My New Best Friend is a Total Gossip

Spotted:  MD at the computer trying to write a post while the baby naps.  Think fast MD, or your column will be a big fat blank, just like your sense of style.  Rumour has it that she wanted to write something about the new fall line-up of TV shows.  Trouble is, there's not much to talk about, is there MD?  True-Blood and Fringe are total projects, but otherwise any show making the cut is a known quantity:  House, Heroes, Dexter, The Office, How I Met Your Mother, Lost, Battlestar Galactica.  Don't get me started on, ugh, the new 90210.  What were you thinking, CW?  Thank god you've redeemed yourself with the brightest fashionista on the scene..

...Gossip Girl.  It's not a new show - it premiered last September - but it somehow managed to fall under most people's radar.  And, trust me on this one, that's a big mistake.

The husband originally brought it to my attention because he knows the type of shows that I usually go for, and thought it would be a good one for me to watch on nights that he wasn't going to be home - and therefore wouldn't have to be subjected to any girly crap.  He kindly recorded it for me (I have him well trained), and I watched it after our son was in bed.

I. Was. Hooked.

I still am.

What's more - the husband is hooked too.

The story focuses on the rich and complicated lives of the teenagers at an elite Manhattan prep school.  At the centre of this glittering social circle  - and I do mean social, not scholastic - are the Queen Bees, Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) and Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) who are best friends and subtle rivals.  Serena, the bad-girl-gone-good, may have slept with her best friend's on-again off-again boyfriend, Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford), but she's making a go of the good girl thing by dating straight-and-narrow Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley).  Interestingly enough, Dan's dad, Rufus Humphrey (Matthew Settle), had/has a thing for Serena's mom, Lillian.  Lillian, however, chose money over love and married Bart Bass - father to the delightfully evil Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick).  Chuck, has a thing for Blair, who has a thing for a Lord, who has a thing for his stepmother...It goes on and on in increasingly intricate circles.

Does a show revolving around the lives of rich high school students sound familiar?  Um, 90210, anyone??  Swap Manhattan for LA, and Serena-Blair for Kelly-Brenda, and it starts to sound like a total rip-off.  Except it's not.  Gossip Girl is better than the old 90210 ever was - and this is coming from a rock solid fan.  (I still have fond memories of doing the little double-punch along with Brandon in the theme song.  Yeah, I'm a nerd.) 

Gossip Girl's writing is sleeker, the storylines are more risqué, and despite how ridiculous those storylines can get, it somehows manages to ring truer than it's LA twin.  And the new 90210, with it's after-school special feeling can't even begin to compete.  Beyond that, you get the voyeuristic fun of hot guys, sexy girls, fashionable clothes and a glimpse into the lives of the richies.  It hits all the right buttons for a viewership that dreams of leading the good life.  (And you know it's good when even the "poor kids" live in swanky loft that couldn't be bought for less than a million cool ones.) 

Gossip Girl is the TV equivalent of molten lava cake to a chocoholic: rich, moist goodness on the outside, and ooey-gooey heaven on the inside.  Deliciously addictive.  It's the guiltiest of guilty pleasures.  And I'm loving every minute of it.

xo xo Mama Drama

Photo credit: CW

Comments

[Mamlooper]

This show is my fave and such a guilty pleasure! Feeds my longheld (read: since childhood) fantasy of living in NYC.

Dirty Sexy Money is a good bookend to it as well.

Love the trashy show - need at least ONE a season.

[katie ~ motherbumper]

Double punch is awesome. Chuck Bass is my new idol. Love it, want it, watching it.

[Helen]

I love Gossip Girl! I got into it when it was replayed last season because of the writers strike!

I'm pretty sure I will be 50 and still watching the teen drama of the time! LOVE IT!!

[Lisa b]

I am DYING to watch this. Sadly my PVR is all backed up with Oprahs and I just cannot get caught up on my trashy TV.

[Woman in a window]

Not so sure on this one. Haven't watched it. (How do you manage to keep up on blogging with all this tv watching?) However, The Mentalist TOTALLY FREAKEN rocks. Tuesday at 9. So great, you know, for another corpse/cop show and all. But so funny!