What I learned from watching Gossip Girl

The season finale is on in a couple of hours, and I have a fistful of notes from last week's episode as yet unpublished:

First off, is it just me, or was that the quickest resolution to a problem that begins: "I killed someone."

Did anyone else who watched the show think, OMG, Lisa Loeb has clearly not yet gotten a gig to dish in one of those VH1 Countdown shows? It's pretty sad when you're the opening act to a non-existent rock ensemble.

To stay on the subject of music, I learned that there is an absolutely needless cover of Cities in Dust making the rounds.

So, I think it became apparent, based upon Chuck's flippancy and Dan's self-centered dramatics, that girls mature more quickly than boyz. I've been told that before, but hadn't had concrete proof until this past week.

The corollary to that is that crying can get you anywhere with a boy. OMFG, did Georgina not have Dan wrapped around her little pinky finger by the end of the show!?!

Much of the drama could have been avoided if it hadn't been for the now apparent Van der Woodsen secretive nature. These ladies (and Eric) seem congenitally incapable of just sayin' what's up.



I have to admit to having some concerns about the naive turn that Penn Badgely's character has taken in the last couple of weeks. If you've got a character coming from the wrong side of the tracks, he's usually supposed to be a canny kid who will only sell out his values from necessity and not out of kindness. The kid from the wrong side of the tracks is supposed to be a tough, who can detect phoniness. And indeed, second-generation rocker Dan began his trail through the glitzy world of the Upper East Side and into Serena's heart by talking truth to the smart set. However, perhaps to contrast his grit with Vanessa's authenticity, he has become increasingly the ingenu, beseiged by a world that is beyond him. The final kiss with Georgina seemed, in this context, utterly gratuitous, and strayed from the fundamental essence of Dan...
Whatever the case, if I'm Serena, I ain't takin' him back. Let him wait until he gets to Dartmouth for his next serious girlfriend.

Anyway, I think this weakness oddly enough reinforces the fundamental nature and, thus, the success of the show, that it is driven by an essentialist understanding of human nature and character rather than an existential one. The characters are in a constant struggle to maintain their identity, and find themselves constantly re-asserting themselves in an effort to achieve an equilibrium within their actions.

I must admit though to a strange, pimentoed nostalgia upon watching the past few episodes. There were times where the dialogue among Rufus and his brood came very close... but never close enough to replicating the brilliant repartee of Rory and Lorelai... and I thought, "The Gilmore Girls, now that was a show!"

Ah, I see it's time to get the popcorn a poppin' for the big finale! BRB...

Until then, I leave you with the exciting behind-the-scenes revelation of the week.

XOXO