Show Review: Gossip Girl

Lately, I have been extremely disappointed in the television industry in that the shows they are creating have no depth, no interest, no anything and the ones that do happen to suck you in get cancelled. I was going through a dry spell, so I decided to watch Gossip Girl for a second time, because I knew it would be entertaining.

—SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT!—

I’ve never watched a show twice all the way through, so this was my first experience with that. I remember being really disappointed with the ending of Gossip Girl. Dan being Gossip Girl was not only a shock, but was a plot twist they totally decided on maybe a season before. After learning that the first time around, I kept thinking about how that couldn’t have been possible. Well watching it a second time really gave me the opportunity to see if I had missed something. I hadn’t. Dan didn’t become a possibility until at best Season 5.

Before I get into my thoughts on the ending, I would like to discuss the characters and how I feel about them. Let’s start with Serena; She was the character I disliked the most from episode 1 till the very end. She was the ultimate selfish rich kid who had everything she could ever want yet still wasn’t satisfied and felt so entitled it made me sick. There were multiple occasions where she acted as if Blair was so awful for scheming when she was up to the same antics. She was so whiny and annoying and I think the show would have been 100 times better without her.

Now Blair on the other hand was my second favorite character. I appreciated her mean girl attitude in public yet her vulnerability when she was at home. She had a broken family, because her beloved dad turned out to be gay, she had an eating disorder, and insecurity complex, because of her mother’s success. Blair was a real character and actually embodied what makes a bully.

Jenny was my absolute favorite character! I know a lot of people lost interest in her character once she went crazy, but she was the most believable. She represented what money, wealth, and power can do to a person. She started out as an average girl from Brooklyn who was family oriented and sweet yet all she wanted was to fit into the private school she attended in Manhattan. Once her dad married up, her whole life changed. Her fashion took off, she became Queen of her school, and her attitude and entitlement kicked in. She lost her wholesome and sweet demeanor and gave into scheming and rudeness until she literally couldn’t remember who she was and ultimately leaves New York for good.

I’m not sure if Vanessa actually deserves a paragraph, but I disliked her from the beginning too. She shows up out of nowhere and just expects Dan to be the same person he was and tries to ruin his life on multiple occasions. She, like Jenny, lets the Upper East Side take over her life and ultimately leaves. But I don’t think there was actually ever a time I was actually rooting for her.

I remember being obsessed with Nate when I watched it the first time, but this time I realized he wasn’t really all that. Yes he was the cutest of the group, but he came from a family that was falling apart, didn’t participate in ruining lives through Gossip Girl (which might be his only good quality). He really took a downfall in the later seasons, but seemed to give up on his friends anytime they did something wrong. In the end, he followed in his father’s footsteps and almost lost his paper and sadly didn’t get a girl even though he dated or had a thing with all of them (Blair, Serena, Jenny, Vanessa, and many others).

Chuck was an iffy character for me. I know most were obsessed with him and Blair, but I think he treated her awfully throughout the whole show. Constantly leading her on only to refuse to love her even though it was obvious he need her. He traded her for a hotel, told her she was like a racehorse. Yes, he was mysterious and messed up and had more money than them all put together, but that is no excuse to be a monster.

Last, but not least, there is Dan. I remember thinking Dan was horrible for what he wrote about his friends in the end, but now I realize he did nothing wrong. Sure, he said some not-so-great things about the people in his life, but he never lied; his friends just couldn’t handle reading the truth about themselves. All Dan ever wanted was to be noticed and to fit into the world he didn’t belong in and in the end he got his wish.

The show starts out very strong with a definite plot, but then it starts to take some strange, far-fetched turns. I did begin to lose a little interest, but it picks back up again. If you can get over how unrealistic the whole thing becomes, then it stays good. But I wish the writers had known how they were going to finish it, because then they could have avoided some very obvious mistakes.

This was truly a good show. A little dramatic; perhaps a soap opera during prime time, but overall very entertaining!