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- HBO Max
- Jul 8, 2021
- HBO Max
- Jul 8, 2021
Summary New York private school students discover they are being watched by Gossip Girl (voiced by Kristen Bell), who returns eight years later on Instagram in this follow-up series to The CW series of the same name.
Created By: Stephanie Savage, Josh Schwartz
- HBO Max
- Jul 8, 2021
- HBO Max
- Jul 8, 2021
Summary New York private school students discover they are being watched by Gossip Girl (voiced by Kristen Bell), who returns eight years later on Instagram in this follow-up series to The CW series of the same name.
Created By: Stephanie Savage, Josh Schwartz
Season Episodes
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Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 29 Critic Reviews
51
28% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
45% Mixed
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
28% Negative
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 29 Critic Reviews
51
28% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
45% Mixed
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
28% Negative
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
This is Gossip Girl, so obviously there are love triangles and betrayals and backstabbing and upsettingly grown-up teen machinations. Some of those threads titillate. Some are incredibly dumb. Which is to say, it is every bit the soap opera you’d expect. Those are the diversions that hook you in each episode. ... But these diversions only work because they’re bolstered by some actually heady thematics.
The revised premise, which I’ve been asked not to say much more about before the premiere drops, requires some willful suspension of disbelief. But if you can make that leap, the setup works surprisingly well.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 20 User Ratings
5.7
50% Positive
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
5% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
45% Negative
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 20 User Ratings
5.7
50% Positive
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
5% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
45% Negative
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
The new Gossip Girl stumbles, but hot drama is hot drama. To quote one anonymous blogger, you know you love it, though a clumsy homage straining for relevance isn’t likely to court a new generation of devotees.
The new Gossip Girl is vastly more sensitive about everything, in a way that feels at once wholly sincere and brutally boring. ... It's tempting to call this reboot a fustercluck, but there could be something here — if Safran and Co. are willing to go back to the basics of bitchiness.
The show’s most appealing, fascinating, outright fun elements are the parts where it so clearly owns itself, enjoys itself, preens with one hand at the same time as it flips a casual bird with the other. ... It is fundamentally hollow at the core, frivolous and frothy, studded with sequins and infidelities and students who lust for their teachers (but gay!). It seems uneasy with that emptiness, but it lacks the desire or capability to backfill everything with earnestness or do-goodery, and some later scenes in the series where it attempts to suddenly find sincerity are among the worst, most cringeworthy parts of the four episodes provided to critics.
Diversity, while it may be the bare minimum for progress, does not unquestionably translate into good art, or into good entertainment. Over the four episodes provided for review, “Gossip Girl” struggles to shade in its characters, to outline its narrative stakes, or to make an argument for why it should exist in the first place.
Toxic reboot. ... Indifferently acted by a cast that looks more suited for grad than elite high school. [19 Jul - 1 Aug 2021, p.7]
Do not listen to the negative reviews. This show is entirely different from the original and the books. It's not trying to recreate the originals, I don't know why people are mad about this.
It's mature, bold, fun, and takes the elements we loved in the original and twists it into a fresh and great show.
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SEASON 1
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
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SEASON 1
Oh boy, I don’t know how they greenlit this. The acting is comically bad, especially in the scenes with the teachers. The writing, particularly the dialog, is even worse: I could imagine 10th grader writing this as gossip girl fan fiction with the help of Microsoft Word’s synonym tool—or perhaps this was just written by the computer that writes Olive Garden commercials: input in catchphrases and topics, and a delicious dialog worthy of chain Italian food pops out. The first season of the original Gossip Girl (very similar to Glee’s first season) was incredible, but due to the departure of the original show runner, the characters gradually degraded into hollow versions of their former complexity. It seems, after one episode here, as if we’re starting over with the same writing mistakes. Shows that parody in a non-comedic way need strong writing, and this isn’t there.
The only saving grace here is the return of Kristen Bell as Gossip Girl’s voice. I don’t know, watch the original first couple episodes of Gossip Girl, then watch a real show about the filthy rich like Succession.
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SEASON 1