Check out all our lists for BuddyTV's Top 7 of '07 to relive the best and the worst of the year in television.
Don Williams ranked Gossip Girl 7th. He says...
You might think that, as a guy, I'd feel somewhat guilty about loving
Gossip Girl as much as I do. Luckily, the fact that I've had a soft spot for every well-made teen drama from
Degrassi to
The O.C. has made me immune to such guilt.
Gossip Girl continues in the tradition of these shows, with teenagers who are rich, stylish, snarky, and delightfully bitchy all at the same time. Watching them deal with their problems with each other, as well as their parents, while looking impeccable is a wonderful escape each week.
Escapism aside, what really makes
Gossip Girl memorable is a standout cast coupled with a beautiful location. Unlike a show like
90210, the cast is all age-appropriate, and there isn't a weak link to be found in the acting department. Throwing all these pretty people into a city as gorgeous as New York, where the series is actually filmed, really makes a difference in the atmosphere. You don't realize how fake New York looks on most other shows until you see Dan and Serena walking down the real streets together. It's the secret key to the show's success.
Of course, no mention of the series would be complete without praising the voiceover work of
Kristen Bell. As the "gossip girl" of the title, she vibrantly brings to life all the witty narration, adding a zest of cattiness to each episode. It's almost enough to make you forget that
Veronica Mars was canceled.
(click here to read Don Williams' complete Top 7 list)
Debbie Chang ranked Gossip Girl 7th. She says...
Veronica Mars may be gone by the wayside now, but Kristen Bell's snark lives in through my new favorite Wednesday night hobby,
Gossip Girl.
Gossip Girl, I know I love you! XOXO.
What I like most about
Gossip Girl, besides being a sudsy primetime drama about super-rich prep school New Yorkers, is that, not only does it have an impossibly beautiful cast—
Blake Lively who plays Serena van der Woodsen made it to BuddyTV's list of 2007's hottest actresses—but it is just so delightfully blasé about things that would make even Jen Lindley from
Dawson's Creek go blushing to her Grams about. It's wonderfully freeing to watch a show in which the girls actually want to have sex just as much as the boys do, and indulging in vice never results in afterschool-special sap. We never have to suffer through any tedium in the form of lesson-learning. The St. Jude's boys are constantly shown smoking fatties in the middle of the day in Central Park, with nary a police officer or meddlesome busybody in sight. The Constance Billard girls sip martinis in hotel bars with all the sophisticated boredom of 47-year-old divorcées.
The drama is intentionally over-the-top, sometimes with seduction involving
Dangerous Liaisons-style masks. And just like in
The O.C., every fancy dress ball invariably ends in a brawl. But
Gossip Girl is much darker and more cynical that its Californian predecessor, and it never talks down to its teenage audience.
So take a whiff of the rarified air that permeates the Upper East Side and indulge your inner gossip-monger. You won't regret it.
(click here to read Debbie Chang's complete Top 7 list)
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(Image courtesy of the CW)