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“Mind-Blowingly Inappropriate” Seems to Be a Good Thing for Gossip Girl
3-Sep-2008
Written by: Ivana Cheong
Chuck fights for Blair’s love while Nate gets some cougar action.
“Mind-blowingly inappropriate,” is the comment that the Parents Television Council gave the teenage cult-hit TV show, Gossip Girl.
That hasn’t seemed to stop the cast and crew of the show; they continued on to make a second season that, to me, is mind-blowingly amazing.
The second season premiered Monday night. When these Upper East Siders left us, Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley) and Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) had just broken up—quite majorly. The ever-womanizing Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) admitted to his best friend, Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford), that he’s in love with the queen bee, Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester). As for the adults, Serena’s mom, Lily, decided to marry Chuck’s father, Bart, even though her heart is with Dan’s father, Rufus. Rufus is now on tour, with his band Lincoln Hawk. If that is not messed up, I don’t know what is.
In any case, Blair likes Chuck and knows there’s a good-hearted guy beneath all that drinking, smoking, womanizing exterior. So she agreed to go on a trip with him to Tuscany. But at the last minute, Chuck freaked at the thought of being tied down to one woman, and we see him romancing Amelia, Lily’s interior designer (played by real-life socialite Lydia Hearst) and ditching Blair.
The new season began with the scenic beaches of the Hamptons, a complete must for these kids. The writers are quite genius; of course they’d open with sex scenes. And who is a better candidate than Nate, who hasn’t gotten much female loving lately? But fear not, for Nate has found himself quite a nice cougar to love. His object of sexual affection is Catherine, a rich woman years and years older than his high-school age, played by Mädchen Amick (Sleepwalkers, Central Park West).They’re quite fond of each other, if only the husband didn’t exist, right? She’s quickly becoming the next Julie Cooper.
Afterwards, we see Serena, pouting, thinking of her breakup with Dan. If you hadn’t tuned in previously, she accidentally killed someone, got into a huge fight with Dan for keeping secrets, and found out that Dan had (sort of) hooked up with her archenemy, Georgina. She and Nate are pretending to date each other—for cover, of course.
Anyways, it looks like she’s regretting things—while still looking gorgeous, of course. And while Serena is moping in the Hamptons, Dan Humphrey is back in the city—and he’s not so lonely anymore. With an attempt to forget whatever happened with Serena, Dan has turned into a mild version of Chuck; he’s romancing girls day and night, and a different one every day. His author boss, Jeremiah Harris (played by real-life author of Bright Lights, Big City Jay McInerney), even checks out one of Dan’s summer hookups with him as she walked away.
Meanwhile, Chuck is also enjoying his share of ladies, albeit within a somewhat unrealistic story line. With a nice pinot grigio in hand, Chuck is surrounded by Brazilian triplets—who decide to go topless. This is the Hamptons, not Saint Tropez, Josh Schwartz!
Later on in the night, Chuck dressed somewhat like Ed Grimley, as Entertainment Weekly wrote, with a checkered shirt and a side part. He stood at a bus stop with a bouquet of flowers to wait for Blair, who was coming via the Hamptons Jitney. He was smiling like a kid who just discovered chocolate milk when he saw Blair come off the bus; that is, until a handsome man comes out after her and gave her a kiss on the lips. Oh, Blair—she always knows how to get her revenge.
At this point, this show is looking a lot more like a NY version of The O.C. After all, these shows do have the same creator, Josh Schwartz. Blair and Chuck are quickly becoming the new Seth and Summer. Meester and Westwick are really getting into their characters, and the show is becoming more emotionally involved and romantic with every episode.
Meanwhile, little Jenny Humphrey has been working like a slave all summer for her internship with Blair’s designer mother, Eleanor Waldorf. Technically, Eleanor’s been out, so Jenny had to report to the wild-haired, uptight assistant, Laurel. Just like any other, Laurel doesn’t know Jenny’s name (she calls her Ginny) and treats her like trash. Entertainment Weekly said that the executive producer, Stephanie Savage, said that Laurel’s character is a nod to Kelly Cutrone from MTV’s The Hills, the CEO of People’s Revolution, a fashion PR company.
After telling Jenny that her designs are basically crap, Laurel said that Jenny will never be invited to the White Party, which is somewhat true, since she’s no Blair or Serena, and she’s just an intern. But then she pulls some strings and makes up with Eric, Serena’s sister, so she could get into the party.
The party itself was somewhat of an egregious product placement. Still, it wasn’t as loud and in your face as others that I’ve seen. It’s blended into the background a little more subtly.
We see Tinsley Mortimer as a guest star. She’s a real life NY socialite and fashion designer. As stylish and talented as she is, it’s true that she needs more acting lessons before she goes on TV again.
Elsewhere in the crowd, Nate and Serena are covering for each other again, especially now since Nate’s cougar lover, Catherine, is at the party with her husband. They actually had to make out to make Catherine jealous—just in time for Dan to walk in.
What? Oh, right, Dan. Well, he decided to make a stop to visit Serena and I suppose to chat about their relationship. He came to her house first, only to find her grandma, CeCe. First season, grams was completely disapproving of Dan’s low-class status and his boho attitude. Nowadays, it seems like she’s warmed up completely to him—turned a 180 actually. She told him that the White Party has a dress code, so she gave him an old suit of Serena’s grandfather’s. It’s completely surprising that they were the same, tailored size! With the costume, Dan totally looks like a modern day Ryan from The O.C. Hmm . . .
And while Serena and Dan are rehashing, Blair is getting acquainted with her hot new boyfriend. Earlier in the episode, Chuck sensed that there’s something wrong with James, the boyfriend. It’s just jealousy, Chuck. So he dialed a personal investigator, which was on his speed dial, to find any dirt about James.
Walking through the garden, Blair admits to her lover that she only used him because of his looks. She wanted to make Chuck jealous. Well, quel surprise! But he told her that it was all right, because he actually had a secret to tell her too. Her face registered an “uh-oh” moment, fearing that Chuck might be right.
Just before Chuck is about to come in to dish the dirt, James comes out and tells Blair (and no, he’s not gay) that his real name is actually Marcus, that he’s British, and a lord, while at it. Blair is completely taken aback but it looks like she’s enjoying it. I mean, a lord! He says that he wanted to pretend to be a common American student, because most girls only like him when they know that he’s a lord. Well, he’s right about that.
Afterwards comes the best scene in the entire episode, truly. It might not be the funniest, but certainly the most heartfelt. Lord Marcus just asked Blair to leave with him, and Chuck obviously doesn’t want her to go. Call it love, pride, or both, but he tells her to stay, please stay. Blair obviously doesn’t like Marcus like she loves Chuck, so while near tears, she asked Chuck to give her one good reason as to why she should stay—“and don’t say because I’m Chuck Bass.”
“Three words. Eight letters. Say it and I’m yours,” she tells him.
And what does he do? Well, of course he can’t get it out; he just managed to come up with “I . . . I . . . I . . .” Well, there’s Blair’s confirmation. Just in time, Marcus pulls up in a hot convertible. Holding back tears and putting on a brave, smiley face, she hops in and rides off into the sunset.
It was truly heartbreaking. Which makes me want to know what’s going to happen between them even more! Chuck and Blair—now there’s a couple that you truly want to root for. I don’t know what’s going to happen next. My sources tell me that obviously, there will be drama between Chuck and Blair; Serena and Dan are not letting go of old feelings; and Nate is completely affixed on his older lover.
It may be inappropriate, but I sure am addicted to it. Summer may be over for these partygoers, but the heat is just getting started.
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