Serena is the classic bad girl from the past who
just suddenly came back to New York now hoping
to make a clean break and start out fresh, but
she comes across a new breed of villainesses
that she'll have to endure when she goes back to
school. Serena and bad girls have stare offs,
Blair Waldorf is the new prima donna bitch of
the school who surrounds herself with equally
privileged minorities, the parents here look to
be only about ten years older than the principle
cast, and the episodes tend to push about as
much trends on its audience as it can, with
fashion tidbits flying around, as our narrator
"Gossip Girl" runs play by plays with every
confrontation that takes place on screen. Who is
"Gossip Girl"? Is she someone actually watching
these people? Is she someone who gets her scoops
from students? Or is she Serena simply blogging
in this guise? I think fans know. Good thing I'm
not one.In
all honesty, I expected this series to be really
bad and it's actually pretty good. I'm not going
to start blogging about Blake Lively, and plot
twists, but I honestly wasn't minding sitting
through episode after episode of beautiful rich
Caucasian kids battling for the status quo
reminding me that being popular, and fucking is
the only things in life that matter. I kid,
people. But you know it's fiction when the
resident "lower class" characters of the show
have a better apartment than a real lower class
dude like me does.
One of the really
unusual aspects of this DVD set is that we get
recaps from the episode we'd finished watching
seconds before, which may work for the audience
whose attention spans only reach the two minute
mark, but I was confused as to why we needed to
know what we already knew. And I never
understood what the point of the Gossip Girl
narration was for. Her voice over's are
absolutely irritating and her on the nose play
by plays of the dramatic scenes had me sinking
in my seat about ready to stick my head in the
oven. Which is heartbreaking since the gorgeous
wet dream named Kristen Bell voices her in the
series. Sorry, Bell, but for the first time ever
I wish I didn't hear your voice. Blake Lively
doesn't have much of a presence beyond acting as
a unique blond beauty, it's Leighton Meester who
is very unlikable as the alpha bitch Blair who
steals the scene from almost everyone she shares
the screen with. "Gossip Girl" is just not for a
guy like me. It's for "The Hills" watching, "MySpace"
using, "Teen People" reading, "My Sweet
Sixteen" following, Tabloid consuming, Paris
Hilton worshipping, attention span lacking teens
of Generation "Duh," and yet... I didn't hate
it. Geez, what does that say about me?
As for the DVD
Extras, we're given deleted scenes for the
key episodes in the compilation, all of which
range in the five minute time frame. "the
beginning, xoxo" is a twenty two minute
featurette about the making of the "Gossip Girl"
series and its origins in the written word
format. "Gossip Girl Couture" is a
fourteen minute feature about the fashion of
"Gossip Girl." That's as fun as reading "Cosmo,"
frankly. "A Gossip Girl Wedding" is a five
minute look at the making of the wedding wedding
on season one, There are, of course, music
videos, and the eleven minute "lol"
(ugh), a blooper reel that's entertaining. And
last but not least there's the "Gossip Girl
Audio Book" as read by Christina Ricci. Fans
will love it.
-
Felix Vasquez Jr.
8/18/08 |
