Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Season 2 of Gossip Girl.
HBO Max’s gossip girl Julian Calloway (Jordan Alexander), which had a modern twist on teens during the social media renaissance. Along with Julian, the series follows the original gang’s counterpart, her sister Zoya (whitney peak), Frenemy Monet (Savannah Smith), my best friend Audrey (Emily Alyn Lind) with my boyfriend Aki (Evan Mock) and maximum (Thomas Doherty), and again and again my boyfriend Obie (Eli Brown), his confidant Luna (Shion Moreno) — starring in a new era of infamous gossip queens who ruled New York with an iron fist less than a decade ago. To make things even more complicated, when gossip girl When the reboot was announced, creator Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley) after revealing his story in the original show’s series finale. gossip girl The reboot has found an amazing new way to make this story work. It’s teacher Kate (Tavi Gevinson), Jordan (Adam Chanler Berat), and Wendy (Megan Ferguson), as the new and improved Gossip Girl, actively leads the charge against her own students. Can she maintain her morality while running one of the most nefarious sources of gossip that has ever existed?
The original ‘Gossip Girl’ didn’t care about morality
In the original show, Dan Humphrey secretly created the infamous Gossip Girl two years ago, meeting the characters in the series premiere and following the lives of upper-class peers at school. Most notably, Serena van der Woodsen (blake lively), Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), Nate Archibald (Chase Crawford), Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick). He uncovers their secrets with tips from everyone across New York, tracks their location around the city on his “spots” map, and knows what everyone hates, loves, or wants to be. In his junior year, Dan carried out the next phase of his plan. It was about joining the story as a “lonely boy” and finally gaining Serena’s romantic attention and being in a world he desperately longed to be a part of.
No one knew Dan was behind the screen until the very end of the original gossip girl As such, he was never truly held accountable for the life-changing and devastating secrets he shared about his target on the Internet. Countless times, he has endangered the lives and futures of his sisters, so-called friends, and even lovers. But never seeing him take an active part in this, Dunn ended the series with little to no accountability for what he did. escaped. He’s a monster, and this was probably the perfect preparation for Badgley’s later role as Joe Goldberg on Netflix. You areDan has no crisis of conscience and no ill feelings for what he has done. By pushing himself into the center of the story, Dan got exactly what he wanted: marrying Serena and becoming a true member of the elite. Girl Dan is awesome in a terrifying way. but, gossip girl Given that Dan may have cared for these people and used an anonymous platform to consistently destroy them, it fails. YearUnless he’s a sociopath, that’s definitely not the case presented in the series finale. gossip girlit doesn’t add up and doesn’t leave the audience any sense of satisfaction with this disclosure.
We’re seeing Gossip Girl through new eyes in the reboot
First season unlike Dan gossip girl The reboot focuses heavily on the price that being an anonymous source takes on owners. Kate, in particular, struggles to draw the line between right and wrong as her audience grows. She doesn’t want to reveal certain secrets. Because, in a way, she knows it causes her pain and conflict to these kids she really cares about. She doesn’t want to lie or create false narratives, so she’s very picky about what she posts. It gives children a push to improve themselves before it’s too late, and they go out into the world with a bloated sense of self-esteem and self-importance.
This approach doesn’t sit well with the teachers who become involved along the way, with the exception of Jordan and Wendy. They are bitter about the status their children have that they do not have and want them to pay for years of abuse of their teachers by students and parents. They don’t care who gets hurt while seeking revenge. Lock her out of your account and gain full control.
So most of the second half of season 1 was gossip girl Kate teams up with Jordan to regain control of the gossip and get the mission back on track. While doing some nefarious work as an anonymous source they have code they don’t want to cross. Especially to give back what you’re trying to achieve. Destroying children does not make them better. They need to learn a lesson without their lives going completely out of control. When it goes wrong, like Gossip Girl’s role in the downfall of Julian’s father Davis (Luke Kirby) and the Queen Bee herself, Kate senses its failure and tries to hold herself accountable as well. It keeps Kate as a somewhat redeemable character in the story.
The second season changes things again
In the recently premiered second season, gossip girl The reboot goes in a different direction than the moral conflict between Kate and being Gossip Girl. After an ill-fated run-in with Camille de Haan (Amanda WarrenAt the end of the first season, Kate’s focus changed. I’m here. To defile Camille, Kate begins posting things she clearly knows isn’t true that Julian is feeding her, jeopardizing the integrity of what she started and where things are going. Kate doesn’t think about the impact her posts will have on the lives of teenagers. She, like the other teachers in the first season, has almost completely turned into a monster, so she thinks she wants to make a difference by any means necessary. gossip girlWhat was the point where Kate fought to get Gossip Girl back from them and follow in their footsteps? is still on her way, and Kate doesn’t care what happens if she tells a good story.
Gone is the conflict over the moral character of the teacher, replaced instead by a reckless attitude of making someone pay. It’s a pretty drastic change that could be a decent story, but it comes at the cost of making Kate a full-fledged monster…she makes a difference. Gossip Her Being a Girl morality separates this series from the original in an interesting way, and it’s a shame it’s been lost. If these last few episodes proved anything, it’s that this conflict is necessary to make teachers grounded and likeable.
gossip girl Continues Thursday on HBO Max.
