When I first heard of the Gossip Girl remake, I was excited, very excited. We all had a tough year and what could be better than a revival of one of our favorite shows. Gossip Girl did its job as a teen television drama: distract you from your own life and made you far too interested in the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite. (see what I did there ;) The new Gossip Girl does the opposite of that. There are storylines so boring that make me want to fill out my Study Abroad application that I've been neglecting since June. In reality, not that boring but you get the idea.
The casting is all over the place. Some actors embody their character extremely well, see Jordan Alexander as Julien Calloway, Thomas Doherty as Max Wolfe, or Zion Moreno as Luna La. While others such as Jonathan Fernandez as Zoya's dad (I have no idea what his character is named), Tavi Gevinson as Kate Keller, and Evan Mock as Aki completely butcher every scene. I will say that I am rather impressed with the ages of some of the actors as Whitney Peak who plays Zoya is only 18 and the Emily Alyn Lind, the actress who plays Audrey is only 19. But the performances some of these actors are giving are horrendous. With an HBO Budget and Carla Hall (that still confuses me) I am very disappointed. Zoya's dad speaks like a robot, Aki puts as much energy into a scene as I put in clearing out my inbox, and Kate Keller's voice makes me physically upset. Also, I understand the significance of having Tavi Gevinson play the role of Gossip Girl, however, she is still awful. The other actors are fine but not one actor in the entire show is genuinely good.
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I would like this show better if it was not titled Gossip Girl and was not affiliated with Gossip Girl. There is genuinely no point for Gossip Girl, except maybe in the first episode. The number of plot holes within the storyline of "Gossip Girl" itself is horrendous. Also, the entire point is for "Gossip Girl" to be this ruthless truth sayer who ruins lives, and this Instagram account focuses on kindness and social justice. I get where they were trying to go with this but it was executed completely wrong. The teachers make themselves insufferable leaving you to want them all to be fired.
Gossip Girl has always had a way to make you hate the "good guys" and love the villains. If you liked the Humphreys and Vanessa more than Chuck and Blair then you are the problem. The show, both times, tries to create these "relatable" lower economic class characters which just became crybabies and make you side more with the power-hungry villains. The show is supposed to center around greed, wealth and now it's centered on infographics. The only characters I genuinely like are somehow the villains: Aubrey, Max, Monique, and Luna. Julien's dad is sexy so he gets a free pass on his horrible acting.
We don't want to see this influencer-activist nonsense. We want to see affairs, extreme drug use, and daddy issues. If it were up to me? A 2021 Gossip Girl would involve the better girls wearing Staud and Laligne at Lola Taverna judging the ones at Baby Brasa wearing Zara.
xoxo, Gossip Girl.
