Gossip Girl Recap | 20
Show Notes:
Hello Gossip Girl Sequel... continuation? In this Episode my friend Sarah and I RECAP the new Gossip Girl Episode 1.
Transcript:
Julia: Hey friends. Welcome to pop culture makes me jealous. And on today's show, I am joined by one of my dearest friends, Sarah, and we are bringing you a recap of episode. One of the gossip girl, sequel reboot. We're going to get into it.
Sarah. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited. I'm super excited. Now for the listeners of this show, we are doing a recap of episode one. I don't remember what the title of that one is, but it doesn't really matter because we don't care. Just another girl in the NMT. Thank you. And we'll continue to do so throughout the series pairing, and I believe they're only going to air the first six episodes and then make us wait for the rest, which is fucked up.
Okay. Now let's dive in. First the recap,
Sarah: the recap. Okay. The recap and our first episode and meeting the new students of Constance billard and St. Jude's and St. Jude's. Yeah, it begins like an episode of glee. It really did. And I really couldn't get that out of my head the entire time I was watching it much like the first series.
It, it begins with like how a lot of teen dramas start, where the kids are getting ready for their first day of school. And we go to each kid's house and you kind of get a glimpse at what the dynamic might be in their home. And then also we get introduced to the main teachers, which play an important factor in this.
Portion of the gossip girl universe. And I'm going to say the gossip girl universe, because this is not a reboot. It's a sequel. This is a continuation. Yeah. It's a continuation of the original storyline. And this morning, Josh Schwartz announced that original front runner from the original series, several of them are going to be an episode 10 in the fall.
Oh my God. That's probably strikes throughout. That's how they're going to get everybody to come back. So if the first six episodes are terrible,
Julia: horrible, we're still going to tune are going to come right back in.
Sarah: So we meet all these kids. So we meet all these kids and we get a quick glimpse of their dynamic in their home, a quick glimpse of their socioeconomic status and the inner workings of the rankings within the top 1%.
And how there's. Wealthy and there's just rich. Right? And then there's middle class girl from
Julia: nowhere. And the premise, which was interesting to me is that you have these two girls, Zoya and Julian who we later find out. Not that much later that they're
Sarah: half sisters. Yes. They're half sisters. And that it was a, it was tabloid fodder when it happened, because Juliette's Julian, Julian, Julian.
Yeah. I don't know why. Yeah. Julian's mother left her father who was a record producer for a nobody and had another daughter. I'm not understanding how they're both the same age when she's 16, one's 14. I thought they were both freshmen. See, I miss
Julia: Julian Julian's is, cause it's real quick in the beginning where she's like where the what's her face Monet is like, you know, first day of junior year.
But if it was the second time watching the episode that I caught that. Okay.
Sarah: I did not catch that. I'm sorry. So that's
Julia: the pro that's what I think the premise is the show is going to be is the dynamics between the two, not just because they're half sisters, but because they're trying to pull the Blair
Sarah: Serena bright and then.
Full-on diving into spoiler alerts on our show floor 100%. So yeah, they're they're sisters and it comes out that Julianne aided and getting her sister into the soil into the school and did not tell soya that she was the one who helped her get into the school. But also how, how naive can you be that you think that your, your very, very super wealthy half sister didn't have anything to do with you getting into the school she goes to?
Yeah, I,
Julia: but she's 14. So maybe she has that much. Potentially. So throughout the whole episode, we have these sort of situations, but let's, let's touch on the teachers really quickly and how they play into this particular
Sarah: episode. So this is why all I can think about as glee, we're living in a world where the students no longer feel any kind of respect or threat from and consequences from their educators.
And so they, they knock a teacher over and still coffee all over her and a student and blame it on her. They get a teacher fired for not changing a grade all within the first episode. So you get this real insight into the fact that they, they ruled the school, right? Whereas in the first series, the students often said they ruled the school and the teachers were kind of anonymous and not really super important.
Right. They weren't really a part of the storyline. They went to school, but like, did they ever really go to school? Did we ever really see them in class? So this is more of a. It touches on that teacher relationship. Right. But the hygiene by the teachers makes it kind of campy for me. Yes. So,
Julia: so to kind of deviate a little bit from the recap, I did not care for finding out who gossip girl
Sarah: is.
In the first episode, I was so angry. I was angry
Julia: as well. And then, and then to add to that, you have this sort of like fight or flight feel to the response of them doing it. And it just feels icky. And not in a way of like, this is, you know, good trashy TV in a way where you're just like, I, you know, I met what made gossip girl G so great was because the tips came in anonymous.
Sarah: And that students, not just students, people all around people around sent in tips to gossip girls. So gossip girl really wasn't one person. I mean, it was one person, it was Dan Humphrey. Right, right. We're not, we're not
Julia: ruining anything if you
Sarah: find that out until season six
Julia: and I think episode five. Right?
So even episodes, like the final episode we
Sarah: find out right off the bat on the show, we are finding out that it's the teachers, a group of
Julia: teacher, a group of teachers, which is even more awkward because, so, okay. So those of you who've been listening, you understand and know that. Do social media in my daily life.
And the thing that always stresses me out is when other people want access to our platforms, because that makes you move more vulnerable for hacking and whatnot. So the whole time I'm like you guys are going to get fucking caught because you're dumb ass people who don't understand that you probably shouldn't be sharing login the login information on each of your devices because vulnerable point number one, number two, you're probably like texting these pictures to each other, to get them.
So then now you have a fucking quote, paper trail, like receipts, receipts
Sarah: for days, for days. And then also for people who didn't know earlier in the day that Twitter wasn't going to get them where they needed to go with these gen Z students, um, gen Z, right? Yeah. Gen Z gen Z students is. And then, then by that night, they're experts at it and they figured it all out and they, and they figured out their algorithms and they're, they know what to do.
Julia: Me. I've got people who work in social media and who still can't figure that shit out. Right.
Sarah: And so there's the, the I'm giving the livability on, on the whole premise of how gossip girl, 2.0, as they named it, came to be, I'm getting that like a D minus, like everything about it for me as a D minus. And that.
Layer for me is super campy. And, um, I'm not knocking the show. I'm just saying that for me, I could, it, it takes me out of the world of gossip girl. So every time we cut to a scene where the teachers are, fathers are plotting like children, but they're supposed to be the adults in the situation. And not even in a soap opera beat way more like a campy kind of cheesy, cheesy kind of way.
It's, it's just, it takes me out of the element of the show. Yeah. So, oh, we, we laid a digress,
Julia: but here's the thing about it. When we live in a day and age where. The concept of gossip girl could be so great, right? Because it was so revolutionary when the book's released in 2002, because this idea of like, oh my gosh, like we, that didn't exist before.
Like, those things didn't exist before. And then you have to show that sort of builds on that with the blog and all this stuff. Now we have social media, we have accounts that are dedicated to spilling celebrity gossip, blind items, et cetera. Like, why didn't you tap into that concept a little bit better is what I'm thinking.
So
Sarah: Josh Swartz is an executive producer on the new one, right? He was on the first one as well. Right. I definitely feel his age. Yeah,
Julia: no, it's not because, because NPR, even in their, in their review of the show said something to the effect of something similar. Like it feels like a bunch of 40 year old women having these sort of situations.
Kind of wish I hadn't read that article before I watched the episode. Cause I can't
Sarah: un-see it. Well, I did not read the article yet, but it does feel like more real Housewives than it does teenage drama. Yes. The other thing I want to touch on there is, okay, so storyline goes, recap, goes, uh, girls meet at school.
They then meet in a bathroom and they reveal it's revealed to the audience that they know each other. And they, they knew, of course they knew they were half sisters, but also they know each other and they have. Cultivating a relationship via DMS and text messaging for a few years.
Julia: And their parents
Sarah: don't know their fathers don't know their fathers have no idea.
Not even the friend groups know mom is deceased. That's that comes up very quickly. In the beginning. The girl Julianne is an influencer on social media and she has two crony best friends who kind of just live for
Julia: her, which one of them? The third one, the blonde, I forgot her name, Audrey. She, she felt more of a Blair vibe to me than Julian.
Audrey
Sarah: hope, Audrey hope. So. What's interesting about Audrey hope is she's played by an actress named Emily Lin and Emily lens is probably has the most credits out of anybody on that show. I mean, amazing credits she's. Um, she was in Dr. Sleep with Ewan McGregor couple of years ago. Also, she just loved
Julia: that
Sarah: album come out last year and I went ahead and listened to it and it gives me like singer songwriter.
It's really well done. Um, she's incredibly talented. So I'm actually really excited to see if they're going to develop her character in a way that showcases that she's an incredible talent that they sport. And a lot of the other actors who are in the show are they're either coming off of other teen soap type things.
I know that the girl who plays Zoya. Um, she played Judith Blackwood and the chilling adventures of Sabrina. Oh. So she was one of father Blackwoods the twins go into purgatory and he, and then they come back and they live in the doll house. She was one of those trends and she's only 18 years old. She's probably the youngest cast member.
Everybody else is 25, 26. She's she's the youngest one, you know, Thomas Doherty. We know him from Disney. Um, and I believe he was on a soap opera in England that we don't get, but it's on BBC prior to being on the Disney channel. So, but Emily Lynn has actual like. Credits, lots of credits. Um, so I'm interested to see where her character goes.
And I feel like the
Julia: friend group, I feel like the friend group is too big because in the sense of, so you have all seven people. What was great about the original gossip role was you had like a core five, and then you had like sub characters that didn't really need to be there, but they helped sort of move certain storylines forward.
When you have like an ensemble cast. Like this one where you need that rival. So the rival is going to be the two sisters that I think created rival the created rival between the two sisters, because in the, in the end, the teachers decided that they need to create a rival that's part of the
Sarah: premise for, because the premise is sin.
Yeah, of course the two girls fall for it, hook, line, and sinker by the end of episode one and they're, and they're mortal enemies and they're partying ways. So, but,
Julia: but because of that, then you have, um, but then you have these other characters because there's like little bits throughout the show. I don't know if you, you noticed them, but when we first meet, uh, Matt Wolf, he's.
Super adorable. And I think he's super, super handsome and I'm glad he's over 18 because now I can feel okay about thinking he's handsome. But when you, when you sort of, when you see them sort of come together as a friend group, he and, um, Audrey Hope's boyfriend have a moment. Yes. A really sweet and tender moment that is like, but it's quick.
Sarah: AQI AQIM AQI, that's his name? AQI on the show.
Julia: Yes. All right. I should have written down. I I'm terrible at this game. I was just so excited that it was finally, I
Sarah: get strong, strong, obviously spoiler alert. Maxwell's character is clearly a. Yes, and no, I don't get the Creek five off of him. I get the, um, sexually fluid party guy, Yolo.
Um, but I, but I don't right now, I don't get creep and I
Julia: feel like that could potentially come
Sarah: later. It could. I also though, see, I definitely see his character developing with Audrey and Evan, Evan, I think his real name. So as real name is Evan mock. Okay. So his name is Evan mosque. Okay. I see that relationship being like a really fun side story arc.
Um, and, um, I agree.
Julia: I actually want to see more of him than I do any of the others at this point, because when we first meet him, there's three adults in his house. Not that we need people to explain their lives, but I am curious how it all fits.
Sarah: Yes. And I feel like, I feel like Julian's two friends for two side.
Julia: Yeah. Monet and what's the other one called me. They're
Sarah: disposable. And they're still disposable. They're just classic mean girls doing classic
Julia: mean girl shit. Yeah. They're awful. Julian comes off as this really sweet, nice person in the beginning. And by the end of episode one, you're just like, oh, maybe you're like the rest of them.
Sarah: I still think she's a sweet, nice person. I think she's so worried about losing the only thing she has. And I say the only thing she has, because we hear that her dad is an alcoholic and that he's not present a lot. And then she, she goes into a full conversation about how she worked so hard to become an influencer.
And that's an interesting thing about the generation below us is that. W we did not completely come of age with nothing but social media. We had magazines to stare at and cause us to be eating disorder of written makeup, buying shoppers, um, shopaholics.
Julia: Right. And some of them didn't even show up until we were like,
Sarah: yeah, we didn't have this whole lifestyle in our face, in our hands.
From the time we were nine years old, 10 years old. Um, so to her that is life. That is everything in life, right. She's afraid to
Julia: lose it, which is very common. I feel like that would be a very normal thing to feel when you're in that, when you've gotten
Sarah: that far and, um, and not recognizing. There are a lot of influencers that come from apartments in the middle of nowhere, but there are a lot of influencers like this character who come from wealthy families and, um, large labels give them things and they, and they built that as a brand for themselves because shed a building on any talent you might have, you're going to do this and step
Julia: now you have to find something that you can do.
Julene is team mixed girl. I don't know if the actress is mixed in real life, but the character she's playing on the show is mixed. She is mixed. Oh, fabulous. But she
Sarah: will was written for her. I love that.
Julia: And the guy that plays her dad, Luke Kirby. Um, so I, I have this theory that you can draw everything back to Casa girl.
I mean, you can draw everything back to Gilmore girls. Oh yeah. Kirby is Lenny Bruce on marvelous, Mrs. Maisel. Okay. Marvelous. Isn't nasals developed and created by Amy Sherman, Palladino who also created Gilmore girls.
Sarah: It's a six
Julia: degrees. It's a six degree. Um, but when I saw him come in to her closet to say, oh, I have to go to LA blah, blah.
I was like, please give me more of him because I
Sarah: love you. I think we will see. I'm not sure we will get the meddling parents the way we did in the beginning series in the first series. Yeah. But you never know right now, it seems to be the adult center is on this group of four teachers who have created a backyard club.
Julia: Does this qualify as
Sarah: bullying students? He-Man woman haters club. '
Julia: cause I feel like don't you think that you could get fired? Like I fear, like you're not getting changing the grades, but this is actually like, I feel like this could be punishable by,
Sarah: but maybe they feel like, fuck it. But yes, I feel like this could definitely be punishable by law.
Um, taking photos of people without their permission in under age people, without their permission. Um, in various states of undress. Stocking. There's just like a whole list of things. And when it was Dan Humphrey and he was a fellow student who was just jealous and just trying to do something for himself, that would look great on his college applications and was a total douchebag.
He was just a douche bag. Unfortunately he ruined Penn Badgley for me. Oh,
Julia: well, if that didn't ruin it, then you would ruin it.
Sarah: You know, actually have that sick obsession with him where they actually like Joe, like they like to hate Joe. They, they think Joe is sexy even though Joe is a crazy serial killer.
Um
Julia: wow.
Sarah: That that's really telling, so yeah, so that's a thing, but Penn Badgley as Dan Humphreys, he, I will never see him in any light other than being that guy. Yeah. Um, I do think that that's much different than a group. We're assuming. Okay. We're assuming that the youngest, they could be 23, 24, 23, 24.
They had to go through cause like, what are the
Julia: rules in New York to be able to teach? You know what I mean? Not every state has a credentialing program like California.
Sarah: I believe New York does have a credentialing program. Um, however, private schools don't necessarily don't necessarily require it. Um, and there is a conversation that happens in the nightclub in Dumbo.
Oh yeah. Where they are, where they talk. Um, whereas Soyuz character talks about how private school teachers are actually paid less than public school teachers in the state of New York and how they make less than customer sales representatives. And it's just like terrible, terrible, terrible job. I don't.
I don't know if in real life, those statistics are true. I wish I would have looked that up before we talked about this. Um, because why, why would you do it? Why wouldn't you go work for a title one school in the Bronx and then, well, like the blonde girl said, because
Julia: it's the school that produced Colson Whitehead is the only name I remember that she mentioned.
Oh, and the Archibald, there was a couple references to the OGs, which I love Archibald. Yes. Okay. We're going to have to do an OJ gossip girl episode because I got thoughts on the Archibald. Oh, he's so stupid. He's so hot. It's not okay. How hot he is, but we'll, we'll get, he is aging. Well, and now I'm just like, Hmm.
We'd have beautiful children. Is that thing you want to, is Crawford? Are you dating somebody? Is this an appropriate? Am I lusting after somebody's boyfriend? Cause that's not. Okay.
Sarah: Like it's okay to window shop. Anybody, you're not buying. You're just looking. It's
Julia: okay to look. But did you see, I didn't catch the Zoe's dad at the end of the episode
Sarah: finds out.
Julia: Yes. And he has an email from somebody, but I can't, I've watched the episode twice. I still can't catch who it's from before he deletes
Sarah: it. So listeners, we will come back to that next week and find out. And if any of you find out who it is before we do, just to wrap it in the comments when we drop this last?
No, because I'm thinking, cause
Julia: I, my, I speculate that it's the other dad, but it may not be because the other dad seems like he's blissfully ignorant because he's self-consumed with his deejaying career. Rich. If Luke Kirby showed up, I would be okay with that come DJ at our clubs. They're not as great as the ones in LA, but you know what?
They'll turn up.
Sarah: I think that. As a 30, late 30 something watching this show and coming into it myself at a different space than when I was 22. And the original show aired when the original show aired, although the students were in high school, I very much felt connected to the students. And I felt a relationship to the students and in seeing it in myself and seeing it in things I wanted in life and seeing it and seeing the luxury they had and it being on par with what girls, my age were wanting to attain.
Julia: And it was still attainable because we were so young. Yes. Now at 37,
Sarah: you know, watching it feels.
Julia: I'm going to watch it. Yes.
Sarah: Obviously watching it feels
Julia: hook, line and sinker. I
Sarah: am in oddly voyeuristic, almost like I'm too old. I'm too old to be. It's a raccoon. We are in my backyard. There's a raccoon. I live by a river. That was a second. I'm almost too old to be watching this. It's almost going to be like a sick, guilty pleasure.
I think that's
Julia: true for all of us over
Sarah: 30. And I'll be honest, outing myself by agreeing to record this. Then I'm watching this.
Julia: You're the reason why I started on God, by the way, this is all
Sarah: your fault. I will say one of my OJI gossip, girl, loving friends, who I used to text back and forth with every week about their show.
We don't talk all the time, but she contacted me today and was like, I don't know how I feel about this. Are we watching it? Yes, we're watching it girl. We're going to
Julia: watch it. So to your point though, there's a lot of things. Obviously New York children are different than the children in the area in which we live, obviously.
Yes, that's true for anything, but there's a scene between Audrey and her boyfriend where I'm just like, well, first of all, I was not that evolved sexually. And for her to be self-aware enough that she's having some sort of psychological fuck when they're having winter, Missy. I'm like, I'm like my mom listens to the show.
Um, and like, is that, is, is that like, Oh man, like, I guess imagine a 16 year old being that self-aware that sexually evolutionized, that's not a thing, but I'm trying to make it right. You know where I'm going because you're, you're 16 you're or at least in my ex that you're clumsy, you're awkward. You know, you're still trying to figure out how to
Sarah: your boobs being two different sizes and or what your body looks like naked.
And like it's on your side and, oh
Julia: shit. I forgot a tampon. And like, you know, it's just little weird things about all the hormones that are running through that are making you feel super insecure and not very, self-aware not very solid, like, and we've had this conversation before friend where I'm just like, no, I know I was a very beautiful person at one point and I'm determined to get back there.
But like, even in that mindset of knowing that I was beautiful at 16, I still wasn't like. My sexuality, my sexuality didn't exist. It was not evolved at all. I don't even think I was that aware until late twenties. So
Sarah: the first, the first season, the first OGE gossip girl, we see a little bit of that insecurity and Blair Waldorf.
Yes. We have not viewed the sexuality of all of the characters yet. And so I'll be interested to see which character that is or where that comes in and not just the. Innocent Virgin arc, but also the physically insecure, emotionally insecure, emotionally unavailable, teenage lest.
Julia: Right. Um, they're friends make comments about how they're monogamous and married, you know, that's their relationship and it feels, and yes, there are couples that exist like that in a sense of like, they can't do anything without each other because they're dating and hook to hook to each other.
But to the level of which they're so aware. And he even
Sarah: in Blair, we're a power couple. Yes. And they were the monogamous couple that everybody wanted to be. And I feel like it's interesting that in this series we see storylines that are snippets little parcels. Main storylines from the old series. And there it's not that they're being rehashed.
It's that it's like, they've been diversified.
Julia: Sure. They've divvied it up. There's not a clear chock. There's a clear
Sarah: name. It's not a remake, it's a continuation. And those are added. Those are human nature attitudes. And those are situations that happen tale as old as time. Right. Um, I am interested to see like how you said that this is in PR said something about 40 year old women and producers writing a show about teenagers.
And I feel like, yes, I feel like this is not as fresh
Julia: because I feel like even though I, you know, we were pretty sophisticated for 16 in our time, but we weren't at that
Sarah: level. No. And I feel like also these characters. And it's hard not to compare. You don't want to compare because it's not supposed to be a reboot.
Right. But when being such a huge fan of the original series, when the first series aired, it was groundbreaking, it was on prime time TV. They said the F word, there was sex. There was drugs, there was terrible things, terrible and quotes, air quotes that these young people were doing. And they did it all with their LG chocolate phones.
Why do you try to make that cool,
Julia: just like when they tried to make the sidekick cool and Kilmore
Sarah: theories, but there was so much about it where you're watching it and you're going, I can't believe I'm watching this on the CW. I can't believe I'm watching this on the CW and here we are. And by the time that show ended, and then now, you know, it's been 10 years, 10 years since that show ended.
It's almost as if, as a society we've been desensitized to this type of sensationalism, because television largely is on streaming platforms and they can say and do
Julia: it's a lot of stuff because HBO is pretty provocative fit, but it was a subscription. So it could be because it's limited audience for a CWS, like anybody with an antenna, it's got CWU.
Sarah: The first episode is being aired on CW. I am unsure tomorrow.
Julia: I wonder how they're, if they're going to clean it up. Cause there's no space for commercial breaks.
Sarah: I, I it's an hour and a half on the CW interest. It's from eight to nine 30 tomorrow night.
Julia: And so at the CW, can I watch
Sarah: it? Everybody has the CW girl, that's the point, right.
Everybody had the CW at eight o'clock at night, on a Tuesday. I know that's pretty much Gigi. Like that was crazy. Right. Um, so there is an element to this that it doesn't feel, I, it doesn't feel so racy to me. And maybe that is life experience on my old part, you know, that's or maybe that is, and, and it just goes to remind me, my youth is gone or maybe it is the desensitization of society as a whole due to the way that we view and stream content.
Now. I mean, I have everything in the tip of my hand. I can, I can literally watch anything on my phone and I lift the touch of a finger. Yeah. So there isn't the, there isn't the anticipation. Now we do have to wait a week to see the next episode, but it's not, it's not the anticipation of, oh my gosh, what will they do next?
Because we know where this,
Julia: and it's fun. It's interesting that you say that because the whole time I'm watching it, I'm like, when does this get it? When is this going to get provocative? Where's the
Sarah: racy. Where's the crazy, because you know, you've got, okay, you've got a, um, you've got a hint at a, at a monotonous.
Woah. Cool.
Julia: We've seen those.
Sarah: They maybe kind of thought about taking some ecstasy on TV. Okay.
Julia: We've seen that. You've seen that anybody who's seen euphoria. I mean, but like with, especially with, um, Matt Wolff's character, there's so much potential there that I hope they don't get stuck in a trope of some kind.
You know what I mean? And I'm
Sarah: thinking that he is
Julia: so fluid and I love that for him because. I don't know how much we've seen of fluidity on, you know, it's been very much like someone's gay, someone's bisexual, we've had some non-binary characters, but he's so just so much more fluid than anything I've seen before on TV that I, I don't want them to move into a direction where he's, uh, trope
Sarah: or a deviant of some sort because he's fluid.
And I like that. That is, that is something that's refreshing, that we're seeing more and more in television where we're seeing fluidity and gay or BI. And instead of it being a story arc where that's a coming out story, it just is who that character is. We don't have to have a lot of emotions or conversations about it.
It's just who that person is. And from the very beginning, we just accept that. That's how that person is. And they're a person and this is their preference and this is your preference. And it's not. It's almost like a non-issue because that that's true inclusion, right? Not have the storyline of the gay character or the gender fluid character or the sexually fluid character be about the fact that they are gay or gender fluid or sexually, because
Julia: there needs to be more than just like, I've now come now, I've come out in the story, ends the story doesn't end it coming out.
We need to show positive, healthy representation where, and I mean, it doesn't always have to be a positive in a sense that their life is positive, but we need to show the after. So kids who are struggling and living in areas who maybe don't feel comfortable coming out, they can see like, it gets better, right?
Like this
Sarah: gets better. Hang on. You can live in places. You can exist in spaces that you can belong, where you are so accepted that that isn't even a thought register.
Julia: So what do you think about, cause I feel like being a mixed human myself, I feel like, and we've talked about this because you're one of my best friends.
There's always this issue of, you know, not being enough for the black community, not really having a thing, being mixed sometimes as controversial because people in their attitudes that did not come up in the show between the two girls, like the mixed girl did not have an issue and vice versa of, you know, the monoracial versus the biracial.
And we don't see a lot of non-confrontational stuff like when it comes to like the groupings, right? What am I trying to say? Let me put it this way. I didn't know how I needed to feel about it, not being an issue. And then after I watched the second episode, I was like, I'm really glad it's not an issue because it could
Sarah: be, it could be, it could be an issue.
And I don't think it will
Julia: be, I don't think it will be either in somebody, another article I read, which I won't name because. I want to give them platform for this particular comment, but they had commented that that's a missed opportunity on the show. And I, that, that I was like, fuck you, you don't, you clearly don't know what it's like to be mixed and walk around the world and having both sides tell you that you don't fit in because no, it's not a missed opportunity.
I'm fucking tired of it. Give me the shit where we just exist and it's
Sarah: okay. Okay. Just like we were talking about being gender fluid and, and sexually fluid and not being nonissue, even though it is a very real issue. It is a very real issue,
Julia: but we live in it every single day. I don't want to always watch it on TV.
Sarah: Isn't it refreshing to see it be a non-issue be acknowledged. Yes, but not be the issue at hand. If the story writers can rise above going there for an easy storyline, because that becomes an easy story, but we're going to have a fight because your life was easier because of this and your life was harder because of this.
And, and, but we've had that storyline over and over and over and over again in books, in magazines and songs and television and movies, it would be nice, right? It would be nice to see it just be just exist. What it is. It exists. These two girls who are half sisters, one of them is biracial, and one of them is black exist on the same platform.
And the, the inequity in their lives is not, is not the, the lens of the inequities in their lives is not focused on that. Right.
Julia: Right. Yes. That's a very good, very, very eloquent way to say it. You're so smart. So where do we think episode two?
Sarah: Episode two. Okay. So episode two is going to be in my, this is my
Julia: it's just for everyone to know, we end with the two girls just having this kind of cat fight blowout fight of basically like, come at me, bitch.
Oh, there's room for more than just you bitch was kind of,
Sarah: so I'm hoping they bring back to Rhoda and I'm hoping to rota shows up sooner than later. And I'm hoping I want actual to be Julian's house nanny. I want her to exist in her building. I want that to end up being the same building that Blair was from, and that, that is her housekeeper.
She needs somebody that is not her friends, that she can confide in about who she is. And right now that character doesn't have anybody presenting that in her life. She actually seems like an island. So I want to see. Where there's space for her to break down about her self within episode two or three?
Yes. I think episode two is going to be petty worse. Um, so we're going to see them try to just be mean girls to each other. One of them is going to be meaner than the other.
Julia: Those are the henchman
Sarah: terrible.
So I think we're going to see, and of course I feel like Julian's two friends are going to be a very big part of that because they are just mean nasty girls. They instigated, especially Monae. She's the especially nasty girl. Um, the other, one's going to be your mean girl, but she's like the more Arrowhead quote, unquote friends.
Um, they're disposable. So like when you said that the cast is large and um, you worry about the ensemble being so big so quickly. I feel like while their characters are main characters, I don't think that's going to last, especially if the CE, especially if the series continues. Yeah. I, I feel like just as we saw in the original, they kind of fade
Julia: out sort of faded away and then came back a little bit original.
And you know, now that we talk about a little bit more, I realized that we don't get any home life of Monet and Luna, but we do have all of the other.
Sarah: Yes. So I feel like they are important right now to this part of the storyline, but I don't think they will last. And I feel like episode two is going to be petty wars.
It's going to be an Alliance between Zoya and the now ex-boyfriend, um,
Julia: Did they officially break up? Is that your takeaway?
Sarah: But that is my takeaway. Oh, my takeaway is when it may be it's, it's complicated, but, um, I felt like it was more of a breakup
Julia: know. Yeah. Cause he was like, we knew who you really didn't know that you really this way or some shit, I always knew you were like this or some shit to her.
Sarah: And then, and then it ends with him and Zoysias talking to each other about going to the strike line for the building parents because
Julia: they're both socially active. So soil has got a socially conscious mind, which could potentially be a trope for somebody who is in a lower socioeconomic status. So I hope that they're very
Sarah: careful with that.
I liked that they made his character. Yeah, I like
Julia: that B auto auto, but it's auto auto Bergman. So they call them
Sarah: OB OB. I liked that they made OB that name. I remember, um, I liked that they made OB the wealthiest character on the show and that he is also show socially conscious. Like he is trying to break away from the fact that he was born into so much wealth because they believe he's like, Like an inline, like he's auto Bergman, the fourth or something.
So, um, so he's trying to, you know, I'm not just our money, um, and whether or not that's something he truly believes in, or if, or if it's just kind of something he plays out remains to be seen, he does seem sincere. I think it's sincere. And I think it's a
Julia: stick and I think it's going to stick now more now that Zoe
Sarah: is in the picture.
So I think that he and Zoya are going to form a friendship slash Alliance and that his relationship with Julian is going to be put on hold. Yes, they're going to get back together at some point, this is a teen drama, but for now I'm saying it's complicated or they're broke up. Right. And there's serious petty wars going on.
And Zoe was trying to not be the petty war girl, because she's the. Okay.
Julia: She's still fears to be still so new in this situation too. Like, she's still trying to figure out how to swim in this because like every time something posted on gossip girl, she was like, what is going on? I'm S I don't understand.
And, you know, they were, they were quick to it because they live in that world. Not
Sarah: necessarily me. Yeah.
Julia: And so she's just this girl from Buffalo who got content and moving to Manhattan.
Sarah: Well, and it gets me it's, it's almost like she doesn't have a fair fight to have, so she's the real underdog. Yeah. I'm so
Julia: I'm, so she's the Dan Humphrey in that sense, but she's not the Dan Humphrey.
So that element of Dan Humphrey
Sarah: is in her. Well, it's interesting because, you know, comparing it's hard, it's hard. It's so hard to know. Why did you do this? Why didn't you just make them so completely different? You could have, I'm not judging, but you could
Julia: have I'm judging.
Sarah: She's sort of. Dan and Jenny.
Yeah, she's Dan and Jen, cause she's a freshman because she's a fresh young girl and she's on an art scholarship, which is what Jenny was on to get into constant Spiller. And Jackie
Julia: that's the other one she named drops the teacher named chops about all these famous people. It turned out. Go ahead. Um,
Sarah: it's okay.
Um,
Julia: the original, this is what happens with my friends are on the show. Don't get free to just shout shit out because we're so comfortable with each other.
Sarah: The original, um, gossip girl stems from a series of books and the original author Sicily Vaughn's Ziegler's. She went to a preparatory school called Nightingale.
I just assumed
Julia: that she was the Serina. You know, how you writers kind of always adopt themselves a little bit into their work. I always just assumed that she was the Serina.
Sarah: I kind of always assumed. Gossip girl.
She was a N and I don't know this for a fact, but that she was a more quiet person who observed, and that these, a lot of the storylines that she used were obviously fantastical, but that also a lot of them actually happened in some form at her
Julia: school somewhere. I think season three of the OJI, she makes a cameo.
She dies. I love it. When shows do that, when it's based on a book, that's my favorite. So anyway,
Sarah: episode two, episode two is going to be any worse and I want to see. I want to see some serious character development that goes beyond the easy, I feel like a lot of the character development so far has just been the easy grab. Is that because
Julia: it's the first episode? I don't think so. I think it's, I think there are shows who have come out of the gate with complicated characters from the jump and have done it.
Well,
Sarah: I feel like, I feel like there's an element of, there's an album in Hollywood where you take something old and you stick it in a frying pan and you scramble it up with a couple of ingredients and you shove it back out there. And I'm nervous that that's where we're going, because I feel like, I feel like the producers and writers on the show are literally pulling from their own cookie jar right out the gate.
So
Julia: one of the, the things that I noticed in my opinion is that the gossip girl voice isn't as strong before.
Sarah: Exactly. It's a passive voice. She's a passive voice. She's a tentative voice granted we know from the beginning, but it's the teachers and specifically the blonde teacher. Um, I can't remember Kate Kate Keller.
Is that her name? No. No. That's I think that's, I don't know. I don't know.
Julia: She,
Sarah: she is a, I'm scared right now, young teacher and she is the voice of gossip girl. But even
Julia: after she gets that. Sell to, you know, um, this is going to cement us, even that voice after she decides that this is our, where we are golden. Now this makes us untouchable. And I forget what the instance was. Um, it still wasn't as strong.
It
Sarah: was the picture of the two sisters with the drop of the lighter. Yeah.
Julia: Cause, um, yeah, Julian walks in a fashion show.
Sarah: It's going to be interesting to see whether they're going to continue to just pull out of their own cookie jar and like rehash a bunch of stuff and call it new. Um, or if we're going to get exciting.
New fresh takes new 21st century. We're not 21st. We were in the 21st century when the first one felt like, but it was the early on. It was very early lots. We were in the middle of a recession. Watching luxury on TV was a luxury like, because girls were cutting back on everything, but lipstick, because they did not have jobs because, because the economy, there were no jobs.
So we're in a different.
Julia: Yeah. I think that in episode two, we're going to see an actual coming to blows about OB or the beginning stages of because they are going to go to that. Oh. And like, they always have this thing, you know, they've clearly established that that's going to be the triad OB is going to be constantly getting in between the two sisters or, um, a tool to be getting in between the sisters.
You spike also prom. So I think it's gonna happen in episode
Sarah: two, that that'll come into a head with an episode two. I can see that I can see that it'll definitely be part of whatever their girl fight is or whatever gossip girl fuels to be their girl fight.
Julia: And I also think that Audrey is going to start, like we're going to actually start seeing her fantasize about Wolf.
I would enjoy that because you know, right now it's all sort of implied because he's just like, you know, you guys are monogamous and you're whatever, blah, blah. And so at the end, when they're trying to, she and her boyfriend are trying to be intimate and she can't get there, which I don't know what a 16 year old knows how to understand that.
But good on you. I guess. I don't know. Um, sarcasm, please. Don't write, tell me I'm a terrible person. Um, and so, and so he says to her, oh, you can think about
him,
Sarah: what he's thinking about him too, obviously.
Julia: So now I'm like, oh, we're going to see some actual fantasies happening. And then by episode six, they're going to totally take it. Absolutely.
Sarah: It's either threesome. They're both interested in him and he's down to play. And so that's definitely coming. That's definitely coming at some point that they won't wait too long.
I, you
Julia: know, I. Isn't it is it I'm gonna, I'm going to believe you that they won't wait too long. They won't wait.
Sarah: They might try
Julia: and put it in the second half to get people to come in. Like, will they won't
Sarah: they that's going to be interesting. It's going to be interesting to see how, I mean
Julia: when you, cause I am DB right now says that there's 10 episodes.
I thought there was going to be. I did too. So when I'm looking at, and you know, I am DB is not a reliable source for gossip girl, the SQL, because it's not showing the girl that plays the main blonde teacher on the list of credits.
Sarah: Okay. My understanding was it was six episodes now and six episodes in the fall.
And, um, I could be wrong. It could be six and four, but I don't know why you do six. So six and six is what my, what everybody's reporting. As far as I've read, when you write a show, it's not like. The old sit-com days where they're writing every week for the next week, these shows are written out in entirety and sometimes multiple seasons are written out at a time.
Um, the storyline is written out all at once, which is nice for continuity because in the binge-watching era world, you're more likely to catch, oh, Hey, that's not quite right. Because when we watch, when we go back and we watch old shows, we see, oh, well, they forgot that they did this, right. This was here.
Um, w they can't afford those mistakes. Um, so they all took on the doctor who way of writing television or storylines, and that they write an entire storyline. So it's going to be interesting to see. Whether partway through, they felt they were weak in some way. And that's why they did this, or whether there's just such a great cliffhanger.
They wanted you to wait to
Julia: wait. Cause the cliffhanger isn't really, what could it be? The art the artists are clipping or Sarah remember in, in, in may when everybody would give you these like insane cliffhangers and then you had to wait three fucking months for the show to come back
Sarah: September 20th for the show to come back.
And then yes, I remember.
Julia: And now, I mean, now they kind of do that too with the whole streaming service situation, but it's not the same because,
Sarah: so are you bringing back the art of the cliffhanger? I feel like
Julia: they are kind of cause like Netflix is very big on. We'll order a whole season and if it doesn't do well, then we'll cancel it.
So like they have a lot of, one season shows that have these cliffhangers that are never going to get resolved that would never would have happened. And network television is. So now I feel like when you get a really good cliffhanger and you know, the show is coming back
Sarah: to belong to
Julia: it. Oh, it's just, I don't know.
I got to do,
Sarah: if I do remember correctly about the old series, the old series originally when it originally aired, um, I believe they did the whole thing where they had the cliffhanger and then they didn't come back till February. Like they stopped at like, uh, took a winter break. They took the winter.
Right. And some shows do did that. I don't, I can't even say do that. So. Did that, where they had a mid-season cliffhanger and then you had to wait like a month and a half, and then they'd come back in February and they'd be back on February through April or may and, and, and have your end of season cliffhanger or resolution depending on the show.
Um, so I don't know why the split I'm real curious what the reason for the split is. Yeah, because it's yeah, so it's not like, um, scheduling, right? It's not like there's a football game. We need to
Julia: watch. I was the worst. You remember when they'd be like, there's no episode this week because we're watching like literally football, basketball finals or the Olympics in two weeks.
No, I don't want to join you in two weeks. Anyway, what happens now is blur princess or not?
Sarah: I'm I'm, I'm curious to see where this is going. I do predict I agree with you. We're going to see some of the unfolding of the, um, love triangle between. Um, soya and Juliana and OB, I do think that if not in the next episode, then when then within this first six episode arc, we're going to see some old unfolding of AQI and max Wolf, and Audrey's love triangle or polyamorous relationship or wherever it's going or where the jealousy is going to go there, because that will happen.
Right. We have to, we're waiting for it
Julia: because max is the best looking one out of all of them, you need a Sealy blue-eyed character to be the, you know what I mean? Like we had Nate Archibald last time and Tonya
Sarah: story is Scottish.
Julia: Oh, I didn't know that. I should've just thought isn't terrible. I just thought I should have assumed because of dirty, but that's like not, I mean,
Sarah: she is Scottish, like grew up in Scotland, whole thing.
Um, started TV, like Katy TV in Scotland and it up on like soap opera kind of TV in England on BBC. And then, um, four eight into America. Disney
Julia: Disney. It's the gateway drug, ladies and gentlemen.
Sarah: We also got Chuck bass and west ed west as well. Your readers are all gonna, or your listeners are all gonna crucify me, but I believe he's
Julia: Welsh.
I don't remember, but I will say I, if Chuck bass was playing his dad, I would believe it because their bone structure is so similar. The only, it's not the only difference. I mean, obviously, you know, shift fast. Good. Now has, has light blue eyes and check. Right. Has, has, like, they did have a son. They did have a son.
Sarah: So we only do like 12, right? Uh, yeah.
Julia: Only be like 12, nine or yeah, but the point is, is I would believe it. I would believe it because he looks like he could be in the bass family.
Sarah: Didn't gossip girl, do the thing where they shot forward for you.
Julia: The last episode
Sarah: was for son and the last episode was like four or five, so he could be a freshman or
Julia: sophomore he was born in.
Sarah: So I mean, they could, they could good, maybe. So that's what I want to see in episode two. Um, and into the rest of the series, it's hard to. I didn't realize how hard it would be to like stick on just like this episode and this next episode. So I'm going to have to get better about coming down to it.
Julia: I feel like I struggled in that department too, because when I was writing notes, I was like, I started comparing the old show and this show and then comparing to the book.
And it's like, no, that's a whole different episode because we are recapping and giving our thoughts about the, about this episode.
Sarah: That's about this episode, although it sounds like we are giving it a scathing review and I understand that I'm still like for the moment. Definitely, definitely for the moment hooked, definitely going to, even if I hadn't needed a self-imposed job, I'm definitely going to continue to Erin.
Yeah. I, I would recommend it as a guilty pleasure,
Julia: especially if. Good close to look at, um,
Sarah: fashion, um, just escapism escapism, an entire it's an entire universe gossip girl, always wasn't always will be an entire universe of escapism for real life. Um, I feel like after the year we've had, everybody can use a little bit of that.
Um, so I'm, I'm definitely recommending to all of your listeners out there to tune in and check it out. Um, tell us what you think like, is it campy Lee? Is it racy gossip girl? Is there a world in between? Yeah. Is there a world in between? Can you make that world, are they making that world? We're gonna find out
Julia: we're gonna find out and I tell you what, I'm so glad that the one of the leaves is mixed.
Yes, girl. Get it. I was that duality of life, but without like, actually calling it out, I appreciate you.
Sarah: I could be wrong. I think that both of the leads in real life are mixed. Really? I think
Julia: so. I'll have to look it up and then confirm that
Sarah: because I know that the character who plays Juliane is, and that she said that the character was like, it was written for her.
It was just for her.
Julia: Um,
Sarah: and I believe that the, the character, the girl who plays soy. And I cannot, Whitney peak, Whitney peak peak is Canadian and something else. Oh. And, um, I believe she's also mixed girl. Oh,
Julia: I love it. Also though, I have to add that. Um, I love that Julian has the shaved head. Do you remember what
Sarah: I had?
Yes, I do.
Julia: Can we get more accurate to
Sarah: what I looked like in high school? It's you at 17? It's fine. That's fine. Beautiful.
Julia: Just makes me so happy. Like yes, girl, I have that shape. That wasn't, that sounds, you know, all the people that gave me fucking shit for having a shaved head in high
Sarah: school. I'm
Julia: like they said.
I mean things about implying that I was a lesbian, but in a mean way, you know, that kind of shit. Cause it was the early odds, but still I'm just like, fuck you guys enjoy that shit running around with shame. That's all the time we're here for it. I love
it.
Sarah: I love it. I wish I'd had the guts to do it when I was young.
I would not do it now. I wanted, I wanted, um, domino Harvey hair so that in the early odds I wanted to shave it all except for French
Julia: for a while too. I can't do it. I just feel like we were robbed. The early two thousands were terrible. The eyebrows were skinny. The fascia was terrible. The current.
Non-existent
well, an older millennials are fucked, retired. We're tired. We can't retire. We can't afford homes. Just kidding around for another
Sarah: day. Now we watched, um, television and great it through our sad eyes are sad. What do you call it? Where Jayden jaded.
Julia: I'm going to give it. I like it. I'll probably keep watching it, even if it irritates me.
Sarah: Oh, I want to watch it until I hate it. And then talk about how much I hate it. Can we talk about that?
Julia: If they don't bring Lenny Bruce back, I'm going to be real upset. Herbie's all you got. I'm not like four times.
Like and if he doesn't show up on marvelous, Mrs. Maisel, this, I mean, Milo's going to be on season four. So that's a nice compromise of Lenny Bruce doesn't come back. Yes. But please know listeners that I do know who the real Lenny Bruce is. Um, Luke Kirby just pleased. Lenny Bruce on marvelous, Mrs. Maisel.
So handsome. He's very handsome. And he's got some kind of sex appeal. I don't know what it is. Is he a basic white boy? Because we know I have a thing for basic white boys. I have no gauge or radar anymore. Anyway, listen, folks, if you have HBO, max, get into gossip girl, if you don't tune in the next day on the CW and join us next week, when we recap episode two and yeah, it's going to be great, Sarah.
I'm so glad you were here. I'm
Sarah: super excited. And we want to hear from you guys and want to hear your opinions. I want to hear you. Your report card, what would you give the show? What are you, what are you wanting to see from it? What do you want us to talk about? Is there some subject we're missing?
Because we're not the all encompassing universe of gossip girl. So if we're missing something glaring, please tell us,
Julia: tell me, tell us, find us on Instagram. Pop culture makes me jealous. Also I realized that I'm way more fun on my actual Instagram. So if you wanted to find me there, you can. It's the Julia Washington.
So until next week, folks, we'll see you then.
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