Blake Lively News

Posted on 27 Oct 2007 / News and Gossip

I have a new guilty pleasure. Every Wednesday night at 9, I answer a latent desire for teenage angst. The new CW show "Gossip Girl" delivers the hit.

This is not just any high school drama. "Gossip Girl" is glossy, over-the-top excess. Simply put, it's trash. The premise is a group of teenagers with surnames like van der Woodsen, Archibald and Waldorf who attend a private school in Manhattan's Upper East Side.

They drink martinis. They have sex (sometimes with a best friend's boyfriend). Most of all, they backstab, shop, party and obsess over which Ivy they'll attend next year. Good grades don't guarantee admittance. Family connections and trust funds do. An anonymous blogger named "Gossip Girl" (narrated by Veronica Mars' Kristen Bell) dishes the dirt.

Why do I watch this show? Normally, I exhibit fine TV tastes, or so I like to think. "Arrested Development," "Scrubs" and "Seinfeld" are among my all-time favorite shows. But I guess I also need a taste of smut. Just a taste. In high school, it was "Beverly Hills 90210." Later, it was "The OC," which I loyally watched until it became unbearable.

So when I heard "OC" creator Josh Schwartz was back with a new show, I was intrigued. When "Gossip Girl" was compared to "90210," "Melrose Place," "Dallas" and "Dynasty" — and then called "Sex and the City" for teens — I knew I stood no chance against it.

Dare I say it? "Gossip Girl" is better than "The OC." Let's start with the characters. They make the show — as does the better acting, hip soundtrack and lack of an emaciated Mischa Barton. Meet my favorites:

Chuck (Ed Westwick) is an even sleazier version of Steve from "90210." He's so smarmy he makes Jeremy Piven's Ari on "Entourage" look like a gentleman. He never misses an opportunity to make a sexual innuendo, and he does it all while wearing a floor-length striped scarf. He lives, or shall I say "lurks," in a suite inside the posh hotel his father owns. When asked by a college recruiter why he is Yale material, he replies, "I'm Chuck Bass."

Dan (Penn Badgley) is Seth from "The OC." He's the stereotypical nice guy desperate to be noticed by the cool kids, or at least one of the cool girls. Only instead of comic books, Dan delves in literature. He and his younger sister, Jenny, are also like Brandon and Brenda Walsh, because, they, like the "90210" twins, do not come from ridiculous money.

Serena (Blake Lively) is Marisa ("The OC") with more than an ounce of flesh on her model-long legs. She even has Barton's deep voice, but Lively can act, and her character is interesting. Her evil mother, however, will have a tough time living up to Melinda Clarke's Julie Cooper.

Blair (Leighton Meester) is a deliciously mean version of "OC's" Summer. (Has there been a Blair on TV since "The Facts of Life?" It's about time.) She knows how to take revenge on B.F.F. Serena when she discovers she slept with her boyfriend. She's also great at insulting the not-up-to-her-standards Dan, one time saying she needs a tetanus shot every time he's near.

Characters aside, the dialogue is sharp and up-to-date: "You're Britney with the umbrella!" Serena tells Blair during a photo shoot. "He looks like Matthew McConaughey between movies," Chuck says of a madras-sweatshirt-wearing interloper.

My only serious problem with "Gossip Girl" is a moral one. Chuck preys on women non-stop, including naive freshmen. And by prey, I mean attempted rape. In one of the first episodes, he brings the doe-eyed Jenny/Brenda up to the roof to "talk," but soon they are doing a lot more than talking, and she protests. Jenny's brother rescues her before Chuck has managed to remove any of her clothes.

I can't help but fear that showing this kind of behavior, which had no negative consequence for Chuck, could lead some teenager at home to think it's OK to treat girls this way. But then again, video games and music videos aren't exactly clean or virtuous and often specialize in murder.

As for me, I just want to watch something trashy. The real teens are probably tuning into something much cooler anyway.

By Carrie MacMillan
rep-am.com