There are few people more annoying in this world than those who seem to glide effortlessly through life, being perfect at everything without even trying. Jenny's (Taylor Momsen) assessment of the Serena-Blair dialectic in last night's episode of Gossip Girl was spot on. Serena has no discernible talent in anything other than pouting, but she is so beautiful that she can get away with murder – err, or at least, accidentally overdosing a guy with his own drugs. On the other hand, Blair is cunning, has a strategic mind that Machiavelli himself would kill to have and continually proves her intelligence with every cutting one-liner she makes. There's no question which one is smarter and more determined to achieve success, yet it's always Serena, Serena, Serena who gets all the attention.

I had a Serena back when I was in college. She was my roommate for a year, and she was perfect in every way. She had the perfect wardrobe and always looked so polished even though she hardly took any time at all getting ready in the morning. She got perfect grades but still managed to have tons of time to socialize with her friends, and now she is making strides in her perfect, lucrative career. Back then, she hardly noticed that she would turn the heads of every boy who walked by. My God, how I used to envy her. I have this compulsive need to be the center of everyone's attention, but here was this brainy, leggy beauty, handily diverting all eyes away from me.

Likewise, even when Serena (Blake Lively) does something wrong, she still gets all the attention. Did anyone notice how she hammed it up at the end of the runway in the Eleanor Waldorf fashion show? The way she belabored her poses there was enough to make Mr. and Miss J tsk-tsk disapprovingly. But no, the fashion photographers on Gossip Girl just ate her all up.

I've gained some perspective about my toxic friendship with my former roommate, and I've come to realize that she and Serena have one thing in common: neither of them has much of a personality. They may seem outwardly perfect because they can command attention as easily as Neil Peart can rip through a drum solo in “Tom Sawyer,” but neither of them has much creativity or original insight or chutzpah. My college arch-nemesis didn't stray a single step from the prescribed conveyor belt of college to post-graduate school to great career, but maybe she just didn't have the guts to take chances or the inclination to do anything remotely outside the box. I'd like to think this is true, anyway. Who knows if it really is, in my case?

One thing I do know for sure is that, when push comes to shove, I'd much rather that Blair (Leighton Meester) have my back than Serena. Blair knows the meaning of hard work, the satisfaction of accomplishing something, even if it means resorting to ruthlessness. Serena, with her looks and reputation and inherited wealth, will have no trouble gliding through life without lifting a finger, and that's just fine for her. But Blair has all that, plus a strong work ethic and a desire to conquer the world.

Speaking of work ethic, someone who should work a little bit harder at life is Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley). He calls himself a “writer” when all he does is write about exactly what happens in his uninteresting life, changing a few names, and calling it creative writing. OK, calling the Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) character in his story “Charlie Trout” was pretty genius, but he has no inkling of what the creative process is like. He is just like Dawson Leery, the self-proclaimed “film maker” in Dawson's Creek, whose character ended the series by creating a teen soap exactly like his own life, without changing a single detail. Actually, this is more of a criticism of Dawson's Creek creator Kevin Williamson because the show was supposedly a re-hashing of his own coming of age experience, which means that Kevin Williamson was essentially writing about himself writing about himself. Talk about wallowing in self-gratification.

But I digress. The moral of the story is: as the war between Blair and Serena continues this season on Gossip Girl, I'm putting all my money on Blair's victory.



-Debbie Chang, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of the CW)