Canceling Veronica Mars left a void in my CW viewing. Fortunately, Kristen Bell is involved in a new teen drama — even if only as the never-seen, snarky narrator. Gossip Girl may not be about a sarcastic teen detective, but the private-school offerings do serve up some guilty pleasure fodder. Throw in the fact that I went to prep school and the show was almost guaranteed to be a hit with me.
Gossip Girl is the deliciously racy new CW offering of The O.C.’s teen-soap experts. This batch of privileged teens attend an Upper East Side prep school and take the life of luxury to an extreme the likes of Marissa and Summer couldn’t even imagine in Newport Beach. Nay, their lavish lifestyles aren’t contained in ocean-side mansions. The Waldorfs, van der Woodsens, and Archibalds are used to expensive Manhattan hotel penthouses, champagne, and randier sex lives than the stars of Debbie Does Dallas. That’s merely the tip of the iceberg for which these teens live or guilty pleasures thrive. Strangely, these underage elitists never seem to have a problem drinking in NYC’s hottest bars. Stranger still is lack of smoking cigarettes, apparently smoking is worse than casual sex under the influence of who knows what or drug overdoses.
Cecily von Ziegesar’s young adult series of a mystery blogger known only as Gossip Girl serves as the inspiration for the teen drama where an instant can change friends into enemies and enemies into your only ally. The juicy gossip of Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) and her BFF Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) are enough to get Gossip Girl on monitoring groups like the Parents Television Council.
But nevermind the naughtiness the parents don’t like, the overboard and extreme nature of Gossip Girl is everything we viewers want in our guilty pleasures. Even more desirable is the first season being out on DVD. The DVD set includes typical special features like unaired scenes (at least two episodes on each disc have them), gag reels, music videos and behind-the-scenes looks. Also included is a downloadable audiobook of one of the popular novels read by Christina Ricci. Warner Brothers are also taking a green-approach by packaging the five discs into the space of one.
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