Gossip Girl Pilot
So last night I watched Gossip Girl on the C.W. Highly anticipated by many - especially those like me who have been mourning the loss of The O.C. over the last months. PLease visit www.gossipgirlonline.net for all information you may need. The plot in short form from what was to be seen in the pilot: The setting is Manhattan where privileged teenagers attend an elite private school and exclusive and fancy parties. The narrator is an anonymous blogger calling herself “Gossip Girl” who sees everything, has her spies everywhere and keeps everyone both inside and outside of the exclusive circles updated on the newest gossip. The narrater’s voice is no other than our dearest Kristen Bell’s a.k.a “Veronica Mars” a.k.a newest “Heroes” villain/superpower Hero. For a moment there in the beginning it was like watching Veronica Mars. I had totally forgotten that she had a narrating role on GG. The happier I was when I recognised the voice. At least we get to hear her voice - well until Heroes’ second season begins - then she becomes a superhero or something like that.
The writers are The O.C.’s Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage who, as I just saw on IMDB had also been a producer alongside Schwartz on The O.C. The main characters who have been introduced so far are Serena van der Woodsen played by Blake Lively (The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 1 & 2) who comes back from boarding school in Connecticut where she had ran off to after having slept with her best friend’s Blair Waldorf’s (Leighton Meester- we know her from House MD where she was the young girl Ali who tried to seduce House) boyfriend Nate Archibald (Chase Crawford). Nate still has feelings for Serena and would like to break up with his longtime girlfriend Blair but for his father’s sake who is trying to finalize a business deal with Blair’s volks he keeps the relationship going. By the way Meester (Blair) kind of reminds me of Minka Kelly who stars in Friday Night Lights. Think about it. In the pilot Serena meets Dan and Jenna Humphrey (Taylor Momsen and Penn Badgley) who live with their father (who is very young and playing in a band) in New York. It seems like the siblings are not “that” well off as are the rest of the characters. Jenna is trying to find her way into the popular circle at school while Dan is trying to hook up with Serena. They hit it off almost from the start.
So much for the plot. I like the show. Especially because of Schwartz’s handwriting all over it and Bell’s voice commenting like she did on Veronica Mars. Damn- I miss Veronica Mars. I swore that I wouldn’t watch the CW again because of what it did to my favorite detective but what am I supposed to do when they put her in one of their new shows. It would be wrong not to watch it right? As for now there isn’t really anything we haven’t seen before. It’s more like everything’s been put into a blender, mixed up a little and made into a new show. But not in a bad way and I also like the actors from what I’ve seen up till now. There was a strong O.C. vibe when unpopular and isolated boy (Dan) goes on a date with popular rich girl (Serena) and punches another rich guy (Chuck Bass played by Ed Westwick) in the face - saves his little sister and in the end gets the rich girl or so it seems. I also couldn’t help but briefly think about Hidden Palms, Mean Girls and even Veronica Mars - the latter was probably more due to Bell’s voice than because of the plot.
Oh and one should mention that again like in its predecessor the soundtrack is excellent. I think we can lean back, relax and give the show a couple of episodes to evolve. I’m quite confident that it will attract a great bunch of viewers. There’s a big void where Veronica Mars, The O.C. and perhaps also Gilmore Girls (not comparing Gossip Girl to Gilmore Girls although they both abbreviate with GG) have been and people will try to fill that void. I hope the C.W will give the only promising show they have on their program a legitimate chance. Isn’t it exciting - you can practically sense all the shows coming back from their hiatuses.