Tag Archives: The CW

October 10, 2007 · 10:00 pm

Gossip Girl – “Bad News Blair”

“Bad News Blair”

October 10th, 2007

I really don’t have too much to say about this decent fourth outing for Gossip Girl, but I felt it was important to recognize that the series is the first to receive a full season order. The CW has a lot of faith that its little teen drama that could will grow with DVR ratings, iTunes and word of mouth. From my experience, everyone is decidedly not talking about Gossip Girl, but I think the show deserves a shot at growing.

This particular episode was actually fairly gutsy, proving once and for all that despite its title Gossip Girl has balls. It managed to keep Serena and Blair friends at episode’s end despite their fashion model meltdown, something which the previews seemed to make impossible. It also continued Dan Humphrey’s “coming out” into the Upper East Side with his first interaction with Blair, and spent considerable time with Dan and Serena’s parental units interacting over a painting.

This is all well and good, but I think that the characters are appearing a bit too thin at this point. Blair, in particular, needs to do something to prove that she’s not just another bitchy character. When she was criticized by the photographer for being too prim and stiff, I don’t think Leighton Meester was acting: her entire character has been that way. It’s like what Summer Roberts was supposed to be, on the page, before Rachel Bilson breathed life into her. I’m still waiting to see that life here.

And while the Dan/Serena pairing is fine and good, and I liked how Dan’s own relationship with his mother connected his storyline with his father’s, this teasing is going a bit too far: just let them have a date so we can see if they have any chemistry. I also missed Eric and Jenny in this episode: I get why they were cut (To focus characterization on Serena and Dan), but Serena’s development was minimal. I’m still waiting for her to gain dimension outside of her bad girl past.

But, now the show has time: my expectations are high for the series now that it has its full season, because it can start planning for the future. Much like The O.C., I’m expecting them to paint some realistic arcs for these characters outside of the back and forth between Blair and Serena. Here’s hoping that this actually comes to pass.

Chuck – “Chuck Versus the Tango” and a sidenote on Aliens in America

“Chuck Versus the Tango”

October 8th, 2007

I don’t have too much to say about Chuck, but I haven’t formally discussed a single episode thus far and felt this was a good time to do so. The series emerged out of its first week with a decent second stanza, but I feel the need to point out that this week’s episode was just plain good: it maintained the energetic pace of the pilot without any of the large-scale action pieces, and after last week’s repetitive fare added some new elements to the mix.

Chuck was the highlight here, as Zachary Levi delivered a great comic performance as the perpetually in danger government secret keeper. The situations in the episode, while technically stretching the show’s premise, were perfect: it put Chuck in conflict with his friends, in awkward and new situations with the tango, and to new points in his relationship with Sarah. It was essentially an episode of Alias but played for comedy. Chuck had to learn new skills and techniques, but instead of doing so to great effect he klutzed his way throught it.

And it was funny: Alias always had its humorous side, and played to full effect it’s allowing Chuck to come into its own. Having never purported to being a plot-driven series, the character-building is great: the villainness was portrayed well, the plot was simple enough to follow, and it felt like the kind of adventure that we actually like watching. I can only hope that tonight’s episode of Reaper can convince me just as well as Chuck did.

A Note on “Aliens of America”

I watched the second episode of The CW’s new comedy last night, and I’m confused. I knew the second episode went for broad comedy (The apparent homosexuality, according to the school, of Raja and Justin), but it still felt a bit off compared to the subtlety of the premiere. Raja was played just a bit too culturally lost for me, and it felt a bit too simple.

However, on the other side of the coin, the episode displayed a bizarre schizophrenic sense of comedy. On top of the broad comedy, the episode contained a Willem Dafoe joke and a reference to “Say Anything.” Normally I’d view these as signs of the series maintaining a sharp perspective, but within the overall tone of the episode it felt off. The people who would find the broad comedy funny, in other words, would be unlikely to have been a fan of early Cameron Crowe or Willem Dafoe, Spider-Man notwithstanding.

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Filed under Aliens in America, Chuck

Tagged as NBC, The CW, Willem Dafoe

October 2, 2007 · 6:57 pm

Gossip Girl – “Poison Ivy”

“Poison Ivy”

October 2nd, 2007

Ivy Week, as presented by Gossip Girl, is the time when plans about the future take center stage. This is not an uncommon theme in teen dramas: heck, High School Musical was a post-secondary anxiety film at its core. However, for Gossip Girl, it’s a wakeup call from the joys of living the high life when interviews and socials essentially define their future…and they all have extremely preset futures ahead of them despite the turmoil in their lives.

Dan is dreaming of Dartmouth, hoping for his scholarship in lieu of actual funds. Nate, meanwhile, has a father pushing him to Dartmouth while he dreams of heading out West. As they compete for an ushership (I don’t know what this means), we start to gain a better understanding of Dan’s place in this world, and what little clout the Humphrey name has in this world.

However, it also allowed the two to actually share some common ground for a change, and allow for Dan to be somewhat less of an outcast. This is a positive development, and finally brings new pairings of characters outside of the rather rigid pairings we were earlier provided. The more the show extends its characters and has them interact with other people, the more three-dimensional they become.

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Filed under Gossip Girl, Television

Tagged as CTV, The CW

September 25, 2007 · 7:28 pm

Gossip Girl – “The Wild Brunch”

“The Wild Brunch”

September 25th, 2007

Truth be told, I missed the first fifteen minutes of Gossip Girl’s second episode. And yet, I feel entirely able to provide my opinion of tonight’s sophomore episode of the drama series, which is not a good sign. Suffering from a case of the post-pilot doldrums, “The Wild Brunch” was not quite as wild as we could be expecting, although the brunch was supposedly excellent.

[Edit: I have since watched the opening minutes (Which was not 15, the episode was extremely short), but I was impressed by what we saw of Dan/Jenny’s simpler life and the entire post-date wave sequence. It was charming, although the lack of charm in the rest of the episode is still an issue stepping forward. Amber over at The Gall of It All has her own snarky observations, including ones on fashion which I clearly can’t speak to.]

The problem with the episode is that there wasn’t any real advancement of the characters within the story. Jenny remained a young girl trying to break into the it crowd, Dan remained a smitten male unable to fit in with Serena’s friends, and the Blair/Serena war remained as one-dimensional as it was last week. It was everything you could assume would happen after last week’s premiere without any element of surprise.

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