I discovered Gossip Girl about 10 years after its pilot and I am still not over it. I went googling and found that there are others like me struggling with the handover of binge watching GG. Trying to relive the experience with watching reruns, reading articles and just constantly thinking, analyzing and talking about it. May be I have too much time after all an empty mind is a devils workshop and gg is everything devilish. So why am I so obsessed with GG. Here are the reasons
- Chuck and Blair
The chemistry between these two is so overwhelming, they put Romeo Juliet and Heer Ranjha to shame. They are rich, they are gorgeous and they are pure evil, acing each other one up at a time. Yes their relationship is toxic but the best love stories are not romantic songs on a hill station but tragedies and hurting. We all love a tragedy and if it has romance, it just adds to the charm. Without revealing any of the spoilers I am just glad Chuck and Blair happened, it makes me believe there is more to love than what spiritual books define. Love is anything but definable, it is what you feel and I feel love and passion when I see Chuck and Blair on the screen even if they are just talking. So sue me for calling it love, I would want to live in this dillusion for ever. The burlesque dance, the Macbeth play, the car accident, the most awaited ‘I love you’ declarations. Once you have seen them together ever other couple seems weak and faded. Don’t even get me started on the trauma of seeing Blair with Dan or Prince Loui.
- Rich and beautiful
There is a Page 3 in every newspaper across the world, and we all have forged on it to know about the life and time sod celebrities, their sightings, attires, fashion disasters, affairs, mural degradations, vendattes, money madness and what not. From fashionistas to socialites to politicians to business tycoons, GG has everything and more than your Page 3 can offer.
- Teenage
While the world talks about millennials, let me tell you nothing is more exciting and scandalous than your teenage. This is the most hormonal and tumulus age, when you get into one mess from another. Somewhere heart and body rules over mind and soul, making you take decisions which you wouldn’t be proud in your later years but then again we all know teenage is what it is. It’s crazy, it’s fun, the first crushes, first love and firsts of many, pacing the and at for adulthood. GG starts at the sweet 16 which is the epitome of teenage and probably our entire age. We all have had bad boy crushes, love triangles, proposal plans, bffs and bf wars, break ups and scandalous secrets in our teens. Reliving those days through GG is a trip down the nostalgia lane - the age of innocence, naiveness and madness.
4. Characters and personalities
Queen B, Bad Boy, Golden Boy, IT girl, lonely boy - each of these characters had unique characteristics. Like if you watch any horror movie you watch there are always a set of characters and a specific order they die before the ones who survive. There are so many layers to each character. The self destructive Serene with her missing Daddy issues, Chuck Bass and his constant attempt to exist for his cold father, Blair’s struggle between being Grace Kelly or Grace Jones, Nate with his interfering grandfather and Vanderbilt name and Dan with his ultimate outsider-insider issues. Throw them all in and you get a complex story with complex characters fighting for and against each other time to time and a never ending saga. We all are a little damaged and this serial has enough characters for a psychology student to have a gala time.
- Plot twists and settings
Let me start with that most of the plots were unrealistic but that doesn’t mean they were not interesting. Blair finding herself a Lord and a real Prince to marry, Chuck’s Mom and Dad returning from the dead and still having nothing to do with him, Serena’s scandalous behavior to get her missing Dad’s attention, Lily’s changing husbands with every season, Nate’s political drama and building of his newspaper Spectator, musical chairs of Charlie Rhodes. There was Business, media, fashion, socialites and political angles all mixed up with the icing of burlesque club, gentleman’s secret club, Sotheby’s auctions, grand soirées, prom queens, masquerade balls, Hampton’s white party and the events of Debutante ball. No one’s complaining I just love myself some or a lot of drama.
- One liners and punch lines
“I am Chuck Bass”
"Only a masochist could ever love such a narcissist."
“I'm the best of the best. I'm Blair Waldorf”
“Damn that, mother Chucker.”
“Whoever said that money doesn’t buy happiness didn’t know where to shop.”
“Everyone loves a villain. But then I wonder why are you always alone.”
The list here is never ending but sharing some notable ones for your pleasure. You can google to get the best quotes. The best lines were from Chuck and Blair and they said it with such flair. Simply kickass!
Yes you guessed it, I can render them word by word even in my sleep. You don’t become a GG fan without remembering all the favorite lines and quotes.
- Fashion
No one puts the power of fashion in better words than Blair Waldorf,
“Fashion is the most powerful art there is. It’s movement, design and architecture all in one. It shows the world who we are and who we’d like to be.”
I am no fashionista but come on the dresses, the style, the accessories, the entire design was so apt for the NewYork setting and the characters. Blair in her pencil skirt, head bands and the gorgeous gowns. Chuck Bass in his formal coats, ties, bows and even the red jumper. Serena was not my type but she looked great in anything with her long legs. The best part was that even these were all designer labels, the fashion was wearable and achievable. Extra points for that.
- Celebrating the underdog
Every story has a hero even GG has its bunch. But the real heroine or should I say hero is the GG, the ultimate insider. We all love the underdog we root for it, to make it space and trump the privileged. From Hollywood to every art form is full of victories of underdogs and we have celebrated it every time, as it gives us hope that we can win. Because a hero was once an underdog. As Fred Durst says, “Everybody loves the underdog, and then they take an underdog and make him a hero and then they hate him.”
- Social media scene
GG is probably one of the first shows which highlights the effects of social media on our lives. How nothing is private in today’s world. Everything even your sex life is out in the open. It is a vicious cycle of action and revenge. One story begets another and the spiral of gossip entangled our lives forever. The excitement of seeing others misery talks a lot about human nature. You can write off Gossip Girl as frivolous but the way it explains human emotions playing live tells us a lot. Everybody except probably Nate shared some or the other gossip with GG. We all love to be part of the action and with social media available for everyone somehow the game is now totally even.
Moreover it was all centered around a blog and I for one a big supporter, for all things blog and every written word. Even Dan’s books and his intellectual discussions with his writing mentors.
- Relationships
Most relationships in GG were frivolous and passing, but some of the friendships were deep and supportive (and it’s not as if they never fought). Serena- Blair, Blair- Dorota, Serena- Lily, Blair- Eleanor, even Nat and Chuck followed the bro code. More than gossip a girl needs is a girl gang, actually the latter is the source of all gossip.
So do you still need more reasons to watch GG. Go right now and Netflix it.
