Making a triumphant return from the WGA strike this week was the CW’s Gossip Girl with an episode that made a big splash on the series without forcing it upon us, contrary to what the OMFG posters might have lead us to believe. Appropriately, the episode was entitled “The Blair Bitch Project,” but the show actually contained much more substance than the silly title would lead one to believe.
If you’ve never seen Gossip Girl, some call it the new version of The OC. Set in Manhattan, Gossip Girl actually feels less far fetched than The OC because the show is just about being rich and having drama. While extreme, the characters are likable and the situations are almost believable, especially if you know people who have that much money. It goes a little over the top, but it doesn’t go nearly as far as The OC ever did. In essence, it fills the void that was left by the end of The OC and does so in a more realistic, east coast, equally spoiled way.
It was Jenny Humphrey’s 15th birthday on the show (actress Taylor Momsen is actually younger than her character on the show, believe it or not), but her birthday took a backseat to the return of Blair Waldorf to the upper east side, as she attempted to take back her place as the Queen Bee in the private school stable of socialites - a role that middle class Jenny had somehow managed to take over after a chain of events involving her unfaithfulness to Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford).
In addition to the return of Blair, Serena van der Woodsen was dealing with her mother’s engagement to Chuck Bass’ father, which made one of her worst enemies in Chuck become a pending part of her extended family. Serena began receiving mysterious gifts that she thought were cruel pranks from Chuck that ended up coming from a mysterious friend from Serena’s past, “G.”
G turns out to be Georgina, the long awaited guest starring of Michelle Trachtenberg on Gossip Girl next week, who is coming to finally reveal some of Serena’s mysterious and crazy past that is always hinted at, but never revealed.
By far, the most intriguing part of the episode was the brewing feud between Manhattan royalty Blair Waldorf and Brooklyn underdog Jenny Humphrey. Much like Lindsay Lohan’s Cady took over the crew in Mean Girls, Jenny has found herself becoming the new queen bee in her high school’s more prestigious, yet volatile social circle. Like Cady, Jenny had also started becoming a “Mean Girl” herself, scheming, stealing, and lying to keep her status and reign amongst the high school elite - even using Nate at the end of the episode to regain her status when all seemed lost in little J’s social life.Â
Though Serena is supposed to be the “nice one,” Jenny, despite her obsession with becoming part of the “Mean Girls” world, has always been the sweetest member of the cast. She’s believable as a little sister who is trying to move up into a social circle that feels like it’s in a completely different caste, if there is such thing in the U.S., that is so far beyond her middle class status that she’s desperate to do anything to fit in, even if that means taking on perennial Queen Bee Blair Waldorf one on one.
It’s more than entertaining to see Little J turn evil, yet be conflicted by the fact that deep down, she knows what’s right. While Gossip Girl is not meant to be a believable show, the conflicts that Jenny faces feel very real, desperate, and that’s what makes this feud the best storyline on the show. Both Blair and Jenny are desperate, one to return to Queen Bee status, and the other to maintain her newfound position at the top. The flip-flopping of these two roles gives the series new life, even as new characters are being introduced and taken away a little too quickly.
Another interesting twist was seeing Dan (Jenny’s brother), who is technically one of the main characters, and Nate take a backseat to Jenny’s role in this episode. Jenny was previously anything but a lead role on the show, but this episode proved that Little J definitely has enough firepower to carry a storyline on her own. So to that, I hope this storyline drags on for a bit, instead of moving 100 miles per hour like everything else on the show.
With Nate soon falling for Dan’s ex Vanessa, Serena’s brother Eric apparently being gay, and Michelle Trachtenberg’s pending guest star role on the show, Gossip Girl is back in full stride, though its low 2.4 million viewers this past week might say otherwise.
New York Magazine called Gossip Girl The Greatest Teen Drama of All Time, but the low ratings paired with the fact that the CW has inexplicably stopped free streams of the television show on its website in hopes of drawing in more viewers, might make the CW want to think twice about their ass backwards strategy to get more eyeballs on one of their few semi-popular programs. The show seems to have the right direction, but let’s hope that this pop culture phenomenon isn’t about to have its plug pulled by the powers that be.
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1 response so far ↓
1 Recovering Sorority Girl // Apr 25, 2008 at 10:25 am
LOVE gossip girl. I was actually team blair in this last episode. Little J is turning into a huge bitch.
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