Gossip Girl

So,people keep telling me how stupendously good Gossip Girl is.At first look,its another show about a bunch of extremely wealthy city kids who are deeply self-obsessed with themselves and one another,who surround themselves with superficial problems and parents who are either poor,likable former hippies or heartless and controlling.But the show keeps saying,"No,Gossip Girl is so much more than that"-or so it thinks.

To be fair,I've only seen 4 episodes and so whatever judgments I have may be premature-again,people keep telling me "Don't worry,it gets better".What worries me most is how the first season of a show can be so convoluted and overstuffed with so much material when essentially the main focus is meant to be the Serena-Blair patch up mission.They not only have Serena and Blair constantly trying to rekindle their broken friendship-this alone involves pushing and pulling a pretty boy called Nate whose own complicated feelings for Serena bring the affair to a whole twisted level,endless saboteur as the two girls struggle with their fickleness-its basically two people who think sorry and fuck off mean the same thing,so everything goes in circles and ends up going nowhere.Remember season 1 of the OC?Ah,the good times.There was Ryan the one-shirt delinquent,Marissa the rich girl next door,and their two buddies Seth and Summer-this was before Julie Cooper and her porn tape and slutty ,manipulating ways came into the picture,before Marissa went dyke/insane or Kristen became a heavy drinker or Seth got too cutesy-basically before the OC started resembling Bold & Beautiful.It was all so simple,so enjoyable-totally unlike the eps of Gossip Girl I've seen so far.

Other notable points:

• The acting is below par,Blake Lively can't act for nuts-although she does have a sweet smile-and Blair simply can't pull off "bitchy",she says her lines in a sluggish monotone and has a very plain face to begin with.
• Are we supposed to believe these are high school students?
• Dan's dad is fucking gross,he looks like a middle-aged gay pornstar with that pink lip gloss and choker thing on his neck and he's always trying to be this witty,"cool dad" figure who's all "I'm a cool dad,cos' I'm a struggling rockstar and I'm poor and I can speak the Young People jargon".Seriously,fucking gross.
  
• Does anyone else realize how jarring the music arrangement is?A new song comes on when the scene changes,and they try to make it in this music-video-way that's meant to make everything look slick,trendy and sharp,but the whole thing looks and sounds tragically chintzy and amateurish.They pick the best songs for sure,but don't always take full advantage-there was once Feist' I Feel It All came on,and it was drowned out before the vocals even started.
• Issues like "My dad wants be to go to Law school,but I don't want to"-what is this,the fucking 90's?Can't they make up new problems already?Are we teenagers really that simple-minded,have we not evolved at all?

Despite all that,I still think the show has a lot of potential.Chuck,Dan,Jenny,Lily and even the sometimes dull Blair all seem genuine in their own ways,and if they boot off Serena off the limelight in favor of the more interesting side characters I'm sure they'll pull off something that exceeds the typical teeny-ness.What's happened in the first 4 eps so far-correct me if I'm wrong-is that there's an important party or function of sorts in every episode (I'm told it's going to be like this for a while),and something goes wrong and people end up fighting.Its going NOWHERE.Serena & Blair kiss,make-up and get into a catfight all over again,Dan & Nate leave their feelings for Serena to control and a majority of them seem to be at either end of the spectrum,either really evil and conniving and rich,or smart and not-as-pretty and poor.

Michelle T (can't bother spelling out her name-that chick from Euro Trip) appears somewhere down the line,and I'm sure by then they'll have figured a way out of this situation.

*Up there's the poster for the GG season finale.TBC?Hmm..