Gossip Girl: The Freshman

This week’s Gossip Girl is centered around Blair, Dan Humphrey, Vanessa and Georgina beginning their first week as freshman at NYU and trying to find their place at school.  Elsewhere our other characters kind of do things, but not really.  Being called “The Freshman” this episode is all about the new college kids and those wacky shenanigans you get up to when you inexplicably move out of your multi-floor luxury apartment and into a dorm with a roommate for no explicable reason whatsoever.  I thought this was a show about rich people?  If I wanted to watch freshman eat pizza I’d become the guy who seeps the floor at the pizza place and says, “Hey kids, where’s the cool parties this weekend?” (Yes, I stole a joke from Xander)
 
Before we get to the goods I’m going to get the other plots out of the way that I, and apparently the writers, didn’t really care about.  Serena mopes around the entire episode, she decided not to go to Brown though I didn’t understand her reasoning (maybe I went to the bathroom at some point, but I think they just were vague about it).  S. bounces around from her place, to Chuck’s to Rufus’s loft and generally acts like a pill.  Though I do give her some props for telling Rufus he’s more scared of Lilly than she is.  Chuck is trying to put together a business deal and wearing a lot of purple.  Serena ruins his business deal by mentioning to investors that behind the restaurant is a speakeasy; she does this once accidentally and once just to be a bitch.  Carter gets mad at Serena but then kisses her anyways.  Nathan and the so far underused Joanna Garcia as Bree Buckely don’t leave their hotel.  Yawns all around.
 
Thankfully the bulk of the episode is about the delightfully ridiculous power struggle between Blair and Georgina.   Blair is always at her best when she’s scheming against somebody, especially one of her best adversaries.  And Georgina is at her best when she’s on Gossip Girl and not quitting to star in one of the millions of shows about nurses, boo.  After weaseling her way into becoming Blair’s roommate Georgina further dismays Blair by ruining her sushi/cocktail party by having a pizza and video night.  (But lets get real, while pizza and movie is the #1 dorm activity when dealing with freshman free booze trumps EVERYTHING).  Most of this conflict rang true for me because college students would totally shun somebody who tries as hard as Blair in favor of somebody who is (seemingly) laid back like Georgina.
 
Georgina also has managed to cloy her way back into Dan Humphrey’s good graces (after, you know, pretending to be somebody named Sarah and dating him for a few weeks first season).  And true to form, Vanessa first self-righteously judges Dan for not giving Georgina a second change and then judges him again for giving her a third chance.  I think she seriously has a sociopathic personality disorder because she really acts like she is better than everybody all of the time, its kinda funny I may turn it into a drinking game.  She also continues to date Single White Humphrey, Scott, but I’m getting confused as to why this kid seems to be so interested in Dan Humphrey (who doesn’t know they’re half-siblings) but doesn’t seem to care at all about Little J., Eric or Serena who are also his half-siblings.  I hope this turns out to be like One Tree Hill and ends in Dan Humphrey realizing he’s just a stalker and kicking him down the stairs while in a cheerleading outfit, but let’s be honest Dan Humphrey doesn’t have Peyton’s legs. 
 
I guess the biggest mystery of all is what exactly does Georgina want from the gang?  She certainly has been successful at bonding with Dan Humphrey, making more friends than Blair and throwing a good roof top kegger, but what is her end game?  We didn’t need Georgina to knock Blair down a notch, it was obvious from the get-go to anybody who went to college that people wouldn’t embrace Blair.  It seems unusual to make a character with a limited shelf life be the dramatic center of the plot, but I’ve loved Michelle Trachtenberg since Pete and Pete so for now I’m just enjoying it while we can.  Overall this week was better than last, if they can just incorporate the other characters in better things will really be rolling.

Beyotchs are back!!!

Gossip Girl made it’s triumphant return last night with a fun, exciting and scandalous premier.  When we had last checked in Gossip Girl had dropped the biggest gossip bomb and xoxoed out the season with everybody’s secrets on the table.  Georgina had wormed her way into becoming Blair’s roommate and B. had crowned Little J the new Queen of Constance before perhaps the biggest twist of finally becoming a real couple with Chuck.   It seemed that everything was set to go back to a calmer, innocent time but as all upper eastsiders know that cannot last for long.

Catching up with the gang we find that Jenny and Eric have been spending the summer in the Hamptons and trying to cover up the scandals Serena has gotten involved in abroad.  Chuck and Blair appear, at first, to be back to their usual jealous love/hate selves but we learn a bit later on that they are really just into role-playing which is both hilarious and a little sad.  Nate literally flies into town with the extremely delightful Joanna Garcia who has joined the cast as Bree Buckley, the daughter of a political family that rivals the Archibalds.  And finally our main girl S. comes back, trailed by paparazzi and apparently involved with bad-boy Carter.   Vanessa continues to be a self righteous, annoying and condescending but now is dating the Rufus/Lilly love child, which is perhaps the first interesting thing she has done.  Also Dan has shaggier hair now, but mostly just was stressed out about everything else and kinda plotless this week.

  As the episode went on I thought that Serena really dominated in terms of intriguing plots.  Her romantic development with Carter was not too surprising, but following a horse chase and the gorgeous forest setting I found it rather welcomed.  The big reveal of course is that Serena is intentionally baiting the paparazzi in the hopes that her long lost father will see the pictures and want to contact her.  A great twist, but I felt pretty bad for poor Jenny and Eric who both really tried to keep all Serena’s exploits a secret, as well as Rufus who was trying to buy up the photos Serena herself was hawking to the media.   All and all this was a pretty great start and next week with the return of my fav bad girl Georgia and the start of college things are really going to heat up!