Coming Out of the Gossip Girl Closet

I have mentioned before that I watch Gossip Girl and enjoy it.

But what began as a minor dalliance last season has grown into a full-fledged love affair. Chuck has matured from a one-note villain to a mature, vulnerable, layered bad boy–Jordan Catalano has some real competition for my small group of favorite bad boys from teen shows I’m probably too old to watch anyway. Jenny has become someone to root for rather than someone to tolerate. Vanessa doesn’t get that much screen time. Serena and Dan’s break-up allowed both characters to actually become interesting. And Rufus and Lily, like their children, seem to work better apart than together.

Another part of Gossip Girl’s appeal is its complete lack of typical teen life. Do any of the popular girls at your school dress like a 1890s schoolmarm? Do they spend most of their time in bars drinking martinis? Do any of your 15-year-old friends convince their parents to let them drop out of school to work as an intern in a fashion house? And do you try to get many of your male friends to stop selling their bodies to royal trophy wives?

Teen dramas have been slowly moving away from actual teen experiences. My So-Called Life was a hyperrealistic look at the life of a high school girls while she grew and found her own identity. The high school setting was important to the show, and the day-to-day struggles of early 1990s teens was the show.

90210 focused heavily on the high school life, but with a wealthier class of high school student, it also included a more adult lifestyle than MSCL. Parents were important characters, but also in most cases heavily flawed and oblivious.

One Tree Hill took us farther away from the classroom, as absent parents let their daughters do whatever they wanted, from hosting a webcam that caused just the sort of creepy stalker problem you would expect to visiting strip clubs with the local geek. One character became emancipated, and his girlfriend was allowed to marry him. Her parents, who we never saw again after the wedding, agreed to the underage nuptials so that they wouldn’t lose their daughter.

And Gossip Girl has taken this trend to a whole new level. The “teen” characters live fabulous lives, going out to bars, navigating adult relationships, and wearing the latest designer duds. The occasional nod to their attendance at high school usually comes up in the form of a discussion about where they will go to college. And no public institutions–it’s Ivy League or bust, baby.

I continually wonder why these shows even need to be teen dramas. Why can’t they be workplace dramas with actors who play closer to their real ages. The plots would be more believable, and the 18-34 year old crowd would still get the fabulous clothes and hot girls and guys. The only difference would be the lack of pretense that any of these people or problems have even a passing relationship with high school.

That said, I can’t wait to watch tonight!

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