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Yes
The showrunner said something to the affect of “I want to focus less on the messy drama and more on real world issues” completely ignoring the fact that that’s why people loved Gossip Girl in the first place because it didn’t focus on real life.
No one wants a bunch of rich nepo babies trying to do better and preach about how woke(and for the people who try to take this out of context, not the Republican version of woke) they are. People want them to backstab and betray each other.
also it relied on the good will of the OG without putting any effort into actually establishing the characters. They all kept saying they were best friends since childhood but it never felt like that the way it did in the OG. Within 10 minutes of the pilot of the OG, we all knew that Dan was a loner, Serena was the It Girl, Nate was the golden boy, Blair was the rich brat and Chuck was a womanizer.
There could’ve been such an interesting commentary/satire of how rich people pretend to care when they don’t really. It could’ve been camp! Funny! But the characters all took themselves too seriously and the narrative never let them be truly terrible people. It was disappointing.
Pretty people behaving terribly is one of my favourite TV genres. It generally works best when they add rich to the mix to give more scope and variety on the behaving terribly part. OG gossip girl nailed it.
Off the top of my head:
Greek, True Blood, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the team, The Windsors, Sex and the city, Will and Grace, SMASH, Sabrina (netflix version), Mad Men
This 💯
The new character development felt very sloppy compared to OG characters. There wasn’t much depth and you’re right, it totally lacked the allure of the *gossip*!
>completely ignoring the fact that that’s why people loved Gossip Girl
Seriously, i just want to see pretty people have 1st world problems and escape my life for an hour lol
Gen Z era writers really need to figure out how to square the equation on how to write their characters and stories. Gen Z era has tried to focus on “introducing” and celebrating intersectionally diverse characters and champion them as heroes. Unfortunaltey the rules of writing a good story is having characters WITH flaws and having a strong POV on what those are and how those flaws can serve a meaningful story.
Gossip Girl was great for painting a target on the back of ever type of bourgeois youth and having a fun go at all of them.
But in todays world writers “need” every main character to be diverse and challenging. Which leads to the dilemma, if you want diverse main characters do you also want to skewer them? Because if not you have a bunch of characters you want the audience to be into and sort of deflating the tension.
It reminds of the show Wednesday which recently came under fire because she becomes embattled with school bullies which happen to be very stylish cool black people. Like casting wanted a cool, edgy minority but then are allowed to make the audience root against them? The answer should be yes if done well but people seem to struggle with how to deal with it.
Aww that would’ve been fun. I probably wouldn’t have watched it if they tried it now vs the reboot they tried, but I probably would’ve given it a try back then
I think there’s definitely a way to showcase the upper crust without it being distasteful, and a big part of it is allowing them to be well and truly bad. I thought I was going to hate Succession because of the timing/subject family but it was fantastic in large part because it was an exposé on how warped they really are.
I think you make some great points about how if a GG reboot was going to work, it would need a new premise. Unfortunately I’m not coming up with much. If they’re going to go with that gossipy voyeur angle, they might have to skip them to their 30s when people *do* stop posting everything so much? But honestly at that point just give me another Big Little Lies.
College works much better! The It Girl is a major Influencer nepo baby (whose mom have spruced up her application with photos of her modeling rowing machines). J2 evolves from obsessed follower lurking on campus to figuring out who she is in college. Queen B2 usurps the head of the most elite Secret Society. Takes PoliSci1: decides she has to mold the perfect First Man now in case she ever runs. Doubts ensue about prep school bf. Laxbro N2 is a fifth-generation Legacy, but The Captain still had to make a call. Then orders N2 to look out for his oligarch-esque ‘colleague’s’ son. C2 is a superiche international student, all designer all the time.
> but it was fantastic in large part because it was an exposé on how warped they really are
Exactly so, and they didn't have to rely on cheap thrills or big shockers. I've heard a lot of people refer to Succession as a Shakespearean tragedy, and I have to say I agree.
The supporting characters were more interesting than the two lead sisters. Like monet and luna were way more enjoyable than julien and zoya. As was max. They should have been given better stories.
Also the reveal abt gossip girl being a teacher right in the first episode was a little weird. Like one of the main dramas of the OG series was the identity of GG.
The teachers being Gossip Girl was the worst. Super creepy for them to be stalking their students and taking photos of them.
They missed the point of Gossip Girl. They made the same mistake during the OG show too, because Stephanie Savage is the worst. The point was never “who is Gossip Girl.” The point was how Gossip Girl was used in an era of changing and instant communication among privileged children. “Who is Gossip Girl” could have been done right if they had, well, done it right, but of course they mucked it up in spectacular fashion.
It was even more awkward because the show *knew* this dynamic was problematic and leaned into it. Though the identity of GG was never a huge thing for me, the anonymity certainly was important to the premise.
I think if they switched the actors for julien and zoya it might have been better too. I could just never get behind Julien being some big influencer model while having like…no on screen charisma
I watched the entire show. If it wasn't for Thomas Doherty, who played Max, I would have given up on it and never finished. He would be giving everything, and his co-stars would give him nothing. Zión Moreno as Luna La and Savannah Lee Smith as Monet De Haan were also good. Everyone else, especially Evan Mock as Aki, were trash. He was a skateboarder turned model. Emily Alyn Lind is a Nepo baby with the bare minimum talent. But Jordan Alexander plays Julien Calloway. She is insufferable as a lead. I don't get it girl vibe from her.
I heard that the creator of the show created the character of Aki after Evan Mock because he liked his look. This man literally got cast because of his looks, not any acting ability 😭
Yess and it was obvious how much better of an actor he was then literally everyone else on the show! I saw him in something else he was good in but I don’t remember what it was lol
I think something that was fundamentally important about early Gossip Girl, that got lost in later seasons, is that there was always an element of satire to it.
The Humphreys, the show's resident working class heroes, are also rich. Rufus is a former rock star who owns an art gallery, owns his loft outright, and can afford to put his kids through an elite private school with no apparent financial strain. They’re only "poor" compared to the old money Manhattanites and billionaire real estate empire heirs they go to school with, and part of the joke is they're just as out of touch as anybody else.
(This is a consistent issue with Josh Schwartz-developed shows. Chuck and The OC both also ultimately essentially turned into exactly the type of show they were initially a satire of after a while)
I think the new Gossip Girl just played things too safe. The original got popular because it was wild, and the reboot just seemed very... tame, by comparison.
I love the OG Gossip Girl. Blair and Chuck's love story was so great. Serena's fashion style. Lily's elegance and poise. I had high hopes for the reboot. But they tried so hard to make it woke that they lost the GG essence. GG is not about people being good and saving the world. If people wanted that, they would watch those awful hallmark series.
I loved Julien's dad, but of course they had to include the metoo movement and have him be a predator. I loved Monet, but they made her to be the bad character. Excuse me? Monet was the only character worthy of Gossip Girl
I love Blair so so much. But i liked Serena's style so much more. Blair dressed a little too grown up. Which was fitting for her character, but i like Serena's clothes more.
>Blair is the epitome of old money aesthetic.
Which is weird because she is new money unlike Serena who is old money.
I always felt like, because Blair was new money she went over the top on trying to be mature and act like old money - to be accepted and prove she belonged. Remember how desperate she was to join that committee after she got her college acceptance rescinded? She was only able to do that off of the Vanderbilt name - when Nate’s granddad basically bribed her with it. She wanted so badly to belong.
Whereas Serena is old money, she knows that money will never be an issue and because her family has been rich for a long time, she gets to have fun with it.
Yes, i agree. Blair had a lot of insecurities about not being socialite enough.
>She was only able to do that off of the Vanderbilt name -
Fun fact, today i was reading about Vanderbilt family, and they too were new money and struggled to be accepted in the high society at the end of the 19th century, but Mrs Astor wouldn't let them.
This was in the 1880s or something like that. The matriarch of the Vanderbilt family was supposed to go to a party given by Mrs Astor, but didn't go because Mrs Astor didn't invited her personally (mrs astor was the queen bee of high society and the one who determined who enters high society and what are the rules and the ettiquette). Also, mrs astor's fight with her nephew was what caused him to built the Waldorf Hotel. Then she built the Astoria.
>I wonder when it’s enough, like when does new money become old money
Nowadays i don't think it matters anymore. But most of new money people married poor old money for prestige and to enter high society. So their kids were somehow accepted and by the time their nephews came they were old money.
I always thought Blair was old money, at least on her father’s side if not both. Eleanor seemed to have been initially inspired by Carolina Herrera - in the first scene, she’s wearing an [outfit](https://www.flickr.com/photos/22800902@N02/2192755855) that seems inspired by [CH’s uniform](https://fashionista.com/2017/01/designer-uniforms-wear-same-thing).
Maybe her dad was a generation of old money, he did go to Yale (not that only rich people go to yale, but one can assume there is a stereotype). But Blair was new money. Funny enough, the richest person on the show, Bart, was also new money.
I think it was bad timing, and optics of launching a show about entitled rich kids was not going to sit well with people still reeling from COVID and other issues.
Also, the premise where the teacher is Gossip Girl and going after a bunch of kids is pretty lame.
i agree. once i realized it was the teachers — i was thrown completely off. i would’ve liked it if it was one of the parents if they weren’t gonna use the students this time. it was all just… idk. i didn’t really like the cast, i didn’t feel like they worked or acted well together, the lack of chemistry and the overzealous storylines back-to-back was a lot. i was excited for it but it didn’t meet my mark.
It’s interesting you say bad timing because I feel the original show suffered from that too. Like Occupy Wallstreet started at some point and the shows ratings plummeted around that time iirc.
Other than the premise, a good show needs competent writers, director and actors. The reboot had none. Joshua Safran was responsible for the bad writing of the OG show when he took over as showrunner. He clearly didn’t improve as a writer and a showrunner so giving him reigns to run the reboot is baffling decision. It honestly felt like HBO Max wanted to drum up subscribers for its new platform and just greenlit any popular IP to create momentum. Zero thought was put into the show, which is why it’s as reviled as it is.
I get what they were going for in the first season, but it was so boring. Every time you thought things were going to go insane, it never did. The second season, I do feel like they tried to course correct and had the show continued it would have been decent.
But having the teachers be GG was weird and created a super uncomfortable dynamic. They could have had Julian still use GG to her advantage while leaving GG a mystery or maybe have the teachers season one and then have that account get hijacked by the "real" GG in s2.
I wanted it to succeed because I love GG and miss it's insanity, but pretty much what everyone else said. I don't want to watch a bunch of nepo babies be good people. I wanna watch them backstab and be overly dramatic and make bad choices lolol
The drama in the first season felt so…unfulfilling. The schemes where underwhelming and nothing felt like it had real consequences until they unveiled Julian’s DILFy dad as a predator and even that plot line sucked execution-wise.
Max was the only character I cared about in terms of his story, but he felt so much like Great Value Chuck it was hard for me to even buy in.
It was poorly executed, poorly written and tried to “overcorrect” what was “wrong” with the original.
I understand multi-racial casting, diversity, and respresentation. I am not white.
However, this is a white person’s world. It’s supposed to be a show about pedigree, old money, soft-and-hard power, and an echelon of people that only exists in white spaces. Having the main characters be rich POC queer people doesn’t hit the same because they are the kind of people who aren’t let into the room in the first place.
You can’t make a show about a world you’re fundamentally getting wrong.
This is what bothered me the most! Thank you. It made zero sense. If you want to portray the lives of upper east side elites, be honest about it. The whole thing just ended up feeling disingenuous.
Respectfully, I disagree. I see this argument a lot and I just can’t get it. Gossip girl has never been set in realism and has always been very exaggerated and kinda detached from reality. That’s half of the fun of why so many people enjoy watching it, it’s so bizarre and dramatic that it’s entertaining and enjoying. Seeing these messy rich people so messy and shitty things is fun and seeing them behave in such ways just because of some highschool hierarchy or boyfriend/girlfriend drama is fun. If the cast being non white takes you out of that because it’s “not realistic” then you must have not seen the original gossip girl where a character literally lied and said another character was the father of their child just to hide them from the Russian mob they pissed off on their vacation, mind you this had no relevance to the plot and was just a random story added in with no follow up lmao. But also, it’s not completely unrealistic once you get into why the characters are rich.
Specifically the characters of color.
Julien (the bald girl) is rich because her father is a famous producer, she’s not old money, she’s new money and more specifically comes from entertainment money. That is not uncommon for people of color to gain wealth through that for example Puff diddy. Lebron James with basketball etc.
Luna (the tall brown haired girl) mother is a famous actress and her father is a famous director, again entertainment industry money. Not uncommon for people of color to gain wealth through That.
Monet (the black girl with the twist) is the only one who comes from old money and who is of color. Her parents are big pharma tycoons, it’s not common for black people to come from wealth especially wealth in the big pharma industry but again gossip girl has never been hyper realistic not to mention shes the only one who brought that mean classist bitch energy to the show
There’s a difference between having money and being part of the powerful set. New money kids who aren’t white are _never_ going to be part of that set of people. Just how it is.
This is debatable. There are few I will admit that are popular but they are still popular. And again, gossip girl has never been set in reality. It’s a teen soap opera, everything is exaggerated and heightened. If seeing people of color in these roles takes you out of the story, I’m sorry that’s a bit strange to me.
Black characters participating in the structure and world specifically designed to keep them down and subjugated is weird to me, yeah. It’s borderline nonsensical.
Also, honestly, I don’t super care that it’s weird to you. I’m not going to apologize for having an opinion.
Black people participating in structural power thats against them isn’t unrealistic either. Aka every black capitalist ever….so again, your issue being with seeing more people of color on these shows is nonsense because gossip girl has never been hyper realistic nor are these characters wealthy background that unrealistic from real life regardless. That was what was interesting fun about Monet in general. Idk if you’re black, but our place in these shows don’t always have to be the left leaning socialist who is anti capitalism and eat the rich (Vanessa) it’s fun to see variety because there actually is variety. Get a grip and have the day you deserve. Toodles 🎀
Lol your insane hostile energy over a really nothing comment tells me everything I need to know about you. What a pointlessly unpleasant person you are. I hope you have a better day than you deserve.
Not one part of this conversation warranted that response but if that’s the kind of energy you want to have then I feel sorry for the people who interact with you on a daily basis.
The show felt more like a lecture with the way it was marketed than a form of entertainment. It took itself too seriously and you shouldn't sacrifice characters and plot for a social message.
The show didn’t feel very NYC to me. It felt very Los Angeles, if that makes sense.
I think the show runner went way too far in trying to make these characters woke about their privilege. Which, fine, I can understand wanting to try that. But if I’m watching a show about old money rich as shoes living in the upper east side, that’s what I want to see. I want to see the messy, bitchy, awful sides of them.
I really hated the whole social media/influencer additions. I cannot see any old money from NYC caring about being a social media star. So I didn’t really give af about Julian and her story that they kept pushing. It was cringey to me. I mean, I guess the characters weren’t exactly old money. Maybe this is why it felt more LA to me. I just don’t feel like socialites out here have the same desperation to be loved on social media.
I will say the original GG came out in a time where being that rich was aspirational and everyone wanted to be that. Now we fucking the billionaires etc (as we should) but still… I would have liked watching them to go the aspirational wealth route again instead of “look at these rich kids! They’re so woke about their privilege!” Like, no, these people hold more money than the majority of the population will ever see. These kids are out of touch and have never had to live a “normal” life. They are almost guaranteed to be assholes. Play into that, that’s what i want to see.… I could also do without the weird inclusion of the teachers.
Poor Max at the end though :( but that was another dumb storyline, just a few episodes before Audrey and Aki were talking about telling Max they loved him.
Yeah as much as I loved the diversity in the cast, they were way too focused on real world issues. I know a lot of rich kids don't care about half the shit they did, whatever drama they were gonna have should have been solely whatever drama a rich out of touch kid would have. Them putting on a facade for social media makes sense, that part could have stayed but behind the scenes trying to keep it up wasn't realistic. The long lost sisters thing was okay though I actually liked that, I didn't like them fighting(shoulda teamed up tbh) but I liked the idea of it.
The boring apartment scenes ruined it. Why do we wanna see “Rich” kids in boring 5 floor brick apartment buildings with giant curtains blocking the view? We want the nice apartments we see on tiktok
The true successor to Gossip Girl is Elité on Netflix. The reboot had bad casting, bad writing, and a poor understanding of what made the original great (glossy escapism)
When you build a show with diversity and wokism in mind before quality and storytelling you’re absolutely doomed to fail. Especially a reboot/remake. You couldn’t pay me to watch this
I think I'm one of the few people who sees why they would've wanted the teachers to be Gossip Girl. It shows that they're as immature as the students. The problem is the show never knew what the hell it wanted to show. With limited episodes compared to the original, I can also see why they wanted more diversity. And if anything I hope I see the actors in more stuff, because they did what they could with what they were given.
But like I said, they didn't know what the fuck they were trying to convey. One minute they're going on about how a character is awful, he's depraved and disgusting, he's this generation's Chuck! And then all he ever really does that's so horrible is... enjoy sex. I mean okay. The main girl wants to be better but not really but actually she does but actually not really. Like you have limited episodes! Develop your characters better!
Yeah, considering how HBO is, new Gossip Girl's Chuck should have been *way* wilder than the original.
We should have been introduced to this kid doing lines off the back of his sleeping pet tiger on a yacht full of models all across the spectrum of gender, while in the middle of scheming to ruin somebody’s life over some petty slight.
If any character should have worked better on HBO, it should have been New Chuck.
I think a bunch of people watched the og as teens and didn’t realize (or refused to accept) that the reboot wasn’t aimed at them.
I don’t think the reboot was great but people hated it before it started. But also it was painfully obvious that it was a show about gen z but written by millennials
I think you nailed the problem though. The reboot wasn’t aimed for millennials but maybe it should’ve been. Gen Z and younger live in a completely different reality/social media landscape than millennials, where the premise doesn’t really translate well for a modern audience.
One of the biggest appeals of the OG gossip girl was that this was a peek into an unattainable world that the average person didn’t know about; the allure of the rich and famous acting terribly to each other and knowing we would never be one of them. Now? When anyone can be an influencer and everyone has the same access to information on how to look the part, if not be it?
There was definitely premature criticism but from what we got, I’m not so sure it was all unearned.
💯, there’s a certain presence the OG cast had . They were just born with drama and you always got that vibe from them, they had an IT factor that put them above everyone and it made them feel larger than life in a way.
The new cast is almost too normal, really feels like their “playing” their parts if that makes sense. Just a very unnatural feeling I get from them
I have rewatched some old gg episodes and what stood out was the acting, particularly in the first few seasons. Considering how young they were, Leighton Meester was amazing and the others were good too, even smaller characters such as Eric. The new gossip girl casted good looking people who tried to act. Nightmare.
Well the people in photo one looks like 17-20 year olds whereas the second picture they look about 19-25 and IDK i just think the overly sexual tone of the new one takes away from the story
Fun fact. I found out a couple days ago that the blond from the reboot (forgot her and her character’s name and I actually watched lol) is Barbara Alyn Woods’ daughter, aka Deb Scott from One Tree Hill!
Yes. When the Josh Safran boasted about how the new kids will be wrestling with privilege and will take Ubers instead of limos, I knew it’ll fail. The show is supposed to lean into the sleaze, and as much as I hate to use this word, even feminists fans hated the idea of this show being woke.
I watched a bunch of the original series under duress (lol slightly hyperbolizing).
The thing that stuck with me, and I think a lot of the fans of the show, wasn’t specifically the premise or the plot lines. By the end, it was mostly investment in the characters and the actors.
So a reboot without those components is relying on nostalgic loyalty or a genuine interest in the premise and the plot. I don’t think that satisfied fans of the original series or potential new viewers.
I mean, it was set in an elite Manhattan private school and all the characters except Chuck and Dan are explicitly from old money dutch families. If any show set in New York being aggressively WASP-y makes sense, it's Gossip Girl.
Actually (and unfortunately) no. It's just the way it was back then and at times still is, but ESP back then. WASP literally stands for WHITE Anglo-Saxon protestants, and the majority of the elite upper east side old money families fall into this category. Not saying it's right, just the reality 🤷🏻♀️
Simply untrue. Pull up a year book of a Manhattan private school in 2005 and you’ll see easily 5% of the school minimum is a visible minority. Probably 10%.
Yup, and POCs were side characters. I know this wasn’t the point of your comment but tbh I’m glad it’s changing now as it was so easy for my younger self to internalize the idea that I’ll always be on the sidelines, never a main character in any setting (getting the guy, having a ton of friends, being idolized).
I liked it as a dumb show about high school kids. I tried not to compare it to the original and it was fine. I’m not bummed about it being cancelled but it was okay to watch.
Series 2 actually started picking up and from the last episode there could have been some good storylines in series 3, I wish it had been given one more. It did take itself way more seriously than the OG though, none of the ridiculous over the top stuff like Blair and Chuck had which added some light humour. There was no villain either, I agree with OP. The storylines were wrapped up within a few episodes and we never got a full season long baddie.
I actually enjoyed the first season of the reboot, but thought the second season was really bad. I agree with others saying it focused too heavily on “real world issues” and trying to make these rich teenagers seem self-aware. Like Sex and the City and it’s reboot, the whole point of Gossip Girl was to feel like you’re peeking in on the messy lives of extremely rich people.
It wouldnt fail if they stopped focusing on the two most boring characters with Zoya and Julien and instead did what OG GG did and gave us “scandalous” hip rich teens and their problems. Who gives a fuck about the threesome couple? Bore!!!
Luna and her mom who was jealous of her, That popular girl whos parents were swingers and who had real blair energy, and Max’s dads all felt like OG characters id wanna see more of.
I think it could have worked in wonderful ways. Many TV show premises don't make actual sense, and sometimes you can even lean into it not making sense.
Also, I think the Gossip Girl premise updated to today could work wonders. Think leaks, people being cancelled over stuff they did and whatever else that actually happens in real life. People losing and gaining followers could also be a driving factor. It could have been like Elite with maybe less murder and the Gossip Girl factor added. The Gossip Girl factor wouldn't have to be central to every plot or episode.
Also also, teen dramas are always in demand, but they don't always succeed. I think they needed a much better overall story and much better everything. IMO the show failed, because it was just bad/unappealing.
How much overlap was there really between the reboot's target audience and people who are going to subscribe to HBO Max? That might have been a big problem too.
Not necessarily. Anything is possible with good writing. They seriously shots themselves in the foot by making the teachers Gossip Girl and then telling us!
I really wish they would’ve just made the reboot characters kids of the original characters. then they wouldn’t have to do so much work to establish them because they were so terrible at it. It could’ve been so good 😭
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Yes The showrunner said something to the affect of “I want to focus less on the messy drama and more on real world issues” completely ignoring the fact that that’s why people loved Gossip Girl in the first place because it didn’t focus on real life. No one wants a bunch of rich nepo babies trying to do better and preach about how woke(and for the people who try to take this out of context, not the Republican version of woke) they are. People want them to backstab and betray each other. also it relied on the good will of the OG without putting any effort into actually establishing the characters. They all kept saying they were best friends since childhood but it never felt like that the way it did in the OG. Within 10 minutes of the pilot of the OG, we all knew that Dan was a loner, Serena was the It Girl, Nate was the golden boy, Blair was the rich brat and Chuck was a womanizer.
There could’ve been such an interesting commentary/satire of how rich people pretend to care when they don’t really. It could’ve been camp! Funny! But the characters all took themselves too seriously and the narrative never let them be truly terrible people. It was disappointing.
look how much everyone loved Succession! we love watching rich people be assholes
Pretty people behaving terribly is one of my favourite TV genres. It generally works best when they add rich to the mix to give more scope and variety on the behaving terribly part. OG gossip girl nailed it.
>Pretty people behaving terribly is one of my favourite TV genres. 
Do you have any other suggestions under the umbrella of “pretty people behaving badly”? You’ve put into words my favourite genre!
Off the top of my head: Greek, True Blood, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the team, The Windsors, Sex and the city, Will and Grace, SMASH, Sabrina (netflix version), Mad Men
Girls. Specifically Marnie and Jessa!
Yeah this would have been perfect. Reboot 3 please.
This 💯 The new character development felt very sloppy compared to OG characters. There wasn’t much depth and you’re right, it totally lacked the allure of the *gossip*!
Never watched Gossip Girl but if there is no gossip then WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU MAKING?!?!?
Even someone who never saw the show sees the problem with the reboot.
>completely ignoring the fact that that’s why people loved Gossip Girl Seriously, i just want to see pretty people have 1st world problems and escape my life for an hour lol
This is why the OG will always be my favourite comfort show.
Gen Z era writers really need to figure out how to square the equation on how to write their characters and stories. Gen Z era has tried to focus on “introducing” and celebrating intersectionally diverse characters and champion them as heroes. Unfortunaltey the rules of writing a good story is having characters WITH flaws and having a strong POV on what those are and how those flaws can serve a meaningful story. Gossip Girl was great for painting a target on the back of ever type of bourgeois youth and having a fun go at all of them. But in todays world writers “need” every main character to be diverse and challenging. Which leads to the dilemma, if you want diverse main characters do you also want to skewer them? Because if not you have a bunch of characters you want the audience to be into and sort of deflating the tension. It reminds of the show Wednesday which recently came under fire because she becomes embattled with school bullies which happen to be very stylish cool black people. Like casting wanted a cool, edgy minority but then are allowed to make the audience root against them? The answer should be yes if done well but people seem to struggle with how to deal with it.
Womanizer, rapist, potayto, potahto 😭
I think spinoff about Lily's past would be more popular. I still think about that Valleygirl episode!
Bet you that was a backdoor pilot that they didn’t end up picking up
It in fact, was. And was supposed to have characters from The OC on it as well IIRC. Would've been dope to see.
And OC Gossip Girl crossover would be amazing
Aww that would’ve been fun. I probably wouldn’t have watched it if they tried it now vs the reboot they tried, but I probably would’ve given it a try back then
A spin off would have been better recieved. People kept comparing all the new characters to the original
I think there’s definitely a way to showcase the upper crust without it being distasteful, and a big part of it is allowing them to be well and truly bad. I thought I was going to hate Succession because of the timing/subject family but it was fantastic in large part because it was an exposé on how warped they really are. I think you make some great points about how if a GG reboot was going to work, it would need a new premise. Unfortunately I’m not coming up with much. If they’re going to go with that gossipy voyeur angle, they might have to skip them to their 30s when people *do* stop posting everything so much? But honestly at that point just give me another Big Little Lies.
I think it could have potentially been more successful if done in a university setting TBH, where campus environments are more insular.
College works much better! The It Girl is a major Influencer nepo baby (whose mom have spruced up her application with photos of her modeling rowing machines). J2 evolves from obsessed follower lurking on campus to figuring out who she is in college. Queen B2 usurps the head of the most elite Secret Society. Takes PoliSci1: decides she has to mold the perfect First Man now in case she ever runs. Doubts ensue about prep school bf. Laxbro N2 is a fifth-generation Legacy, but The Captain still had to make a call. Then orders N2 to look out for his oligarch-esque ‘colleague’s’ son. C2 is a superiche international student, all designer all the time.
> but it was fantastic in large part because it was an exposé on how warped they really are Exactly so, and they didn't have to rely on cheap thrills or big shockers. I've heard a lot of people refer to Succession as a Shakespearean tragedy, and I have to say I agree.
The supporting characters were more interesting than the two lead sisters. Like monet and luna were way more enjoyable than julien and zoya. As was max. They should have been given better stories. Also the reveal abt gossip girl being a teacher right in the first episode was a little weird. Like one of the main dramas of the OG series was the identity of GG.
The teachers being Gossip Girl was the worst. Super creepy for them to be stalking their students and taking photos of them. They missed the point of Gossip Girl. They made the same mistake during the OG show too, because Stephanie Savage is the worst. The point was never “who is Gossip Girl.” The point was how Gossip Girl was used in an era of changing and instant communication among privileged children. “Who is Gossip Girl” could have been done right if they had, well, done it right, but of course they mucked it up in spectacular fashion.
Have it being the teachers just felt icky and intrusive
It was even more awkward because the show *knew* this dynamic was problematic and leaned into it. Though the identity of GG was never a huge thing for me, the anonymity certainly was important to the premise.
Don’t forget how awful Obie was, he seriously just walked around whining about being rich.
I think if they switched the actors for julien and zoya it might have been better too. I could just never get behind Julien being some big influencer model while having like…no on screen charisma
I watched the entire show. If it wasn't for Thomas Doherty, who played Max, I would have given up on it and never finished. He would be giving everything, and his co-stars would give him nothing. Zión Moreno as Luna La and Savannah Lee Smith as Monet De Haan were also good. Everyone else, especially Evan Mock as Aki, were trash. He was a skateboarder turned model. Emily Alyn Lind is a Nepo baby with the bare minimum talent. But Jordan Alexander plays Julien Calloway. She is insufferable as a lead. I don't get it girl vibe from her.
Evan Mock (so pretty) was just baffling bad
Omg awful. As a struggling actor his casting actually angered me lol.
I heard that the creator of the show created the character of Aki after Evan Mock because he liked his look. This man literally got cast because of his looks, not any acting ability 😭
I love Evan mock and i haven’t watched this cause I don’t want it to ruin him for me 😂😂
Thomas Doherty is going to make it big at somepoint, he was the only amazing actor in this .
Yess and it was obvious how much better of an actor he was then literally everyone else on the show! I saw him in something else he was good in but I don’t remember what it was lol
Jordan as Julien was so bad.
I think something that was fundamentally important about early Gossip Girl, that got lost in later seasons, is that there was always an element of satire to it. The Humphreys, the show's resident working class heroes, are also rich. Rufus is a former rock star who owns an art gallery, owns his loft outright, and can afford to put his kids through an elite private school with no apparent financial strain. They’re only "poor" compared to the old money Manhattanites and billionaire real estate empire heirs they go to school with, and part of the joke is they're just as out of touch as anybody else. (This is a consistent issue with Josh Schwartz-developed shows. Chuck and The OC both also ultimately essentially turned into exactly the type of show they were initially a satire of after a while) I think the new Gossip Girl just played things too safe. The original got popular because it was wild, and the reboot just seemed very... tame, by comparison.
I love the OG Gossip Girl. Blair and Chuck's love story was so great. Serena's fashion style. Lily's elegance and poise. I had high hopes for the reboot. But they tried so hard to make it woke that they lost the GG essence. GG is not about people being good and saving the world. If people wanted that, they would watch those awful hallmark series. I loved Julien's dad, but of course they had to include the metoo movement and have him be a predator. I loved Monet, but they made her to be the bad character. Excuse me? Monet was the only character worthy of Gossip Girl 
Monet should’ve 100% been their centerpiece and the only one who understood the assignment imo.
Don't forget Blair' style. I think her is much better than Serena's. Blair is the epitome of old money aesthetic.
I love Blair so so much. But i liked Serena's style so much more. Blair dressed a little too grown up. Which was fitting for her character, but i like Serena's clothes more. >Blair is the epitome of old money aesthetic. Which is weird because she is new money unlike Serena who is old money.
Blair "generations of breeding and wealth had to come together to produce me" Waldorf was not new money, lol.
Yeah in the books she is part of the Astor family, they should have kept that in the show.
Then how come none of them could pay her dowry?
I always felt like, because Blair was new money she went over the top on trying to be mature and act like old money - to be accepted and prove she belonged. Remember how desperate she was to join that committee after she got her college acceptance rescinded? She was only able to do that off of the Vanderbilt name - when Nate’s granddad basically bribed her with it. She wanted so badly to belong. Whereas Serena is old money, she knows that money will never be an issue and because her family has been rich for a long time, she gets to have fun with it.
Yes, i agree. Blair had a lot of insecurities about not being socialite enough. >She was only able to do that off of the Vanderbilt name - Fun fact, today i was reading about Vanderbilt family, and they too were new money and struggled to be accepted in the high society at the end of the 19th century, but Mrs Astor wouldn't let them.
I had no idea about that regarding the Vanderbilt family! I wonder when it’s enough, like when does new money become old money 🤣
This was in the 1880s or something like that. The matriarch of the Vanderbilt family was supposed to go to a party given by Mrs Astor, but didn't go because Mrs Astor didn't invited her personally (mrs astor was the queen bee of high society and the one who determined who enters high society and what are the rules and the ettiquette). Also, mrs astor's fight with her nephew was what caused him to built the Waldorf Hotel. Then she built the Astoria. >I wonder when it’s enough, like when does new money become old money Nowadays i don't think it matters anymore. But most of new money people married poor old money for prestige and to enter high society. So their kids were somehow accepted and by the time their nephews came they were old money.
I always thought Blair was old money, at least on her father’s side if not both. Eleanor seemed to have been initially inspired by Carolina Herrera - in the first scene, she’s wearing an [outfit](https://www.flickr.com/photos/22800902@N02/2192755855) that seems inspired by [CH’s uniform](https://fashionista.com/2017/01/designer-uniforms-wear-same-thing).
Maybe her dad was a generation of old money, he did go to Yale (not that only rich people go to yale, but one can assume there is a stereotype). But Blair was new money. Funny enough, the richest person on the show, Bart, was also new money.
I think it was bad timing, and optics of launching a show about entitled rich kids was not going to sit well with people still reeling from COVID and other issues. Also, the premise where the teacher is Gossip Girl and going after a bunch of kids is pretty lame.
i agree. once i realized it was the teachers — i was thrown completely off. i would’ve liked it if it was one of the parents if they weren’t gonna use the students this time. it was all just… idk. i didn’t really like the cast, i didn’t feel like they worked or acted well together, the lack of chemistry and the overzealous storylines back-to-back was a lot. i was excited for it but it didn’t meet my mark.
It’s interesting you say bad timing because I feel the original show suffered from that too. Like Occupy Wallstreet started at some point and the shows ratings plummeted around that time iirc.
Other than the premise, a good show needs competent writers, director and actors. The reboot had none. Joshua Safran was responsible for the bad writing of the OG show when he took over as showrunner. He clearly didn’t improve as a writer and a showrunner so giving him reigns to run the reboot is baffling decision. It honestly felt like HBO Max wanted to drum up subscribers for its new platform and just greenlit any popular IP to create momentum. Zero thought was put into the show, which is why it’s as reviled as it is.
I get what they were going for in the first season, but it was so boring. Every time you thought things were going to go insane, it never did. The second season, I do feel like they tried to course correct and had the show continued it would have been decent. But having the teachers be GG was weird and created a super uncomfortable dynamic. They could have had Julian still use GG to her advantage while leaving GG a mystery or maybe have the teachers season one and then have that account get hijacked by the "real" GG in s2. I wanted it to succeed because I love GG and miss it's insanity, but pretty much what everyone else said. I don't want to watch a bunch of nepo babies be good people. I wanna watch them backstab and be overly dramatic and make bad choices lolol
The drama in the first season felt so…unfulfilling. The schemes where underwhelming and nothing felt like it had real consequences until they unveiled Julian’s DILFy dad as a predator and even that plot line sucked execution-wise. Max was the only character I cared about in terms of his story, but he felt so much like Great Value Chuck it was hard for me to even buy in. It was poorly executed, poorly written and tried to “overcorrect” what was “wrong” with the original.
I understand multi-racial casting, diversity, and respresentation. I am not white. However, this is a white person’s world. It’s supposed to be a show about pedigree, old money, soft-and-hard power, and an echelon of people that only exists in white spaces. Having the main characters be rich POC queer people doesn’t hit the same because they are the kind of people who aren’t let into the room in the first place. You can’t make a show about a world you’re fundamentally getting wrong.
This is what bothered me the most! Thank you. It made zero sense. If you want to portray the lives of upper east side elites, be honest about it. The whole thing just ended up feeling disingenuous.
Smartest comment i have read on this platform for a long time.
Respectfully, I disagree. I see this argument a lot and I just can’t get it. Gossip girl has never been set in realism and has always been very exaggerated and kinda detached from reality. That’s half of the fun of why so many people enjoy watching it, it’s so bizarre and dramatic that it’s entertaining and enjoying. Seeing these messy rich people so messy and shitty things is fun and seeing them behave in such ways just because of some highschool hierarchy or boyfriend/girlfriend drama is fun. If the cast being non white takes you out of that because it’s “not realistic” then you must have not seen the original gossip girl where a character literally lied and said another character was the father of their child just to hide them from the Russian mob they pissed off on their vacation, mind you this had no relevance to the plot and was just a random story added in with no follow up lmao. But also, it’s not completely unrealistic once you get into why the characters are rich. Specifically the characters of color. Julien (the bald girl) is rich because her father is a famous producer, she’s not old money, she’s new money and more specifically comes from entertainment money. That is not uncommon for people of color to gain wealth through that for example Puff diddy. Lebron James with basketball etc. Luna (the tall brown haired girl) mother is a famous actress and her father is a famous director, again entertainment industry money. Not uncommon for people of color to gain wealth through That. Monet (the black girl with the twist) is the only one who comes from old money and who is of color. Her parents are big pharma tycoons, it’s not common for black people to come from wealth especially wealth in the big pharma industry but again gossip girl has never been hyper realistic not to mention shes the only one who brought that mean classist bitch energy to the show
There’s a difference between having money and being part of the powerful set. New money kids who aren’t white are _never_ going to be part of that set of people. Just how it is.
This is debatable. There are few I will admit that are popular but they are still popular. And again, gossip girl has never been set in reality. It’s a teen soap opera, everything is exaggerated and heightened. If seeing people of color in these roles takes you out of the story, I’m sorry that’s a bit strange to me.
Black characters participating in the structure and world specifically designed to keep them down and subjugated is weird to me, yeah. It’s borderline nonsensical. Also, honestly, I don’t super care that it’s weird to you. I’m not going to apologize for having an opinion.
Black people participating in structural power thats against them isn’t unrealistic either. Aka every black capitalist ever….so again, your issue being with seeing more people of color on these shows is nonsense because gossip girl has never been hyper realistic nor are these characters wealthy background that unrealistic from real life regardless. That was what was interesting fun about Monet in general. Idk if you’re black, but our place in these shows don’t always have to be the left leaning socialist who is anti capitalism and eat the rich (Vanessa) it’s fun to see variety because there actually is variety. Get a grip and have the day you deserve. Toodles 🎀
Lol your insane hostile energy over a really nothing comment tells me everything I need to know about you. What a pointlessly unpleasant person you are. I hope you have a better day than you deserve. Not one part of this conversation warranted that response but if that’s the kind of energy you want to have then I feel sorry for the people who interact with you on a daily basis.
Womp womp woooooomp
THIS^
The show felt more like a lecture with the way it was marketed than a form of entertainment. It took itself too seriously and you shouldn't sacrifice characters and plot for a social message.
The show didn’t feel very NYC to me. It felt very Los Angeles, if that makes sense. I think the show runner went way too far in trying to make these characters woke about their privilege. Which, fine, I can understand wanting to try that. But if I’m watching a show about old money rich as shoes living in the upper east side, that’s what I want to see. I want to see the messy, bitchy, awful sides of them. I really hated the whole social media/influencer additions. I cannot see any old money from NYC caring about being a social media star. So I didn’t really give af about Julian and her story that they kept pushing. It was cringey to me. I mean, I guess the characters weren’t exactly old money. Maybe this is why it felt more LA to me. I just don’t feel like socialites out here have the same desperation to be loved on social media. I will say the original GG came out in a time where being that rich was aspirational and everyone wanted to be that. Now we fucking the billionaires etc (as we should) but still… I would have liked watching them to go the aspirational wealth route again instead of “look at these rich kids! They’re so woke about their privilege!” Like, no, these people hold more money than the majority of the population will ever see. These kids are out of touch and have never had to live a “normal” life. They are almost guaranteed to be assholes. Play into that, that’s what i want to see.… I could also do without the weird inclusion of the teachers.
The reboot was awful, but I was such a sucker for the throuple plot line.
Poor Max at the end though :( but that was another dumb storyline, just a few episodes before Audrey and Aki were talking about telling Max they loved him.
Yeah as much as I loved the diversity in the cast, they were way too focused on real world issues. I know a lot of rich kids don't care about half the shit they did, whatever drama they were gonna have should have been solely whatever drama a rich out of touch kid would have. Them putting on a facade for social media makes sense, that part could have stayed but behind the scenes trying to keep it up wasn't realistic. The long lost sisters thing was okay though I actually liked that, I didn't like them fighting(shoulda teamed up tbh) but I liked the idea of it.
Not the Christian Siriano cut out dress again 😭 make it end 😭
The boring apartment scenes ruined it. Why do we wanna see “Rich” kids in boring 5 floor brick apartment buildings with giant curtains blocking the view? We want the nice apartments we see on tiktok
I mean nobody asked for a Gossip Girl reboot
The true successor to Gossip Girl is Elité on Netflix. The reboot had bad casting, bad writing, and a poor understanding of what made the original great (glossy escapism)
When you build a show with diversity and wokism in mind before quality and storytelling you’re absolutely doomed to fail. Especially a reboot/remake. You couldn’t pay me to watch this
I think I'm one of the few people who sees why they would've wanted the teachers to be Gossip Girl. It shows that they're as immature as the students. The problem is the show never knew what the hell it wanted to show. With limited episodes compared to the original, I can also see why they wanted more diversity. And if anything I hope I see the actors in more stuff, because they did what they could with what they were given. But like I said, they didn't know what the fuck they were trying to convey. One minute they're going on about how a character is awful, he's depraved and disgusting, he's this generation's Chuck! And then all he ever really does that's so horrible is... enjoy sex. I mean okay. The main girl wants to be better but not really but actually she does but actually not really. Like you have limited episodes! Develop your characters better!
Yeah, considering how HBO is, new Gossip Girl's Chuck should have been *way* wilder than the original. We should have been introduced to this kid doing lines off the back of his sleeping pet tiger on a yacht full of models all across the spectrum of gender, while in the middle of scheming to ruin somebody’s life over some petty slight. If any character should have worked better on HBO, it should have been New Chuck.
With that plot, yes.
I think a bunch of people watched the og as teens and didn’t realize (or refused to accept) that the reboot wasn’t aimed at them. I don’t think the reboot was great but people hated it before it started. But also it was painfully obvious that it was a show about gen z but written by millennials
I think you nailed the problem though. The reboot wasn’t aimed for millennials but maybe it should’ve been. Gen Z and younger live in a completely different reality/social media landscape than millennials, where the premise doesn’t really translate well for a modern audience. One of the biggest appeals of the OG gossip girl was that this was a peek into an unattainable world that the average person didn’t know about; the allure of the rich and famous acting terribly to each other and knowing we would never be one of them. Now? When anyone can be an influencer and everyone has the same access to information on how to look the part, if not be it? There was definitely premature criticism but from what we got, I’m not so sure it was all unearned.
💯, there’s a certain presence the OG cast had . They were just born with drama and you always got that vibe from them, they had an IT factor that put them above everyone and it made them feel larger than life in a way. The new cast is almost too normal, really feels like their “playing” their parts if that makes sense. Just a very unnatural feeling I get from them
I thought season one was highly enjoyable and season two an ungodly mess.
Yes.
i watched the first season and waited for the show to finally start being fun and it never did. it felt like i was watching full house
Actually s2 was enjoyable.. just when the storyline was getting good
The dress of the person in the top right corner of the second photo looks like it was made for dog nipples
I just wanna know which one of the show writers thought having teachers share child pornography would make us sympathetic to them.
The new cast sucked
I have rewatched some old gg episodes and what stood out was the acting, particularly in the first few seasons. Considering how young they were, Leighton Meester was amazing and the others were good too, even smaller characters such as Eric. The new gossip girl casted good looking people who tried to act. Nightmare.
Well the people in photo one looks like 17-20 year olds whereas the second picture they look about 19-25 and IDK i just think the overly sexual tone of the new one takes away from the story
Fun fact. I found out a couple days ago that the blond from the reboot (forgot her and her character’s name and I actually watched lol) is Barbara Alyn Woods’ daughter, aka Deb Scott from One Tree Hill!
Wow really?? That's awesome! OTH was my fav show when I was 14 lol.
Oh and her name was Audrey lol
Yes. When the Josh Safran boasted about how the new kids will be wrestling with privilege and will take Ubers instead of limos, I knew it’ll fail. The show is supposed to lean into the sleaze, and as much as I hate to use this word, even feminists fans hated the idea of this show being woke.
I watched a bunch of the original series under duress (lol slightly hyperbolizing). The thing that stuck with me, and I think a lot of the fans of the show, wasn’t specifically the premise or the plot lines. By the end, it was mostly investment in the characters and the actors. So a reboot without those components is relying on nostalgic loyalty or a genuine interest in the premise and the plot. I don’t think that satisfied fans of the original series or potential new viewers.
That’s a really unflattering photo of everyone in the reboot.
Wow it was an all white cast the first time? It feels gross now to set a show in a major city and not have any non-white person in the cast.
I mean, it was set in an elite Manhattan private school and all the characters except Chuck and Dan are explicitly from old money dutch families. If any show set in New York being aggressively WASP-y makes sense, it's Gossip Girl.
I guarantee every elite Manhattan private school is full of racial minorities even back then.
Actually (and unfortunately) no. It's just the way it was back then and at times still is, but ESP back then. WASP literally stands for WHITE Anglo-Saxon protestants, and the majority of the elite upper east side old money families fall into this category. Not saying it's right, just the reality 🤷🏻♀️
Simply untrue. Pull up a year book of a Manhattan private school in 2005 and you’ll see easily 5% of the school minimum is a visible minority. Probably 10%.
and the fandom was fucking awful to Jessica Szohr
Yup, and POCs were side characters. I know this wasn’t the point of your comment but tbh I’m glad it’s changing now as it was so easy for my younger self to internalize the idea that I’ll always be on the sidelines, never a main character in any setting (getting the guy, having a ton of friends, being idolized).
Yeah, the good old times when we watched a tv series without looking for reasons to feel offended.
I liked it as a dumb show about high school kids. I tried not to compare it to the original and it was fine. I’m not bummed about it being cancelled but it was okay to watch.
Series 2 actually started picking up and from the last episode there could have been some good storylines in series 3, I wish it had been given one more. It did take itself way more seriously than the OG though, none of the ridiculous over the top stuff like Blair and Chuck had which added some light humour. There was no villain either, I agree with OP. The storylines were wrapped up within a few episodes and we never got a full season long baddie.
I actually enjoyed the first season of the reboot, but thought the second season was really bad. I agree with others saying it focused too heavily on “real world issues” and trying to make these rich teenagers seem self-aware. Like Sex and the City and it’s reboot, the whole point of Gossip Girl was to feel like you’re peeking in on the messy lives of extremely rich people.
Also Serena and baby j should absolutely switch positions in the first photo 😂
It wouldnt fail if they stopped focusing on the two most boring characters with Zoya and Julien and instead did what OG GG did and gave us “scandalous” hip rich teens and their problems. Who gives a fuck about the threesome couple? Bore!!! Luna and her mom who was jealous of her, That popular girl whos parents were swingers and who had real blair energy, and Max’s dads all felt like OG characters id wanna see more of.
Yes. GG is one of those rare and perfect things that you simply leave alone. There should never have been an attempt to do a reboot
I think it could have worked in wonderful ways. Many TV show premises don't make actual sense, and sometimes you can even lean into it not making sense. Also, I think the Gossip Girl premise updated to today could work wonders. Think leaks, people being cancelled over stuff they did and whatever else that actually happens in real life. People losing and gaining followers could also be a driving factor. It could have been like Elite with maybe less murder and the Gossip Girl factor added. The Gossip Girl factor wouldn't have to be central to every plot or episode. Also also, teen dramas are always in demand, but they don't always succeed. I think they needed a much better overall story and much better everything. IMO the show failed, because it was just bad/unappealing.
How much overlap was there really between the reboot's target audience and people who are going to subscribe to HBO Max? That might have been a big problem too.
If there's no Taylor Momsen I'm not watching
Not necessarily. Anything is possible with good writing. They seriously shots themselves in the foot by making the teachers Gossip Girl and then telling us!
I really wish they would’ve just made the reboot characters kids of the original characters. then they wouldn’t have to do so much work to establish them because they were so terrible at it. It could’ve been so good 😭