Lost has been an enigma since it debuted and has always had fans guessing whether or not this is a series that is going somewhere or a series where the writers are making it up as the go along. Season 5 of Lost, the second to last season, proved beyond any doubt that the writers know what they are doing. This year we saw some of the island’s biggest mysteries solves and yet still new questions were raised each week. Introducing rapid time travel, nuclear bombs and some wicked 70’s time travel season 5 of Lost proved to be everything that a view could hope for and more. Each week more questions were answered and new questions asked leading up to a finale of anatomic proportions, literally. I watched each week with baited breath and could not be more thrilled to see how everything ends in 2010, the final season.
Runner Up: Mad Men
Mad Men is always the sexiest and most intellectually stimulating hour of television. Season 3 manages to move all the most interesting plots forward and still dangles the ever elusive revelation of just who is Don Drapper in front of us. We saw our beloved Sterling Cooper bought and sold, believing that all hpe may be lost only for an 11th hour finale as triumphant as anything else on television. The is we saw Pete and Peggy come into their own and Don question his very existence. Even Betty Drapper, the epitome of subservient housewife, come into her own as full fledged woman. And don’t even get me started on the infamous lawnmower incident!
Honorable Mention: Dexter
If I had made a best of 2008 list there is now question that Dexter would have ranked as the best drama of the year. Unfortunately this year I was only able to watch a few episodes. From what I have seen our favorite serial killer is perhaps in better form than ever before, but I can’t honestly pick it without watching all it had to offer. From what I have seen John Lithgow is sublimely creepy as the Trinity Killer and Dexter is adjusting to the perils of fatherhood with aplomb! Throw in a love triangle for Deborah and an Angel/Laguerta affair and things have so far shaped up to be awesome.
Honorable Mention: Dollhouse
Joss Whendon is a God! There is really no arguing with that, Joss is perhaps the single greatest thing to happen to America television in the last twenty years. Dollhouse struggled at the beginning, with the Fox network trying to push this fledgling series into an episode/issue of the week thriller. But anybody who knows Joss’s work, Buffy, Angel Firefly, know that is not his strong point. Joss’s talent is in long form character and plot development unparalleled by anyone else. Dollhouse started out weak, but continued to get better and better until the sadists at Fox network cancelled it. While the first few eps, airing early 2009 were not the best the back half of season 2 has been nothing sort of amazing. Dollhouse is one of the darkest, most morally complex series ever create and I am devastated that all we are left with is a series finale next month.
So I decided to take the Golden Globes approach this year and lump comedy and musicals together into one category, thanks to a lovely new show that stole my heart. I still find it somewhat difficult to compare, apples to oranges and what not. Below are my picks for the best of television comedy 2009.
Best Comedy Series:Community
It is so rare that a freshman comedy can knock one out of the park the way community has this year. Usually comedies need a bit of time to find their footing and know what works, but Community defied all odds and right out of the gate was a hilarious show. After an uncompromisingly funny pilot, Community managed to follow-up with Spanish 101, a brilliant episode that builds to a crescendo of ridiculousness that is unparalleled this year, the scene of Jeff (Joel McHale) and Pierce (Chevy Chase) giving their presentation was glorious. Though nothing can outdo the battle royale of their Christmas episode, Introduction to Religion that saw the characters divided over their conflicting religious beliefs uniting to take on a team of bullies. And also, Community has made Allison Brie go from being “Pete Campbell’s wife n Mad Men” to one of my favorite performers of the year.
Runner up: Party Down
Party Down is the funniest show that nobody is watching. A group of wannabe actors, writers and comedians in Hollywood making their living as cater waiters. Each episode brings a new party for them to deal with, some are huge public affairs others private gathering but all are great settings for comedy.
Honorable Mention: Glee
Glee is maybe my favorite new series of the year overall, but like other great “comedies” like Desperate Housewives calling Glee a comedy doesn’t always feel right. Especially given evidence that the AV Club reviewer even called it the saddest show on television. The show is deeply sad, but also joyful, energetic and heart-warming.
Honorable Mention: Parks and Recreation
If you told me a year ago that I wouldn’t consider 30 Rock or Weeds the top comedy of the year I would have called you crazy, but with the new series mentioned above coming out and Parks and Recreation improving so much it is true. This year has seen Parks and Recreation gone from being a pathetic imitation of The Office to being genuinely funnier than 30 Rock or it’s inspiration is truly amazing. But with excellent episodes like “Ron and Tammy” and “Hunting Trip” Parks and Recreation make the first hour of NBC comedy the real must see TV and the second hour a nice, amusing consolation prize.
The departed starts with a crash and ends with a bang. Serena and Tripp are driving in the car, an icy distance between them that wasn’t present when we last saw our beloved S and the young congressman. The car soon skids out of control and the story cuts back to the events leading up to it starting twelve hours earlier. Serena and Tripp are enjoying their country getaway when he slinks of under false pretences to talk with his wife Maureen and Serena must rely on Nate for help turning on the heat and scoring pot alone in the cottage.
Meanwhile back at the Lily and Rufus’s place Lily con’s him into attending a meeting for their co-op. The meeting turns out to be some sort of ladies who luncheon event where hints are dropped that those in attendance are the trophy wives and leads to some insecurity in Rufus. It feels a little too sudden to be plotting out the demise of the Lily/Rufus marriage, but the only thing this show loves more than break-neck speed plots in red herrings so we’ll have to give this one a bit more time before any real judgments are made.
Eric is foolishly continuing his path to take on Jenny, and still aided by Homely Girl from the cotillion, which is still the most annoying plot. Eric has nothing to gain from taking down Jenny and Homely girl doesn’t really have a reason to be against Jenny either, since there is no way either one of them are next in line to be the Queen B I don’t really see why they keep bothering with this. I did love Jenny’s power move of gifting the coveted bags that Eric tried to have the little Vanessa look-a-like wear to one-up her. Even more brilliant is the revelation that she is getting the money for the designer goods by working for the Ambassador’s drug dealing son. I can’t wait to see where this ends up.
The other main plot of this week was Chuck trying to out do his father while having emotionally draining talks with his ghost. I must admit, I did think during the first segment that Bart had maybe faked his death and that this wasn’t in Chuck head….but it does seem that one Bass at least faked death as Laura (Mulholland Drive) Harrington shows up at the end to leave Chuck’s mom’s favorite flowers on his dad’s grave. You don’t cast an actress her caliber in a role if you don’t intend it to be a back from the grave new character. Sidebar, isn’t it funny how different things ended up for Laura Harrington vs. Naomi Watts? I remember back when Mulholland Drive came out, they were both poised to go onto bigger and better things but now eight years later one is an A list actress and the other a CW guest star.
As the past meets up with the present Serena has been offered the role of Tripp’s mistress by the crafty Maureen, only to reject it and demand he take her home thus causing the pre-credits car wreck. It was touching, if not over-kill that every character decided to go to the hospital that wasn’t even in their own county let alone still in the city limits. Personally if I get in an accident one friend and one former boyfriend is all I want on the scene, but Serena never does anything small and that’s why he love her (that and boobs of course). Nate is now finally getting his chance to be with Serena and I’ve wanted that coupling for quite some time.
And also, Dan almost hooked up with an actress friend of Vanessa’s but then didn’t but then did tell Vanessa he loved her. I do at least liked that she seamed to care as much about his declaration as I did…yawn.
And once again it is Thanksgiving in Gossip Girl land. I for one am thankful that we were spared any hideously festive outfits this year, like Serena’s memorably terrible orange and gold nightmare from last year. Treasure of Serena Madre has a nice buildup of everybody getting invited to Lily’s for a wonderfully awkward dinner scene completely ruined by a horrible music cue. We have affairs, sabotage and pregnancy twisting their way through an episode that actually manages to balance all the characters fairly well, even people we hate like Vanessa.
Eric and the Humphrey’s are planning Thanksgiving at Lily’s apartment (let’s be honest, it is Lily’s apartment still) when she walks in and basically puts the kibosh on it declaring it’ll be catered. Serena explains that she can’t attend because Tripp is having his entire staff work at a soup kitchen, sadly this was a lie and we weren’t treated to the sight of Serena trying to feed the homeless while showing cleavage like I’d hoped. And because no fake good deed goes unpunished Lilly accidently invites Tripp’s wife Maureen to join them for dinner. Tripp has already promised Serena he is divorcing Maureen, not for her but because he found out Maureen staged his heroic rescue of the drowning victim. For some reason this convinces both of them that making out in an elevator, in Chuck’s hotel is a good idea. Hey Serena, remember last time you were in Chuck’s elevator and he totally was spying on you and Blair? Really? You don’t? OK, keep making out with married congressmen then.
Blair on the other hand is concerned that her mother is keeping a secret from her. She finds a pregnancy test and evidence that Eleanor’s will is being updated and hysterically concludes that she must have a new sibling on the way. Um, Blair you’re mom is like 50 that’s not gunna happen. But Blair isn’t the only one with mother troubles this week. Lily had claimed her mother Cece was not well enough to join them, but gets caught in a lie when Cece surprises her by showing up. Lily covers with another lie about why she stayed longer at her mother’s, leaving us to wonder what Lily was really doing August-October when Rufus was stuck with the kids. Vanessa’s mother returns to make all the same plot points she did last time, but I still heart Gina Torres and was glad to see her. Her scenes with Dan were nice, though I still can’t buy the fact that Rufus would actually be friends with her.
As dinner finally arrives everything is set for a perfectly outrageous feast. Serena is now in attendance along with Tripp, her boss she’s in love with and his wife Maureen. Nate is there for some reason mooning over Serena and giving Maureen that tape of her husband cheating. Vanessa now has to deal with the mother she was trying to avoid. Dan still has to figure out his feelings for Vanessa. Blair is suspicious of everything her mother does. Rufus is realizing that Lily has been lying to him. Lily is trying to avoid her own mother. And of course Eric and Jenny are continuing to plot against one another (still on team Little J with this, Eric is being petty for no reason). This would have been a great scene were it not for them blasting Jason DeRulo’s “Whatcha Say” for the entire scene. At first I thought it was a clever use of music, right after Blair tells Jenny of Eric’s betrayal…but then it just kept happening. I could barely hear any of the conversation in what should have been the best scene of the episode.
In the end Nate confesses his feeling for Serena, but he was a little late as Tripp had already renewed his promise to divorce Maureen. Eric texts Homely Girl from the Cotillion that they need to strike back against Jenny ASAP as she now knows that Eric was the one who plotted her being left dateless at the event. But of course the biggest mystery of all is what is Lily hiding from everybody? I just can’t wait to find out! And knowing that Maureen has the letter from Serena’s dad with the secret makes it even jucier.
And also, I am getting a little bit bored of Chuck being so neutered this season. I still like him with Blair, but can’t he have some sort of nemesis in the picture to get the evil out? Perhaps they should steal Desmond Harrington back from Dexter, I’d love to see the return of Jack Bass!
Posted by yeahandalso on Nov 18, 2009 in Uncategorized
I have been a Lars von Trier fan for several years now ever since my good friend Paul recommended a few of his movies to me. I was really excited after reading reviews of Antichrist at Cannes, and even more excited when Paul said he could come visit to see the movie. Unfortunately things don’t always work out as planned and that’s not going to happen, so I ended up going with my friend Ken instead. The movie is surely intense and really not something I’d recommend to everybody, but for fans of serious indie flicks it is really a must see, as long as you have a strong stomach. I’ve sat through both Hostels and five of the six Saw films and they don’t hold a candle to this puppy. Check out the trailer, and my review below:
Lars von Trier’s Antichrist is an uncompromising film that pushes viewers to their limits and challenges the audience to think about the nature of evil. It is unabashedly dark and bleak and definitely not a film for everybody. A simple plot combined with gorgeous filmmaking and two extraordinary performances make Antichrist worth seeing, but it is surely not for the faint of heart. It is not an exaggeration or hyperbole to say that there are certain images from this movie I can’t get out of my head, though I would very much like to.
Antichrist opens with an epilogue that is one of the most beautifully shot sequences I have ever seen, filmed in slow-motion black and white set to soaring opera. A couple, credited only as He and She, make love in their apartment while in another room their infant son escapes his baby gate and falls out an open window. Things go down hill from there. She (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is grief stricken and hospitalized after the incident, He (William Dafoe) concludes that he can use his skills as a therapist to help her better than her doctors could. Those that are familiar with von Trier’s work should immediately recognize that such an act of arrogance cannot go unpunished. The couple goes to their cabin in the woods, tellingly named Eden, to mourn and heal. He creates a series of therapeutic exercises for She that become increasingly difficult for her until she finally snaps and subjects He and herself to nauseating acts of sexual violence.
After the epilogue the films proceeds through four chapters: “Grief”, “Pain (Chaos Reigns)”, “Despair (Gynocide)” and “The Three Beggars” before finally concluding with an epilogue. As with many of von Trier’s films Antichrist relies heavily on symbolism and subtext more than actual plot to make his statements. I found Antichrist to be more ambiguous than many of his other films, something like Dancer in the Dark seems almost straightforward in comparison. As with all great avant-garde cinema Antichrist is certainly open to interpretations as to what this enigmatic film is about. I’ve considered several theories and find few to be rather compelling. The first would be that this film is exactly an inversion of the Christ story, with She as an evil female the direct opposite of the male Christ. This is supported by opposing symbolism to the Christ story, such as three beggars instead of three kings, the death of an infant instead of a birth…etc. Much of the film deals with the nature of evil as well as evil within nature, a paradox that seems illogical but seductive at the same time.
The other interpretations I found were more literal, that the absence of Christ in the lives of He and She allow both of them to spiral into madness and despair at the loss of their child. There are clues that She has Munchausen syndrome (by proxy) subtly planted throughout the film, feeling neglected she will harm herself or the child for attention and sympathy. He is not an innocent in this either, as the film continues on their shared psychosis depends on his cruelly withholding the affection she clearly needs in favor of superficially professional “therapeutic” help. As the story continues a literal interpretation draws many parallels to the shared delusions of the couple in the 2006 film Bug.
Stylistically Antichrist is a great achievement, at once hauntingly beautiful and shockingly graphic. The saturated greens of the scenery are truly breathtaking as is the close attention paid to detail in all the slow-motion sequences. A largely atonal score adds a sense of foreboding to even the most innocuous sequences. Dreamlike images of falling rain and acorns are contrasted by nightmarish reanimated animal corpses that speak directly to He. It must be stressed that the violence in this film is extreme, repulsive and unflinchingly filmed. The seriousness of the film makes the violence even more disturbing than similarly graphic depictions in movies like Hostel, which eases the discomfort with a ludicrous bordering on campy plot. The fact that my screening was prefaced by an announcement from theater management that the audience has to leave in the first half hour to receive a refund should give a pretty good indication of what to expect. I do not doubt any of the reports of fainting that are said to have occurred at Cannes when the film debuted.
It would be inconceivable to write about Antichrist and not mention the riveting performances of the leads. Both Charlotte Gainsbourg and William Dafoe deliver award worthy performances full of raw emotion (Gainsbourg has already won Best Actress at Cannes for this performance). With characters that experience everything from sexual ecstasy to gut wrenching torment it truly is a wonderful showcase for acting talents. Erotic and explicit love scenes combined with depression, despair and torture take the actors to places many wouldn’t be willing to go, but Gainbourg and Dafoe do so fearlessly. It is perhaps the most exposed, physically and emotionally, I can remember two actors ever being onscreen. Through the starkly poetic imagery of the setting to the visceral brutality of the action the performances ground the film in reality. Antichrist is a challenging film, but those who are willing to explore the depths of darkness in sinks to will appreciate its craftsmanship, beauty and through provocation.
A Lady Gaga cameo and Hillary Duff leaving, is this the best episode of Gossip Girl ever?!?! Actually no, it was an average episode, but there was a lot of good stuff and bad outfits in it and I’ll take Gossip Girl’s average over other shows’ best any day. “The Last Days of Disco Stick” brings us a sublimely ridiculous play, a creepy drug dealing boy to entertain Little J., and some skank on congressman action.
The C plot this week was Jenny taking out Damian a creepy, supposedly Belgian, diplomat’s son to show him around town as a favor to Chuck. Initially Jenny is mortified to think that this eerie Zac Effron looking live ventriloquist dummy would play with motorized sailboats in the park. However, once she realizes this was all a ruse to do an ecstasy deal she’s totally on board with hanging out with him, because Jenny makes poor life choices. Chuck busts Damian in the end and throws him out of the hotel, warning Jenny that he’s bad news…so of course Jenny immediately texts him she’d like to hang out again, genius move Little J. [sidebar: yeah Damian was really familiar looking and not just because of said Effron resemblance. I realized halfway through the episode that he’s totally the dude from Transamerica. When I looked him up I found that he’s Kevin Zegers and also in Dawn of the Dead, and the seminal classic Felicity: An American Girl Adventure.]
In the meatier plots this week we have Serena wearing not-appropriate-for-the-office open-backed, too short mini-dresses and blatantly flirting with her married boss. She does have the good sense to come to Nate about it and he cautions her to stay away. Actually, he gets her drunk and confesses that he used to love her, which we all know if TV speak for “I love you”. I was getting excited that they may be heading in this direction, because Serena is one of the few characters that the often boring Nate actually has chemistry with. And also, if Tripp is supposedly a US Congressman than he should be leaving New York soon for D.C anyways. But no, Tripp finds out about his wife’s subterfuge in staging his heroic rescue of a drowning victim and decides that if his wife lies to him than as a Congressman it is his duty to go hit on a drunken 18-year-old who works in his office. I can suspend my disbelief pretty far, but COME ON! How could anybody ever be that stupid?
But the bulk of this episode was about the Dan/Vanessa/Olivia threesome of gross and their getting wrapped up in producing a terrible play to really let the tension sink in. I don’t really know what to make of the whole Tisch School of the Arts thing. I get that it is a really prestigious school inside NYU, but does Blair really have to suck up to theater kids, even if they are really elite ones? I’d call shenanigans but it all seemed to be setup for real-life former Tisch student Lady Gaga to appear so I’ll just call it awesome! The play itself is god-awful hilariously bad. Dan Humphrey writes a play based on Snow White with Lady Gaga music in a plot that is completely ripped off from a Saved by the Bell episode, right down to the part where Dan has to kiss his best friend Jessie Spanno, I mean Vanessa, on stage. I love you Gossip Girl but Dan Humphrey’s play would be something morose and Salinger-esque, not a hip-hop fairytale.
But the play was just there as an excuse to get Dan, Vanessa and Olivia all working together so the girls could be petty and we could see hilarious flashbacks to their tryst. The tension between Olivia and Vanessa was pretty funny, but not as funny as Blair using her physic ability to find sexual tension to realize what they’d done, then blackmailing them with it. Last week my BFF said to me, “You know I hate Samantha from Sex and the City, but she was right that you should always be the guest star in a threesome”. A variation of that was used this week with every character who finds out reacting, “the third person should always be a stranger”. Personally I think Samantha is more correct, if you’re going to screw up a relationship do it to somebody else’s not your own. Of course in this case there were three relationships to screw up: Dan and Olivia dating, Olivia and Vanessa as roommates and Vanessa and Dan as best friends. Olivia decides to take the next train out of Akwardville and breaks up with Dan to skip town for a movie. And thus ends Hillary Duff’s reign of terror! Just kidding, in the end I didn’t hate her nearly as much as I thought I would, but she’s still no Georgina! Now we’re left to wonder, with Olivia out of the picture will Dan and Vanessa finally turn that won’t they into a will they?
And also, Lady Gaga was freaking awesome! 30 foot red dress, a ladder for no apparent reason, her new song “Bad Romance”! I only wish we could have seen more of the performance, I mean seriously WTF were those kids doing having deep relationship talks during her one-song performance. Gaga is in the house bitches, respect!
Little J. has finally made her official society debut and of course she does it with a bang, but as always getting there is never easy. And of course there was the heavily hyped threesome in this episode as well. Opening with Jenny looking better than she has in a while, some (slightly) better extensions and a pound less eyeliner, she is soon confronted with the Queens of the other prep schools in town and realizes she needs to step up her game before the cotillion by landing the best date, Graham.
Serena, true to form, has too much game and after accepting Tripp’s offer for a PR job on his staff they start to get too close for comfort. Even her first day on the job the two are starting to get dirty looks from others staff members, who know all too well how these things go in politics. Tripp’s wife didn’t appear this week, but from what we learned last week she is not somebody to be messed with and Serena had better watch herself.
Back at NYU Dan, Vanessa and Olivia are chilling around campus when the rumor mill starts to generate buzz of another fake Twilight movie for Olivia. I really liked the nerd troika that followed them around this week, reminded me of the hilarious nerd villains of the often maligned Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 6. Dan and Vanessa read an article of 15 quintessential college experiences and decide the best way to get Olivia to stay is to let her experience as many as possible. This leads to many presumed off camera antics, fountain yoga, keg stands and the like, personally I can’t imagine any of them being fun with a wet blanket like Vanessa around but it’s TV I give them a pass. Eventually they’ve knocked out 14 of 15 and the only one left…threesome. As soon as she reads it Olivia throws back another shot and proceeds to kiss Dan then Vanessa…cut to the three of them in bed at the end of the episode. After all the promotion for this I thought they found the worst possible permutation for a threesome on the show, but it was still a bit of naughty fun.
As the big debutante cotillion approaches Jenny still cannot secure her date, mainly because of Eric’s petty sabotage. A new homely Constance girl tries to suck up to Jenny by securing her Graham as a date, but Eric would rather Jenny go with his boyfriend, Jonathan. Eric’s motivation in all of this is questionable at best, he claims to be doing it to save Jenny from herself and the mean girls, but really I think he just likes the scheming as much as anybody else in this show. Jenny manages to piss off Blair who ends up helping Eric get Graham to escort Homely Girl leaving Jenny stranded and alone…luckily it is Nate to the rescue and Little J ends up with a hot, well bred college escort and secures herself the position as the Queen of Queens of the Upper East Side. Honestly, I always sort of root for Jenny in these situations and with Eric backstabbing her for not so clear reasons I was happy to see her triumph. But Eric has vowed to take her down once and for all and now has the help of Homely Girl, still my money is on Little J.
Yeah, and also that Anya Marina cover of “Whatever You Like” was freaking awesome:
The Grandfather: Part II really drove home what I think has been one of the most interesting points of the whole season: that the grown up world is just as petty and full of backstabbing as high school. Throughout the episode we see that reflected in the various worlds our characters now occupy. The politics of Nate’s family, and the celebrity world that Serena and Olivia inhabit is just as shallow and artificial as any of the rules about where to sit on the Met steps.
Nate’s cousin Trip is running for congress in a mid-term election and is just shy of being in the lead. Conveniently when Nate and Trip are out and Vanessa is hanging around filming them somebody falls into the river and is rescued by Tripp. This casts Trip in the role of hero and gives his campaign the boost that it needs, but Nate and Vanessa are both uneasy about the events and the election is later that night. Everybody is going to Trip’s party at Chuck’s hotel to watch the election results.
Serena is going to the party as part of her continuing fake relationship with Patrick, the Robert Pattison stand-in who is also Olivia’s ex. Patrick is up for a role in a political thriller and Serena’s boss things it would be good for him to experience some politics first hand. Blair is also going to the party, but since Chuck has hosting duties she will be left all alone and goes on a mission to find a new friend to show-up Serena. Blair’s exhaustive search lasts all of two seconds because immediately a gorgeous, stylish, quick-witted psych major walks in with a designer purse.
Right before the party Vanessa goes over her footage more in-depth and finds out that the man Tripp saved very clearly enters the water on purpose and fakes the drowning. She tells Nate right away and he tries to convince her to keep it hush-hush. Vanessa instead decides to sell the footage to a television station, I’m sorry I mean racked with guilt her only option is to get the real truth out into the public!!! The story breaks while everybody is at the party, Trip honorably says that he is going to withdraw from the race, which is really sweet and endearing. Before he gets the chance Nate steps up and takes the fall for it, which is one of those endearing Gossip Girl moves that in reality wouldn’t change anything the correct thing to do would still be to resign.
The party is eventful for more than just politics though as both Blair’s and Serena’s dates cause some major trouble. As it turns out Blair’s new friend is totally a student by day, hooker by night walking Lifetime movie (sidebar, they really should make that Lifetime movie). And Patrick is more interested in getting wasted than researching his role. Serena bounce’s Blair’s friend, and Blair gets Patrick sent to a suit to sleep it off. The two confront each other and end up in a major bitch fest that ends with Serena shoving Blair face-first into an America flag cake. Serena realizes her job has taken a toll on her friendships (the job she’s had for like 3 days) so she quits her job then apologizes to Blair. Instead of accepting Blair confesses that she’s really mad at Serena’s poor life choices lately and says their friendship is over for good. That seemed a little out of the blue, it’s like Blair was being possessed by Lilly. Serena and Blair have been through so much together you know that they have to make up after this.
Yeah, and also the Humphrey’s were in this episode too! Jenny is sick and appeared briefly to play scrabble with Dan, Olivia, Lilly and Rufus (Eric was notably absent). Dan and Olivia were there playing scrabble because Olivia had told a hilarious and embarrassing story about Dan on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. As it turns out the story isn’t really embarrassing or hilarious or even mildly interesting, but she makes up for it by going on Late Night again the next day and giving Dan a shout-out. Hillary Duff + Jimmy Fallon should not = Gossip Girl plots, I’m ready for Olivia to get her but out of the Upper East Side and back to horse teeth land in LA.
It is Halloween on the Upper East Side and a cauldron of trouble is starting to brew. Rufus is the one most intent on celebrating Halloween, carving pumpkins to look like the members of Kiss and planning on dressing the family as the Ramones. Lilly on the other hand is more preoccupied with Jenny’s closet, in one of the strangest scenes of the season. Lilly asks Jenny to get ride of old clothes asking if some even fit her anymore, I REALLY don’t know what to make of this scene, perhaps they’re implying Lilly is trying to turn Jenny into her mini-mi since she failed at getting Serena to follow in her footsteps.
Unfortunately, Jenny has problems of her own ruling over court at the Met steps. I’m enjoying that Jenny finally has legit plots of her own again, after the fashion fiasco last year she didn’t really do anything for the back half of the season. Now that Little J is the Queen Bee she has got to defend her turf, and that means getting frozen yogurt dumped all over Eric when he dares to sit above her on the steps. This was one of those difficult fights where you don’t know who to side with; I think I’m on team Jenny though because she explained to Eric that she didn’t want to enforce the rules but had to for the greater good. He really did just sit up there to taunt her, and really when you’re that rich who cares if one bad outfit is ruined by fro-yo. The two didn’t really do much in the rest of the episode, but by the end Eric has now disavowed his friendship with Jenny completely.
The hotel Chuck bought has already opened and not doing well, Chuck thinks a big prohibition themed party for the club opening will be just the trick to bring in business. Conveniently Serena became a publicist last week so he seeks her help and makes a point of asking her not to tell Blair. The backstabbing and double crossing on this plot got too complicated, and I think even the writers got lost in what happens. Serena decided to plan the event without telling her boss, who finds out but is cool with it if the party will get Olivia and fake Robert Pattison back together. Blair tries to find the sneakiest way possible to stick her nose into Chuck’s business, and when she learns the club is still awaiting a liquor license she calls Chuck’s evil uncle Jack for help.
Dan Humphrey is fretting about the fact that his girlfriend stared in the Gossip Girl world’s version of Twilight with her ex-boyfriend. I enjoy the Nate and Dan friendship, I don’t know why but the two just seem to have a hilarious chemistry and play well off one another. Nate gives Dan the DVD’s of Olivia’s movies so they can check out the love scenes, which are rumored to be more of an actual sex tape than acting. And of course, thanks to Serena the ex-boyfriend in question is now going to Chuck’s party as Olivia’s date.
As is the case in most Gossip Girl episodes, for the final act all the characters are assembled at a party. Of course the liquor license from Jack turns out to be falsified, and the party gets busted, though they sort of implied that was Chuck’s plan all along so why they had to involve Jack at all doesn’t really make sense (hence my saying that plot makes no sense). Olivia and Dan got caught making out and Olivia’s ex is left dateless, so Serena swoops in and lays a big kiss on him thus changing her job from PR girl to escort for the PR service. The ending felt dramatic, but retrospectively I can’t really tell why because nothing really happened and status quo was pretty much maintained. I liked this episode while I was watching it, but in the end it was pretty uneventful, other than the Eric and Jenny battle. And also, was Vanessa even in this episode? I honestly don’t remember.
Enough about Eve opens with a lovely homage to All About Eve and Blair waking up screaming to the notion of being the Betty Davis to Vanessa’s Anne Baxter. It seems there is an all important parents dinner at NYU and B. wants to be the one to give the speech, but Vanessa is the activist du jour on campus and stealing her spotlight. Of course her focus on Vanessa distracts Blair from her biggest threat: Olivia (Hillary Duff) the hot starlet that the college would love to use for publicity.
Vanessa initially believes she is going to be chosen to give the speech and goes so far as to invite her absentee parents to the shindig. Dan has asked Olivia to go with him as his date and meet his parents, which she is really excited about. So taking a page from Blair’s book the always perfect, moral and decent Vanessa convinces Dan to stay in and cook for Olivia instead. She also convinces Olivia that Dan’s parents think ill of the Hollywood set. I really can’t believe the writers of this show continue to suggest Vanessa has any sort of morals when here she lies to her best friend and her roommate in order to give a speech.
Meanwhile, Nate and Serena team up to try and get Carter out of his debt to the Buckley’s in a plot that made me remember that when she puts her mind to it NOBODY bests Serena (well accept maybe at poker). Nate plays Serena by getting her to bet Carter’s debt against photographic evidence of his cousin, the congressional hopeful, Trip with a bong. For maybe the first time ever I found myself saying “well played Nate” when it was revealed that the photo was faked. Serena realizes she’s been Nate’s pawn in the Archibald vs. Buckley battle and takes maters into her own hands by tipping off the Buckley family to the faked photo and settling Carter’s debt. Sadly, Carter doesn’t want her charity and coldly leaves her.
Vanessa’s mom show’s up and she’s totally played by the kickass Gina Torres of Angel and Firefly fame. Too bad she is such a raging PC hippie bitch that I could have almost felt sorry for Vanessa had she not been at her most evil this entire episode. Mrs. Abrhams is judgmental about everything, which explains where Vanessa gets it from. I found the ongoing criticism that education should be free and Vanessa shouldn’t be at a private school beyond infuriating, which was of course the point. This is Gossip Girl, somebody who rejects materialism must be painted as a villain somehow.
Blair managed to finally scheme her way into giving the speech by having Chuck seduce the guy deciding the speaker. I’m not a 100% clear on what exactly happened there, I think the guy had his own reasons for needing to kiss Chuck other than being attracted to him, but it either wasn’t explained well or I wasn’t paying attention. The main point of it was the Blair played Chuck, her supposed one true love and he won’t be forgiving or forgetting any time soon. Of course before Blair can give her speech Vanessa tricks her with the old get your rival to reveal their inner evil with a hidden microphone trick. Blair makes a major fool of herself at the event by giving everybody and earful of what a spoiled, self-centered brat she really is. In the end it is Olivia who gets to give the speech after all.
