The gossip girl reboot is not giving what it was supposed to give

It was 14 years ago, when the original Gossip Girl was released. The show introduced us to the iconic it girl frenemies Serena van der Woodsen and Blair Waldorf and the rest is history. It gave us a glimpse of the lives of the privileged kids - the parties, catfights, money, Chanels, NY hotties and many more.

The hit teen drama series starring Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Ed Westwick, Penn Badgley, Chace Crawford and Taylor Momsen, is about the lives of the rich kids of Upper East Side of New York City who were all subjects of the blog, Gossip Girl. The anonymous blog (voiced by Kristen Bell) became the TMZ of the students at Constance Billard & St. Judes’s School.

The impact of Gossip Girl is undeniable especially in pop culture, fashion and the teen drama genre in television. There wouldn’t be Elite, Riverdale, and other teen shows, if GG didn’t pave the way. It’s everyone’s guilty pleasure, and they deserve every recognition, even New York magazine has praised the series and called it “The Greatest Show of Our Time” and that’s a fact, no lies detected!

Now as reboots have become a trend in films and tv series, Gossip Girl is no exception. The Gossip Girl reboot premiered last July 8, 2021 on HBO Max. It was set in the same universe of the original, but with new diverse characters. The show’s will tackle the change of social media and the New York scene in the last decade. Gossip Girl is back in the form of an Instagram account ‘cause blogs are no longer relevant, but the famed insider has the same mission.

If you are a fan of the original, you can’t help but compare it to a reboot because you don’t want your fave show to be stained, ruined or become a WTH moment. So we list down the good and the bad side of the Gossip Girl revival.

The Good Side

The Cast is diverse

If there is something we can truly commend from the new Gossip Girl, it’s the diversity of the cast. Joshua Safran, the show’s writer & executive producer, admitted in an interview with Dazed that his only regret for the original GG was the lack of diversity in the characters saying “not as much representation for people of colour and gay story lines.” 

Social media awareness

The reboot was a perfect timing to show the danger of social media to its younger audience, now that we live in Cancel Cultures and Fake News. 

The characters are woke

The show also leveled up in terms of social awareness, Safran tweeted before that “GG2 is sex positive and our characters use their brains, not their brawn, to take you out!”

The Bad Side

I need to talk to the writers

The original Gossip Girl was not well-received for its screenplay which is problematic to some, but the lines are iconic, still relevant, entertaining and meme-worthy. The reboot writing however, is a meh. It was poorly written, specifically revealing in the first episode that the Constance teachers are now the new Gossip Girl (Spoiler Alert!), which I find very cringey, and only ruined the mystery of Gossip Girl. 

The should go to an acting masterclass

The acting is also an issue. It was stiff and average, like it didn’t surpass the chemistry of the original cast. And honestly, no can top the Chuck-Blair, the greatest love story in television. So far the only season’s MVPs are Thomas Doherty (Max Wolfe), Emily Alyn Lind (Audrey Hope) and Zion Moreno (Luna La) while the others need to hurry up and go to acting lessons. 

The season is still ongoing and has potential but there is a need to improve in some areas to sustain the legacy of the original Gossip Girl series.

You can watch the new Gossip Girl starring Jordan Alexander, Thomas Doherty, Tavi Gevinson, Emily Alyn Lind, Evan Mock, Zion Moreno, Whitney Peak, Eli Brown and Savannah Lee Smith every Thursday, only on HBO Go. XOXO, Gossip Girl.

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