Guilty Pleasures: Gossip Girl

One of the reasons posting had been slower here of late, is that the writer’s strike has been resolved. And apparently, all those writers came back hungry for work, and eager to show off. As a result, I’ve often been neglecting movies in favor of scripted television. It’s partly because television is lighter, requiring the investment of a mere 45 minutes. It’s partly that television is easier, not requiring as much thought and analysis - I like to be challenged, but prepackaged entertainment is nice when you’ve been challenged by #$(*$@) integrals all day. And mostly: a lot of television series have been very, very good lately, and grabbing me like they haven’t in a while.

Only last week, for instance, I watched an episode of Bones, followed by House M.D, followed by an older one of Gossip Girl. Bones had a lighthearted episode, but it ended in a totally unexpected way, leaving me with my mouth open, vaguely articulating “wha?”. House had one of the craziest episodes ever, akin to Three Stories and the season 2 finale No Reason. It was called House’s Head, and it indeed took place largely in the head of a House who was trying to remember the 4 hours he’d forgotten before a bus crash. And what’s in House’s head? Bickering with Wilson, beautiful girls with soulful gazes, his superior Dr. Lisa Cuddy doing a striptease while rattling off medical terms… He almost killed himself in the process of course, leading to a last 5 minutes with a) a death scare and b)the revelation that another major character could be dying. I love House mostly because of it’s rigid procedural structure with all its fixed elements, and the quips in between, but when they stray from the template they sometimes produce amazing episodes.

But if I thought that was it for the night…. Gossip Girl had one of its wildest episodes yet - and that’s saying something. Not only was there plenty of bitchiness going on between Blair and Jenny, but two guys were outed, and in the end, Serena confessed she killed someone! OMG!

Ok. So, if you don’t watch GG, you’re bored right now, and wondering what prompts a usually fairly rational and feminist girl like me to dissolve into a puddle of OMFG!s. Wondering whether, perhaps, all those integrals might have made me go off the deep end. Worry not, and I’ll explain my fascination below the fold.