TVSquad

As is often the case lately, I watch the first season of a show, fall in love with it (see my Mad Men post from last week), miss the second season on TV, and have to wait for the DVD to be released. By then, I've all but forgotten what happened in season one and have to do a little refresher course.

Such is the case with Gossip Girl, season two of which I've been watching this week on DVD. But, really, it's only taken me a few episodes to get caught back up ...

Serena and Dan are back together after having broken up, and then they break up again in an elevator when they realize yet again that her uptown girl doesn't fit with his downtown boy. I just never get these types of storylines and always find myself thinking, well, why CAN'T they be together as a couple? Why IS the class thing such a big issue? If they really love each other -- which I think these two do -- then they could find a way to make it work. And now Serena's gone all Blair on him and who knows what will happen.

Blair is hanging around with a lord, but still pining for Chuck, even though they're not together anymore. She's just shallow enough to want the lord because he's royalty and maybe she'd get a title out of it, but when Chuck sneaks into her darkened room during a power outage pretending to be the lord, she starts making out with him. When the lord bursts in and finds them, Blair says she thought it was him. Ok, this is THE lamest excuse in the book. If you can't even distinguish your current flame's lips from your ex-flame's lips, something is seriously wrong.

Nate is having an affair with the stepmother of Blair's lord boyfriend, but sort of seeing Vanessa (I think these two have zero chemistry). Talk about your twisted relationships. Add to that the fact that the stepmother loaned Nate money to keep him and his mom out of hock after his dad flew the coop for violating ... something ... and it's just all very twisted. But fun!

And Fun! is why I watch this show. Gossip Girl is the ultimate chick-flick escapist fantasy TV show. The clothes are fabulous, the storylines are like a modern-day Peyton Place meets Dynasty, the people are ultra-rich and live a life I'll never know (which is just as well since they all seem super shallow and pathetic), and ... well, that's all I can think of at the moment. Heck, even the real names of the characters seem like they belong in this show: Penn, Chace, Blake, Leighton, Taylor ...

One other thing: I just realized that Kristen Bell does the voice-over narration. I can't believe I got through season one without figuring that out or looking it up.

At any rate, you really can't put too much thought into Gossip Girl. You just have to take it for what it is. But it did cross my mind as to which guy I'd go for, if given the chance. That's easy. Dan. He's the downest to earth of them all, and he's funny, sexy, and romantic. If he's not available, I'll take his dad, Rufus. Yeah, I'm shallow that way.