

About the voice over, I'd suggest to Josh to watch Mike Kelly's episode for The O. C. where he spoofs that overused (non)drammatic device.

[Sylph]

[Matt P.]

It was either in 2004 or 2005 but my literary manager at the time set me up to meet him since she had a mutual connection and I was asking him questions about how to get in the business but he wasn't really helping me.

[EricMontreal22]

WOw I'm surprised it was so hated. It was basically exactly what I expected which is why I was pleasantly surprised. It won'tbe on my must watch list whatsoever but if I'm home when it's on I'll watch

Now bring on Dirty Sexy Money (and even Cane in terms of soap type shows)

[Sylph]

‘Gossip Girl’ gives us something to talk about, like why it’s such a downer

Why is "Gossip Girl" so depressing?

"Gossip Girl" (8 p.m. Wednesday, WGN-Ch. 9) has many of the makings of an escapist soap: rich kids, a snooty private school, a Manhattan setting and lots of melodrama at swanky parties. To top that all off, the executive producer of this series, which is based on a successful line of teen novels, is Josh Schwartz, the creator of the intermittently addictive bit of puffery known as “The O.C.”

Yet the first episode of “Gossip Girl” is strangely deflating. This show posits that teens, at least these rich, vapid teens, live in an environment so competitive that the most ravenous shark might feel a twinge of pity for them. Their parents are unsympathetic and self-absorbed; their friendships exist solely as a means of establishing or reinforcing the pecking order; even the sex on the show — and there’s a good amount of sex or near-sex — is either sadly mechanical or imbued with more than a hint of nasty violence.

Narrating the twists and turns in the fortunes of the Upper East Side’s most fortunate is the relentless, pitiless voice of Gossip Girl, a well-informed blogger who has all the inside scoop on the private-school crowd. Nobody knows who she is but she obsessively chronicles the doings of Blair (Leighton Meester), Serena (Blake Lively), Nate (Chace Crawford) and the other teens in their orbit, who go into a tizzy when Serena, who had left town mysteriously a year ago, arrives back in Manhattan.

By the way, isn’t it sad that, a year ago, Kristen Bell was starring in the now-canceled CW drama “Veronica Mars,” a show in which a her teen detective character provided a sassy, smart role model for young women – but now the CW (and much of network television) entirely lacks that kind of young heroine, and Bell is merely a disembodied voice on a soap in which girls compete viciously to be the queen of social heap? Sigh.

"Better lock it down with Nate, B., clock’s ticking,” the narrator (Kristen Bell) icily coos. Translation: Better have sex with your boyfriend Nate, Blair, before he notices that his ex, Serena, is back in town. After all, he is “entitled” to “tap that,” Nate’s pot-smoking friend reminds him.

Wow, romance isn’t dead.

“Gossip Girl” does hint at the beginnings of a relationship that recalls “The O.C.’s” unlikely romance between well-to-do Marissa and blue-collar kid Ryan. In this case, however, the super-rich Serena deigns to notice Dan (Penn Badgley), a kid who is merely upper-middle class — how very open-minded of her.

Though there are romances and hookups and flirtations aplenty, the relentless climb up the social ladder is the grim focus. But there’s no real spark to any of these budding relationships or businesslike friendships, especially given the generally flat acting and bland casting. Sorry, “O.C.” fans, there’s no Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) or Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie) here, nor any of the razor-sharp quippage that could redeem even the most far-fetched or slack stories on that Fox soap.

But it’s not just that the “Gossip Girl” cast lacks chemistry. Among these characters and threaded through these predictable, thin stories, there’s precious little of anything that approaches sweetness, kindness, altruism or heart. One expects cattiness on a soap, but the lack of anything else can be grating.

The dark core of “Gossip Girl” may well be the oily character of Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick), whom the CW Web site describes as an “overly confident and sexy bad boy.” I would have described him as a potential date rapist, given the way he menacingly claws at two protesting, frightened girls.

But then, within the “Gossip Girl” universe, where parents are absent or useless, where Serena knocks back cocktails like a twentysomething on a bender, where gossip blogs exist to cut teens to ribbons via vicious rumors, the presence of a malevolent creep such as Chuck shouldn’t be so surprising.

“Gossip Girl” does manage one mean feat — it’s both intrinsically bland and more terrifyingly cynical than the most heartless of Internet gossips. But I wouldn’t go so far as to call that an actual accomplishment.

[Sylph]

‘Gossip Girl,’ not much to talk about

By Andrew Lyons

“Gossip Girl,” the CW’s new entry in the teen soap genre, seems to have been conceived and written without any thought as to what makes a good soap opera work.

Based on the popular young adult novels, the series about a group of rich and decadent Manhattan teens has some of the ingredients--beautiful people doing horrible things in decadent locales--but utterly fails to bring them together into something entertaining. It’s mechanical, cynical, and, for long stretches, lifeless.

That’s too bad, as “Gossip Girl” wastes the talents of some promising young actors.

But perhaps the bigger flaw of “Girl,” which premieres tonight at 9, is that the teen characters are vacant and not particularly likeable. It’s particularly surprising because the series is executive-producer by Josh Schwartz, who gave us “The O.C.,” perhaps the ultimate teen soap. Schwartz knows, better than most, that catfights and secret trysts are meaningless if we don’t care about the characters.

The girls of “Girl” are vacuous, shrill automatons whose actions seem dictated by clunky plot outlines, as so many chess pieces moved about from above, with little imagination. Their choices--who to hook up with, who to fight with--seem random.

“Girl” plays out on the wealthy Upper East Side of New York, its characters the progeny of power brokers and fashion designers. The story begins just as Serena (Blake Lively, “Accepted”) returns from a mysterious stint at a boarding school. Her arrival is met with resentment by her former best friend and current competitor for popularity queen, Blair (Leighton Meester, “Entourage”).

But it's met with enthusiasm by Blair’s boyfriend, Nate (Chase Crawford, "The Covenant”), who clearly has feelings for her, and by Dan (Penn Badgley, “The Bedford Diaries”), a good guy who isn’t in her wealthy social circle and pines for her from afar.

We also meet Jenny (Taylor Momsen, “Paranoid Park”), Dan’s little sister, who’s trying to join the in-crowd, and Chuck (Ed Westwick, “Afterlife”), Nate’s smarmy friend, who twice attempts date rape in the premiere. "Girl" is narrated by a mystery girl, as yet unrevealed, who goes by the name of the title.

Few of these people ever move beyond their labels. Blair is insecure and bitchy. Jenny is insecure and sweet. Chuck is sexually predatory and bitchy.

They settle into their cliché types, rarely saying or doing anything surprising or revealing. In fact, until the last few minutes of the first episode, literally nothing of dramatic consequence happens.

Their chatter is empty yet at the same time full of bile. They talk the same mocking been-there, done-that, bored-by-life way, and even the rhythm of their chatter is the same.

A few of the actors break out of type, through facial expressions and tone of voice.

Lively and Badgley fare the best, struggling mightily to develop characters beyond stick figures. But it's a lonely struggle against the extended cliché that is "Girl," and ultimately it's a losing one.