Avid “Gossip Girl” readers will agree it’s finally nice to see the full face of the highly talked about teens of Manhattan. Rising to popularity in 2002, the books became widely popular among teenage girls.
The content of this new show may challenge primetime television censorship, but it holds very true to the books written by Cecily von Ziegesar. Like the books, the show begins with the infamous, yet anonymous narrations of “Gossip Girl” and contains the same interlude of the e-mails and updates before commercial breaks.
According to TV Guide, only 3.65 million U.S. viewers checked out the show on Thursday night, ranking among the lowest for a Wednesday night primetime show. Although the ratings were low, the show has promise, received good reviews and hopes to catch the attention of past “One Tree Hill” viewers, which has been on the CW during the new “Gossip Girl” time slot for the past several years.
“Gossip Girl” comes from Josh Schwartz who created “The OC.” Already the show is being called the new “OC” or “Beverly Hills, 90210,” potential viewers can expect to see sex, drugs and a lot of drinking. Although “Gossip Girl” could be called the East Coast “OC,” it lacks the punch the “OC” once had.
In the first episode alone, the character of Chuck attempts to date rape two young women. Chuck proves to be the flattest character, with his only personality trait being that he is a creep.
Although the stories are derived from the series of young adult novels, the viewers of such shows and readers of the series are often of a younger, pre-teen mindset. Even before the show hit the air, the book series received criticism for its content. Author and feminist writer Naomi Wolf described the books as “corruption with a cute overlay.” The issue of appropriate content may be a hardship for the new show because it is on basic cable.
Viewers can also expect to see characters, for the most part, depicted accurately as the cast of high school socialites. Main characters Blair (Leighton Meester), Serena (Blake Lively), Nate (Chance Crawford) and Chuck (Ed Westwick) do not differ physically from their written descriptions.
The cast is full of teenage icons including Kristen Bell from “Veronica Mars,” who narrates the show. Lively, previously, from “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” plays Serena van der Woodsen who, unlike in the novels, has gained a sense of morals for the show.
In their elite world, where it is not acceptable to do the right thing, but rather, characters must choose the fun thing, it is refreshing to see that the show’s creator, Josh Schwartz, added depth to Serena’s character, who has an amiable conscience.
If ratings increase, expect to see lots of teenage drama and lots of it in the bustling New York City, Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. on the CW.
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