Gawker: the fall season

Hey Young Lady! Did You Watch "Gossip Girl" Last Night?

abalk — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:00:18 EDT

Last night saw the debut of the CW's "Gossip Girl," which some media outlets have called "the most important TV show ever." But how did it play with its target audience right here in Manhattan? We sent Josh and Richard Blakeley to investigate.

As Tears Go By: "Kid Nation"

abalk — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:55:59 EDT

You catch the new CBS reality show "Kid Nation" last night? Its detractors have likened it to child labor and suggested that the children in the show might have been exploited and left vulnerable and unprotected in an abandoned New Mexico town. We don't really know all the facts, because we haven't really cared enough to read any of the articles all the way to the end. Also, we didn't watch the show. We did, however, put together a montage of all the sissy babies who cried. Enjoy!

Gossip Girl Was Even Better Than We Thought It Would Be

Emily Gould — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 14:25:40 EDT

We had anticipated the premiere of new YA book-based series 'Gossip Girl' so hotly! And now it is upon us. How to even begin to catalog the things we enjoyed about this exquisite blend of O.C. and U.E.S.?

We love that the actress who plays heroine Serena Van Der Woodsen so closely resembles a young Ellen Barkin. But not that young! Like, 30!
Also we love how she is always talking huskily around her teeth. This always means a character is an alcoholic.
Speaking of teeth, the actress who plays Blair Waldorf has insanely sexy teeth.
There was that really incesty scene where Hot Dad Who's In A Band who Used To Do It With Blair's Mom is like "My little girl is a woman now! You look so much like your mother." Wasn't your skin crawling?
The scene where the guy was wearing a stripey scarf reminded us of My So Called Life. Not because the dialogue was brilliant, just the scarf reminded us of the 90s.
We do have some complaints.
As our one-time Manhattan-private-school-attending pal Jennie put it: "Oh. My. God. Except they left out the hard core shroom and acid use, also? the random beatdowns from public school kids and hot threeways. oh, and the coke. and the bulimia, and that one talking heads album. and the random incest. but other than that? pretty much nailed it. can't wait till they brave the park to go to the upper west side. then it's ON."
Next week's episode will probably be even more crazy and wonderful!

New Season Of Sarah Silverman Show Actually Really Good

abalk — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 12:26:29 EDT

There were two careers we worried about after MTV's Video Music Awards last Sunday. Obviously, we (and others) were concerned about Britney Spears, but Sarah Silverman's equally listless performance also gave us pause: Had she lost it? Was she no longer funny? (If, you know, you ever thought she was.) Well, we've seen a few episodes from the new season of "The Sarah Silverman Program" and you'll be happy (or sad, if you hate her) to hear that the show is pretty goddamn hysterical—career crisis averted. And we found the first season to be wildly uneven, so we came with eyes open. Take this clip, where Sarah looks back at her three abortions. We can't wait for the Bill Donohues of the world to start fulminating.

Gossip Girl Is The Most Important TV Show About Manhattan Ever

abalk — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:30:55 EDT

Admit it: You're dying to see "Gossip Girl" (premiering September 19th at 9 p.m.!), the new CW show that pulls back the curtain on the lives of spoiled rich kids on the Upper East Side. It's not just aimed at the youngsters. It's also brilliantly engineered, we think, to be enjoyed by those over 16 as a guilty pleasure—though we know there's no such thing. Now we've obtained this one minute clip, which demonstrates exactly why "Gossip Girl" is the show that will define a generation of New Yorkers. Culturally, this just might be bigger than... gosh, we'd say 9/11, but Chris Crocker already used that one about Britney today.

"The O.C." changed the life of the average to dull- to dull-average television viewer, for better or for worse, and you just know that show creator Josh Schwartz is going to bring that same level of realism and sophistication to his depiction of the East Coast's elite as they drink, snort, and screw their way through high school. This show is equally complex. The word "baroque" might not carry enough negative connotations to fully get our feelings across, but we're still gonna go with it.

This tiny excerpt shows exactly what we mean—and shows why we predict it's going to be absolutely the most newsworthy television show of the season. (Particularly when the Christian groups start freaking out.) It's a gripping confrontation between Serena, [SPOILER ALERT] who was sent to boarding school for being a bit loose but has recently returned, and Blair, her former best friend who is dating Nate, and is desperately jealous of Serena [SPOILER ALERT], possibly because she banged the hell out of him. Please enjoy the vérité of the verbal contretemps here: This is exactly how rich Upper East Side teens cut each other.

Our one negative thought: The actress who plays Serena looks WAY TOO OLD TO BE IN HIGH SCHOOL. For most of the episode we thought she was someone's mom.

Go See Some Gossip Girls

Choire — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 10:20:13 EDT

Note to set-crashers: "Gossip Girl," according to no parking signs, is shooting off Madison Square Park tomorrow, circa E. 25th Street or so, so you can go see the shallow for yourself. The T.V. show, which debuts next week and is about private school hissy fits between power-hungry bitches and date rapists and Upper East Side youngster alcohol consumption and a tawdry New York semi-blog, is getting a ton of advance, including in today's Times, even though it's on CW, one of those channels we don't really associate with a number. I've seen the pilot. It gives me that terrible trashy super-eww end times feeling. This means that it will be an incredible success.