Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Gossip Girl 'Valley Girls' Review
Valley Girls, known for a backdoor pilot, is non other than a prequel focusing on Lily van der Woodsen a.k.a (Lily Rhodes).
Want to know Brittany Snow's take on Valley Girls...
So did you like this Valley Girls prequel? I am sure interested in what Lily's life was, it somewhat mirrors Serena's life now. How was Brittany Snow as Lily Rhodes? Did you think she looked like Lily. The transitions between Lily Rhodes and Lily van der Woodsen were well done, as I found myself comparing both individuals and they were somewhat the same. I know they are the same person, but think about it, has Lily van der Woodsen ever really grown up? There is still a hint of Lily Rhodes in there, mixed with a bit of her mother's (Cece) cliche moments.
Like:
Telling Serena 'Mother Knows Best' ...and
Getting Serena arrested for punishment, most moms take away allowances, sentence their children to one month without television or a cellphone, but Lily gets Serena arrested...
Serena getting arrested was done very sloppy in 'The Wrath of Con'. I believed the show had met it's final moments and decided to just pull the final Wild Card.
Surprisingly, Valley Girls, picked up much better than I'd anticipated.
Still for some strange reason I thought I would be seeing Georgina in this installment, since they just dropped the Poppy and Gabriel theme like a hot potato! What happened to Georgina's words to Blair?
Blair - "I don't think Jesus would approve of that."
Georgina - "Well, you can tell Jesus that the bitch is back!"
Where is the bitch now!
Anyway I guess that would be picked up in 'The Goodbye Gossip Girl'.
Even though they needed to use this entire episode to promote Valley Girls, it's not right leaving us hanging in the balance there. I am sure Poppy would not hang around until prom was finished.
Another main theme in the Valley Girls theme was Prom.
Prom signified the end of senior year and it seemed to have brought an end to many things as well;
Blair and Nate
Lily and Rufus
...and a begining for Serena and Dan
Lily and her Mom
It also looked like Nelly, Hazel, Penelope and Isabel were up to no good ...again. It only took Chuck to clean up the mess they created for Blair.
There latest scheme; giving Blair false hope of becoming Prom Queen at the same time crowning Nelly. Those girls really need to grow up! According to Nelly;
"If we do this stuff in college, people would think we're Pathological!"
-> What about Now ladies! What would people think of you when you do those things Now!
Blair got the crown non-the-less, with Chuck's help, by helping Blair be happy on the day. Chuck is always more sappy around Blair, but don't you think it's funny that even though Chuck gave Blair everything she wanted, she still ended up splitting with Nate!
This episode had so many fond moments, that I had to capture it in dialogue!
Blair - "Serena's been in jail for over four hours, she's already served more time than Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan combined"
Chuck - "She's a socialite mistakenly accused of stealing a bracelet, I doubt they're working her over with the phone book"
Nate - "I just can't believe she would actually have her own daughter arrested I mean who does that!"
Chuck - "Someone who's never been arrested!"
-> With reference to Lily of course, does this mean that Chuck doesn't really know the real Lily, because she has been arrested before!
Vanessa - "So was Lily blown away?"
Dan - "Well not really"
Jenny - "Yeah he never actually ah..."
Dan - "...proposed! Minor detail, made a proposal"
Jenny - "Kind of the key ingredient to the recipe"
Dan - "So he came, he went into his room and we haven't seen him since"
Jenny - "Ehemm Hey Dad!"
Dan - "Oh so Prom tomorrow night! What do you say we're staying in, watch some scary movies"
Vanessa - "The scarier the better!"
Jenny - "Absolutely!"
Rufus - "You guys are the Gossip Girl generation, don't expect me to believe you're not into the gossip!"
Dan - "Ah! Nope! I'm only interested in my Nime chow!"
-> This was another scene with Vanessa. We hardly see Jessica Szohr anymore she has had pretty little scenes since the 'Chuck' incident. Now that Nate's free again do you think they'll be hooking them up again?
Rufus - "She had Serena arrested!"
Dan - "What!"
Jenny - "What! Why!"
Rufus - "I suggest you kids stay out of it, let these Van der Woodsen women fight it out themselves!"
-> Sheesh, looks like somebody's holding a grudge. Yet another Rufus and Lily squabble, is it for good this time. Maybe they might bond over their child, seeing that we as viewers know he's still alive!
Gossip Girl - "For those who complain about the youth of today if you think we're bad, you should have seen our parents!"
-> Some how Lily Rhodes reflected the real Serena van der Woodsen.
Young Lily - "I'm not a head shrink or anything, but I do think the sudden uproot of my family from New York, coupled with my parents tumultuous divorce, may have contributed to some recent difficulties that I might be having!"
Richard - "You got kicked out of boarding school!"
Young Lily - "What! Wait wait, how did you know that!"
Richard - "She told me"
Young Lily - "Mom"
Cece - "Hello Lily"
Young Lily - "What are you doing here"
Cece - "If it was up to your father they'd stop me at the county line, but Santa Barbara is really only a prison in my mind!"
Richard - "Good to see you Ce Ce"
Cece - "Wish I could say the same Richard"
-> We now know where Lily get her character from, look at the kind of parents she had!
Young Lily - "You hung up the phone with me and you called her! You didn't even give me a chance to explain!"
Cece - "That's because he would have to parent, and we know he always leaves bad cop to me."
Richard - "Punishing loved ones just comes so much more naturally to some people!"
Blair - "Why are you still in jail!"
Serena - "It's by choice!"
Blair - "Oh God! You're not going to come out of there with a mullet and a girlfriend are you?"
Serena - "My mother didn't think that I was old enough to make my own decisions, so I decided to stay in jail and I'm not leaving until she decides to let me live my own life!"
Blair - "So it's a War of attrition!"
Serena - "So to speak"
Blair - "Except she gets to wage the war from the comfort of her penthouse while you remain behind bars!"
Serena - "...enjoy prom with Nate, like you always planned in that scrapbook that you kept under your bed"
Blair - "Uh! Please, I don't remember that. (Switching through the scrap book) I was a child then"
Serena - "I should go, I don't want to abuse my phone privileges"
Blair - "The fact that you're on an actually payphone has me beyond nauseous. Stay strong S"
(Dorota hands Blair her morning coffee)
Blair - "What's this for?"
Dorota - "Strength! You would need! I have good news and bad news! Which do you want?"
Blair - "Good news first always."
Dorota - "There's replacement!"
Blair - "What are you talking about?"
Dorota - "Makes more sense if you pick bad news first. Your dress for prom the dry cleaners, thy ruined it! (Blair reaches for the dress) "Dis' body bag, corpse not pretty!" :D
Blair - "...but there's a replacement?"
Dorota - "...the good news. Dis morning it arrived from Paris. Jus like in scrapbook!"
-> Dorota is the actual mother figure for Blair.
Blair - "Just like my scrapbook, I don't remember keeping and haven't looked at since I was an early adolescent!"
-> Blair's inner child. All the more Blair wants to grow up, she still has that child within.
Gossip Girl - "Who knew the mother Chucker could also play fairy-godmother? ...but if C just made B's dreams come true why does it feel like our queen is standing with the wrong King?"
-> There goes that 'mother Chucker' reference again. Chuck seems to be getting bad interpretation, what did he eve do to deserve such?
Young Lily - "Do I look like I'm wearing a Halloween costume"
Owen - "No you look good"
Young Lily - "Is this the moment where you fall in love with me? Oh it is isn't it? You're totally falling in love with me right now!"
-> Sounded better when she said it!
Prison Picture Moments (Flashback);
Owen - "You can't use the one you already have on file?"
Young Lily - "Wait! Let me just fix my make-up!"
-----------------------------------------------------------
(Cece and Lily On the phone)
Cece - "Jail ...If I was a better mother I'd leave you in there, teach you a lesson"
So does it make Lily a better mother seeing as she left Serena in jail, even though she's the one that put her there?
Cece - "Lily, the hopes and dreams I have for you, an Ivy League education, life on the Upper East side, married to the richest man in Manhattan"
-> It looks as though Lily did get those things eventually, so why is her life still in array?
Carol - "Hey mom, got a sec...?"
Cece - "Carol! This is your chance to be a big sister and finally offer some actual guidance to Lily. Her future's at stake"
Carol - "Which is why she needs to be far away from you! This is how it's going to be mom, Lily's staying with me for a while"
Cece - "Carol let's be reasonable, we both the first time that she breaks a nail rides a city bus or God forbid actually steps foot in a public school, she'll come running home!"
Carol - "Well, that's really up to Lily now isn't it!"
Cece - "Just tell her to sit tight, I'm coming for her"
Carol - "No mom, you sit tight, she'll call you later!"
-> Carol and Lily did learn to travel in style when Carol sold her car to get out of prison.
Blair - "I really wanted to go to prom with my High school boyfriend... and now that I have."
Serena - "He feels like your high school boyfriend"
Gossip Girl - "Shoulder pads may come and go, but a bff is forever, because even when you're not sure where you're headed, it helps to know you're not going there alone."
So Cece may have caused a split between Owen and Lily, that may be why he's not present in Lily's life!
Brittany Snow does look like Kelly Rutherford, except the difference in eye color. Brittany's eyes are blue and Kelly's are grayish-brownish. Although I read in an Article that your eye-color does change as you grow older...
This was my favorite episode of Gossip Girl this season. Some may disagree with me, but the acting was solid, the flashback scenes were well placed and everything just fell into place. I am actually interested in the Valley Girls prequel!
Gossip Girl may not have the same spunk like Season one, and this episode might not make up for some past episodes they just passed us of with, but by the length of this review I'm sure you must already know that I liked this one. Definitely a different take on the overall series.
I just hope that they would conclude the Georgina mode quickly and I hope it would end better than her last encounter in Season one.
So, are you excited for The Goodbye Gossip Girl?
...and how much did you enjoy that performance from No Doubt!
Special Credit goes to:
No Doubt
Krysten Ritter as Carol Rhodes
Brittany Snow as Lily Rhodes
Lexa
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Four and a half out of Five Stars
Grade B+
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