How Rufus and Lily accidentally ruined Gossip Girl.
Weird title, hopefully some salient points.
My feeling is that one big thing the show used to have in its favour was the question of where we belonged - did we, as outsiders, as onlookers, belong in Brooklyn with the Humphrey clan, or did our love for the characters and inbuilt snobbery mean the Upper East Side suited us best? I myself love the pomp and circumstance of parties, brunches, cotillions, but sometimes it was a relief to go back to a world where people thought Balenciaga was a skin disease.
The crossing of these two worlds was lovely, because it gave us Dan and Serena, a reverse Cinderella story which swept away her dark past and helped give some insight into his character (which at first only seemed bumbling and a touch on the stalkerish side). The animosity between the less welcoming - and more interesting, to my mind - Upper East Siders and the Brooklynites kept the tribes apart and kept the will they/won’t they be accepting dynamic going.
This dynamic lasted throughout seasons one and two, even though Blair would call on Dan for help with Serena once in a while or Nate and Jenny would make goo-goo eyes at each other. It kept the characters away from each other and allowed us some space, since not everyone had to be on-screen together.
Then Rufus and Lily got married.
BOOM.
This was, I think, one of the great failings of season three. I love Lufus, I’ve shipped it from day one, but forcing all the characters into the same places at the same time (additionally, sending Blair to NYU was one of the most insignificant and pointless plot lines ever) meant we never had a break from them. Dan was only ever away from the NJBC when he had a new love interest, and I’m not even going to go into the sheer idiocy of allowing Taylor Momsen to play Taylor Momsen and ruining Jenny’s character, as well as letting the vaguely endearing Jessica Szohr turn completely into an uppity, judgemental bitch.
But enough about them.
Here’s the thing: the Gossip Girl writers merged the two worlds into one, and in doing so made the show like an Amish community - no aspersions on them, I’m a big fan - in that incest and petty arguments are bound to occur with so many people in such a tight space. Dan and Vanessa starting doing Upper East Sider things is like getting everyone to churn butter. We literally cannot handle that much butter, one of you should go plough instead.
I’m not talking about visiting the loft, since we still go there in the show.
I’m not talking about pierogis or pizza.
I’m talking about dancing all night in high heels on the Upper East Side with nowhere to go home to, take off our shoes and relax. That’s why the drama has become so soapy, and that’s why the pairings have become so warped to the extent that I’ve actually compared them to the Amish.
Too many people in too small a space becomes a time bomb.
