Gossip Girl - The Complete First Season

Gossip Girl - The Complete First Season Review

Gossip Girl - The Complete First Season Feature

• Want to know a secret? A really juicy secret? Look no further than the latest message from Manhattan?s notorious blogger Gossip Girl. She keeps tabs on the city?s most elite teens as they make the rounds from the preppiest school events to the most lavish, decadent parties. And between Serena and Blair?s explosive friendship, Dan and Serena?s budding romance, Nate and Blair?s fairytale relationshi

Gossip Girl - The Complete First Season Overview

Want to know a secret? A really juicy secret? Look no further than the latest message from Manhattan's notorious blogger Gossip Girl. She keeps tabs on the city's most elite teens as they make the rounds from the preppiest school events to the most lavish, decadent parties. And between Serena and Blair's explosive friendship, Dan and Serena's budding romance, Nate and Blair's fairytale relationship (or is it?), Chuck's escapades and Jenny's introduction to the glamorous life, there's a lot to track! In this 5-disc, 18-episode Season One, friends, lovers, rivals and enemies abound. Even the darkest secrets don't stay hidden for long. You know you love it. XOXO!

Gossip Girl - The Complete First Season Specifications

Gossip Girl is a delicious not-too-guilty pleasure, a visual feast of couture and perfectly coiffed hair. The elite high-schoolers of New York's Upper East Side throw red-carpet parties, live in five-star hotels, and plot dastardly deeds against each other. Their actions are reported--and often exposed--by an omniscient presence known as Gossip Girl (voiced by Kristen Bell), an anonymous Web master who posts updates via her blog and text messages to the student body. Her primary target is the social circle of Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) and Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), best frenemies who lean on each other (save for the occasional throwdown). The show opens as Serena returns from a semester at boarding school, determined to put her hard-partying ways behind her. But she's chock full of secrets, one of which is that before her abrupt transfer she'd slept with Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford), Blair's boyfriend. In season one, Blair becomes embroiled in her own triangle between Nate and slimy womanizer Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick); the two guys also happen to be best friends. Serena, meanwhile, steps into a romance with studious Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley), an aspiring writer on scholarship whose rocker dad (Matthew Settle) once dated Serena's gold-digging mom (Kelly Rutherford, Melrose Place)--got all that?

Based on the teen novels by Cecily von Ziegesar, the show doesn't present any new ideas (the richer the parent, the worse the parenting, etc.), but the snappy dialogue and pop culture name-checking are perfectly delivered. Most intriguing are the power struggles to be "queen bee," a title Blair relishes, as Dan's freshman sister Jenny (Taylor Momsen, a.k.a. Cindy Lou Who from The Grinch) learns the hard way the price of joining her clique. While the high-school series of the '90s (Beverly Hills, 90210, Saved by the Bell) had the popular gang scolding each other for drug use and embracing nerds and outcasts alike--a well-intentioned but unrealistic premise--Gossip Girl, like The O.C. before it (both shows were created by Josh Schwartz) features grittier storylines with drugs and alcohol flowing freely in the background and the cliques making no apologies for snubbing anyone who doesn't summer in the Hamptons. Meester is the standout of the cast, with strong support from the rest, but if you're looking for teenage role models, these kids ain't it. For everyone else, to quote Gossip Girl's signature line, "You know you love me. XOXO." --Ellen A. Kim

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Gossip Girl: The Complete Second Season

Gossip Girl: The Complete Second Season Review

Gossip Girl: The Complete Second Season Feature

• It s senior year for our beloved Upper East Siders, and the drama is at an all-time high. Applying for college is only one small part of the story, as new romances (and some not-so-new romances) bloom and fade, scandals erupt at every turn and alliances shift even faster than Gossip Girl can send an update. Families and reputations are destroyed and made; so are fortunes. And even the strongest fr

Gossip Girl: The Complete Second Season Overview

It's senior year for our beloved Upper East Siders, and the drama is at an all-time high. Applying for college is only one small part of the story, as new romances (and some not-so-new romances) bloom and fade, scandals erupt at every turn and alliances shift even faster than Gossip Girl can send an update. Families and reputations are destroyed and made; so are fortunes. And even the strongest friendships are tested. In this sizzling 25-episode, 7-disc Season Two, you never know what's next for Serena, Blair, Dan, Nate, Jenny, Chuck and Vanessa. Good thing Gossip Girl is always there to provide us with the latest, juiciest info!

Gossip Girl: The Complete Second Season Specifications

Gossip Girl loses a smidge of snark in season 2, but it's only a smidge, as the Upper East Siders ride out the senior-year traditions of college applications, prom, and graduation, but with Fashion Week and the Hamptons as glamorous backdrops. Serena (Blake Lively), wounded from her breakup/reunion/breakup with Dan (Penn Badgely), spends much of the season searching for her identity, which often steps on the toes of best frenemy Blair (Leighton Meester). Whether it be vying for a slot at Yale, or as queen bee of their prep school, these two have a complicated friendship perfectly summed up by another character: "You might be privileged, Blair, but you work for every single thing you achieve … Serena just glides through." Meanwhile, Nate (Chace Crawford) dallies with an older woman (Mädchen Amick) and his upper-crust family falls into financial ruin; Jenny attempts to break into fashion on her own assisted by an unhinged model (Willa Holland); and Dan finds himself drawn to the new, young English teacher (Laura Breckinridge). But the key story line throughout season 2 is the evolution of the romance between Blair and Chuck (Ed Westwick). The starts and stops aren't as frustrating are they are heartbreaking--particularly when the two admit they might just love the chase more than the reality of couplehood--but Meester and Westwick make a compelling portrayal of a couple so screwed up they may actually last. Other stories that don't involve Blair and/or Chuck are weak by comparison, particularly the season-ending Madoff story line, inspired by Anne Hathaway's real-life ex-boyfriend who made headlines when he was indicted for fraud. Moreover, characters and subplots fizzle out abruptly (Nate and Jenny's fleeting romance, the embezzlement finale). An '80s-set flashback episode, intended as a launch pad for a spinoff about Serena's mother, Lily, also fails to connect (the pilot was eventually rejected). But standout episodes include "The Age of Dissonance," set during a hilarious senior production of Edith Wharton's play, and "Seder Anything," centered around a Passover dinner hosted by Blair's new stepdad (Wallace Shawn, a welcome comic relief). Bonus features on the seven-disc set include Webisodes of Blair's scene-stealing Polish maid Dorota, unaired scenes, a gag reel, and a behind-the-scenes interview with the show's wardrobe supervisor, Eric Daman, who details his process for picking out the cast's designer wardrobe, which could be a supporting character on its own. --Ellen A. Kim

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