Gossip Girl 3.06 “Enough About Eve” (aka Social Identity Theory)
Are we supposed to sympathize with the Van Der Bilts because they are Democrats and the Buckleys are Republicans? We’ve already seen that the Van Der Bilts are just as controlling, manipulative, and desirous of power; they only reinforce that image in this episode. (For a moment, I almost though that Gossip Girl was actually engaging in political commentary.)
Gossip Girl 3.05 “Rufus Getting Married” (aka Screwballs)
If all the writers can do with Serena is play musical chairs, they are wasting her. I seriously can’t remember the last time she did anything interesting. At least Nate was a gigolo for incestuous nobles and punched out his own father.
Gossip Girl 3.04 “Dan de Fleurette” (aka Perestroika)
What I’m saying is that Hilary Duff would probably make a decent president. Better than Bush II, at least. (I assume Cadet Kelly counts as military service.)
Gossip Girl 3.03 “The Lost Boy” (aka Exchange Value)
If there’s anything that Mao Zedong, Milton Friedman, and Publilius Syrus could find common ground on, it’s that “Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it.” The Marxian name for this is exchange value, in that the worth of something is determined at the point of transaction. Nowhere is this more evident than in an auction, where a madding crowd swarms over scarcities and determines what the prices of things really are. But one of the questions that art, and especially good art, wrestles with is how this economic truth clashes with the messy margin-less frontiers of human nature. Can you put a price on your lover? On the bonds of family? On vengeance?
Gossip Girl, 3.02 “The Freshman” (aka Anomie and Anarchy)
…the problem is that Blair may not be wrong. After all, Henry Kissinger has the blood of multitudes on his hands, but even now it’s hard to say he was definitively one hundred percent wrong. Similarly, Dan hooking up with Georgina is problematic, and not only because it adds to Gossip Girl’s “Let’s figure out every possible permutation of hooking-up that we can” quotient…
Californication and the Age Illusion
Riffing on a concept here: When the first wave of American film studios set up shop in Los Angeles a century ago, one of the benefits (besides evading the clutches of Thomas Edison’s patent-enforcement goons) was the area’s diverse set of looks and locales. Deserts, forests, beaches, grasslands — you could find it all within an hour of the city. And since one of the basic laws of movie magic is that with enough money you can make anything look like anything, Hollywood has recreated practically the entire world within the thirty-mile-zone.
Gossip Girl, 3.01 “Reversals of Fortune” (aka Bourgeoisification)
Gossip Girl begins its third season by spinning its wheels; whether that is a sign that is just picking up needed speed or that the show is retreading tired ground remains to be seen. Many plot threads that were set up in last season’s finale (Lily and Rufus’s son Scott, Serena’s father, Chuck and Blair) unwind as you would expect them to: Scott makes a secretive approach to the father who thinks he’s dead, while Serena acts out to try to get the attention of a father that might as well be. Meanwhile, Chuck and Blair seem happy, but are they really? The episode practically writes itself (except for the horse chase), which is never a good thing.
The Amazing And Spectacular Antics of the Roundeye
Imagine, if you will, flipping through channels and coming to a rest on this: a Chinese, an Arab, and an African man are facing off in a contest of English. The next question: “A _____ by any other name would smell as sweet?” *BZZT* “Frower!” says the Chinese guy. The audience groans in disappointment. Next up: the talent portion. The African announces proudly that he will sing the classic American ballad, “Love me Tender” by Elvis Presley. Thunderous applause follows his rendition, despite being slightly off-key. The Chinese follows up with an enthusiastic, if not entirely professional, banjo ditty. Not to be outdone, the Arab launches into a comedic routine with a passable southern accent, featuring words like “varmint” and “hightail.” The camera pans to a packed audience of white faces, grinning broadly and applauding madly.
Does this show sound surreal to you? Well, frequently in the evening, that’s exactly the kind of show that’s on prime-time Chinese television—foreigners paraded on television for all to watch, showing off their skills in Chinese.
A Hypermodernist Critique of Gossip Girl: Entr’acte
With the recent release of the second season of Gossip Girl on DVD and its impending third season premiere on September 14, I believe it’s time to continue this little project that I’ve started. But rather than unleash a deluge of posts that risk making The Hypermodern look like a Gossip Girl fansite, here is the entire second season summed up in one list…
Mad Women
An article in the Wall Street Journal profiled the women writers behind the hit AMC drama Mad Men, where they make up the majority of the staff. Such a writers’ room is a rarity; more often seen is a writers’ room composed entirely of men. But the world of television is a utopia of diversity in comparison to the feature world. Try this little test: think of all the contemporary Hollywood directors you can name. Now think of all the women on that list. I like to think I’m well versed in these things, and I barely need more than one hand to count the number in the second category.
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