I'm in a gossip girl kind of mood. I've watched about 10 episodes already today, and after i have a macaroon (boysenberry i think, i can smell my mum making them) and a cup of tea i think i'll make a last ditch effort for season finale. I mean, why not? it's not like i have a job or anything (speaking of which, i really have to get one of those.)
'All that succession and repetition of massed humanity... those vile bodies...'
Evelyn Waugh, Vile Bodies.
[vanity fair]There's something addictive about gossip girl. God, it's probably the classicist in me but the whole thing just reminds me of an evelyn waugh novel so bad i want to break out the champagne saucers and byron poetry. Beautiful, wealthy, talented (?), powerful, priviledged, incredibly catty youngsters clawing their way through life, making high school look like a matter of life or death, which i suppose for teenagers, it is.
I remember reading a really interesting article in the 'young hollywood' vanity fair issue that said 'Gossip girl has hit the sweet spot of the Zeitgeist, the X mark where sex appeal and pop sociology intersect.' and there is something remarkably fulfilling about watching gossip girl, and this is not just for teenagers. I know of people above the target audience of the show (and indeed, below) who enjoy it immensely for the storylines, the characters, the interaction, the unattainable but oh so incredible world, the bitchiness. It's high school, but so so so much better than it ever was for anyone in the 'real' world.
Is it the allure of the possible? Social climbers, those Becky Sharps among you, have their place in this society. While ostensibly you need a platinum amex and a prada bag to enter into this set we revel in watching Little J's attempts to crack her (cut) glass ceiling and climb up into the inner sanctum filled with plenty. She's that girl we can all identify with, the one that just wants to be cool and invited to all the right parties and wearing the right shoes and that people talk about, whether good or bad. Hey, she just wants to get on gossip girl.
And Dan, the guy that we all feel for. Man, it must suck to be in love with the most beautiful girl in the school, and it's even worse for him that she likes him back! Why? well, because then he too, that irreverent, even satirical at times, outsider is thrust into the world of marc jacobs and moet faster than you can pop the champagne bottle. Rubbing shoulders with the rapacious Chuck and the suave Nate, dodging bullets and death stares from Blair, trying to keep a relationship with the goddess of Constance Billard with at least a semblance of normality. Didn't anyone tell Dan that he's dating teen royalty now? They do things differently there.
It's not the characters though, although you all know that they are a much better guilty pleasure than a whole box of chocolates. For once, it's not even the clothes, although those too are so prep-tastic they almost make me want to reconsider argyle. No, it's the atmosphere of the show. Bright Young Things, for want of a less over-used and naff term. Every single person in this show reeks of that kind of stardust that only the very young, and very fabulous, have. It just spills off them and radiates around the tv show, making it so much more than just another teen dramedy.
The world that the show revolves around is so incredibly fascinating, and always will be. This kind of show will change, inevitably, with different contexts, but audiences will never, mark my words never, tire of hearing about the rich. Money fascinates us in that pedestrian, god, characteristically human way. We want to know about it, and the people that have it. How they spend it, what they spend it on, and what it's like to be in control and have that much power. Money... There's that hilarious quote from you've got mail where tom hanks' character asks his father what the cushion in their renovated office is made of. 'Money'. His father answers.
Decadence, fabulous, extravagant, wonderfully luxurious decadence is what makes this show so compellingly watchable. It's like a good perfume, or a really beautiful pastry, for a moment while you spray yourself or as you bite into the crisp butter puff pastry you feel as if you are a part of that world in which the woman spritzes herself liberally before donning haute couture, or where pastries that incredible are a mere side dish before the main course of gold-leaf embellished ecuadorian chocolate ganache cake.
You just can't look away. In the pilot you see Blair and her posse en route to the 'kiss on the lips party' popping champagne in their limo. In another episode Chuck reclines in a smoking jacket nursing a glass tumbler of whisky in a way that is so redolent of some moneyed 1940s conman. beautiful clothes on beautiful people, too many to document here. And no matter if you want to be part of that world or not you just can't help but watch. Your eyes are glued for the 1 hour approximately that it takes to explore particularly dramatic storylines in the lives of these incredibly intriguing people. sex, drugs and rock and roll. But not in the dirty, grungey kind of way. rather, the way that sings of thousand dollar champagne from hotel bars, sex on 100 thread count sheets, and rock and roll performed live for you at one of your successful parties.
So it might be a bit bratty, and the problems that the characters often face ('do i buy this burlesque club to add to my considerable property portfolio amassed over the space of 2 years since i was 14?') seem a little precious, and not really relative to the audience, but hey... it's television. In grey's anatomy, or even House there is a, or many, different, amazingly difficult and complex medical issues every episode. It's just not like that in real life, one hospital can't have that many amount of weird and wacky cases concentrated in one area. It's mathematically improbable. Oh but it makes for good tv, doesn't it? The same way that breaking into the school's pool for a party with martinis and champagne makes for excellent tv, or the two hottest leads getting it on in the back of a limo following an impromptu strip tease at a burlesque club also makes for good tv.
Ah, what the hell, i should just stop overanalysing and watch it. I never even meant to write this much when i decided to do a gossip girl post, i just have so much to say. I guess in the end though, the thing to remember about gossip girl is that it differs in one important way to the great works of people like evelyn waugh. They have remarkably similar subject matter, granted, the beautiful Baudelairan BYTs of the 1920s are almost identical in character to those of today. But ultimately Waugh was satire, gossip girl is not. No matter how silly or bitchy or incredibly spoilt Blair acts, you still want to be her, not beat down on her. With waugh you have the clear sense that he is subtly, no, not even that subtly, criticising the world that he was such a part of. You see it in the end of brideshead, and you also see it clearly in 'Vile Bodies', the work that was going to be called 'Bright Young Things'. He pointed out its insecurities, the faults in its structure, the problems, the inherent flaws.
Gossip girl revels in the perfection of the world. No matter what happens to Little J, she keeps coming back for me. No matter what Blair or Serena does, you still love them anyway. And no matter the difficulties faced by people living so fast. And when you live on the wild side and fly so high you've got further to fall.
But hey, you know you love it.
XOXO
ps. god i never meant to write so much. i'm sorry, if you read all of that you deserve a medal. and i'm sending a virtual one your way right now! all you are fabulous.
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