XOXO

Ok, I admit it, I've finally fallen for Gossip Girl. I watched the first few episodes, but wasn't much impressed. Then I kind of stopped watching it altogether, and didn't bother to keep up or worry about spoilers at all (I totally missed that whole Vanessa -- a.k.a. Anna from the OC/requisite interloper girl person -- plot). Then, I watched the Thanksgiving episode with Dan, who for some reason loves this show. And the Thanksgiving episode was good! It had elements of Veronica Mars in it, meaning all the weird fade-y flashbacks, and Serena's mom kicks ass, truly. (I am actually being serious when I say I think she is a good actress, but more than that she is just a really intriguing character.) Anyway, so that episode sold me.

Dan and I just watched the episode following that, which was the obligatory someone-punches-someone-at-a-deb-ball episode we all know and love from the OC. Not too shabby, and a lot of the characters are building into people I really like. Plus! I actually love the plotline between Dan's dad (Rufus) and Serena's mom (Lily). It's intriguing. And I forgive them all the weird Oedipal generational deja vu.

Anyway, all of this just goes to show that I've reached the Googling portion of my attraction to this show, and through that I found the actual Gossip Girl blog, which is basically episode recaps and totally useless information, not at all an attempt to be the blog of the show ("Spotted: Lonelyboy does something we care about minutely"). My favorite part so far is this (the blog sucks and does not have links to individual entries, so I am just going to cut and paste all of it):

November 19, 2007

Gossip Girl's In depth profile on Dan Humphrey

Lives with: dad, Rufus, and little sister, Jenny, in a loft in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Dan's mother, Alison, moved to Hudson, NY over the summer
Likes: Adventurous blondes, The New Yorker, the L train, NPR, Netflix, reading, writing, coffee, Dartmouth, good values, saving the day, politics
Dislikes: Pretentious people, the ice capades, rumors and drama, college legacies, alarm clocks, mean girls, dancing (he's not very good at it)
Best Friend: Vanessa Abrams
Current Crush: Serena van der Woodsen
Favorite fashion accessory: T-shirts
Favorite places in New York: the Angelika, Gray's Papaya, the Tea Lounge (great place to see live music in Brooklyn), New York Public Library, Communitea, the Whitney
Favorite Music: Lincoln Hawk, Beastie Boys, Kooks, Wilco, Rogue Wave, Beck, Of Montreal, Band of Horses, Arcade Fire, Jose Gonzalez, Eliott Smith, Hot Hot Heat
Favorite Authors: JL Hall, William Faulkner, David Sedaris, Dave Eggers, Thomas Pynchon, Philip Roth, JD Salinger
Favorite Movies: Harold and Maude, Rushmore, City of God, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, ET, History of the World: Part I, The Kid, The Bicycle Thief, Play It Again, Sam
Favorite designers: Um...he just wears whatever looks and feels best
Favorite TV Shows: The Daily Show, anything on PBS, Arrested Development, The Office (both versions), Law and Order: SVU, Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Battlestar Galactica
Heroes: His dad, Rufus
Motto: "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger."

Essentially it's his Myspace profile, if such a thing existed. I love how writers design characters these days... it's like the High Fidelity before Rob's epiphany way of creating a believable person: you are what you like, not what you are like. Notice the strategic combination of cult classic films (Harold and Maude), cult new films (City of God), and rockin' 80s classics that everyone has seen but you know some people are really into them for almost no reason, just that they still love them and the movie can't get old? (Ferris Bueller, ET). (Terrible punctuation, forgive me.) The TV shows really crack me up: Battlestar Galactica is clearly his geek guilty pleasure, and Law and Order he'd put on the profile because he secretly watches marathons just like all the rest of us do. The books are clearly namedropping, albeit somewhat consistently. I get the feeling that half of the writers for these shows are frustrated English major women inventing their ideal mate, and they assume that the man they are looking for reads Faulkner, even though I have never met a man who has read any Faulkner. (Is that weird? It just occurred to me that that is weird.) They must be doing a decent job though, because I found myself saying in the middle of this episode, "I need a man with a cardigan." (Short order, really, wouldn't you think?)

Anyway. I could analyze this fake profile of a fake person for quite some time. However, I do have the last two episodes of Buffy, season 2, and I believe I must be going.

I just had a thought! Maybe I should live blog Gossip Girl... just like I did for OC season 4. Ooh, that kind of gets me excited. I shall consider. Next new episode is a week from today...