uptownrn

I've never known TV without the Teenage Primetime Soap, and seeing how the genre has evolved since the days of 90210 has always been interesting to me.

Gossip Girl is a practically perfect example of the genre. The kids of prettier, richer and more screwed up than any kids you actually knew in High School. The problems are absurd of course, but the emotion behind them is real. When you're 16 and 17 your world does largely begin and end with your social circle (Notice I didn't say friends, because to be honest half the time on Gossip Girl the leads aren't friends with each other.) The adult's story lines are swiped right from Josh Scwartz's other highly successful teen drama...but guess what? They worked there too! The real revelation of this series is Leighton Meister as Blair. The only character flawlessly preserved from the pages of Cecily Von Zeisliger's book series, Meister is beautiful, cold and at times neurotic. The rest of the cast is good. Penn Badgley and Blake Lively are oddly beautiful together and their chemistry as Dan and Serena is wonderful. Ed Westwick pulls off Chuck Bass's evil scheming well, he is the guy you love to hate. Little Taylor Mumson is perfect as Little Jenny Humphrey, a character I feel much improved from her literary incarnation.

Yeah, it's not exactly high art, but honestly? It does it's job, it's slick and shiny and wish fulfilling. And the clothes are fantastic.

I love bad movies. I do, I love watching them and laughing at their absurdity. This was a bad movie that I couldn't enjoy.

Maybe it was because I couldn't get passed my previous conceptions of the two leads. To me Paris Hilton is always Paris Hilton, for better or worse I cannot get "That's Hot" and Tinkerbelle and well everything else associated with her public persona. And Jason Mewes...he's Jay, I see him and I wonder where Silent Bob is. (As a side note Kevin Smith is in the film, although not silent, thank God, he's probably the funniest person in it!) And here I was thinking it was impossible to have worse chemistry than Hayden Christiansen and Natalie Portman in Episodes II and III...Oh boy was I wrong. Mewes and Hilton make them look like Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Not that they don't try their best. I can't help but think that this character Owen is closer to the real Mewes than Jay...He's silly and goofy but also a little sweet and incredibly loyal. As for Paris, she seems very uncomfortable as Lisa, which is strange because this is not a person I have ever seen feeling uncomfortable about anything.

Now on to the supporting cast, who I must say, are excellent. Like I said before Smith, as Owen's lazy farting best friend back home, is hysterical. The guy who plays Lisa's boyfriend Hayden is great. Also Owen's Uncle Earl is hysterical, as are the guys in Hayden's "posse" This is definitely worth the rental, but except crap...even from crap...