Gossip Girl : A Scandalous Deep Dive | Billiam

howdy everyone after witnessing my YouTube analytics slipped by 0.1% over the last month I've decided it's time to rebrand for today and for today only yes videos about Digimon web games and old toys you pretend to remember will continue after this I have a lot of videos planned about highly requested topics coming up but for today and today only I am no longer Billiam I am William and I'm not talking about anything you're used to hearing me talk about Oh No the teen drama is one of my not so guilty guilty pleasures high school of melodrama just worked so well together from Buffy the Vampire Slayer Twin Peaks John Green books John Hughes movies the John's it's all familiar stories about social gatherings significant others first times there's been fresh takes like Buffy the Vampire Slayer that take a lot of these story tropes and kind of twist them in unique ways but there are other series that choose to indulge in the horribleness and shocking nature of portraying teenagers yeah today we're talking about Gossip Girl Gossip Girl is horrible but it's horrible in the same way that eating 50 chicken nuggets while an isolation is horrible the first few bites feel really good but by nugget 15 or 16 you start to slow down you're no longer hungry but you keep eating whoops there goes all 50 chicken nuggets Gossip Girls like a plate of chicken nuggets but it's also these CW teen drama being the first one to premiere after the rebranding from the WB it's about the children of Manhattan's wealthy elite on the Upper East Side of New York City as their lives are chronicled by the anonymous tip powered blog Gossip Girl I believe Gossip Girls one of the most influential TV shows nobody wants to talk about because it's [ __ ] Gossip Girl but it was instrumental to the genre moving forward and was a pioneer for digital distribution social media audience interaction Chuck Bass you don't have to like it I see all 121 episodes twice and I'm not really sure if I like it Gossip Girl was ending when I was in high school so it was having it's sort of second wave of popularity my girlfriend at the time and all of her friends were super into it so I reluctantly watched it it would be false to say that I hated it but I hated that I didn't hate it and conflicted with my teenage film snob I once saw an Alfred Hitchcock movie on TV sensibilities I feel like it's easy to sweep this kind of content under the rug it's trash but I haven't been able to stop thinking about it in over seven years since when I saw it it just won't leave my brain Gossip Girl is a show that's meant to be shocking I've talked about a lot of shocking things that happen in the show in this video so just a warning if you're sensitive to issues surrounding assault and drug abuse I will be mentioning stuff like that in this video I know this topic is kind of out of my wheelhouse and I don't want anybody to be caught off guard when I mention those things however I am NOT going to show the actual moments from the show I'm going to show screenshots from a different moment in the show it's also probably it was best for the YouTube monetization algorithm I mean I haven't ever had problems with it and I would hate for this experimental video about Gossip Girl that I'm just posting on April Fool's Day to be the one to make those problems start the show tries the counteract and balanced the shocking behavior of its main cast with some relatable teenage issues parents going on dates the prom having your best friend from boarding school return out of nowhere and try to blackmail you about that guy you both killed boys the balance works a lot of the time but often I'm challenged to want to root for these characters as the series continues it keeps trying to recapture the shocking twists and turns of the earlier seasons they try to keep that intensity up for 121 episodes this constant escalation puts the characters in a place often where it makes it nearly impossible to relate to them anymore and I feel like that's at the detriment to what I see as the show's original vision but hey they have to keep audiences watching and you know what it worked for me twice that means Gossip Girl has more lore than Game of Thrones the Star Wars movies the Marvel Cinematic Universe and it has the Bucky Barnes to prove it so like an English teacher trying to relate Shakespeare to hip-hop I am going to be your entrance into the terrible world of Gossip Girl xoxo Gossip Girl started as a New York Times bestselling novel series written by Cecelia Vaughn's eye scre the TV rights were eventually bought by Warner Brothers and they tapped Josh Schwartz the creator of The OC to show run because of these two collective fan bases coming together the show was incredibly hyped during 2007 Schwartz was interested in taking on the project because he couldn't think of a group of kids that were more unlikable and more punchable than the trust fund babies of New York City Schwartz wanted to take this group of kids that have no real moral compass and have no real consequences for their horrible actions and try to make them relatable the audience's feelings for these characters are supposed to be contradictory but more often than not I find myself just unable to relate to them the balance is tipped too far to one side so there's a lot to cover here so I just kind of want to give a rundown of the pilot episode because I think it'll make this video a lot easier to follow if you know the initial set up of the series alright hey Upper East Siders Gossip Girl here and I have the biggest news ever the first episode begins with a big dramatic slap to the face after suddenly leaving for over a year Manhattan's it girl Serena van der Woodsen Gossip Girl code name s is back in town she arrives at Grand Central Station before she can tell anybody about her return she's all over Gossip Girl arriving at the same time is Dan Humphrey Gossip Girl code name lonely boy Dan's all like I'm really deep and thoughtful but I'm in love with this girl who I've said like four words to actually that's a lie in the very last episode of this series we find out that they actually made small talk once before this literally Serena's best friend Blair Waldorf Gossip Girl codename B is less than excited about Serena's return because she's trying to bang her boyfriend Nate for the first time but make its all distracted when he finds out Serena is back in town so when Blair is planning her kiss on the lips party later in the episode she doesn't invite Serena because she's mad she left town a year ago without saying anything bullsh but later we found out that Serena did the NACE to you with Nate before she left so maybe not so much bull so creepy little Dan Humphrey somehow finds Serena's phone and he goes to return it cuz he's such a nice guy but his creepy little pipe dream comes true when he runs into Serena and they set up a date so Dan being a little weirdo he is decides to bring Sarina by his dad Rufus's concert on their first date Dan's dad is like uh did you say Serena van der Woodsen cuz like he then calls Lily Serena's mom and he's like oh did you know that our kids know each other and are on a date and Lily's like Oh cuz they used to going to a concert tonight and Rufus marriage isn't doing too well right now so maybe possibly it wouldn't be a great idea to invite his ex-lovers daughter into his son's life how's your mom meanwhile Dan's little sister Jenny is trying to social climb so she warms up to Blair so she can get invited to the kiss on the lips party there she meets Chuck Bass who lures her up to the top of the roof and attempts to assault her Jenny texts Serena and Dan who are close by so they crashed the party rescue Jenny and Dan punches Chuck in the face yeah episode wine oh these things you also find out an episode 1 the reason why Serena came back into town is because her little brother tried to take his own life and is now in a treatment center secretly because her mom doesn't want to spoil the family name you find out Nate's dad is on hard drugs and you find out Blair's mom is a horrible person but that's okay because she's recast as a much nicer mom in the next episode but it's kind of not okay because the pressure she puts on Blair encourages her eating disorder okay the first episode of Gossip Girl it's edgy its bloated and it establishes as many plot lines as possible part of the appeal of Gossip Girl though is just the sheer amount of stuff going on and then watching all of these different storylines come together and get entangled with each other but also secrets are the key to drama in Gossip Girl Serena nadir a secret Serena's brother at the Ostroff Center the fact that Serena and Dan's parents use stuff these things are just dramatic bombs waiting in the wings ready to explode and more often than not these secrets are exposed in private but rather on Gossip Girl for all of New York to see looks like the Virgin Queen isn't as pure as she pretended to be who's your daddy bee baby daddy that is xoxo well Gossip Girls presence is important to the show the mystery of who Gossip Girl is really isn't the only thing reminding us that this is a mystery is the fact that in the intro Gossip Girl says Who am I that's a secret I'll never tell xoxo Gossip Girl it's just a hook it's like well gang we got a mystery on our hands let's try to solve it during one episode of season two forget about it until the end of the series where we finally reveal who it is well we will wait wait Dan is Gossip Girl Gossip Girl you crazy the anticipation will kill Gossip Girl for the first four seasons really is just a plot device for people to reveal each other's secrets because everyone has secrets and everyone has a motivation to stab each other in the back the center of the show are the interactions that these kids have with each other and all the crazy [ __ ] they do and get away with these kids have no parental oversight there are always out late partying going to bars they never get ID'd because they probably know who the owners are and oh boy oh boy do they get in all sorts of trouble this video is obviously very long and I had a lot of stuff that I really wanted to mention in the series but I cut a lot out of this video I want to focus on the core 5 Gossip Girl characters for this video basically the five characters that make it through to the end of the series those characters are Serena Blair Chuck Nate and Dan with so many storylines and so many episodes to fill the show often falls back on a lot of pre established character dynamics and motivations for drama first up is the show's featured character Serena van der Woodsen Serena is somebody who has a very guilty conscience about all of the past mistakes she's made she talks about her past like it's ancient history but what's happened is in the past my past seems to follow I wasn't trying to hide my past it's like when we find out you killed that dude later in the season while you're at boarding school that's not your past that's six months ago it's like Serena can get caught in the bathroom after eating bad like whale or something or whatever rich people eat in 20 minutes later when she comes out Blair would be like are you okay s and then Serena would wholeheartedly respond it looks like my past finally caught up with me as she sprays Febreze all over the room things come really easy to Serena she doesn't love this but she totally uses it to her advantage like later in the series she gets into Yale because Yale wants to have a more hip image and Serena is the hippest girl in New York City Syrena kind of hates who she is as a person she's always looking to get a fresh start because she doesn't want to let her past mistakes to find her but she keeps making the same mistakes so I guess they do define her Serena is probably the most insufferable character on the show but Blake Lively plays her so well that it's initially hard to stay mad at her for a while at least Serena's mom is Lily Rhodes a socialite and multi-time divorcee lily fears that she is going to become like her own mother but her desire to protect their family's reputation dooms her to make the same mistakes Serena's brother is Eric a kind-hearted young lad who tries his best to stay out of drama next we have Blair Waldorf Serena's childhood best friend who's quite malicious and evil she puts on this prim and proper lady of society mask but she's always scheming to screw over anybody who makes her life even slightly more inconvenient Blair is referred to as queen bee she sits at the top of the social ladder at Constance preparatory high school she has an army of minions but despite this she only sits at the top of the social ladder because Serena doesn't want to Blair feels like she lives in Serena's shadow which is the spark for most of their fights Blair's mom is Eleanor Waldorf an esteemed high-end fashion desire who's probably the best parent in the show after season one she tells Blair up front when she doesn't like how she's behaving she punishes her but she's also patient and she's probably the only self-made person on the entire show but she's also very obsessed with her work darling I have some bad news teri that full of a photographer thinks we need to go in a different direction was the theme with the model I cannot apologize enough I know that you were really looking forward to this no I wasn't Dorota Blair's close friend assistant and almost motherly like figure but despite their close relationship Blair never hesitates to talk down to Dorota and remind her that she's just an employee their relationship is very knives out next we have Chuck Bass season one's primary villain he's a creep a predator a jerk and he puts on this well-articulated facade it's so gross like you can't just call his childhood best friend Nate Nate he has to call him Nathaniel gross the show eventually plays him off like he's just the slick bad boy of the cast but he starts the show with this haircut okay and of course right when you want to punch him in the face he punctuates his ass hole behavior with saying his signature catchphrase I'm Chuck Bass so take a shot in the dark and try to guess what the dramatic thing looming over Chuck's life is that's right it's daddy Bart bass the billionaire real estate mogul and neglectful father of Chuck he's always putting Chuck down saying he isn't man enough rightfully judging him for his life decisions Chuck is probably the most insufferable person on the show Nate Archibald is introduced as the pretty boy dumb jock at the center of drama between Serena and Blair however as the series continues we discover that Nate is actually probably the only one of the main cast who has a conscious and despite his mistakes he really does try hard to do the right thing for the sake of doing the right thing most of the time he's got a business mind he's a loyal friend and he hasn't really impressed with the whole social class hierarchy but he doesn't really question it either he puts his family's reputation at risk in order to encourage his dad to get help for his drug addiction and later tries to get his dad to turn himself in for financial fraud and finally we have our perspective character Daniel Humphrey a lonely boy Dan Humphrey is a twerp and I would love to see him get table topped dan is not stupidly wealthy like the other kids I mean look at this loft he lives in with the view of the Brooklyn Bridge that's valued at two million dollars how embarrassing his dad is an ex rock star who gave up a very promising career to take care of his family and his sister is Jenny who has a knack for fashion design and social climbing dan has seen as a nice guy by himself and Serena all the other guides that Constance and st. jude's are judgmental pretentious and straight-up jerks but Dan well dan is all of those things too but Dan shops at the gap so Serena thinks he's all deep and thoughtful here's what makes Dan a good person in Dan's eyes number one he will judge you for making any decision that he wouldn't make like every single time Serena is embarrassed because an embarrassing fact about her past is brought to light Dan doesn't tell her it's okay and instead he judges her and makes her feel even more guilty about it like buddy den is probably the most insufferable character on the show between their classical High School story archetypes and their basic character motivations we know these characters pretty well by episode 2 and it helps that their wardrobe just so perfectly encapsulates their character Blair's headband Nate's untucked shirts and something that I just genuinely love is all of the characters have a unique pre smartphone cell phone I think the show does a pretty good job with making these characters sympathetic don't get me wrong if the characters and Gossip Girl were real people and they published a memoir describing why they're so awful I probably wouldn't read it but if I did read it I would not be able to sympathize with them they are awful people I mean I'm rarely rooting for them I'm just sort of a thoughtless observer the show reminds me a lot of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia I mean Dee is Serena Mac is Nate Charlie is Dan Dennis is obviously Chuck and in Frank's the only one left so I guess that makes him Blair and just like it's always sunny in philadelphia all of these characters are really awful and everyone who comes into contact with them becomes a worse person however the show has a pretty good balance of the characters screwing each other over and then getting screwed over themselves it works because they all eventually deserve it just a little bit sometimes it goes over the edge Gossip Girl reminds me a lot of Game of Thrones I mean the family names the power structures into the a moral character conflicts like when the Baratheon czar fighting against the Lannisters both sides just have incredibly disgusting and awful people on them but both sides also have people on them that you do not want to see get hurt like Blair finds out Sarina visited the Ostroff Center to see her brother so she thinks this means Serena's getting treatment for drug abuse and she exposes her newfound secret at this giant social event but then serena has to reveal to her what really happened and Blair feels bad for embarrassing the whole family but like yo Serena her boyfriend cheated on her with you it's not like you didn't deserve some repercussions knowing that everyone has done something awful to each other dulls the pain it dulls the pain the core of the series of the fact that all of these awful people really are at the end of the day just kids yes they rule the world when they're at school and amongst their peers but when they're home with their parents you see their more vulnerable side Blair crying to her mom because of all of the pressure put on her is a really sobering moment because you realize that Blair Waldorf might have a soul they all have moments like this because they're children I just wish they would go to their goddamn room the balance between horrible acts and vulnerable moments creates this weird dynamic we're seeing the characters win often hurts as much as seeing them lose TV is a powerful medium if the show plays enough sad or happy pop music over it I'm eventually going to feel happy or sad for these characters repeat it for a hundred and twenty one episodes and I'll be invested in their lives at least a little bit more plots in season one are about the outsider looking in setting there's this great episode where they throw a pool party by breaking into the pool at school and a kid drowns the principal threatens mass expulsion if nobody comes forward to take responsibility for stealing the key and so everyone's like you know what everyone stays silent our parents will take care of this but Dan doesn't have the same privilege as them so he's tempted to come forward and be honest Serena's grandmother doesn't like Dan and they have this great exchange where she tells him that people like him are supposed to be relegated to just an anecdote for people like Serena to tell at the end of the season Serena gets into trouble so all of the wealthy kids put aside their differences from the past season in order to help her they have this code they always take care of their own however they all block dan out from trying to help Serena because he's not one of them dan knows he's still an outsider despite the fact that he's dating Serena but that just becomes a motivation for him after season one I want to say that the critical eye looking at this world is totally dropped season two onwards looks at this world through a more glamorized feticide lens did you say Tiffany's due to the writers strike at the time the writers actually had to cut about eight episodes from the planned 25 episodes season and because of that season one has a very good pace there's something happening in every single episode from an awkward Thanksgiving between Lily Rufus and Dan's mom to Nate admitting his love for Serena to Jenny by accident at a masquerade Chuck buying a strip club it works better here because it's the first time we've seen the flavor of the show I think this is the case for a lot of shows that are intended to be shocking after all a jump-scare is no longer scary after the boo you just become desensitized to it the show indulges in the kind of shocking stories it's trying to tell but it never really has anything to say about what it is indulging in it's not a satire of teen dramas rather it's a caricature of teen dramas I mean it really doesn't pull any punches for how edgy you could portray literal teenagers I was uncomfortable by a lot of it I wish the show was more critical of these characters behavior and Dan Humphrey is not the character to make those critiques Gossip Girls at its most engaging when all of the plot lines start getting crossed and tangled like whoa Blair and Chuck hook up who would have thought but that makes sense because they're both awful people but now there's drama between Chuck and Nate this is actually in the episode they actually apply all of these edits and filters as soon as they kiss what whoa lily and Rufus dated and now they're even though their kids are also coming and Lily is engaged to Bart bass what Serena killed the dude with Harriet the Spy while at boarding school turns out Serena did a lot while at boarding school this is when the character status quo is established and challenged over the course of season one we do see them change and grow as characters however after season one a new status quo is established and what we get instead is this repeating cycle of character conflict and growth they have the same fights make the same mistakes and learn the same lessons over and over again they do have big character shifts at the beginning and ends of each season but a few episodes in everything resets and goes back to normal so you did it just to hurt me ever made me into someone I was proud to be you just brought back my worst self so after season 1 Gossip Girl was a massive audience success but it wasn't a very good financial success despite being overhyped before coming out all of season 1 underperformed in the ratings however every single episode the night after it aired was number one on iTunes charts WB started this huge edgy marketing campaign with tag lines like every parent's worst nightmare and they pretty much exploited the cast in tabloids during the writers strike to force their celebrity status this caused Swartz to take a step back and kind of question whether or not what he was creating was well okay and whether and I do not have an answer to whether or not Gossip Girl is okay but I do know this the year after I graduated a high school a student in a class below me started a Gossip Girl account a week before she graduated she got caught because she accidentally tweeted from her personal Twitter account instead of the Gossip Girl Twitter account she tried starting a rumor about a teacher sleeping with a student and when the student was asked she said it was all made up yeah she got expelled a week before graduation Schwartz left after season 1 probably because of this campaign and in season 2 WB hired a new showrunner and had to find new sources of revenue for the show which means tons of product placement oh my god somebody's drinking of vitamin water and every single episode of season 2 it's a dress I made for the white party for the Vitamin Water Party what if we kissed at the Vitamin Water Party there's also an entire episode that's basically just a sponsored advertisement for Tiffany's which I mean if you're gonna have product placement for high-end products in any show it's going to be Gossip Girl but vitamin water oh of course this is the vitamin water designed competition this isn't a product placement well the shock value of gossip girls earlier seasons eventually wears off the show continues to try to recapture the audience's attention in two ways one through many arcs that are introduced and wrapped up in just a few episodes and two through trying to top the crazy shocking storylines of the earlier seasons all right those many arcs there are a lot of them although the show does have season-long storylines that take the entire season to wrap up most of Gossip Girls stories only last a couple of episodes in the middle of a season just to give you an idea of how many storylines Gossip Girl has in season two alone there are over 20 storylines that last multiple episodes here are some examples from season two nate is desperate for money after his dad's assets are frozen he starts hooking up with Dutchess Shelley Johnson in exchange for money player dates a dude to make Chuck jealous Lily finds out Bart is spying on her and her family Serena starts dating a polyamorous artist and his ex starts dating Dan Blair's mom gets a new boyfriend oh my god it's Shawn Wallace I am so happy he's in so much of the show but Blair doesn't get along with him initially Bart fast dies and Chuck's uncle tries to take the company from him Rufus and Lily tried to get together but it's derailed when we find out Lily broke up with Rufus to have their secret love baby in secret 20 years ago she moved to Europe to have him and Rufus doesn't know about it but eventually they get together dan may have a thing for a teacher and Serena dates a con artist watching season two I kept having to remind myself I was still in the same season of TV just so much stuff happens but a lot of the storylines are incredibly drawn out and when episodes come back to them it just drains the energy like that artist Serena's dating is just a douchebag all this does is establishes Serena's type as artsy douchebags who are able to articulate their meaningless thoughts in an elegant way did that dude that Blair was dating just to make Chuck jealous really have to stick around for four episodes it does have a fun twist when we find out the guy is actually a prince and Blair suddenly wants to to make it work and then we find out that the Duchess that nate is hooking up with is actually his stepmom and then they're hooking up but so many of the Gossip Girls storylines are just a fun pay off with an insufferably boring buildup like that one moment where everything twists in the tides turn is not worth the three hours of meandering that led up to it the show is deliberately written this way Gossip Girls the audience was pretty notorious for being media multitaskers meaning they'd be on their phone a lot while they were watching and I do this with a lot of sitcoms but the sitcoms I watch aren't really serialized so they don't have to make sure that I'm paying attention to the story they kind of combat this watching behavior in two ways first every single episode starts with two characters eating breakfast recapping what happened in the last episode so it's like Dan and his dad sitting at the table and Dan's dad's like oh you're doing son and Dan's like well I don't really know if I like what Serena did in the last episode and then Dan's dad is like well aren't you going to be doing this later in this episode and Dan's like I am going to be doing this later in the episode and this is how I feel about it that way when everything happens later in the episode you know about it when you start paying attention again because they literally told you it was gonna happen earlier on and to oftentimes these episodes would air and Gossip Girl in character would be live-tweeting the events of the episode so you couldn't not miss it it's actually very clever however there are some really good storylines specifically in season 2 Nate has this season long arc of learning how to deal with his father's assets of being frozen after he is arrested the storyline really humbles Nate and makes him a lot more likeable than he was in just season 1 season 2 also has what I think is the best storyline in all of Gossip Girl and that's Jenny trying to start her own fashion company she quits her internship with Eleanor Waldorf drops out of school almost divorces her parents the only moment in the entire show where I was truly rooting for somebody in the series is when Jenny hijacks a charity gala to have a gorilla so it's awesome she gets all sorts of press attention starts meeting with the heads of fashion companies but it all comes tumbling down because her model friends all of Jenny's designs it's expendable to her because she won't lose what jenny has to lose she's just another spoiled brat who can't understand what Jenny is putting on the line it works so well because Jenny is a true underdog there's so much at stake if she fails it will be the ultimate embarrassment however most of the show isn't like this eventually gossip girl starts relying on a rhythm of similar stories I've kind of boiled it down to a few different types first there's the Mad Libs style repeat storylines where characters have the same exact fights and learned the same exact lesson season to season it's like clockwork examples Blair and Serena get in a fight usually over Blair's newfound happiness player says something along the lines of you're just upset because you're living in my shadow for once in season forest because Blair is accepted into a society at Columbia that Serena isn't number two Nate has to stand up for what's morally right in season three he takes the fall for a political scandal to protect his cousin it was all a sabotage number three Jenny sets her sights too high and falls because of her ambition number for someone from Serena's past shows up like Juliet sharp the sister of Ben Donovan a teacher of Serena's from boarding school there was a rumor they were sleeping together so Lily paid off a judge to put him in prison number five Serena is dating the wrong dude like Ben Donovan when he's released from prison number six Chuck and Blair can't be together because of X reason by season five the drama has escalated so much it's because Blair made a pact with God to save Chuck's life seriously number seven Nate is dating the girl he thinks is nice but she does something bad and Nate says I thought you were different but you're just like the rest of them Vanessa Lola the high schooler he dates in season six Oh Nate I really wanted to believe in you she's not talking to you she's a minor anyone want some coffee number eight Dan does something really shitty and he's like maybe I'm not better than them it's one thing when the characters make a mistake and learned their lesson afterwards but it's another thing entirely when we watch them repeat the same mistakes over and over again and have to learn the same lessons over and over again yes Dan you're an [ __ ] but at least Dan started off as unlikable it's this continued need to push these character types forward that makes liking them such an exhausting effort and that's only furthered by the show's need to continually escalate the shocking aspects of it aside from repeating plots the show also has three distinct plot types villains character verse character and character X character ooh yes Gossip Girl has a robust rogues gallery from Georgina sparks a childhood friend of all the characters who literally only shows up in the show to cause chaos to Russell and Raina Thorpe an ex business partner Bart bass who wants to ruin Bart enterprises poppy Lifton a competing it girl to Serena who tricks Serena's mom into buying into a Ponzi scheme and then there's Jack bass the uncle of Chuck who tries to take bass industries from him is this guy just the go-to douchebag actor I mean he gets consistent work so I don't feel bad for him but I feel bad for him so in order to create a villain that would make us root for Chuck he had to be unequivocally worse than Chuck he has this whole scheme to make Chuck look like an irresponsible drug addict in front of the board of directors then he comes back and says he'll give bass industries back to chuck if he can spend one night with Blair he assaults Lily then he hires Chuck's mother thought to be dead to come back into Chuck's life just a mess with him emotionally holy [Music] this show I think the amoral aspects of these characters are confronted best when Jack bass tries to get a group of people to boycott the Empire Chuck's first major project after inheriting money from his dad so like Jack gets some of chucks old employees from the strip club he used to own to come out and say Chuck assaulted them we're led to believe they're false but so I don't think they are necessarily it's such a weird dynamic we know jack doesn't have these people's best interest at heart but in the show they're not even seen they're not real people the only drama they serve is being a pawn in Jack and Chuck's stupid little game it's like none of these people are good but the show forces me to care about Chuck and Blair I don't want to see them win but I don't want to see them lose because then Jack would get what he wants I just wish it wasn't happening so while there show villains there's also character verse character conflicts when some of the main casts go head-to-head for whatever dumb reason a lot of the time it's Blair versus arena like when Serena tries to sabotage Blair's Yale acceptance or Blair verse Chuck when they're not dating because they can't keep away from each other alongside the villain arcs this is when we see a lot of Gossip Girls schemes these really elaborate plans to embarrass someone that usually end up with some big secret getting posted on Gossip Girl however as the show goes on the need to escalate these character conflicts really changes the characters in a really disappointing way primarily Eric Vanessa Dan's childhood best friend and Jenny every one of Vanessa story arcs is about someone hurting her or screwing her over and then she tries to fight back but she and Jenny team up with Juliet sharp the sister of the ex teacher in prison but Juliet takes it too far in drugs Serena and then Jenny and Vanessa just dip out of New York it's really the last we see of them that's their character send-off it's so disappointing and finally we get to the character X character arcs when two of the main casts start dating each other in the main cast the only straight characters not to be in a relationship together that aren't siblings that aren't biological siblings are rina and Chuck Gossip Girl plays a lot around with a soul mate s destiny for the characters and every single time two of the main characters get together they try to convince you like it was always meant to be like Dan and Serena are meant to be because they're established early on Chuck and Blair are meant to be because there's always something in the way of them being together Nate and Serena are meant to be together because Nate like Serena in season 1 Dan and Blair are supposed to be together because we find out at some point in high school Dan had a little crush on Blair it's so exhausting to watch the show try to convince us every single time that this is the one true pair the OTP and it never is and it makes it so when the characters finally do end up with each other at the end of the series I don't really believe it because every other time they were with their soul mate and because of that often when the characters start dating something else in order to get us to root for this new couple they do these strange shots where the characters trade each other off it's very uncomfortable and weird but in there are little moments like this that only worked because of how ridiculous their love life is so Dan's dad and Serena's mom get married so Dan is living in the same place as Serena they all come down for breakfast and Serena and Nate come out of Serena's room and Dan and Vanessa come out of Dan's room and it's like every straight combination here has dated oh and Rufus and Lily are just sitting on the sidelines so that makes it awkward the fact that they keep cycling back to their high school boyfriends and girlfriends makes it really hard to believe that they are growing as characters Blair and Chuck just become sad at some point and Dan and Serena never had chemistry but you know who does have chemistry Rufus and Lily their parents Lilian Rufus are the only couple in the show that I actually root for because it's like this unrequited love they dated when Rufus was a rock star she like went all around the country with his band as they toured Oliver faces hits are based on lily and there's this great moment back in season 1 where Dan's mom realises this she always hated Lily the other reason why they're not together is because Lily's mom put up a quid pro quo she said if you want to be with Rufus you will lose your inheritance they decide not to be together because they know Dan and Serena want to be together and they know how weird that dynamic would be for them however Dan and Serena break up Bart dies and they're married afterwards for the next three seasons but that doesn't stop Dan and Serena from hooking up occasionally oh no they end up having some problems that I'm sure they could work through but in true Gossip Girl fashion as soon as they're able to articulate their problems and everything's out on the table that's when the relationship ends no one ever tries to work things out once they start talking it's a real shame and at the end of the series dan and Serena end up together but Rufus and Lily get a divorce which is such a bummer Rufus and Lily are like this that's chemistry but Dana Serena are like this half-full flavorless can of Lucroy I opened up two hours ago when I started filming this video there's no fizzell anymore it's just flat but we can't let the show get flat here's some examples of the escalating drama and sensationalism that the show adopts later on Chuck and Blair's first relationship is ruined because Chuck sells Blair to Jack bass to get his company back Chuck gets shot Serena's at the center of a political sex scandal Dan dates a movie actress played by Hilary Duff and they have a threesome with Vanessa Chuck's mom turns out to be alive and she cons him Serena's mom receives secret cancer treatments from Serena's missing dad her dad comes back with this elaborate plot to win Lily back by lying to her saying she still has cancer and he's the only one who can treat it wholly at Blair's royal wedding because she dates a different Prince Gossip Girl hijacks the AV system and plays a video of Blair confessing her love to Chuck Chuck and Blair run away from the wedding and get in a car accident she makes a pact with God that she'll go through with the royal wedding if Chuck lives Jenny starts dealing drugs with an international drug dealer and by the way that international drug dealer knows everyone because he went the boarding school with Serena what is boarding school and then Chuck's dad Bart bass comes back to life Wow the worst jaw-dropping plotline in all of Gossip Girl it's about Ivy Dickens just come here please just love me for a moment while you're walking by alright let's see if I can record some of this video okay you're gone the worst jaw-dropping plotline and I love Gossip Girls about Ivy Dickens let's just talk about Ivy Dickens so Ivy Dickens the worst jaw-dropping plotline in all of Gossip Girl involves Ivy Dickens so Lily's estranged sister hires an actress named Ivy Dickens to play her daughter Charlotte Rhodes who the rest of the cast has never met she uses Ivy to steal Charlotte's trust fund it works but then I he runs into Serena out in LA and is convinced to move back to New York she poses as Charlotte Rhodes and moves in with Lily who treats her like family plot twists for the real Charlotte Rhodes coincidentally moves to Manhattan to pursue an acting career without her mother knowing real Charlotte runs into Ivy the scam is revealed but then Serena's grandmother leaves Ivy everything when she dies long story short the grandma knew that Ivy was an actress they're able to take the inheritance from Ivy Lily reports Carol to the police leaving Lola with her half of the inheritance but she doesn't want it so she signs it all over to Ivy oh also somewhere in there we find out Serena's dad cheated on her mom with Carol and Lola is their child great the story's over just kidding Ivy sticks around for another two seasons Ivy story leading up to her receiving Lola's inheritance is an uncomfortable roller coaster it's like they go out of their way to let you know Ivy was not trying to con Serena's grandmother she just wanted somebody to love her and of course Lily turns her away I just wish it wasn't happening if Gossip Girl had a jump the shark moment it is the Ivy Dickens storyline it goes on for way too long she's unlikable and makes characters I like like Lily more unlikable and I'm just tired the show also has to escalate the bad things the characters do to each other Serena tries to steal Dan away from Blair because they date at some she tries to sabotage their relationship with the sex tape she convinces him that Blair has already left him for Chuck and she filmed the sex tape into the same spot where she slept with Nate back in season 1 it's the nail in the coffin for Serena's character and no amount of Blake Lively charm can make me like Serena from this point on and Blake Lively is really the only thing that makes her tolerable up until this point so good on you Blake Lively you did a great job for the most part Blair Nate and Serena don't really change too much throughout this series Nate becomes more humble during season 2 and becomes a harder worker investing in building his own company Blair learns that all of her petty schemes are actually a strength and she takes over Waldorf designs from her mother throughout the whole series she's talking about how she doesn't want to do that and we she wants to build something for her own but she's unable to do that nepotism they all have goal fulfillment but not necessarily character development except for Serena who really doesn't have either Serena takes odd jobs here and there but she doesn't really have a dream or anything she necessarily wants to do but there are two main characters who change a lot over the course of six seasons or somewhat randomly they have intense character shifts I don't know if it's a gradual change so finally let's talk about the hero fication of Chuck Bass and the villain ization of Dan Humphrey the only two characters that have overt personality changes and motivation changes to their character major spoilers ahead so Chuck starts off as the villain of season one and as the series progresses he makes relationships with Blair and Lily who make him come off as a better person he dates a French girl who really puts him on his best behavior and eventually he becomes a pretty Pleasant individual that the show really wants us to like a character like Chuck Bass can be redeemed sure why not any talented writer can create a convincing character arc for anybody but the fact that Chuck's ending involves him getting everything he ever wanted just rubs me the wrong way the fact that Chuck ends up with Blair at the end of the series and is in charge of bass industries and is a successful business person just that rubs me such the wrong way we saw his latest season 5 but he hasn't moved past his past behavior quite as much as we want to think he has and even though the show was trying to get us to forgive him by putting him on best behavior mode it's such an instantaneous change that it feels like an act but we see him talking about this when he's in private so we don't it's not an act he's trying his best but that only matters so much his repeated good behavior for longer stretches of time tells the audience he is changing he apologizes to those he hurt including Jenny Jenny eventually forgives him he has a very sweet relationship with Lily the show wants us to think he's better he's getting along with van they give him a dog oh [ __ ] did you say a dog no no I can no I'm not gonna have to show manipulate me his name is monkey [ __ ] they made sure you knew that truck was a different level of Shi above everyone else and they did a great job because a hundred plus episodes later every single time the show wants you to root for Chuck and Blair I smile for a moment and then like whiplash I'm reminded of everything Chuck ever did I'm not sure that's what they're going for in order to get Blair out of her royal wedding her family would have to pay a dowry that would force Blair's mom to sell her company Chuck secretly pays the dowry and we're supposed to think it's some noble gesture but it just comes off like he doesn't want to say goodbye to Blair for a year or she fulfills the minimum requirement of their wedding contract we hear this almost bankrupted Chuck literally a season later but he doesn't lose anything it's just an unknown number in a bank account we don't get to see at least have him sell the Empire or something he's living in the same level of comfort why am I supposed to believe this was a big sacrifice for him there has to be some sort of level of sacrifice to visualize that he's changed not just a new haircut yes some looking idiot and the final season Chuck and Blair go up against the devil himself because the only way to make Chuck look good is by pitting him up against a villain that's much worse Chuck and Blair verse Bart bass is an incredibly exciting storyline they uncover this plot that Bart had multiple people killed to cover up an illegal Sudanese oil sale to end the feud Bart threatens Blair's life lily feels unsafe around him yeah they get back together don't ask he tries to kill Chuck and a coordinated plane crash so Bart thinks he's dead but but Chuck shows up surprisingly at this gala that's supposed to be honoring Bart and he tells everybody what happened and Chuck basically just says Bart is hanging off a roof after a short physical altercation that goes bad and but Chuck just watches him fall to his death it's complemented wonderfully by this incredibly classic cinematic music and then the next day Chuck and Blair get married in a panic because Chuck is wanted as a suspect by the police and if they get married Blair can't testify against him it's such a perfect way for these two characters to tie the knot it's spontaneous exciting it's dramatic it's the perfect punctuation to their dramatic relationship but as soon as the blasting pop music starts making me feel exactly how it's supposed to make me feel I'm grossed out that I feel happy for Chuck Bass depending on how long it takes you to watch Gossip Girl you may think differently of Chuck's character arc I mean if you're watching this over the course of six years it may seem more gradual and more natural but I watched this over the course of a month and a half on Netflix and it just seems it feels forced I guess it's time for another 50 chicken nuggets alright Sudan if you're watching Gossip Girl for the first time and you don't know that Dan is Gossip Girl he just comes off like an annoying little brat but if you do know he's Gossip Girl he comes off as a manipulative piece of garbage that's worse than pretty much anybody else in the cast the process to find out Dan is a Gossip Girl literally takes the entire series it's literally revealed into the final episode I thought it was Dorota there is one episode where they try to unmask who Gossip Girl is at the end of season 2 so at graduation everyone's happy cuz they're finally done with this dumbass private school and while they're all walking up one by one Gossip Girl is putting out blasts revealing secret everyone decides they're over it and Serena message Gossip Girls like hey meet me into this location and then Dan shows up and nobody thinks anything of it however the show does a pretty good job convincing you Dan isn't Gossip Girl because they lie to you there's quite a few scenes where Dan is by himself with nobody around and his phone has a notification and he looks at it and he reacts by himself to a Gossip Girl blast sure you can see this as a plot hole I mean I'm pretty sure it is a plot hole but also Dan is the kind of character who would imagine how somebody would be reacting to a post he makes and maybe in private he's just like oh yeah this is a good one like oh oh my god I'm so shocked and I think it's much more fun to think about it in that way Dan doesn't allow himself to discuss Gossip Girl posts and thus there was a reasonable discovery moment for him he takes the hit light yagami seriously it's that deep he is insane Jenny wanted to get on Gossip Girl she's known it was me for years he says when you start reading Gossip Girl blasts anyway since you became the subject of them there's also just a ton of logistical like questions I have about how Gossip Girl works as a website why don't they just look up who the domain name is registered to that probably just says Daniel Humphrey there's times where people are reading full articles on Gossip Girl I was led to believe it was just like tweet length content and then like there's up-to-date tracking features later on at the show where it shows you on a map where the characters are in the city that's so creepy throughout the show Gossip Girl isn't written to be Dan and Dan isn't written to be Gossip Girl Gossip Girls just an omnipresent character and a plot device all you need to know is that it's run by tips sent in by the readers so in season four vanessa steals a manuscript that dan had been war on called inside which is a social satire about all of his friends it gets published and Dan has to reveal that it's him and it causes all of this friction in the friend group Chuck's character Charlie trout hangs himself at the end of the book Serena's character is totally selfish Rufus is portrayed as somebody who married for money Nate is upset because he and Eric are composite characters together and Dan's character is in love with Blair but ends up alone dan burns a lot of bridges but he's pushed over the edge when Serena films the sex tape to try to break Ian flare up and Blair ghost's him for Chuck so it's just a whole mess and finally after Dan being this insufferable character for six whole seasons he's finally interesting I mean he's horrible but he's interesting for once he teams up with Georgina sparks and starts publishing this expose on all of his friends Nate is trying to start an online paper and he really needs the help so Dan starts off the expose by publishing the first chapter there but then betrays Nate because variety gives him a better offer he teams up with Bart bass he starts dating Serena again but then publishes the article about her while they're dating Nate punches him in the face he becomes a true scumbag but he's a player in the game now so it's a blast we watched Dan sit on the sidelines and complain for five seasons straight and in true Gossip Girl fashion after seasons of meandering there's finally a fun payoff but I wish the audience would find out that Dan was Gossip Girl at the beginning of season six it would make this Ark so much better you could still have him reveal it at the end to the other characters but this is when we're finally seeing Dan acting as Gossip Girl we just don't know it unless you know the ending of the series he publishes the final article about himself revealing to the world he's Gossip Girl and describing his motivation and everyone forgives him everyone's like Dan you've become such a shitty person and then Dan's like you guys don't know the half of it I've been a 50-person at this entire time oh that's okay then so it turns out Dan started Gossip Girl because he wanted to put himself into err story he created the self insert codename lonely boy when Serena got back in town because it was the first time Gossip Girl received a lot of traffic we find out this whole series was just an elaborate scheme for Dan Humphrey to get in Serena's pants yeah I can see why Penn Badgley was cast in you that show recontextualized Dan Humphreys behavior and another fun a trashy way that's a little bit more critical of him season 6 of Gossip Girl is such a wild ride it's only 10 episodes so it recaptures that intense pace of the first season however the series ends in one of the most bland vanilla ways possible after all the horrible things these people did they get everything they ever wanted Dan closes Gossip Girl and Blair makes the worst wink to the audience ever it's all over now that we can all I don't believe it the series ends with a five-year time skip Serena and Dan are getting married Blair and Chuck are presumably happily married with a kid Serena's parents are back together Jenny is working at Blair's Waldorf designs even Jack bass and Georgina sparks end up together why is he invited to the wedding where's Dan's mom but in true Gossip Girl fashion the most bland and uninteresting events are paired with a pop song that is just blasting in your ears so you forget how boring it is the pop song singing about how everybody loves each other so I guess it's a happy ending happily ever after I don't buy it one bit it makes no sense as to why dan and Serena wouldn't get married sooner other than maybe speculating that it was a bumpy road to get here to say these characters are giving up their dramatic ways because a website isn't cataloguing it is so dumb Oh [Music] the only good couple in the show lily and Rufus aren't together and Lily is with William the dude who lied and said she had cancer if any of these characters are destined to be together it's Rufus and Lily but they're not so I have no reason to believe Serena and Dan will and any difference also Gossip Girl 2020 writing staff please let me come hang out with you guys I would love to sit in I want to learn so if you see this I would love to come out and watch you guys write and chat with y'all I love Gossip Girl I really do Dan's book inside is the ending all of these characters deserve the show tells you how Dan would choose to wrap up their story because that's what's fair but Gossip Girl isn't fair dan was always an ass but he's our perspective character as dan changes how we see the world changes he first starts off as really judgmental so we judge the social expectations of this world as he does then he wants to become a part of the world so it's glamorized and fetish sized more and finally in order to become a part of it yes to give up any hope left that he is a good person he becomes genuinely evil and because of that the perspective lens in which we view the world is also evil and it is only through that evil perspective lens that we can be happy for Chuck Bass is a personal inspiration of it please welcome Charles bass unfortunately they never made a pop vinyl of Chuck for what I can assume is because of real-life circumstances so I picked the figure out of my collection that will best represent Chuck I had this whole thing written about what I thought a fitting ending would be Blair and Dan would end up together because I think they're a lot more similar than they think Serena would get married to some random dude before the time skip and after the time skips she would be married to somebody else dooming her to the same fate as her mother Nate would it be with a high schooler and Chuck would be alone but he'd finally find peace but the show doesn't want that at all after all the show is about a group of kids who are able to act on every whim they have without consequences and to earn that you have to be ruthless the ultimate thing Gossip Girls trying to say with its finale its [ __ ] you a lot of horrible people are going do a lot of horrible things and unfortunately too many people are gonna be happy to see them get away with them xoxo [ __ ] Wow okay thank you for watching this video this has been something that I have wanted to do for a very long time but I just could never make it happen so yeah if you watch this whole thing please share it because I highly doubt most of my audience is going to be interested in it yeah so anyways as I said earlier in the video I got a lot of stuff coming up that I know my core audience wants to see I'm working on an app Limon video as well as some other long requested topics so other than that have a good day I'm tired I'm stressed I will see you next week

Channel: Billiam

Views: 516,834

Keywords: Gossip Girl, Billiam, THE CW, Dan Humphrey, Serena Van Der Woodsen, Teen dramas, Leighton Meester, Chace Crawford, Blake Lively, Penn Badgley, Commentary, review, Gossip Girl Reboot, You Netflix

Id: JYEBWJPZsGk

Length: 59min 10sec (3550 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 05 2020