Thursday, March 24, 2016

My love/hate relationship with Gossip Girl

I love Gossip Girl, I hate Gossip Girl. I have such mixed feelings about Gossip Girl!! I guess this post might seem a little out of place. I know that this show is a think of the past, but here I am anyway, talking about my love/hate relationship with this amazingly frustrating show. Why? Because I wasn't blogging when it was new and I just finished rewatching the entire series so I have to get all these feels out! (Spoilers!!)



Love

  • Blair - My feelings for Blair have changed a lot over the course of watching this show... twice. Blair is easy to hate in early seasons, but really grows as a character as events progress. In fact, she may be the ONLY character in this series who has any growth at all. I love that Blair is capable of being her own woman without a man beside her. I believe she was actually the only female character in this series to be shown as a successful businesswoman. 

  • Dan - Even at his worse, Dan was a favorite of mine. I can totally understand his motivations even if I would never have made some of the same decisions he did. Of course, Dan is in no way realistic. No teenage boy is that into literature and romance. Sure, he turns into a villain of the Upper East Side. But I love him! 

  • Blair/Dan -  These two are seriously perfect and I will forever be upset that they didn't end up together. Sure, at first they seem to be the least likely people who could ever end up together, but as the show progresses and they're pushed together for various reasons, it becomes clear that they belong together! Yes, Dan did some unsavory things to make it happen, and obviously Blair and Chuck have some kind of unhealthy/abusive love thing happening, but Blair and Dan is just so much better. Let's face it, Dan never pimped Blair out for a hotel.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  • Eric - Arguably the most normal character in the entire series. I loved Eric from the moment he was introduced as a mentally troubled teen. I loved how his family accepted him after he came out as gay, even if his mom took a few minutes to get there. I loved his struggle between being a good guy and sinking to Jenny's level. I was really sad to see him leave the show! 

  • Jack Bass' villainy - Obviously I hated Jack Bass as a character, but as a villain he was one of the best of this show! What a conniving, dirty scoundrel. I also loved that he ended up coming full circle by the end of the series, becoming part of the family that Chuck wanted so badly. 

  • Dorota - Probably the single best character on Gossip Girl, if we're being honest. Dorota was completely hilarious from episode one. If she was on the screen, I was probably laughing. It's a shame she couldn't have gotten even more screen time! I loved that she was never afraid of Blair and was always on her side, no matter how insane she acted. 

  • Lily/Chuck - All Chuck ever wanted was to have a family that accepted him and he found that in Lily whether he wanted to or not. And I loved it. Chuck was a complete ass to Lily over and over and she never turned her back on him. She showed him what unconditional love really looked like even when he most definitely did not deserve it.  

  • Gossip Girl reveal - I know there was a ton of debate over the big reveal. Yes, it was rushed, but I also liked it, even if it didn't make a lot of sense. Doing a rewatch allowed me to see all of the blasts while knowing who Gossip Girl actually was. It really didn't fit, but I can't deny that the only person who would have made a better Gossip Girl is Dorota. 

Hate

  • Serena - Serena is truly one of those characters that I just cannot understand. WHY does everyone love her? Why does everyone want to be her?? I would never slut-shame Serena for sleeping with whoever she wants. That being said, she is embarrassingly incapable of being alone. She bounces from one relationship to the next at an alarming rate. I have to say, Dan was spot on in his assessment of Serena in his expose. 

  • Jenny - While all of the characters in this show are scheming little bitches, Jenny is the only one who seems to have absolutely no regard for anyone but herself. She was decent in season one, but as soon as she became a main character, I started to hate her. It's like her character didn't even have a point other than to piss everyone off. 

  • Blair/Louis - WHAT EVEN was this storyline?? Sure, it was cute when Blair was vacationing in Paris, but as soon as he came back it got silly. Not only did I seriously dislike Louis character, but Louis as a villain? Just no. It was impossible to take him seriously. This storyline was blatantly just another layer to the Blair/Chuck angst. 

  • Blair/Chuck angst - The first time I watched this series, this pissed me off to no end. I get it, this is a teen soap opera, but SIX seasons of watching these two talk about how they can never be together for increasingly ridiculous reasons is almost too much. Just... be together or don't. I get that they have some kind of soulmate thing going on, but I'll never quite understand what it is. I think they just both gravitate towards drama. 

  • Chuck's momma drama - This storyline was interesting for about 10 seconds and then it just got old. Did it really need to unfold over multiple seasons? 

  • Random storylines - I wish I could've asked the writers of this series what the hell they were thinking with all the random storylines. Vanessa and Dan? Olivia Burke? Lily/Rufus love child? (What even happened to him??) Fake caner? Russell Thorpe? Diana Payne? Royal wedding? Ivy Dickens? Steven and Sage? Who needs all this when you have such an amazing cast to work with already??? 

  • Serena/Dan - But... why? HOW? Why in the world would these two end up together?? I understand that Dan had an unholy obsession with Serena, but I just cannot fathom how their relationship would work out in the long run. Couldn't Serena find someone else to bounce to? Dan definitely deserved better.

  • The finale - Wrapping up so much in one episode just did not work for me. This episode jumped all over the place and the five years later fast forward was just way too fast. I feel like the epilogue should have gotten an entire episode. Even if it did, there was a lot wrong with it, in my opinion. First, I cannot for a second believe that Dan and Serena survived an entire five years together. Second, Chuck and Blair's kid looks like he's five! I'm sorry, but what?? They both strove for success and power for six seasons and ended up having a kid five seconds after getting married? I don't buy it. And I'm not even going into all the other couples that are revealed at the wedding. -_- 

**cries**

So there it is, my big list of loves and hates from the Gossip Girl series. Of course, there were a lot of things I was neutral about and didn't include. Despite all of the things I hate about this show, and even despite the fact that I don't love how it ended, Gossip Girl (embarrassingly) remains one of my favorites!


Are you a fan of GG? Do you disagree with anything on my list? Let me know in the comments!