I've met people more scandalous than these girls. The CW's recent attempt to re-seduce their young audience has failed once again. Their days of Dawson's Creek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer fandom are over. The network can never top the teenage angst and high school drama that those shows--and others, like The O.C.--have already covered.
The book series that Gossip Girl is based on was apparently popular amongst teen readers. It follows the lives of young socialites, narrated by a mysterious gossip blogger (voiced by Kristen Bell from Veronica Mars). In theory it sounds intriguing and like it could be a juicy treat. But since I've seen my fair share of teen dramas, it failed to peak my interest past the first five minutes.
One of the main characters, Serena (Blake Lively of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants), returns from a much-talked about absence, which everyone speculates was due to either a pregnancy or rehab. I cringed at the idea that it could possibly be that overdone of a plot twist. But then we learn by the end of the episode that it was because she slept with her best friend Blaire's (Leighton Meester from "Surface") boyfriend, Nate (Chace Crawford from The Covenant), who is madly in love with her. Oh, is that it? I hope not. Plus, there's no way in hell that's how high school kids have sex. Refer to Superbad for a more realistic portrayal. A more interesting storyline concerning Serena is the fact that her mother keeps her little brother Eric (Connor Paolor from Alexander) under wraps in a psych ward because he attempted suicide. But they breezed past that by making him her shopping buddy when she gets sad--an alternative to her other favorite past time: drinking a truckload of martinis.
Then there's Serena's love interest, Dan (Penn Badgley from John Tucker Must Die). Badgley always gets typecast as the quiet guy with hidden talents--the one you marry, not pine over. He seems to have that shtick down. But Dan's no Seth Cohen. He's not funny, doesn't seem to actually have any other interests than stalking Serena, and his only friend is his fashion designing little sister Jenny (Taylor Momsen from Underdog). Yeah, he's a keeper.
Oh and if that's not bad enough, the rebels/frenemies in the show are two token minorities (Black and Asian) not even worth mentioning, Blair, an insecure, shit-talking, skanky virgin, and Chuck (newcomer Ed Westwick), who seems like a secretly gay, misogynist playboy who preys on girls he can't have and secretly spies on people having sex. I've seen tougher and more interesting teenagers in Desperate Housewives.
At least I'm interested in finding out who the gossip blogger is. It would be cool if it were one of the main characters because technically she (or he) would be spreading rumors and dropping bombshells about themselves. It would also be hilarious if Chuck revealed that he was madly in love with Dan and that's why he always pretends he never notices him--a logical conclusion.
Other than that, the lame possibility that Serena's mom (Kelly Rutherford from "Melrose Place") and Dan's dad (Matthew Settle from "Brothers & Sisters") might hook up is all the Gossip Girl is offering so far. So if you really want some dirt, stick to Perez.
No comments:
Post a Comment