It’s been awhile since I last checked in with “Gossip Girl,” and, it must be said, I haven’t regretted it a bit. I checked out the pilot, and while I was unimpressed with the show’s lack of humor, I was even less impressed with the way the series was geared toward a teenage audience while displaying a heavy emphasis on all the activities no parent wants their teenager kids to rush into. Let the kids have their fun, but I don’t have to watch it, y’know…?
In fact, here’s what I said at the time:
Remember that “Simpsons” episode when Homer praised the Smashing Pumpkins for their effect on his kids because, “thanks to your gloomy music, they’ve finally stopped dreaming of a future I can’t possibly provide”? Well, the rich, spoiled punks on this show are offering the antithesis of that. Plus, critics with teenage daughters are already screaming about how they wouldn’t want their kids to watch this sex, drug, and underage-drinking laden show…which probably means that those same kids are going to be want to tune in every week. Awesome: here comes the future…and it’s gonna suck.
Still, when the publicist at The CW (hi, Suzanne!) offered up a screener of the Jan. 2 and Jan. 9 episodes of the show, I figured, okay, fair enough, maybe it’s time to give it another shot. And while I still probably won’t be tuning in on a weekly basis, I’m willing to concede that, at the very least, this pair of episodes finds the show having absolutely soared in quality since its pilot.
Okay, maybe it hasn’t soared in quality. But, still, I was way more entertained with each of these two hours of television that I was that first episode, and it’s clearly not because I know the characters better now, given that I haven’t tuned in since then. No, it’s a combination of the writing being better and, half a season in, I’m sure it’s also to do with the actors being more comfortable with their roles now. These are being hyped as the two best episodes of the series to date, but I can’t speak to that; I will say, however, that the current drought of new episodes of any show is enough to affect one’s perception of an episode’s quality. Still, as teen drama plots go, last night’s saga – the prep school kids get busted for having a pool party on campus when one of them gets knocked unconscious and goes tumbling into the deep end – was good stuff. Next week focuses on a pregnancy scare, with Gossip Girl helping to spread the word about who’s potentially in possession of a bun in the oven, and you can’t go wrong with a plot revolving around that.
It’s not out of place to call “Gossip Girl” the “90210” of the 21st century…or maybe the “O.C.” of the latter half of the ’00s. Whatever the case, it’s clear that while the primary audience might be teens, the producers are still trying to entertain their parents, too; the bit I did love in the pilot, about Rufus Humphrey being a member of a one-hit wonder band from the ’90s, is still alive and well, with one of the sniveling teens getting off a snide line about “your dad’s cassingle.” Ouch.
Okay, fine, you win: I’ll be adding “Gossip Girl” to my list of shows I’ll be investigating when its first season is released on DVD…and in the meantime, I might…maybe…try tuning in once in awhile before then.
But for the record, I still don’t think these kids are anything approaching good role models!
