"Gossip Girl" 2021 is a reboot/sequel series to the original and popular "Gossip Girl" (2007) tv show. The original show followed two main characters Serena (Blake Lively) and Blair (Leighton Meester) whose glamorous lives and scandalous secrets were the focus of an anonymous blogger named "Gossip Girl" whose identity was not revealed until the end of the series finale. The original "Gossip Girl" show was famous for it's glamorous focus on the Upper East Side New York, beautiful fashions, cinematography, and of course absurd soap-like drama involving it's 6 main characters (Serena, Blair, Dan, Chuck, Jenny, and Nate) and some recurring side characters.
Fast forward to 2021, and "Gossip Girl" (still narrated by the iconic voice of Kristen Bell) has decided to comeback and teach a new set of students in the Upper East Side "a lesson" after being away too long. This new Gossip Girl has a different more "vindictive" tone and doesn't seem as fascinated with the new students lives as she seems more intent on taking them down.
Unlike the original series where the biggest question "who is Gossip Girl?" wasn't answered until the finale, the new series does something unique where Gossip Girl's identity is revealed right at the beginning of the show. We learn that the teachers at Constance St. Jude's are the one's who decide to resurrect Gossip Girl to keep the kids "in line" and also help secure their jobs at the school (after a teacher gets fired because of the students). The students of course are unaware of who the identity of Gossip Girl is (at least at this time), and at first think it is a prank until secrets start to come out via Gossip Girl's Instagram.
The new show focuses on two new main characters: Julien Calloway (Jordan Alexander) and Zoya Lott (Whitney Peak) who happen to be half-sisters reuniting secretly at the beginning of the show. Their relationship seems to be a similar to Serena/Blair's friendship from the previous show, where they seem to go back and forth as to whether they are friends or not, and have a lot of power play/drama revolving around them. Also, Zoya seems to be somewhat of a mix of Dan Humphrey's (played by Penn Badgley in the original show) character where she is new to the world of the Upper East Side and trying to find her place as an outsider.
These two characters so far are the most interesting of the new students, while sadly the other characters seem to fall to the wayside or not have great development. Thomas Doherty's character is very charismatic and has a similar vibe to Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick), and seems to have potential to be an interesting character going forward. Otto (played by Eli Brown) doesn't seem to be much else than a "love interest" for our main two leads to fight over, and could easily become this shows Nate (Chace Crawford), which most older Gossip Girl fans know is not a fun character to watch or care about.
As for other side character's, Audrey Hope (Emily Alyn Lind) is visual striking in her looks (a similar, but toned down look/style to Blair Waldorf), but seems very uninteresting and her only motivation so far seems to be having a threesome with her boyfriend, Aki (played by Evan Mock) and Thomas Doherty's character. If this is supposed to be her "big secret" it seems like something Gossip Girl and the world could care less about (and even her boyfriend seems aware of her fantasy and plays along with it). As for Zion Moreno and Savannah Lee Smith, they seem to be similar to Blair's "minions" from the original show (this time they are minions for Julien), but are given more screentime despite not having interesting character arcs/developments so far (their main trait seems to be "mean girls").
Overall the show seems to have too many characters that take away from the drama rather than contribute to it. I personally would have cut out at least Audrey and Aki's characters as they seem to be very useless to the overall plot/drama, and have not come across as interesting characters to watch.
As for the shows transition to modern day, I think there are hits and misses. For the positives I think the show is right that Instagram is a huge/popular platform as of this day and age, and one Gossip Girl would most likely use. It will be interesting going forward to see how Instagram is used both by characters like Julien (who seems to be a commentary on Influencers) for social clout, and Gossip Girl for "cancel culture."
As for the misses, I think the show comes off a little too idealistic with it's view of diversity in a high class wealthy institution like the Upper East Side, and it's commentary for how those types of students would react to the world around them.
While I do think the characters of Julien and Zoya are interesting and overall well casted, I think the whole cast is too "diverse" for where they are (at least the students). I have a hard time believing that the majority of students of wealthy families on the "Upper East Side" would not be mostly white rich snobs. This seems like it would be great modern day commentary for a newcomer like Zoya who is black coming to an almost "all white" privileged school and not feeling like she fits in, and how her half-sister Julien (who has been in that system her whole life) changes herself to fit that mold and isn't her "authentic" self. I hope the show will have some commentary on that in the future, but so far there has been no mention of it.
It would also be cool to see how the characters "put on shows" to be liked/accepted by society or get caught by "cancel culture"/Gossip Girl and have to give out apologies that are forced/change their image or risk losing their reputation.
Also, some dialogue in the show was on the cringey side and seemed out of touch for how teenagers would actually talk. One example that comes to mind was when Doherty's character teased Audrey of being monogamous/married at age 16 and she responded "don't straight shame me." Lines like that and similar seemed like someone who scrolls twitter all day and thinks that is how people really talk in person.
Overall the new Gossip Girl seems like it's off to a semi-rough start, but if it adjusts some of its kinks and focuses on good storylines/interesting characters (and has fun with it) there is potential there. It will be interesting to see where the show goes, especially with the identity of Gossip Girl being known to the audience, and if that will bring about serious consequences if the students find out (or better the REAL Gossip Girl comes back).
Fast forward to 2021, and "Gossip Girl" (still narrated by the iconic voice of Kristen Bell) has decided to comeback and teach a new set of students in the Upper East Side "a lesson" after being away too long. This new Gossip Girl has a different more "vindictive" tone and doesn't seem as fascinated with the new students lives as she seems more intent on taking them down.
Unlike the original series where the biggest question "who is Gossip Girl?" wasn't answered until the finale, the new series does something unique where Gossip Girl's identity is revealed right at the beginning of the show. We learn that the teachers at Constance St. Jude's are the one's who decide to resurrect Gossip Girl to keep the kids "in line" and also help secure their jobs at the school (after a teacher gets fired because of the students). The students of course are unaware of who the identity of Gossip Girl is (at least at this time), and at first think it is a prank until secrets start to come out via Gossip Girl's Instagram.
The new show focuses on two new main characters: Julien Calloway (Jordan Alexander) and Zoya Lott (Whitney Peak) who happen to be half-sisters reuniting secretly at the beginning of the show. Their relationship seems to be a similar to Serena/Blair's friendship from the previous show, where they seem to go back and forth as to whether they are friends or not, and have a lot of power play/drama revolving around them. Also, Zoya seems to be somewhat of a mix of Dan Humphrey's (played by Penn Badgley in the original show) character where she is new to the world of the Upper East Side and trying to find her place as an outsider.
These two characters so far are the most interesting of the new students, while sadly the other characters seem to fall to the wayside or not have great development. Thomas Doherty's character is very charismatic and has a similar vibe to Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick), and seems to have potential to be an interesting character going forward. Otto (played by Eli Brown) doesn't seem to be much else than a "love interest" for our main two leads to fight over, and could easily become this shows Nate (Chace Crawford), which most older Gossip Girl fans know is not a fun character to watch or care about.
As for other side character's, Audrey Hope (Emily Alyn Lind) is visual striking in her looks (a similar, but toned down look/style to Blair Waldorf), but seems very uninteresting and her only motivation so far seems to be having a threesome with her boyfriend, Aki (played by Evan Mock) and Thomas Doherty's character. If this is supposed to be her "big secret" it seems like something Gossip Girl and the world could care less about (and even her boyfriend seems aware of her fantasy and plays along with it). As for Zion Moreno and Savannah Lee Smith, they seem to be similar to Blair's "minions" from the original show (this time they are minions for Julien), but are given more screentime despite not having interesting character arcs/developments so far (their main trait seems to be "mean girls").
Overall the show seems to have too many characters that take away from the drama rather than contribute to it. I personally would have cut out at least Audrey and Aki's characters as they seem to be very useless to the overall plot/drama, and have not come across as interesting characters to watch.
As for the shows transition to modern day, I think there are hits and misses. For the positives I think the show is right that Instagram is a huge/popular platform as of this day and age, and one Gossip Girl would most likely use. It will be interesting going forward to see how Instagram is used both by characters like Julien (who seems to be a commentary on Influencers) for social clout, and Gossip Girl for "cancel culture."
As for the misses, I think the show comes off a little too idealistic with it's view of diversity in a high class wealthy institution like the Upper East Side, and it's commentary for how those types of students would react to the world around them.
While I do think the characters of Julien and Zoya are interesting and overall well casted, I think the whole cast is too "diverse" for where they are (at least the students). I have a hard time believing that the majority of students of wealthy families on the "Upper East Side" would not be mostly white rich snobs. This seems like it would be great modern day commentary for a newcomer like Zoya who is black coming to an almost "all white" privileged school and not feeling like she fits in, and how her half-sister Julien (who has been in that system her whole life) changes herself to fit that mold and isn't her "authentic" self. I hope the show will have some commentary on that in the future, but so far there has been no mention of it.
It would also be cool to see how the characters "put on shows" to be liked/accepted by society or get caught by "cancel culture"/Gossip Girl and have to give out apologies that are forced/change their image or risk losing their reputation.
Also, some dialogue in the show was on the cringey side and seemed out of touch for how teenagers would actually talk. One example that comes to mind was when Doherty's character teased Audrey of being monogamous/married at age 16 and she responded "don't straight shame me." Lines like that and similar seemed like someone who scrolls twitter all day and thinks that is how people really talk in person.
Overall the new Gossip Girl seems like it's off to a semi-rough start, but if it adjusts some of its kinks and focuses on good storylines/interesting characters (and has fun with it) there is potential there. It will be interesting to see where the show goes, especially with the identity of Gossip Girl being known to the audience, and if that will bring about serious consequences if the students find out (or better the REAL Gossip Girl comes back).