Gossip Girl

MarlonBrando86

MarlonBrando86

I came away from that pilot mostly interested in Monet teebs. The actress was serving in almost every look she wore, regularly stealing scenes and I kind of need her to usurp Julien's spot and establish herself as the queen bee. Max was doing the most but Thomas always been an entertaining chewer of scenery (much like the original Chuck) so I like him (or the messiness he's going to deliver).

Julien and Zoya were cute and their story has potential, I suppose. Pink hair boy and nu-gen-Jenny were meh and I wish there was at least one prime himbo (a la Nate) in the cast, the dudes are all a bit too basic. The teachers are a mess but it's an interesting take. They do seem too dumb though, and I expect them to lose control of that site by season's close.

I'll check back in a few episodes to see if Monet gets things to do and things get more interesting. But I'm not keen enough to commit week-to-week.
 
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spaceship

spaceship

The first teachers scene was kinda weird because the tone was really clashing with whatever was happening in the outside world ... but at the end of the episode, I felt like it worked well and it's complementing the main storyline.
 
dvno

dvno

Aside the lavish production, I don't know what this brings to the table.
The acting is abysmal, the plot is paper thin, and there is no relevant commentary or interest.
Not that GG needs to be a bastion of culture (it shouldn't) but it should be soapy/camp/salacious to exist. Right now, it's just dull - hoping it will ramp up soon.
 
Drew

Drew

Yes! Put some respect on her name!

The new Gossip Girl careens back and forth between giving its audience frothy, minutely observed rich-people hijinks, and serving up shopworn and sentimental clichés about teen soap archetypes with the apparent belief that viewers will embrace them with a ready hand.

That’s a problem the original Gossip Girl ran into over and over again, too. Except in that case, the show had a secret weapon: Leighton Meester. Meester was cast as Blair, original Gossip Girl’s ice queen, but she developed into the beating heart of the show, memorably described by another character as a “95-pound, doe-eyed, bon-mot-tossing, designer-label-whoring package of girly evil.”

The exhaustive Gossip Girl recappers at Daily Intel used to joke that Blair had access to another, better writers’ room than the rest of the characters did, but what they meant was that Meester was capable of making even bad jokes sound clever. She could make you cry or make you cringe in delicious sympathy with whichever of Blair’s minions she was cutting down to size for buying her shoes at a discount, and it’s thanks to Meester’s efforts that the show ever worked as well as it managed to.

So really, did anyone ever want more Gossip Girl? Or did they just want more of Leighton Meester saying bitchy things in a variety of fetching headbands?
Click to expand...

https://www.vox.com/culture/22565071/gossip-girl-review-hbo-max-revival
 
4Roses

4Roses

Scream @ Joshua highjacking Succession and Industry's whole vibe.

I know we shouldn't jump the gun when it comes to first episodes, but everything felt so muted and characterless-the static cinematography and lack of an actual opening scene theme did not help. However, Kristen slipping so effortlessly back into narration mode did give me goosebumps. That said, I hope they lean much deeper into the campy storyline with the teachers, as the final 20 minutes did elevate to another gear; I'm a sucker for sibling rivalry and a fashion show, so I'll stick around...for now. Also, the soundtrack is literally

 
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Steve003

Steve003

I never watched the original series so maybe thats why the first episode of this I found extremely watchable. The storyline of pink hair guy, the bland blonde and the 40 year old is giving me Elite vibes though. I'm sure this won't be as successful.
 
Juango

Juango

Steve003 said:
I never watched the original series so maybe thats why the first episode of this I found extremely watchable. The storyline of pink hair guy, the bland blonde and the 40 year old is giving me Elite vibes though. I'm sure this won't be as successful.
Click to expand...

I've also never heard of the original. The first episode is great hangover viewing. My only wish it that the teachers were real characters rather than these odd satires.
 
Uno

Uno

I was a big fan of the original series, and I already love this new one - they set everything up pretty perfectly in just one episode. The teacher characters are a bit cringe, especially the Carly Rae Jepsen knock-off, but I really like that we know who Gossip Girl is from the jump. Monet is great.
 
DangerousHun

DangerousHun

I’m actually loving the teachers’ storyline. It’s so camp and ridiculous and they seem to be having genuine fun with it. Sure the tone struggled a bit for the first half of the episode, but by the end it seemed to find its feet.
 
stopthestatic

stopthestatic

he/him
So I rewatched the new pilot, and I also rewatched the OG pilot. And it's crazy how lifeless the new one felt compared to the original which is one of the best TV episodes maybe ever.

I do think it has a lot of potential to improve but, I'm sorry, those scenes with the teachers are seriously cringe and really brought it down in terms of overall quality. Tonally those scenes felt like they were trying to emulate The Social Network movie. I think they need to eventually do away with that a bit and focus solely on the kids. The Julien/Zoya dynamic was the best part of the show for me. I found the side characters a bit bland in this one, especially Audrey and Luna. It does seem like they've sort of slotted the characters into the old characters roles a tiny bit -

Julien - Blair
Zoya - Jenny
Max - Chuck
Obie - Dan
Aki - Nate
 
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