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"Gossip Girl" Premiere Recaplet
*** Spoilers Ahead! *** Gossip Girl kicked off its much anticipated second season last night, and the episode had most of the rich kids hanging around the Hamptons for an end of summer last hurrah – the White Party – and if you’re expecting P. Diddy to be in any way involved with this soiree you’re going to be disappointed – the way the show interprets "The White Party" it's pretty much overwhelmingly white and waspy. Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meister) is a late arrival. She's been in Paris all summer with her two gay dads nursing a broken heart because resident bad boy Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) stood her up at the airport in last season's finale. Determined to make amends, Chuck arms himself with a bouquet of flowers and heads to the "jitney station" (it's like a bus station only much fancier) to escort her back to Grandma Van der Woodsen's swanky Hamptons mansion. May I say, Ed Westwick is looking vastly better this season. I think it's the new hairdo...
Ed Westwick Unfortunately for Chuck, Blair is determined to make him jealous so she's brought with her a handsome but bland Georgetown student who she pretends to be madly in love with. Now it's Chuck's turn to be crushed. Serena & Nate have been pretending too. They've been masquerading as a couple all summer. Serena needs a pretend boyfriend so "all the guys will leave her alone" and Nate (Chace Crawford) needs some cover because he's having a clandestine affair with an older married woman (Madchen Amick). Amick looks great by the way - her "Twin Peaks" are as perky as ever. Nate has fallen hard for the married woman, but she only seems to be toying with his affections. When her husband arrives home early she pushes Nate out her second story bedroom window and tosses his clothes after him. It's a total cliché but at least offers an excuse to see Chace Crawford in his boxer shorts.
Chace Crawford The show's poor kids, siblings Dan (Penn Badgely) & Jenny (Taylor Momsen) are stuck back in the NYC. Jenny's summer internship in the fashion industry has made her a de facto indentured servant to a total bitch of a boss, Laurel, who viciously insults the little mousy girl, hands her a giant box of beads to sort, and tells her "She'll never go to the ball!" Okay, so I'm paraphrasing - still it's basically the Cinderella plotline. CinderJenny decides she has to crash the White Party in the Hamptons so she can get her dress seen by high society. So she calls her fairy godfriend Eric Van der Woodsen (Connor Paolo) (Gossip Girl's resident gay guy and patsy doormat), and he agrees to escort her because, well, she's basically the only friend (and storyline) he has. I feel for the guy. I notice, like Westwick, that Connor Paolo's hair is much better this season. He's gone back to his natural color.
Connor Paolo Jenny's brother Dan has spent the summer as assistant to a celebrated drunken author, Jay McInerney, who is pretty much playing himself. Dan was supposed to finish a short story but has writer's block because he still has feelings for Serena. Jay McInerney fires him from his assistant's job because of the writer's block (I know - it makes virtually no sense), and Dan determines to head out to the Hamptons to find Serena and try to resolve their relationship. Needless to say, everyone winds up at the Hamptons White Party and hijinks ensue. Grandma van der Woodsen, recovered now from cancer and inexplicably a "nice" character (last season she was a high riding bitch!) invites Dan along as her "plus one" so he can reunite with Serena.
Penn Badgeley Unfortunately, when he walks into the party Serena and Nate, to make the married lady jealous, are in the midst of making out. Across the room, little Jenny has a glass slipper moment when her dress is complimented by a high society fashionista right in front of her witchy boss.
Blair finally admits that she's bored with her trophy boyfriend and tells him she's only spending time with him to make Chuck jealous. Her fake date has a confession of his own: He's not an american college student - He's a British Lord! (Cue the hilarious mid-sentence switch from midwestern American twang to upper crust British accent.)
Suddenly Blair is interested in the guy for real, and when Chuck can't quite bring himself to tell her he loves her, she hops into her British lord's Jaguar and peels off. All in all a decent start for the second season. What were your favorite moments from last night's episode?
Submitted by on Tue, 2008-09-02 13:13. |
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Ha-Ha Hamptons
God, I am so embarassed by the fact that I watch all these pretty people fuck up over the stupidest things. Is there a realtionship between Sererna and Surreal, maybe she walked on the wrong set and just decided to stay. I think it would have been more appropriate if the gusets at the white party were gossiping about famous people off camera. The Mortimer girl is almost unknown to the average TV watcher but maybe GG intends to stunt cast a different heiress every week. All the waiters hovering everywhere was a bit much and yet nary a mention of TOWN AND COUNTRY events like the horseshows and other glitterati parties by recognizable names like Martha Stewart, the Spielbergs, Ralph Lauren. But I knit pick to disguise my loathsome attendance at all these fab kids frolics. Let's start a campaign to get Nate's Butt Naked, NBN, anyone?
Also, maybe Eric van der Woodsen, can be the new Jimmy Donahue, you know the gay Woolworth heir who danced with the Duchess of Windsor. He practically invented the term "fag hag." Of course, you knew that, didn't you?
I'm hoping Blair's new boyfriend is not only British but gay
He'll make a pass at Eric which Chuck overhears and it all ends in a threeway.
Well that's the show I'D write!
I thought the same thing
Ed is looking particulary well in this episode. But really, the guys must have spent the summer popping pretty pills, they are all looking fine.
A few days ago I read an article about Westwick that mentioned Erics character, and mentioned he was the most tame and boring (not in those words) of the lot. With an interesting and highlighted parentesis next to it...(for now). Nothing more. So I hope he wont be invisible this season and they give him something interesting.
He could be a very useful "go-between"
Last night he helped Jenny out. Very nice of him. In terms of the overall plot and characters he "knows where the bodies are buried," and thus can be counted on to pop in and out in any number of interesting ways.
Naturally I'd like to see him have a regular boyfriend or -- this being Gossip Girl and all -- get betrayed again by someone spectacular.
Ohj, my where was Momma van der Woodsen?
Is she still on her honeymoon with Daddy Bass? And what of Elanor Waldorf? Or, Blair's posse too? There are so o many missing cast members. Despite its fame and noteriety GG is not a huge hit in the ratings so maybe there has been some budget cleansing
Eric's role
I'm torn about Eric's role in the show. One one hand, I prefer the fact that he's the most mature person on the whole show. He's responsible, has a backbone of steel, can stand up for himself and gives first-class advice. If that's not a round-about personality, I don't know what is. Being able to forgive a person, empathic to their reasons and motives, like with Jenny in this episode, is a wonderful trait.
On the other hand, being a mature adult, especially at his age, is not something you make drama with, especially for a show like this. So if he stays the Eric we've seen until know (and which I personally love most for his courage and mature behaviour), he won't get much more screen time. If they turn him around and give him more to do, he'll turn into another broken/bitter and overly dramatized character that is already typical for GG.
It's a bit of a dilemma for the writers, I think. Personally, I'd like him to be the one person on this show to develop a healthy relationship that is not based on pretenses and misguided trust and lies. But again, most people will possibly find this very boring, so we won't see very much of it, should it occur.
Even if Eric strays from
Even if Eric strays from his character, I'm hoping that the writers attribute it to his youth and the follies of it. I think that they can get away with a momentarily wild Eric because he is such a strong, confident character. Chuck is a borderline sociopath and Blair is a caustic wench(and I love them both for it). They've sorta passed the point of no return, but I think that Eric will always find his way back to Eric.
Then again, considering that he's had 3 minutes of screentime in a season, I might be presuming too much of Eric, as I am "apparently" known to do.
Chuck