Get Your Gossip Girl On!
Alright, ever since Gossip Girl hit local screens, people have been asking me about it- so here it is.
Gossip Girl is pretty much this season's biggest guilty pleasure. Think of it as The O.C. for 2008- well, more like 2007 to be exact. The CW came out with the show in mid-September of 2007. As of this writing, we're halfway into the first season, which means you have 13 episodes to catch up on to bring yourself up to speed.
I know it's not a huge huge show, but I've read somewhere that despite the show facing massive competish, Gossip Girl is one of the most downloaded or recorded shows (if not the most) of the season- which means people will probably watch their Bionic Woman or Private Practice or America's Next Top Model (when it was shown on Wednesdays), but people will find some way to get their Gossip Girl fix (via TiVo, or downloaded, or whatever).
The truth is, Gossip Girl was one of the most anticipated new shows of the season. If you didn't already know, the soap is based on the popular novel series (of the same name) written by Cecily von Ziegesar. From Wikipedia:
Gossip Girl revolves around the lives of socialite young adults growing up on New York's Upper East Side who attend elite academic institutions while dealing with sex, drugs, and other teenage issues. Featuring an ensemble cast, the series begins by introducing Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) and best friend Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), as well as Blair's boyfriend Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford). Other characters in the show include Dan (Penn Badgley) and Jenny Humphrey (Taylor Momsen), who become involved in the lives of the main characters despite being less inclined to merge with the upper-east-side crowd. The series is narrated by a seemingly omniscient character, "Gossip Girl" (voiced by Kristen Bell), who runs a blog about her fellow Upper East Siders — consequently stirring the plot and creating potential rivalries in this exclusive and vicious circle of friends.
I can still remember watching the Pilot episode just before Christmas; at the time I was raving about the new shows Chuck and Reaper, and I had this friend who was raving about this one. She checked out Chuck, and I checked out Gossip Girl. Her selling point? "You know, the narrator on that show is Kirsten Bell..." Ding! I'vebeen hooked ever since.Crazy fan-boy...
No, seriously, the story is alright. Josh Schwartz of The O.C. executive produces the show (together with Stephanie Savage), and also incidentally, executive produces Chuck- which was probably why my friend and I liked both shows.
Another reason why both shows feel so right? I have to say it's the music. The soundtrack, man! For that, we credit Alexandra Patsavas- noted musical director who also worked on kickass soundtracks on The O.C., Grey's Anatomy, Supernatural, Chuck and this show- Gossip Girl. From an About.com interview about the music she picks for the show, Alexandra says:
"I'm relying on old favorites while exploring current pop music. And since the show revolves primarily around high school students in New York, we'll definitely be using some New York-based bands. But these kids listen to the radio, too."
So go check it out while the new episodes aren't out yet: Gossip Girl- Mondays 8/7 Central on The CW. Check out the official website here.
Cheers, everyone!
Favorite TV Chicks: Yvonne Strahovski
"Chuck" is undoubtedly one of my more favorite shows for the season. It's a good mix of comedy and action-adventure, with lots of eye-candy, fun characters, and geek-culture references. Looks like production's on hold though, thanks to the ongoing writer's strike.
Which disappoints me to no end, because it means I have to wait quite a bit to see more Yvonne Strahovski on TV. Yvonne is probably this season's breakout female lead. She comes all the way from Australia, where she auditioned from to land the role of CIA Special Agent Sarah Walker on the hit NBC spy thriller-comedy.
Basically her character keeps close to Chuck as a guardian angel of sorts. With a deadly proficiency for throwing knives and other concealed weapons, apparently.
Yvonne's name is really spelled as 'Strzechowski', as in Yvonne Strzechowski. To help us all out, she has been using the more phonetic spelling of Yvonne Strahovski as her stage name.
In any case, I'm just glad Josh Schwartz (same dude who gave us "The O.C." and "Gossip Girl") cast her for the part, and it always is something for fan-boys like me to look forward to whenever "Chuck" comes on.
Check out Yvonne's entry on IMDb here, and her Wikipedia entry here.
As long as TV keeps coming up with delicious eye-candy, this blog's feature on "Favorite TV Chicks" will be on hand to get to know more about our fine female performers who make our TV shows a little bit more interesting. Only on "Too Much TV: Renzie on TV!"
Cheers, everyone!

