Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Gossip Girl: Season 3, Episode 12 'The Debarted' Review


Gossip Girl aspires to achieve a certain goal every time a new episode is aired. Here we had a self depressing Chuck, a misguided Serena, a sibling rivalry and thorn marriages. Now Gossip Girl has taken the road where the end would justify the means and all the other pieces before it could simply fall out of place, so long as everything ends in accordance with the script.

That is why we have characters poking in and out of episodes without any sort of development or back story as to how they claimed even a second of screen time. We also have characters falling in and out of love like a misused hobby and then there are the marriages that come out corrupt and worn down to the ground.

Tripp is a very weak character, he claimed to love Serena and protested to overcome whatever trials that came their way, yet he still ran crying to his wife like a little baby. He has shown no real valor of a congressman, nor has he represented himself as the man he claimed to be. Which makes me wonder why anyone would waste time fighting over him? Surprisingly, I liked Maureen over all the melodrama. The letter, which Maureen used as blackmail, claimed that Lily and Serena's father spent some time in a hotel room. That could only mean that nothing 'under the sheets' happened and Lily was not the 'cheating whore' Maureen made her out to be. Solely because Lily was to ready to tell Rufus the truth and she didn't fear the worst for their marriage.

I felt the feud between Jenny and Eric was short lived and a cheap shot on Eric's part. Did it really take two people to plan the big comeback? Maybe the writers have something else stored for the siblings and their truce revealed to be a bluff, who knows. I just don't know how to feel about Jenny's drug-dealer mentality. I am certain if she asked Lily nicely she could have gotten the extra bags, but her problems seem to go beyond that, and without any direction in her life, she would continue going off course. It's even worse since her very own father couldn't pay attention for two minutes, to notice that his little girl is slipping.

I am actually tired of the whole Blair-Chuck lovie dovieness. I remember how the Bart death was dealt with and couldn't recall Lily's visit to the hospital, so the closure bit was expressed well for Chuck's sake. I did feel that the whole Bart death was spontaneous last season and Chuck handled the covering of his father in the hospital with maturity. The possibility of him seeing his father had something to do with his lightheaded and drunken states, which led to a sense of delusion. Gearing into the Christmas mood, the ghost mental was a somewhat pun for fun.

Dan and Olivia did not get their essential closure they needed to officially end as a couple, and even though Dan is admitting his feelings for Vanessa to himself, I couldn't officially root for them. Every character on this show is in and out of relationships, either with each other or someone completely impromptu. The only 'single' characters are probably the youngest of the cast and their relationships with others can be warped and manipulative as well, so there isn't one real couple worth rooting for.

Since we are all preparing for the Holidays, some our loved series have already taken their mid season break and I could use a break from Gossip Girl for a while, as an early Christmas present. Some of the plots have taken an interesting spin, like Nate's development (hitting Tripp was solid) and Chuck's 'mother'(?), but it's not enough. They are all slight impressions and small twists. The rest of the nonsense (ouch), like Tripp's whining, Serena's naivety, Rufus' spontaneous 'affair' with a spontaneous character and Jenny's rebellion, could really take a hike, because it really drowns out all the plausible elements each episode.

I am not really expecting much now, there were some points in the episode where I sort of, couldn't really care anymore, but just had to watch it for the sake of just letting you all know how I felt about it, but nothing changes.

Does Serena really deserve Nate; I mean he stuck by her side throughout all the bull she gave him?

Lexa

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Three Stars

Grade C-
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2 comments:

wilted willow. said...

i wanted to commend you on your very insightful gossip girl reviews. i had given upon the series after the ongoing "i have a past dan but we can't talk, not yet" and the whole "my indie love can save you serena" saga between dan and serena. although i had hope in series 2, the show might not get so wishy washy and uber days of our lives. i liked the vulnerable chuck and blair thing. but all the zigzag relationships plots and excessive drama between made all hope for the show flat line for me. anyway cheers for the commentary. it justifies the ban.

Lexa Cliche said...

Thank you :) Gossip Girl is getting very sour lately. Honestly if it continues the same trend as you described, I would stop watching it, out of plain annoyance. There is only so much soap opera-washed down story-lines one can tolerate.

On a mellow note, thanks for your comment and I would be sparing the show a few episodes, after that who knows.