Giant-sized Gossip Girl Review: The Kids Aren’t All Right

Gossip Girl Review: Dan and Blair. Yeah. You read that.

This is happening. Just accept it.

Okay! Let’s shake off the rust here for a second. It’s been a dog’s age, friends, lovers, and thieves. I think my last review was somewhere at the start of season three around the time that Gossip Girl decided to just go off the freaking rails and I swore I’d never love again.

Then people started paying me to write about TV.

SHAMELESS PLUG: My new show, bought and paid for by Hulu, where I write with brilliant folks about TV. It’s called The Morning After, and it’s on Hulu every weekday. I feel dirty doing that, but that’s why I watched Gossip Girl last night and why I’m back to doing this.

Also, I now have help. Very witty, New York-based, wonderful to look at, delightfully English help. Learn who it is after the jump.

Gossip Girl Review: “Enough About Eve”

SILLY VANESSA, SUCCESS IS FOR RICH KIDS.

This is when we start the "Un-der Ra-Ted" cheer

I think before Gossip Girl came to TV one of the senior writers had a “Curb Your Enthusiasm” moment with Jessica Szohr (Vanessa Abrahms) and swore on the grave of his/her parents that Jessica would pay for whatever transgression she made. This week, that vendetta against Vanessa became the A storyline.

I have to get a little bit ranty for a moment. Jessica Szohr is underrated. After three seasons of watching Serena fumble from mistake to mistake and Nate being banished to permanent C stoyline arcs, Vanessa has been consistent. She’s always getting crushed but she’s never whiny. She’s always the underdog but she never makes a big deal out of it. It was funny for a couple years to laugh at the Gossip Girl staple of crushing V time and time again, but come ON. Maybe the writers were trying to make point this week that Vanessa is her own worst enemy and the only true source of her disappointment, but Jessica Szohr’s been working hard on this role for three seasons and she deserves a victory this season. Ok, sincere moment over. Let’s step on some poor kids.

Gossip Girl Review: Poppygate

Yes, I know, I missed last week’s review. There wasn’t really anything to declare from that episode…I would have made mercilious fun of it and you would have giggled.

 

suspension of disbelief only goes so far, fellas.

The only thing we can take away from last week is that Gossip Girl, despite its inane sub plots and going-in-circles character arcs, has a desire to live beyond this season. They’re taking steps to keep all the college-bound characters WITHIN New York, instead of the Jump The Campus death trap of sending them out into the world. Well done, Gossip Girl. We might have learned something from The OC after all.

The strength of this episode was not in the dialogue. It wasn’t in any big revelations or deaths or giant social events where every character, regardless of class status, shows up. Instead it moved quickly to the end and, with the exception of one scene between Blair and Serena, never really stopped to let the lines fall flat. Not a REMARKABLE episode, but after the streak of stinkers we’ve had lately, I’ll take whatever I can get.