A Hypermodernist Critique of Gossip Girl, Part 2
This is the second part of an ongoing series exploring the hit CW teen drama Gossip Girl. The first article can be found here.
12:05 PM yeah basically I am just looking to create material to slug at the top of the article to give it context
so basically my first question to you as editor is what should I be expecting from these next four episodes
what should I be focusing on
George: sec, reviewing 5-8
12:09 PM peer pressure, class struggle, is our culture fucked because our parents are just as irresponsible as us?
me: interesting
12:10 PM especially that last point because when discussing GG with F______ he mentioned that one of the things he liked about the show was that these kids were basically adults
yet everything I’ve seen so far runs counter to that point and I plan to discuss that
12:11 PM George: oh the parents are way more fucked up, perhaps only because they have been alive longer
12:12 PM you will definitely see this with one character
me: that sounds intriguing, i look forward to it
I guess the other major thing to discuss is in terms of content for the article
obviously the first part was basically me unfiltered
12:13 PM but I sense there has to be some filter in order for a more coherent critique
what’s your take
12:14 PM George: i feel like you can twitter your thoughts because its more immediate and from the gut, but maybe write your collective thoughts of the first 8 episodes afterward
me: yeah, I plan to keep the on-the-fly style
but I guess just temper it a little more
also because this on-the-fly criticism is basically pulling back the curtain… everything I write, no matter what, usually starts as an orgy of hyperbolic profanity, shameless self-aggrandizement, and a mish-mash of random references
George: what you think is strong, what is weak, how is it different from other shows, is it improving upon them or is it just 90210 with younger ppl?
lol
12:15 PM im fine with whatever, it will be something to look back on after you win an oscar
12:16 PM me: haha, john august says that as a writer you have to be extremely careful with everything you write since it will basically exist forever at this point
I am throwing caution to the wind, watch this come back to bite me “monster island” style
12:17 PM
anything else?
12:18 PM George: just lookin forward to it, oh man there is some crazy shit
12:19 PM the 2nd punch of the first season is somewhere on that dvd
me: gotta say, josh schwartz knows what works, now I’m going to anticipate that the entire time
George: you’ll have to let me know if you did
1.05 “Dare Devil” (tv.com) It’s their first official date and Dan tries to impress Serena with an elaborate plan for the date, but fails to understand that Serena is happier with beer than champagne. That same night Jenny is invited to the infamous Blair Waldorf sleepover and finds herself in a high stakes game of “Truth or Dare”. Meanwhile, Lily finds out that Erik is missing from the treatment center, and she finds herself seeking help from her ex-boyfriend, Rufus.
9:10 PM me: okay, let’s roll
9:11 PM one of the things that is potentially problematic about the show is the concept of glorifying the rich
no, glorify is too weak a word
fetishization of the rich
9:12 PM it’s too easy for shows about the wealthy to create the fallacy that “wealthy person” = “quality person”
The OC did a really good job of tempering this concept
Here’s hoping that GG has a nuanced perspective on this
9:13 PM and of course we start the episode with conspicuous consumption
thorstein veblen would go on a shooting spree
9:14 PM contrast with dan scrimping pocket change for a date!
okay, dan’s planning a “perfect date”, there has to be class conflict implicit there
9:18 PM mrs. van der woodsen is approaching levels of cartoon villainy
she’s like an evil kirsten cohen
9:19 PM okay, time for a date
when I mentioned earlier that the humphreys were technically upper class, that was of course an imperfect kludge
9:20 PM basically the humphreys can be classified as members of the creative class
that means that they are defined by the ability to generate meaningful new forms
jenny has an eye for fashion
dan obviously has a literary mind
9:21 PM their dad’s a musician
pausing for a minute to explain this, especially because we’re at an apparently embarrassing vespa moment
9:22 PM basically the creative class have unique and unreplicable talents which make them prized by the capitalist class
9:23 PM and at the upper echelons there’s a great deal of social intercourse between the two groups
think about all the heiresses who dabble in the creative fields (paris hilton, anyone?)
9:24 PM but in the end members of the creative class are subordinate to capital and dependent on the largesse of a patron
but he needed the patronage of saatchi to get anywhere
9:25 PM remember the ivy episode
where this was literalized by dan’s dad playing music as the entertainment for the reception
9:26 PM continuing this date, dan is evincing his inferiority and attempting to replicate the outer forms of his “social betters”
jenny is doing the same thing at this slumber party
9:27 PM now some people might be saying “you dumbass, it’s just two kids on a date”
but in sociology there is the concept that people replicate the social
okay stopping because I just saw two chicks making out
9:28 PM people reproduce larger social trends when interacting on a smaller scale
9:29 PM dan is kind of like f scott fitzgerald here, always conscious of the divide
9:32 PM the humphreys are defined by what they can do
blair, serena, nate, chuck, they are defined by what they are
idle rich
9:40 PM me: there’s a pretty obvious parallel between dan and serena and their parents
wondering if they went through the same things when they were younger
oh my god is this the punch moment
9:41 PM god, it’s like schwartz is teasing
the pattern is shove shove punch
9:42 PM this is the second time we’ve gotten the shove shove but no punch
9:45 PM interesting thing considering this from a writing perspective is that it seems everything’s been wrapped up with ten minutes to go
is something crazy going to go down
9:47 PM interesting thing when talking about this concept of the creative class
9:48 PM lily van der woodsen is a photographer turned social climber
writing-wise, this is a pretty effective mirror structure
9:52 PM something that the OC was really effective at doing is humanizing the people we consider to be unredeemable
I started this episode calling Lily the evil Kirsten cohen
Now she’s just the alcoholic kirsten cohen
1.06 “The Handmaiden’s Tale” (tv.com) Dan finds himself caught between two girls when his childhood friend, Vanessa, returns to Manhattan and declares her feelings for him, just as he and Serena are trying to figure out what they mean to each other. At the masked ball, Blair sends Nate on a scavenger hunt, but Nate is distracted by his feelings for Serena. Although Blair said that outsiders were not welcome to the party, a disguised Jenny and Dan sneak into the ball. Finally, Lily asks Rufus to accompany her to an Eleanor Waldorf event hoping to make Bart Bass jealous.
9:54 PM every time i watch the previouslies I’m obviously reminded of veronica mars and how good that show was
9:55 PM If this show has a high point it’s definitely the fact that it probably has the strongest set of young female voices in television today
i mean, 90210 is garbage
privileged had promise but ultimately I could take it or leave it
9:56 PM
Not saying this show is pro-feminist, but it can trend there
9:57 PM again, the lives of the upper class are defined by social events, purely designed for visiblity and displays of their “quality”
yeah, this show has passed the bechdel test every episode so far
9:59 PM name-dropping pynchon, what
i guess it’s the fastest way to instill intellectual cred
I do the same thing
10:01 PM oh man, this is some three’s company bullshit
10:02 PM why lie, that was a dumbass move
we see nate’s mom for the first time
10:03 PM it’s interesting how each set of kids only had one parent in the beginning, but now they’re slowly being fleshed out
one might say it would be a good idea to leave gaps for characters to slide in and drop drama bombs
but there’s also the spielbergian “shitty absent parent” syndrome to think of
10:04 PM is anyone not going to hate vanessa after the way she was introduced
she instantly added retarded non-drama for no reason
10:05 PM ed westwick is such a good actor, he’s like some creepy androgynous iago
10:14 PM me: web of lies, so disappointing
it’s such an artifical plot construct that takes a lot of finesse to make interesting
10:16 PM handmaiden is jane austen for slave, okay, that’s a great line
10:21 PM it would be pretty easy to equate the masked ball to the veil of ignorance
name-dropping cornelius vanderbilt
if you have to establish “old money asshole” cred
10:22 PM name-dropping newport
if you have to establish crossover cred!
10:23 PM wow, is nate trying to emote right now
10:26 PM the love triangle, the most powerful shape in the history of narrative
10:31 PM me: okay, I have to think they’re operating on some meta level
10:32 PM by purposefully using every old-theatre trope in the book
YES! NATE AND JENNY WTF
10:35 PM at least the show is consistent with it’s mirroring motifs, I am actually digging it, with the whole cell-phone to in-person transition
10:37 PM OH MAN FUCK THIS COKE-NATE PLOTLINE
10:38 PM thinking about this from a higher-level standpoint, these kids aren’t adults, they’re kids playing at adult things
even the adults in this show are more like kids playing at adults
you might even begin to sense a theme that wealth has an infantilizing effect
10:39 PM if maturity, true adulthood, can be perceived as recognizing the consequences of your actions
then wealth can be used to isolate oneself from these consequences
think about chuck
chuck’s pure id
his focus on satisfying his own desires and dodging all responsibility
isn’t that the most childish of behaviors?
10:40 PM I hope this nate plotline goes somewhere
because “My trust fund got drained, wah wah”
welcome to new york nate, you live in a city with a thousand homeless veterans
10:41 PM Oh man, I wonder if public disgrace will lower his social standing amongst his peers
that is such a gripping crisis
Honestly, there is a possibility it could go in an interesting direction
I know because I saw it on the OC five years ago
10:43 PM basically these kids aren’t adults
I just heard a story about a teen who had to pull his parents from the wreckage of their house on the same night as his prom after a tornado demolished it
he’s more of an adult than these kids
10:44 PM eighteen-year-olds getting blown up by bombs in peshawar
more adult than these kids
1.07 “Victor/Victrola” (tv.com) Things are heating up between Serena and Dan. Serena and Dan finally accept that they are crazy about each other, despite that they come from polar opposite worlds. Chuck thinks of investing in a club trying to make his father Bart Bass proud of him. Nate confronts his father, about the drugs he found in his house but he denies having a problem. Jenny discovers a secret that her parents have been keeping from her. Finally, Blair is devastated by Nate’s actions when Jenny reveals that Nate kissed her by accident thinking she was Serena.
10:45 PM watching this previously with nate kissing jenny, i must say that was a pretty entertaining clusterfuck
10:46 PM oh man, in medias res time
10:48 PM I do have to admit that the druggie parent is an interesting inversion
10:49 PM compare to the current breaking bad finale
everyone’s always on the phone
interactions mediated through technology
10:50 PM I haven’t addressed this much because it’s such an obvious surface theme
much better to drop some proudhon into this shit
10:52 PM jenny with the rolleyes, that was honestly amazing work
10:53 PM bart bass so far is a low-rent caleb nichol
obviously he’s going to get compared to alan dale
10:55 PM chuck’s proposal, this is hypershitting of the capitalist class right here
basically, I don’t know if you’ve seen the one percent
it’s this documentary done by the heir to the johnson and johnson fortune
seeing it will make you want to push for a punitive 100% estate tax
I kid
10:56 PM but basically the point is that we accept the – whoa crazy fantasy scene, that was pretty slick
10:57 PM anyway, for a democratic society it’s so interesting that we accept all sort of archaic feudal structures when it comes to the world of business and property
I mean, I am not an anarchist, I don’t hate wealth in and of itself
10:58 PM but comparatively, there’s a switch that gets flipped on in people’s heads that accepts kinship more readily when it comes to capital
I mentioned f scott fitzgerald, his great grand-daughter didn’t have someone say “you’re the scion of one of america’s greatest novelists, here’s your free pass”
10:59 PM same thing, doctor’s kids don’t get free mds
hell, george w bush had to get elected
but when it comes to wealth concentration generation to generation we are perfectly okay with that
I mean, who’s to say that walton’s kids have any idea what they’re doing
11:00 PM George: (i’m reading this but don’t want to interrupt the genius)
me: Is Roy Disney automatically a tycoon because his uncle and dad were
LOL
11:01 PM chuck bass gets the opportunity to make this kind of investment proposal simply because of his DNA
okay, the way he just got shot down was intriguing
also his dad’s utter hypocrisy
11:04 PM record scratch! it’s a teen sex comedy up in here
11:06 PM wow lol, i can’t believe chuck actually addressed my point
that’s like 500,000 writing points right there
11:07 PM
wow, nate’s mom is in some yellow wallpaper shit
11:08 PM I do like that so far she’s only the only robotic stepford in the whole bunch
George: (you are on episode 7?)
11:09 PM me: yes
11:13 PM okay, this show is really good at the cross-cut from one storyline to another through a flashback
it’s a really good transitional motif
11:16 PM oh man, upper class comportment with simmering tension, see this is a classic plotline but this is well done
11:18 PM “i’m the adult, you’re the kid”
as we’ve establishtg []
AEM AD
S;’,aqlfwj
pim
‘F
OIH
MY
FUCKING
GOD
11:19 PM George: lol, told you
me: I didn’t know it was the fucking dad
Nate’s fucking dad punching his son
getting busted for coke
Plotline redeemed
11:22 PM okay, I want to make some comment about the burlesque house being a reification of something but i’m still coming down from that punch man
11:23 PM ok, male gaze time
11:24 PM the funny thing is aside from being pretty hot this is actually a natural character progression
since it’s the inverse of the fashion model debacle
11:25 PM although ironically it’s funny that blair on her cruel streak could be defined as a “good girl”
but technically she does fit into that normative pattern
11:29 PM okay, isn’t that just the madonna-whore dichotomy
blair getting engaged to the straitlaced waspy dude makes her good
11:30 PM blair hooking up with the lecherous waspy dude makes her bad
especially since the show has basically established serena as the “nice girl” of the pair
1.08 “Seventeen Candles” (tv.com) Blair is feeling heartbroken and guilty by the current state of her relationship with Nate and her recent indiscretion. But she manages to put on a happy face for her 17th birthday party and attempts to hide her feelings from her friends. Hoping that Serena and Vanessa can bond, Dan takes Vanessa to Blair’s birthday party, but this ends up making Serena more uncomfortable. Jenny brings her mother home as a surprise, but Rufus isn’t ready to forgive and forget. Finally, Nate’s parents ask him to make a huge sacrifice to save his father’s business as he faces charges of embezzlement and fraud.
11:32 PM religious imagery? I didn’t expect gossip girl to discuss catholic doctrine
11:34 PM did blair buy that veil specifically to go to church
it’s funny how that last episode has made blair and chuck more sympathetic and interesting and dan and serena less so
11:39 PM “the captain” indicted for fraud
11:40 PM it’s symptomatic of the profit drive implicit in corporate capitalism driven to its natural endpoint
11:41 PM I can see why f____ and you made that commentary about adulthood
because nate is proving to be more of an adult than his father
but now we have another pair of parents interacting again
interesting how all these pairs are dysfunctional in their own way
11:43 PM okay, this mp3 player scene started off well, that was an interesting trick
11:44 PM it’s interesting how jewelry and baubles get turned into symbols of reinforcing loyalty
again the upper class is reproducing feudal structures
yes gossip girl agrees with me
romantic relationships being used to cement economic connections
11:46 PM it’s also interesting how we get the religious motifs brought into the same episode focused on marriage and money
marx would have a field day, this is the superstructure episode
11:47 PM also dan and serena are the only characters so far to be shown reading actual books
the closest was when nate was trying to read a book and failing, and blair reading instyle
11:48 PM anti-intellectualism espoused by the ruling class
11:49 PM the love triangle returns, now with chuck and nate and blair
but then it becomes a quadrangle with serena
11:50 PM then let’s throw in dan and vanessa and it becomes some sort of tesseract
number of episodes about school: 1
number of episodes about parties: 8 (the school episode had a party as well)
11:51 PM Serena dropping some japanese, showing another facet of quality
11:52 PM dan obviously understands the love triangle but posits some interesting ideas about how the hell it’s supposed to work
11:56 PM the funny thing is that some the best scenes in this series revolve around people standing around in a circle being awkward
11:57 PM Also I just remembered that dan and jenny’s mom played a sexy nun in the series Rescue Me
12:00 AM okay you’ve got to be kidding me
only 2400 reference tonight
CHICKS PLAYING GUITAR HERO
FUCK YOU, SERIOUSLY
like this gets me angry
12:01 AM also it looks like she’s playing it on medium
12:06 AM Gossip Girl is like some kind of panopticon
all seeing, all knowing
12:08 AM at least watching this show makes me understand the problems with using licensed music
12:09 AM I heard the song and I was focused the entire time on trying to remember what it was since i recognized it
It being Dawn Landes’s Kissing Song
12:11 AM see does the fact that chuck bought her this necklace mean anything
when it costs him absolutely nothing in terms of effort
it doesn’t even require any thoughtfulness because she put it on hold for herself
12:12 AM although I think serena’s reaction to them was hilarious
12:13 AM boom, another 4 episodes under the belt
12:14 AM okay, jewelry was used as a signifier in this episode quite a bit
it’s entirely both a relic of pre-modern society and a construction based on corporate capitalism
12:15 AM jewelry and precious metals were both sources of easily portable wealth in an unstable society, so such objects had value and power beyond aesthetics
And the current cachet of the diamond is almost entirely based on debeers’ hyperfocused marketing drive over the past century
12:16 AM but if you examine it with any critical depth, the meaning behind the jewelry is utterly shallow
It has more significance as a plot device on a show than as an actual physical object
12:17 AM especially when you think that the props used on the show are probably not real
pynchon would say something similar
and that’s how you perform a gossip girl mirror
(also fuck that guitar hero noise)
Related posts:
Comments
One Response to “A Hypermodernist Critique of Gossip Girl, Part 2”Trackbacks
Check out what others are saying...[...] This article is part of an ongoing series exploring the hit CW teen drama Gossip Girl. Read the first and second parts here and here. [...]