With a T.V. generation characterized by "Dawson's Creek," "Laguna Beach" and "The O.C.," the unnecessary melodrama that the CW's newest fall premiere presented in its first episode Wednesday night is nothing new. "Gossip Girl" displays the lives of New York's teen socialites in such a way that one is relieved to return to a life of normalcy after an hour of uninspired, clich?©d mess.
Based on the teen series by Cecily von Ziegesar, the show focuses on six prep school students and, more importantly, the high-society lives they lead outside of school. The main character, Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively), is the quintessential bad-girl-turned-good. After a year of boarding school, she returns to New York to be confronted by the catty squabbles she left behind.
The rest of the characters fall in line quite predictably. Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), Serena's former best friend, turns against her and forces her posse to do the same. Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford), Blair's na've boyfriend, is torn in opposite directions as he tries to hide his feelings for Serena. In all, the characters fit banal, unoriginal roles and make the show corny as a whole.
Taking a detour from its more wholesome programs like "7th Heaven" and "Gilmore Girls," the CW decided to take a more risqu?© route for its latest show. Less than five minutes after the opening credits, the audience is taken to the bedroom for the first of two sex scenes and treated to two near-rape incidents before the show is over. The sex scenes seem to have little point except to reveal that teen girls tend to break boundaries - how shocking.
In an attempt to add more depth to the characters, the producers create side stories for each, hoping that these beauty queens and kings can gain some of the audience's sympathy. Halfway through, the plot reveals that Blair's mom went through a nasty divorce during the previous summer and is highly critical of Blair's appearance. Nate's father, likewise, pressures him to stay in his relationship with Blair to seal a business deal with her family. Instead of feeling sympathetic, however, the audience merely assumes that the teens' parents are equally as scheming, superficial and unethical as their children.
If for no other reason, the show is a train wreck because it uses every teen clich?© known to mankind. When the groups decided to go clubbing, for example, Serena shocks everyone when she shows up uninvited and accompanied by nice-guy Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley), an unpopular nobody at school who gallantly saves his sister from rape mere minutes after entering the party.
Lively's stunning performance as the troubled boy-crazy teen, Bridget, in "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" (2005) gave audiences high hopes that she and her gaggle of co-stars would pull off a believable teen-soap melodrama. Unfortunately, within the first episode all hope is shattered. The show's only hint of uniqueness arises from the 'gossip girl' herself. Each episode is narrated by a sort of all-knowing voice who can predict the future of the characters and leaves cliffhangers for the audience before each commercial break.
Unfortunately, this one meager shred of originality is overwhelmed by an hour of trite stereotyping. As the pseudo-plot develops, Serena, Blair and the rest of the ensemble become more and more plastic. Each actor falls into a typecast role of good or evil immediately, and leaves little to be desired for their one-dimensional characters other than having a good wardrobe.
Predictable scenes coupled with a stale storyline gives this show little room to grow in coming episodes. Audience members who have seen fellow teen soaps like "The O.C." and "One Tree Hill" can undoubtedly guess coming plot twists and turns and are sure to be underwhelmed by the direction the show takes. For once, a drama-filled teeny-bopper show is so disappointing it doesn't even merit a guilty-pleasure following.
