Some pictures I took on the Lowell Commuter rail from North Station to Anderson-Woburn on the Lowell train. My favorite is the well-dressed businessman sleeping slumped over on the seat. Everyone on the commuter rail looks so exhausted to me. Love how the poloroid photographs give off a dreamy quality to the subjects!
“Gossip Girl” is a juicy bite of tenderloin steak, a dress you can’t afford and a dessert with a calorie count in the five-digit range. It’s not good for you but it’s fun, in all those ways being bad feels so good, if only for an hour at 8pm on a Monday night.
For those not on the down low, “Gossip Girl” plot points are fast, easy and ever-changing, a series that's best to jump into, rather than try to catch up with.
The framework is about rich teenagers (Dan-Serena-Chuck-Blair-Nate-Vanessa and Jenny) at a New York City prep school but you’d be a fool to think it’s just another high school dramady. Characters do drugs, do each other, and alternate between sabotage and an insane amount of forgiveness leading up to whatever the next pratfall will be.
“Gossip Girl,” in its splendor, is about the fantastic superficial, may it be the clothing, which is just—Oh My God—amazing or the red carpet walk through New York City’s elite locations. Above all else, the details of “Gossip Girl” are the most important aspect of the show. Whether its which dress Serena is wearing or what tint Blair’s stockings are in any episode, the fashion is a key feature in the show’s popularity. Adding to that is the trendy “now” music and slick editing cuts, which transform some parts of “Gossip Girl” into iconic music video moments.
The ongoing dynamic of Chuck/Blair is slowly dominating the show’s screen time-and that’s a good thing. With their bad girl/bad boy relationship, Blair and Chuck have already cheated on their partners to sleep with other, schemed to destroy classmates and teased each other unmercifully. Since the episode “Summer, Kind of Wonderful” the tension has been building and creator Josh Schwarz has certainly been playing the audience in all the right ways in this relationship, trapeze walking the line between teasing us and giving us all that we want.
However, this storyline has become background to Jenny (Dan’s sister) and her bloated screen time spent rebelling, squealing and becoming a hybrid fashion designer/ total pain in the ass. Hate her or love her, watch for the ridiculous scene in There Might be Blood as she wails and flaps her arms in deliberate slow motion as her friend, Agnes, lights her dresses on fire in a garbage can.
Unintentionally funny moments like this abound in Season Two, when serious drama events goes so over the edge it turns into camp, a kind of ironic aesthetic value that appreciates over-the-top behavior. While this might not jive with the more serious Season One that dealt with real-life issues like bulimia, it feels good nonetheless.
Speaking of camp, in an unbelievable whirlwind, fifteen-year-old Jenny starts her own fashion line, drops out of school, and also starts a short-lived romance with Nate, who has now officially dated EVERY SINGLE GIRL ON THE SHOW (It really needed caps. Seriously.)
I have a real problem with that Nate character, not only is his dialogue idiotic (His favorite line seems to be a Keane Reeves style “Hey man”) but his judgmental attitude after he alternates between making-out with every female on the show and letting his friends hang out to dry is enough to make my head explode. Sure Nate may be an important character (and a pretty boy face) but watching him flounder in “The Magnificent Archibald” convinces me that he should be killed off the show. Like now.
And while we’re rounding up all the bore-tastic characters, Dan and Jenny’s longtime friend/fish-out-of-water/why-is-she-in-this-series Vanessa needs something to do. Among these rich kids behaving badly, her goody two shoes of gold aren’t heartwarming—they’re annoying.
Case in point—in “Pret-a-Poor-Jenny”, Vanessa finally does something sinful; she uses blackmail to get a promotion on a community project. Come on Vanessa— if you’re going to get your hands dirty you’ve got to do better than that!
Rufus and Lilly are the two grown ups of the show, former lovers that never seemed to get it right—but their relationship was explored enough in Season 1 for my gag reflex to go off and has entered disgusting territory in Oh Brother Where Bart Thou when Lilly’s hops from her husband’s funeral to a romantic tete a la tete with Rufus in Central Park. Somebody check this woman for a pulse!
A plus on the Second Season, amidst all the other blunders, are headbands and scarves, the clothing and music in the series are still cutting edge and “Gossip Girl” is still using these elements to its advantage.
In "The Ex Files", when Serena takes Blair’s coveted role as queen of the school, the clique starts wearing scarves, Serena’s signature style, instead of headbands, Blair’s fashion style. And when Serena places her own scarf on Blair, it's a slap in the face for these high school fashionistas and an impressive subtlety on a show that doesn’t pride itself on looking between the lines.
As for the cultural impact-I’ve had it up to here with “How does it impact the children?” reviews of “Gossip Girl,” as if critics can’t deal with the very idea of bubblegum television. “Gossip Girl” is one of a long line of dramas that are meant to keep our minds off our own lives, from “Dynasty”, to “Melrose’s Place” and Josh Schwartz’s previous creation “The O.C.”. “Gossip Girl” is a drama mixed like a music video and despite the screams of middle-aged television critics and over concerned parents, “Gossip Girl” is not going to get any twelve year olds pregnant. While it might be their lifestyle or their sex lives that most disturbs these reviewers, I wonder, why breathe meaning into something as sinful as a high-calorie candy bar?
“Gossip Girl” is not aiming for artistic quality, but as long as they have the basics—fantastic clothing, new music and Chuck/Blair—they’ll keep me tuning in for the guilty pleasure.
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