Tag: Gossip Girl (Page 3 of 3)

CW renews six shows

February 25, 2009 /

Good news for fans of several CW shows.

The CW network has picked up six series to return in the fall: “Gossip Girl,” “One Tree Hill, “90210,” the Thursday combo of “Smallville” and “Supernatural” and the reality hit “America’s Next Top Model,” which has been green-lighted for its 13th and 14th seasons.

The ninth-season renewal for “Smallville” came after producing studio Warner Bros TV was able to secure a new deal with star Tom Welling.

The last couple seasons of “Supernatural” have been great, and “Smallville” has been really strong this year as well, so I’m happy to see that both will be returning for another season. The same goes for “Gossip Girl,” which is a guilty pleasure.

There are a few other CW shows that are still in limbo…

Awaiting a decision regarding its fate is freshman drama “Privileged,” which has developed a strong fan base but has been a modest ratings performer.

Renewal chances are slim at best for “Reaper,” whose second season begins Tuesday, and for the CW’s only two remaining comedy series, “The Game” and “Everybody Hates Chris,” since the network has abandoned the genre.

I gave up on “Privileged” after a couple of episodes because the two daughters were pretty annoying. The show’s star — Joanna Garcia — is charming, so I’m not surprised that the show has developed a strong fan base. “Reaper” isn’t getting much help from its network, but it still needs to perform well in its second season to have a shot at renewal.

External Entertainment, External TV, Gossip Girl, News, Reaper, TV, TV Action, TV Comedies, TV Dramas, TV Sci-Fi

“Gossip Girl” spinoff moves forward…and backwards

January 20, 2009 /

THR.com is reporting that the CW has ordered a pilot for a “Gossip Girl” prequel. That’s right, a prequel…

After months of, well, gossip, the show’s creators/exec producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage are proceeding with a spinoff that will serve as a prequel to the sophomore drama and chronicle the wild teen years of Lily van der Woodsen (Kelly Rutherford) in Los Angeles in the 1980s.

The network has ordered a backdoor pilot for the project, which will air as a “Gossip” episode May 11. The 1980s world will be introduced in flashbacks tied to the episode’s story line of Lily and her daughter Serena (Blake Lively) wrestling with a problem, Schwartz said. He would not add further details.

Written by Schwartz and Savage, the spinoff will center on young Lily Rhodes (her maiden name) who, after a falling out with her parents, is forced to move in with her sister, the black sheep of the Rhodes family. Overnight, Lily has to transition from a life of luxury and education at a wealthy Montecito boarding school to living deep in the San Fernando Valley she once made fun of and going to public school. Caught between two worlds, Lily dives into the fast-paced Sunset Strip and the Hollywood lifestyle of the ’80s, journeying over the hill to a world of wealth and excess that used to be her own.

Eventually, she meets rocker Rufus Humphrey (played on “Gossip” by Matthew Settle) for a fling that will result in Lily’s secret pregnancy, but “that wouldn’t be for quite a while in the run of the show,” Schwartz said.

Hmm…

Personally, “Gossip Girl” is a guilty pleasure. Yes, it’s superficial, catty and downright evil at times. But it’s also smart, witty and unpredictable. The creators have done a terrific job of creating a host of interesting characters that are both young and old(er), and thus far the storylines haven’t become stale. If I want to turn my brain off, “Gossip Girl” is my go-to show.

The idea of a young Lily — who is one of the most interesting characters on “GG” — navigating Los Angeles in the ’80s sounds appealing. All the live music on the Sunset Strip alone would provide plenty of fodder for storylines. Plus, we’d get to experience all this Lily/Rufus backstory firsthand.

Count me in.

External Entertainment, External TV, Gossip Girl, News, TV Dramas

TCA Tour, Jan. 2009: “Rockville, CA”

January 16, 2009 /

I’ve long thought – and I think my old friend Brian Becknell would agree with me on this – that a concert venue would make a great setting for a TV series…and I’m not talking about, like, “Hey, ‘90210’ fans, get ready for ‘Nat’s Peach Pit!'” I’m talking about a show that takes the music and people’s love of the music seriously…and although I’m not putting all of my eggs in one basket and saying that that show has arrived, I think that Josh Schwartz’s new online series for TheWB.com, “Rockville, CA,” is at least heading in the right direction.

“I think this is a show about people in their early twenties who are finding themselves, finding their place as adults,” said Schwartz, who arguably covers similar territory in “Chuck.” “They’re in that transitional phase. I think a lot of times when you are young, when you’re in your early twenties, music and the people who make music have a really sort of powerful affect on you, and sometimes you believe that the artist is the man. And sometimes the guy on the sidelines who is criticizing the music might be the better catch.”

As a former music journalist who spent his twenties in the audience rather than on the stage, I think Mr. Schwartz may be onto something here.

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Paranoid Park

October 16, 2008 /

Watching “Paranoid Park” and knowing that it’s made by Gus Van Sant, the
same man who gave us fare like “Good Will Hunting” and the carbon copy
remake of “Psycho,” is a disconcerting experience. It doesn’t look at all
like either of those films. Instead, it feels more like the work of a
gifted, first-time director who’s all of 20 years old. Van Sant is clearly
tuned in to the sort of malaise that can affect certain types of teenagers
in this day and age, which is a remarkable feat for a man in his mid-50s. In
this case, he uses skater subculture as the backdrop for a darker story told
as a disjointed series of journal entries written by skaterboy Alex (Gabe
Nevins), who may or may not be responsible for the tragic death of a
security guard. The kid is hounded by a detective (Daniel Liu) for
information, by his girlfriend (Taylor Momsen, “Gossip Girl”) for sex, and
by life in general. The film is structured like a sort of murder mystery,
but when the murder is “solved” about halfway through, you realize that it
was just a dramatic red herring; as a result, “Paranoid Park” is about
something else entirely, and I have to admit I’m not exactly sure what that
something is. This is the sort of fare that could probably hold different
meanings for different viewers. It’s strange and unsettling and will likely
stick with you long after the credits roll – far more so than Van Sant’s take
on “Psycho,” anyway.

Click to buy “Paranoid Park”

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Old Show, New Season: “Gossip Girl”

September 2, 2008 /

Ah, “Gossip Girl.” Thank God for your first season coming out on DVD just in time for me to become so sufficiently smitten with the series as a guilty pleasure that I was actually a little bit excited about the second-season premiere…and now that my daughter’s off on a field trip with her nana, I can write a bit about the season opener as well as the two episodes that follow it.

So what did everyone’s favorite teen-aged Upper East Siders do over the summer? Well, despite Blair’s concerns, Serena didn’t just spend her summer sitting around, watching ‘The Closer’ and eating take-out…but nor did she dare to have any sort of rebound relationship. Yes, it’s true: Serena still misses Dan. Blair, meanwhile, tried to spend her summer forgetting about Chuck by starting to date a lad named James…or did she do it to make Chuck jealous? Either way, we still ended up with a moment that confirmed once and for all that creator Josh Schwartz is absolutely out to take this show over the top, when James turned out to be an English lord who had taken on a false identity as a commoner so that he could find a woman who wasn’t just after his title.

Awesome.

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