(image property of the CW)
Last year I took the time to explain some of the things that irked me with Gossip Girl. This is merely one show out of several popular ones, and the choice to discuss it on Rococo and Caffeine might seem odd, but as the show holds such sway over popular fashion, it seems like a relevant choice for many of our readers.
Fashion: In this past season, the screenwriters have exaggerated the characters almost to the point of parody. At this point, they aren’t even trying to hide their disdain for the characters. Blair makes jab after delicious jab at Serena’s stupidity and licentiousness, Dan calls out Blair for acting like “woman of power” is a standard job title, Vanessa goes full steam jealous crazy train wreck with bad hair, and Chuck just pouts and drunkenly slurs out his lines even more. The clothing seems to reflect this. True to a theorem a commenter on either the Gawker/Jezebel or New York mag recap made last year, Serena can’t handle an entire body’s worth of clothing. If her neckline plunges, the hem hits the floor; if the “cleavage rhombus” is lashed to the mast and covered, then her dress or hot pants stop directly at the hip joint. And almost everything she wears is tacky or inappropriate for the occasion (like hotpants and a bustier top for class). Blair has many more fashion victories, though in keeping with her prissy ways, there are a fair number of outfits that are just too fussy- the Alexis Mabille gown for the Constance reunion is the most memorable one, though I also thought the Moschino Resort dress with the clashing top and bottom + knit beret+ plus tottering heels was rather moche. Also, I may be in the minority, but I found the overuse of textured lace tights kind of gross, especially with shorts (I find the look comes off as rather cheap and tawdry looking. Most interesting, however, was the fact that Blair Waldorf, who is now engaged to Prince Louis, beat out Kate Middleton to a few outfits, i.e. the Jenny Packham gown (though with terrible hair and glitter hair spray??), and the reference to bridesmaids dresses the same color as the wedding gown. I must admit that I’ve been fairly negligent in following evening gown trends and designer popularity (law school tends to take away a lot of spare time), but I did smirk knowing that Blair Waldorf sets the trends even for European elite.
Top 5 Looks from last Season:
1. Blair's Nanette Lepore dress
2. Serena's George Chakra Cage Corset dress
3. Blair's Oscar de la Renta evening gown
4. Serena's boarding school "uniform"
5. Blair's Victoria Beckham dress
(All images property of the CW)
Plot: As for the story lines, this season was kind of crazy wreck. The problem is that for the most part, we all know the plots have to take the cast back to where they were at the beginning of each one- any new characters are bad and leave fairly soon, over-the-top plots get introduced way too forcefully but then fizzle out flat. For example, the whole Chuck trying to start anew with life in France as Harry Prince + his French hooker with a heart of gold plot. We all know he’s going to end right back in NY in like, 2 weeks, so why bother with all this unnecessary melodrama? We also know that Raina and her father (whatever his name was) aren’t lasting characters, so her groundbreaking romance or whatever with both Chuck and Nate is boring and nobody cares, bla bla bla. So much for having more characters of color present. There were also simply gross moments- i.e. Serena + what’s his face, her high school professor. Ew ew ew ew and more ew.
The redeeming things plot wise: I enjoyed Blair having to actually work for once in her life with her short-lived internship at W. Even if there was an unnecessary amount of scheming on her part, she finally got a sense of what it’s like for the rest of us plebes (sort of). I’m also in the contrary, but I highly enjoyed the development of her friendship with Dan. It was cute and believable, seeing as they’re the only two characters on the show who seem capable of stringing together 4 coherent sentences that deal with intellectually complex material. Moreover, in their friendship/flirtations, they actually act like 20 year olds, which I find refreshing in a show where the characters seem to think they’re about 30. I also enjoyed Anne Archibald telling Lilly van der Woodsen to shove it. Lilly is one of the most unjustifiably self righteous characters on the show, and ever since Mr. Archibald’s actions caused his family to fall into financial and social disgrace, Lilly has pretty much ignored that family, even though she used to dump her kids off with them when she was out on her normal whoring expeditions in the 90s. Punishing Anne socially for something she didn’t do while expecting everyone to worship her even though she deliberately sent an innocent guy to prison for statutory rape so her daughter could guilt a school into admitting her is just disgusting. You go, Anne. And the final redeeming/interesting thing about the season was the Juliet story arc. Usually Gossip Girl villains come and go in the span of 6 episodes, or they get trotted back dutifully for some unnecessary appearance in the final episodes (i.e. Georgina, Jack Bass, and now the really random showing of William Baldwin). Juliet stayed around the entire fall semester, and manipulated other characters deftly. I enjoyed watching her cause havoc for Serena, who really has become a complete waste of space with mumbling problems and overly smug smirks.
Unsettling: The most problematic turn the show has taken, however, is the ‘romance’ between Chuck and Blair. The producers of the show may make excuses and sugarcoat the situations, but the relationship between the two characters can only be characterized as abusive and toxic. You cannot excuse someone’s manipulative behavior away with claims that he doesn’t know how to express his feelings properly. Inner demons don’t justify embarrassing someone else cruelly in front of her prospective in-laws. There is no excuse for screaming at her, you have no justification for trying to intimidate her by “declaring war” on her, and in no way do you have the right to act in an aggressive violent way around her, especially when she experiences physical harm because of it. It bothers me that the producers of the show are trying to glamorize emotional and physical domestic abuse under the guise of tortured love and brooding gloomy characters. Blair spent about half the show declaring that she needs to become a woman of power. So why not allow her to do this instead of making her emotionally dependant on a sadist and then fobbing her off on some other guy who we know is going to be in like 4 episodes in Season 5, anyway? It’s only the 21st century and everything...
(courtesy of a commenter from Jezebel)
Off my soapbox. Unfortunately, I don’t really have much faith in Season 5. Even though Vanessa and “Gothic Barbie” Jenny have become unpopular characters, that those actresses, along with Connor Paolo, are jumping ship, I have doubts about the morale of the other actors. And the trailer for the season (see below isn’t particularly exciting anyways. Serena is doing some 2 episode stint as a serious professional (hahaha) movie person, and oh look, Nate banging another person out to cut the gang since he doesn’t get any independent plots, over cliched “I’m Chuck Bass” lines, and oooh people going to have sex. How thrilling and utterly novel concept for the show. Of course Blair gets the only good line.
My expectations are low, but I’m more than happy to hear your thoughts about the matter. This is a show I enjoy hashing out theories and dramatic criticism for ad nauseum, so I really would love feedback.