Girls Gone Canon Cast - Gossip Girls Gone Canon - Special Edition Episode

Episode Date: February 3, 2023

Hey there Upper East Siders, Gossip Girl(s Gone Canon) here: Definitely not your one and only source for a look into the the lives of Gossip Girl Generation 2.   SPOTTED: Chloe and Eliana crying t...o mourn HBO cancelling the Gossip Girl reboot.   Still not juicy enough? Check out Josh Safran's interview with Deadline on what Season 3 could've been (and still maybe could be, if it gets picked back up somewhere): https://deadline.com/2023/01/gossip-girl-hbo-max-josh-safran-season-2-series-finale-cancellation-season-3-plans-1235241228/   Will the girls ever come back to cover the rest of Bran's POV? Rumors say ASOIAF episodes should be making a public (re)appearance February 10. But who's the next POV? That's a secret I'll never tell.   You know you love me...   XOXO   Gossip Girls Gone Canon

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey Upper East Siders, Gossip Girls Gone Canon here, ready to bring you the hottest gossip in today's episode, featuring one of your hosts, Chloe, and another one of your hosts, Eliana. Spotted on the steps of the Met. No, it's just you. It's just you. I was like, do I act shocked that we got like a notification? Yeah, I mean, my phone is lighting up right now.
Starting point is 00:00:47 Gossip Girl just posted a photo. You're gonna have to open the episode to find out what it says or open the reel. Open the reel. I'm excited to be doing this episode. It's been a long time coming. We've been literally talking about Gossip gone canon for too long yeah we have and it's not about it's not about generation one as i'm sure many people want which we will discuss a little bit but we are talking this is this is a memorial service yeah goodbye to generation two i
Starting point is 00:01:18 it's a really it's a really weird love hate like i hate it i love it also now i'm literally grieving for it and i want it back yeah crying bleeding screaming thing i don't know what's wrong with me it's like it had promise right it wasn't there yet and it was almost gonna be there and they had a vision they had a vision and it sounded cool. And it was fun. You know, I still like tuned in every single week. It gave my Thursdays. I'm not going to say meaning. I'm going to say structure or format.
Starting point is 00:01:53 It gave it meaning. Every morning on Thursdays, we would message each other. Whoever remembered first would tell the other and be like, it's Gossip Girl Day. Yeah. Gossip Girl was, I mean, it was a generation, right? Generation 1 was a whole entire lifestyle. Yeah. I mean, it caused waves with nothing.
Starting point is 00:02:12 It was iconic. I really do hope we talk further. Yeah, it was iconic. I hope in the future we get to revisit it together. Yeah. In a slower roll, because it was iconic from the beginning when it was low budget, they didn't have a Prada bag to their name Lily Vanderwoodson's actress brought her own bag oh my gosh really yeah yeah yeah it's like it was
Starting point is 00:02:32 it ended up being something of a cultural reset if you will I really do think that when did you first watch the original Gossip Girl Eliana okay so I finally only watched like the whole series a few years ago but the first time I ever watched Gossip Girl is Eliana. Okay, so I finally only watched like the whole series a few years ago, but the first time I ever watched Gossip Girl is actually a funny story. So I turned on the television back then during around the time when it actually was airing on TV and I watched an episode and I was like, oh, I really want to continue with this, but I wasn't like good at following shows back then, like on a weekly schedule, etc. schedule etc but also i was like oh no but i'm stuck in the middle of the story i won't know what's going on and then i only found out much later on that actually that was the very
Starting point is 00:03:13 first episode so if i just kept on going from there on i would have been completely caught up with the whole series i'm an idiot i'm an idiot so i can't believe i almost forgot we used to have to actually watch tv wow i mean i'm sure it really has changed i think i could have like just pirated it you know as torrented it you know if anyone remembers doing that limewire bear yeah soul seek you know i'm or irc or something i could have done it it would have been like i i just kept forgetting to do it i think someone someone i know you don't know if you're getting porn that's true i mean not that it wasn't it was significantly more salacious than gen 2 and do you think even that first episode a little i think um in some ways. I feel like Gen 2 showed a little more flesh about it, though. That's because of the HBO.
Starting point is 00:04:10 Maybe that. Yeah, you're right. You're right. I guess that's true. I guess that's true. No, you're right. It probably wasn't more salacious. Like HBO, I think, definitely let them show more stuff.
Starting point is 00:04:21 But how about you? When did you first watch it? You actually, you go back deep i don't know i don't really not that deep i want to say it had to have been 2014 but you read the book i just remember well i did read the books no you're right i read the books in in high school freshman year i want to say freshman year where our library was right next to the high school our public library so if you did after school activities or I lived pretty close, so I would walk home once in a while. So I'd go to the library first and go online, rent books, whatever.
Starting point is 00:04:53 So I rented the Gossip Girl books, I want to say, my freshman year. I loved them. There's a lot of differences. We aren't going into that today. Who knows? Maybe in the future. Maybe in the future. Just like Vampire Diaries or the magicians characters are strongly changed still somewhat you know somewhat vessels
Starting point is 00:05:12 of their original characters and written but adapted changed and fit to tv and i want to say i watched it probably 2014 2015 i started watching it I'll never forget the day because I had moved into someone's place I was renting from and it was the first time I had lived like on my own in a while I had lived with a partner for a little bit before that so it was just like a very independent time of my life and I had a day off and I remember being home on my day off after having bought wine from the grocery store that was right down the road that was a specialty kind of grocery store so they had cool wine and it might have been mead now that i say it they had some really cool booze though and i was so excited i had that i had a special a special smoke available and uh i just remember like sitting there and binging the whole first
Starting point is 00:06:01 season and my roommate came home from work and was like what are you watching and i'm like gossip girl it was like eight nine episodes in staring at the screen they were like oh okay enjoy it keep going then and i think i literally had to have nailed the entire series within a month within a month i just inhaled it yeah i guess so not too far after it ended but i wasn't in during the craze. I didn't have the headbands. It was a very different world that Blair and Serena and Nate and Chuck and them were hanging out in. Like I said,
Starting point is 00:06:34 it was harder to get stuff back then. You had to go through a lot of effort to watch stuff. Yeah, when it was on Netflix in like 2014, 2015, that was it. And I didn't watch a lot of TV when I was on Netflix in like 2014 2015 that was that was it and I didn't watch a lot of tv when I was in high school because of that actually now that you mentioned that I really didn't watch a lot of tv because also my dad was always watching sports but it was not a thing that
Starting point is 00:06:56 I kept up with weekly episodically I would binge if there was a marathon on of something that I wanted to watch uh but it wasn't easy no we're very very lucky with the resources we have netflix is trying to remind us of that i'm hearing so yeah and so is hbo apparently and they were like i think y'all were a little too lucky and now we don't have any more gossip girl so that's what you get that's what you get we're gonna talk a little bit of generation one but we'll probably talk more about it during talking about Generation 2 and some of the great callbacks and some of the ways that the creators have continued to respect this show. A lot of returning actors and crew members, writers, directors, you know, there's a lot of love being put into Generation 2
Starting point is 00:07:43 from the original people that kind of built it. And I think that's amazing. Especially Generation 1 is like epic. Even the gossip surrounding the set. There's stuff that I hope we learn about seasons 1 and 2 of this show. You know, I hope there's some nice gossip to come out someday. Maybe. I don't know. I didn't get enough time to breathe.
Starting point is 00:08:04 Yeah. gossip to come out someday maybe i don't know i didn't get enough time to breathe yeah but at the same time blake lively and leighton meester they were just like they they were like just thrown into you know superstardom in a way that gen 2 didn't and i don't know it's it's a mix of things right because at the same time while it was harder to watch gossip girl as it was airing like in in gen 1 because it was airing on TV. At the same time, it was on cable and therefore could reach a wider audience than nowadays with HBO. But at the same time, because streaming is so ubiquitous now, I think a lot of people have HBO nowadays. And HBO shows are often very much talked about and become what everyone's talking about.
Starting point is 00:08:44 Like Euphoria is is an example of that so isn't it interesting growing up hbo was the hardest thing to have yeah like if somebody you knew had hbo it was like treasure that person really mold your relationship and friendship with them if you're listening to this and you were my friend in these times don't question it i still like you sorry i don't write no i'm just kidding but it's true though like who who did you get your hbo password from for game of thrones you know it was a different time it wasn't it was on cw which was way more accessible you're absolutely right when it comes to that it's interesting because now i'm like why
Starting point is 00:09:22 wouldn't you have hbo max it's the only one worth having. Yeah. CW actually even now is still pretty accessible. Like they don't have the entire backlog of episodes, but let's say you're five episodes behind, right? You can still get those episodes. Yeah. For free on their app. And we're not shilling for anyone, but if anyone wants to sponsor us. HBO, CW, HBO, CW. I mean, if you're listening to this podcast i am assuming you have excellent taste and you love generation one and generation two for its own reasons or you just like to be messy about either of the generations they were messy and that's what we love about gossip girl they're messy shows i mean okay a song of ice and Fire is also a messy story. Let's be real. Absolutely. Absolutely. Look, Josh Safran could probably do A Song of Ice and Fire, but could George R.R. Martin actually do Gossip Girl?
Starting point is 00:10:14 Absolutely not. I'm not sure. No, I think you're right. That is true. If anyone ever wants to, you know, if you ever need a quote to sum up our podcast. From Chloe. if you ever need a quote to to some of our podcasts yeah from chloe that was it josh savers could do a song of aspire but george could not do gossip girl which is true the melodrama the melodrama so in generation one one of the biggest differences and who knows what generation two was told but the cast because of how big and like you said like blossoming right
Starting point is 00:10:43 it just like boomed onto the scene as a huge show the cast was encouraged to party with one another quote unquote and to get busy with one another because as you know as you know from countless shows it turns out pr comes really well from makeups breakups makeouts between cast members on shows that was an actual like marketing ploy for them that's that's that's so 2007 it is right that kind of gossip which i mean that gossip does obviously exist nowadays but i don't know if you're allowed to do that in the same way anymore yeah as a showrunner and looking at some some of the plots, you know, you have some of the original plots, like Vanessa dating Chuck.
Starting point is 00:11:28 To my knowledge, from some of the podcasts I've listened to now about this, I don't want to talk about it. Podcasts. There was a plural in there. We don't need to talk, or the interviews I've read, we don't need to talk about it. They were dating IRL for a little bit. They had a little fling around that time, so the
Starting point is 00:11:43 writers were like, alright, we'll write it in. And the plot constantly revolved around those relationships. And yeah, that's so interesting to me. I think season two had like a trajectory, but that's so crazy because they were writing on the fly, I'm pretty sure, for Gen 1. And some things are probably a little bit on the fly too for Gen 2. But yeah, you're letting the story be ruled by the whims of what your actual real life cast members are doing that's crazy yeah there was a lot of gossip back in the day of leighton and blake having huge like
Starting point is 00:12:16 beef with one another when it really just turns out they were there to do a job i think they were just co-workers i don't think they disliked any like each other they're just co-workers and fantastic actors who made a very believable friendship on screen on screen uh if you're interested in more of this gossip like taylor momson's career being ignored over layton's music career oh oh the drama the goss which is funny because i think long lasting yeah taylor momson's like she's still got a following you know people are still listening to to them i uh i suggest beyond the blinds they have a cw episode that has a lot of really good stuff where they break down some
Starting point is 00:12:56 blinds that were submitted at the time and what it all means but a show itself built on gossip i really love that and it's transcended to your point i feel like josh saffron a visionary listen leave me alone a visionary i'm i've had a new awakening today where like last week i was mad at the show i was happy for the show and now i'm like sad and i'm like josh please josh saffron had a vision he and i'm not kidding like a big vision like he actually had overarching beats he wanted to hit. There were things that got in the way. And I actually have really come to have the show grow on me, even some of the filler quote unquote episodes.
Starting point is 00:13:35 Yeah, like, so I know that we said that they were trying and kind of fell flat end of 2022, which is true. And it wasn't like at the same level i think as gen one but i think there's there's something different about how things were at that time period as well that would have made it difficult to do or like to recreate that with gen two but at the same time like re-watching it you can see you can see he had a vision and not even just that like as we were getting towards the end of season two i was like oh this is getting really good the show is really starting
Starting point is 00:14:10 to come into its own and and then and then they took it from me i know and as we start to get into our overall generation two feelings i wanted to bring up a quote from interview magazine that really spoke to me and we're going to quote him tonight a few times i'm sure but about kind of the rules of gossip girl and what he said about some of the rules that they carried over from generation one of writing so there has to be a scene outside of school. Every episode has to begin with the Gossip Girl voiceover. There are rules that are still in the DNA and stay no matter what he says, but the biggest thing that makes Gossip Girl Gossip Girl is each episode of the first show had an event. It could be as small as a tea party or as big as a wedding, and every character
Starting point is 00:15:02 converged. The rule was that every few episodes, there would be different events, because you couldn't always get into the same event. So two different events, but there'd be a crossover. So for example, if there was an event at the Waldorf's and an event at Serena's or at the Vanderwoodson's, somebody would end up going to the other. So to me, that's Gossip Girl, and the structure is so wonderful. It helps the episodes, because even though there are no act breaks, we still break the
Starting point is 00:15:27 episodes with act breaks. The end of act one, you hear about something that's going to happen. At the end of act two, all of the trains are headed towards each other, and in act three, the trains collide. Act four is the aftermath. So we break the episodes down that way, and it helps make it feel like Gossip Girl, because everything comes together and explodes. I thought that was such a great way to look at it because he also goes on to talk about how he builds the plots and he explains that the front of the episode would
Starting point is 00:15:54 usually be in the original Gossip Girl the child messing up right so Serena for example out there doing Serena things she has to go and the second half of the episode would be the reveal that the parent is kind of the monster or a parent is a part of these machinations and making it a worse situation like lily being revealed lying behind the fuck ups and the final formula yeah fucking lily eliana's shaking her head y'all she was a mess too also iconic though iconic i mean those bags those those Birkin girl. Lily. Lily. I mean she brought her own bags.
Starting point is 00:16:29 B-Y-O-B. The final formula that I want to share that Josh uses he says that they have A, B, C, and D plots that the D plot is the teacher's. Whether that plot gets a bigger time for the screen this episode or
Starting point is 00:16:45 a smaller time for the screen they are always the least important which we'll talk about some of the meta of that later like uh the contracts the teachers were only contracted for one more year for this season and they were not contracted further so they were going to become a smaller part but the d plot is always the smaller and every plot has to end in the same place or in a similar place because Saffron is not into big shocking cliffhangers, which we'll talk about later really helped with the finale and fixing some of the things he had to go in and fix.
Starting point is 00:17:18 Which honestly, impressively done when I, because I knew that the show had gotten canceled right before, I guess the the season two finale aired and I was like they did a good job they did a really good job better than anyone knows yeah so some of my overall feelings for gen 2 is that same something that carried over from gen 1 is that I feel like the soundtrack always bangs I forgot that there were so many good songs throughout this whole series. And I will give one caveat, though, except for that random like Coldplay and Chainsmokers scene where
Starting point is 00:17:51 everyone's singing, because it is just not believable to me that everyone would be that hyped about that song in that bar and want to have a whole number about it. And that's just how I feel about that otherwise the soundtrack in both series were just like so good I think it has kind of a perfect blend right because you have some songs that maybe don't feel like something you or I would be into or songs that you're like I don't know if this bar would be into it but they're more modern right you have some songs that always are the anchor but they always seem to blend some older hits in there some aughts hits as well and then the modern hits and then also like
Starting point is 00:18:31 the cool modern hits so when i say cool i don't mean everyone knows them but there's a handful of good indie hits that are slung out there right stuff that you're like oh i got a shazam that shit what was that what was that i forgot that they opened the whole series with Hope Tala. So I was like, oh shit. Oh shit, that's a girl. And then- Hope and then Frank Ocean immediately after. I mean, that is an expensive needle drop.
Starting point is 00:18:55 Very expensive needle drop. It's an expensive show. I think it was like 218 million or something in total, somewhere above that probably. Yeah, and I mean, the needle drops alone we're gonna bring up euphoria probably a couple times tonight because that is another show that has has paid for their needle drops in their season two but in the first few episodes alone you have like freak by doja you have jada g frank ocean perfume genius japanese house lord and that's just kind of
Starting point is 00:19:23 what i can think of off the top of my head and I don't know I think they really blended season two really well there wasn't too much top 40s top 40s but every here and there there was one or two to snag you and it was good they never usually do too many top 40s right because they wanted to feel like you don't want to be taken out of it they do every now and then it's cute during Julian's birthday. They're playing Julian by Carly Rae Jepsen, which was a cute touch. And that was in season one. The modern hits don't really come up unless they're in a public place too. Yeah, that's true. And yeah, club. Yeah. And it's not even like always, you know, like,
Starting point is 00:20:06 top 40 modern hits like they had that Ethel kane american teenager song in the last few episodes so yeah it's a love the soundtracks to both shows except again i just don't believe everyone would be that into that coldplay slash chain smoker song but i think that's just me and suspension of disbelief eliana that's my one thing i was like that one i for some reason that just like broke it for me i also this is a weird one i really liked that violin bit of the soundtrack that was like anxiety inducing they would play that was actually oh yeah like original soundtrack sometimes in the credits or sometimes in the middle of the episode i liked a lot of the original soundtrack as well not just the money money songs and it was good because it did give it a very different feel from the first series it made it feel much more like a this is my
Starting point is 00:20:57 controversial opinion gossip girl gen 2 especially the first two seasons are kind of like death note all right oh my god that's my controversial opinion it is death note and okay okay go on i don't want to spoil death note yeah i mean essentially it's you know kind of trying to find out the secret identity of the other and they're all working together but one of them does no other and all those like coming out and being able to control people and nobody dies which is actually kind of surprising i think more people needed to die in gen 2 a lot of people died in gen one that's fair no they didn't have this many tangential randos yeah it starts out with a death if you think about it that's part of the disappointment right there was definitely mystery to come it seemed for series three with what was set up at the very end of the second season yeah so there needed to be more death and i don't know
Starting point is 00:21:58 what i what i did also love about the continuity of this world is like that no one really remembered Gossip Girl from 2012 and how it was basically published on like a live journal and everyone's like what is this right and that just felt kind of true to me the idea that yeah no one would remember what happened in 2012 or live journal I mean everyone remembers live journal to an extent but you're you're surprised when you see something on it and i love that characters like monet actually do and they study it right monet who was always trying to fit in was constantly studying the old gossip girl and saying well old gossip girl said this i thought that was great that would be so in her character
Starting point is 00:22:41 but i love that it took on form it gained sentience in a way evil or way that it did before instagram is like it's following the trail of dumois right and all of these blind sites and then also because like you can get notifications for it unlike with the way blogs were in the aughts life's hard now with all those notifications. God. There seemed to still be updates when Gossip Girl posted in the original, to be fair. Like, I don't know if it was just email updates like Gossip Girl just posted. Yeah, was it like, hey, it's Dan.
Starting point is 00:23:17 Here's how my life is going with Serena. Dan definitely had several blogs, not just Gossip Girl. Dan definitely had several blogs not just Gossip Girl I love that evolution of good kind of triumphing over evil that those kids kept trying to do all the time right and like the idea
Starting point is 00:23:35 of working to change things from the inside a la Kate or a la Julian for example and how it has its limitations and especially for the kids who have no real support system and have no real way through that adding on the digital age when it comes to characters like ob and julian who are fighting battles they shouldn't be battling through the phone you know like this is not you do not go to instagram to fix these problems i am so worried you go to twitter
Starting point is 00:24:01 to fix these no i'm joking yeah exactly kids don't get it these days damn zoomers and sometimes there were some really gorgeous shots on a purely aesthetic level uh really well directed parts though sometimes for no reason which is fine too like i'm not knocking on it but sometimes it was just for fun which is fun for this kind of show something from the original i always loved were the fun episode titles, which there were tons of these that also crossed over, actually, with the first generation, like the Lies Wide Shut episode. It mirrors the Eyes Wide Shut episode from the first series
Starting point is 00:24:37 where Chuck is entranced by the woman in the secret club, and then she disappears, and he goes there, and there's the mask thing, the mask it's an eyes wide shut thing anyways uh glossing over eyes wide shut but i love kind of some of those artsy bits because something about cw shows and i don't mean this as a knock but they're not philosophical pieces of art always right like there could be depth in there and writers work really hard and production crews work really hard but it's a cw show at the end of the day it's not spinoza right like you're not supposed to sit there and just like deeply deeply deeply ponder all of it and i love that despite that they get to show their creativity show their interests show little references to film and to cinema and arts
Starting point is 00:25:26 and different things. This series had a little more effective theater and some of those other arts we didn't get to always explore in the first generation. But I really loved that we got to explore that, you know, A24 style gossip girl as much as we could have gotten. There were even
Starting point is 00:25:42 bits, like the finale had that moment where Max is looking through the peephole or the eyehole of the door at Aki and Audrey, and it does this very slow pullback kind of like David Fincher in Panic Room with Jodie Foster.
Starting point is 00:25:57 Pulls back and you get to see it all go blblblblbl. And also I want to say it might be at the Influencer event in season one that they have at the bar to save Julian there's a revolving single shot where they like revolve around the room all in one sweep for no reason
Starting point is 00:26:13 like it's really for no reason but it's just for fun and I love that like they had fun making it pretty and doing fun little shots to make it interesting and keep the eye into it yeah the one thing I wish they would have done is more camp when they could and doing fun little shots to make it interesting and keep the eye into it. Yeah. The one thing I wish they would have done is more camp when they could,
Starting point is 00:26:32 but I understand that they needed to get it off the ground before getting really weird. And I think they did eventually, even in the beginning, some things were a little campy, right? Which is good. Which is, I think, what the show needed a lot of and did eventually get there. But as you said like the shots were really well done and that combined with the way that they treated the original score plus like also the the sort of uh style of like the font and the text of everything that they gave it kind of helped it feel a little more sophisticated as a show and it was sleek yeah it was really sleek but at the same time i thought they could do that but and i think that worked but i didn't need it to be like i don't need gossip girl to be philosophical and i think that's exactly that was part of what held it like made
Starting point is 00:27:25 it i think a little too cumbersome the first season that held it back too seriously in season one yeah and i think not that like it isn't worth doing that with but sometimes like it doesn't have to be like that sometimes art is just a doodle on a napkin. It can be fun. It's something that I think too. Like euphoria. Right. Speaking of camp. And going overboard. Like that Rue relapses.
Starting point is 00:27:51 And there is a giant. You know. Puts her in the air. Musical number. And I'm not asking for that necessarily. But like you know. Blair's little. Dreams.
Starting point is 00:28:01 At the beginning of episodes. Her old. Cinema dreams. Where she's always an old cinema woman and uh something's happening and some of those little bits of dramatic flair i would have liked to have a little more of that earlier on and i think season two really captured that well yeah season two it was really starting to come into its own and another thing is and i think you and i will maybe come back to this a lot j Josh Safran said quite a few times that, you know, TV has changed,
Starting point is 00:28:28 which it has since the first generation. And they had long seasons at that time. And I think that you and I have said this about other shows as well. I would have liked to see this have like those 22 episode seasons. And I think it would have gotten a lot more room to grow and i don't know we've just moved into this weird era with streaming that everything has to be like 10 to 13 episodes and it's like i don't know just let things let things like breathe and be fun it's minimalist it's money it's money it's money it's money it's how can we make can you
Starting point is 00:29:04 tell the story in the least amount of money in the least throughout a screen room it's lean it's money it's how can we make can you tell the story in the least amount of money in the least throughout a screen room it's lean it's lean manufacturing but applied to tv and it was funny but just in a different way i will i will say on the other side of things exactly they were milking it then they were they had ads they had to show on the other side of things i would say 22 episodes 45 minutes the 58 minutes yeah it was great to tell and i think that was honestly the handoff was that fine but we'll do this small amount of episodes but we deserve our hour block and that's an okay handoff but i don't think the show is meant for that i don't think that it can keep your interest fully 100% of the time while filling that time every week.
Starting point is 00:29:48 As someone who watched it every week, it wasn't bad. It's just it got hard sometimes to watch for 58 minutes. Yeah, except for the very last episode, which they made use of every single moment of that. And I'm impressed that they fit all of those plots in one episode. I kind of forgot it was just one episode. I was like, how did they fit all of that and i'm impressed that they fit all of those plots in one episode i kind of forgot it was just one episode like how did they fit all of that in the finale yeah but it worked i love that from the very beginning we nip in the bud the gossip girl issue i actually think
Starting point is 00:30:20 it's brilliant because you spend several seasons wondering who the hell it is and it makes no sense season five i hear they were inkling that nate could possibly then be gossip girl it turns out to be dan for the overarching and there are like listicles upon listicles you can google to see times dan couldn't have been gossip girl or he's just an asshole which i'm like it could be both but it could be both but by the time the, right? Like it doesn't fully make sense that it's Dan and it's not, it's not underwhelming. It's just like, well, I mean, it's like, all right, it's Dan. I liked when he got punched though, but glossing over that, it was a great moment for all, a happy thing for all, not bummer for all.
Starting point is 00:31:00 But I think having it be the teachers flipping it on their ass and having that be the dilemma from day one you know we're in it we know it I think that makes it very interesting and it's a great something that I've noticed Josh Safran saying in these interviews is how he wanted to embrace the traditionalism of Gossip Girl while also taking it and changing it right and doing things that Gossip Girl never did and seeing how they play out in this sandbox of Gossip Girl while also taking it and changing it, right? And doing things that Gossip Girl never did and seeing how they play out in this sandbox of Gossip Girl. And I like that because it takes you out of your comfort zone. Everyone's a remix of someone, but there's also so many new nuances to plots, to people, to relationships, dynamic situations.
Starting point is 00:31:40 I think it was really smart to tell us who Gossip Girl was from the beginning, because you don't want to just completely rehash the first thing, you know, the first generation. And that really helps you to differentiate it right from the get-go. And like I said, gives it a very Death Note feel. JK, JK. So I thought something that was fun in terms of breaking those rules was you read that aloud earlier that they kept this formula. They kept the episodes opening with Gossip Girl. But at the start of the series, there is no Gossip Girl, right? So it doesn't open with that voiceover. And then you only get the Gossip Girl title screen as soon as they first make the Gossip Girl account. And I thought that was, they do some really fun, like you said, artsy, cute things with
Starting point is 00:32:24 it. And yeah, Danette's Gossip Girl made no sense. account and i thought that was they do some really fun like you said artsy cute things with it and yeah dan has gossip girl made no sense it was not only like i think a lot of people were underwhelmed or not underwhelmed they were just like her you know him it makes no sense and they had to just finagle i think an answer because they did get canceled right without uh knowing that they were getting canceled that season and had to come up with some sort of a sudden like solution for it and wrap it all up that season tradition yeah which is how it was and i think that this show does a really great job of poking holes in it and playing with the meta of dana's gossip girl in order to you know what would this gossip girl do or how do we like use what people know from a previous series in order to play off their expectations
Starting point is 00:33:10 for like making zoya you know the the fall or whatever what is the term like fall girl whatever whatever um for that plot the reveal the reveal that she's gossip girl although she's not yeah they yeah they play with that in a really fun way and with the meta and reveal that she's gossip girl although she's not yeah they yeah they play with that in a really fun way and with the meta and i think there's too much of a reliance on puzzles and mystery boxes for your plots these days something i really respect josh saffron for that because he doesn't as i kind of said earlier he doesn't seem to go for the shock value and the cliffhanger and his story it happens because it happens you know it's not always some secret thing which with gossip girl that can make you think it is right that's i mean the entirety
Starting point is 00:33:52 of gossip girl is to misdirect you and lead you but i actually enjoy seeing how those misdirects play out on other characters when you have the answer in front of you thankfully this was not a rings of power problem for me my god i mean it didn't lead to nothing like you were still able to close these ties up yeah absolutely and it was hinging more on the drama of everyone going up against one another and not the mystery box the the only mystery is like who's gonna win right how is this plot going play out? How are these plans going to go awry? Because people loved making plots within this show, and then they would all fall apart. It was fun. This one was kind of a mystery box, but not really. It's not a mystery box at all.
Starting point is 00:34:35 But I will say I thought this is a very small thing. This Jamie Searcy-esque plot with Grace, Grace's character, so random, Came out of nowhere, but hilarious. I loved that. There were so many of those little plots. That's how you know it is Gossip Girl. That's camp. There's all these mini plots. Remember when Julian was dating the married guy?
Starting point is 00:34:57 Oh my god, and he wasn't married. Yeah, except he wasn't. That was Gossip Girl. That right there is Gossip Girl. And I really did enjoy those little subplots and arcs. And I actually really enjoyed Grace because she was like, you know, not bad, but then she actually was bad. I love that shit. I love that kind of thing. Exactly. And, oh, man, she was like, they ended with her just being this like cringy person. And you're like, oh, maybe she's good, right right when she steals the microphone for shallow uh yeah yeah that was a hilarious random plot screaming this is not a plot but i just love dean fogg from the magicians aka rick worthy as grayson oh my gosh that was a good that was a good casting choice a lot of the casting was very good yes especially the parents they all are like master actors. We'll bring a couple more of them up for sure. Yeah. What are the
Starting point is 00:35:48 things you could have done without Eliana? What plot were you like, eh? I understand why they did it. But I'm glad that they stopped and got rid of eventually the love triangle between the two sisters. It was it was too clunky. I do not care. like that that just made it tedious right all the other drama was way more fun than having a love triangle between the sisters played out it was very early fresh raw gossip girl right like this is kind of messy shit that was going on in season one of the original yeah absolutely weird shit like this but it it just didn't feel right for the dynamic i feel like we could have had drama focused elsewhere the The show was strongest when Zoya and Julian were aligned or like if they're fighting with each other it's just because Julian's being silly and then Zoya's helping her
Starting point is 00:36:34 with something, right? And it's like you gotta quit doing this shit, right? But they're still on the same side in that way. It's just Julian's being silly. Yeah, the end of season one or mid end of season one and you know a lot of season two were really great yeah a lot of season two I also think that they do better at making the point with this plot
Starting point is 00:36:55 but the idea of that gossip girl makes the students better like it literally made them worse for a while and it was each other who made them better and I do think that was the point that was the whole point but it was a little tedious but i guess that's because the teachers were the d plot yeah that's a good point and i actually i kind of respect that he was like it's not about them and their plot isn't actually important i think that's really cool that like they're still the designated d plot even if they get a lot of screen time yeah they're the setup
Starting point is 00:37:23 they're the setup because what happens from here is going to be a lot different we're gonna talk about well they were fun characters and they they also were very messy yes yes very messy i didn't really care about that one teacher the guy that she was like all right i'll sleep with you again the The gym teacher. Yeah. Yeah. I don't care for him. I didn't care about him. I didn't really care about the other teacher at the beginning of season two, whose name I forgot, who has like a 20. The woman.
Starting point is 00:37:55 No, no, no, no. The other man who was like a spy who ends up leading to the Georgina Sparks plot. He's got like the 2003, like Justin Bieber haircut. And I'm like, yeah, the one that Kate had a a little almost 2003 i don't know what year it was yeah whatever yeah yeah it's weird because
Starting point is 00:38:13 they're like such forgettable plots too yeah i mean he was important for bringing in georgina sparks which is not forgettable and i will appreciate how they ramped up to Georgina. I mean, Josh, Josh, Josh and I. Josh has spoken, you know, about, sorry. Safran's spoken in articles I've seen so far about how he wanted to ramp up like that. He's like, you don't just bring Georgina on. So I really respect that. He took very careful care with these legendary characters. But he did say that from day one she was in
Starting point is 00:38:45 oh that's awesome yeah michelle that's great go michelle i love i love that and if there's any character that i would i was glad to see back it was definitely her she's she's a fun character and wallace sean her um you know the waldorf's that was yeah nelly yuki nelly yuki those were great to bring in um i hope and i'm glad the big bigs weren't on there you know i think that's world shattering i don't think we need to see it breaks immersion to see serena and chalk and blair yeah they were referenced a lot and i think nate has the spectator yeah think, and, and we even see like what Eric Vanderwoodson's husband. And I think, you know,
Starting point is 00:39:30 it could be seen as a criticism that, you know, did they have to lean too much on gen one in order to make gen two fun and engaging? And I understand that it, it could be a critique of it in the way that, you know, with avatar, the last airbender, the legend of Cora had to do a thing where they just kind of completely reset, right? And like cut themselves off from some of the continuity in the first series. But for me, I think I like that they brought in stuff from Gen 1 and Gen 2. bit of it it was fun you know again i'm not looking for philosophy from gossip girl that's
Starting point is 00:40:06 true that's true i'm looking for i am looking for fashion yes whenever i watch gossip girl i'm on the fashion watch and they had it oh yeah they had it was such an expensive show yeah they were able to get so many more new things than they could have had in the first series you know at the beginning no one was willing to donate them stuff in series the first generation just because you're a new show i get it you don't want to put your stuff on a show if you don't know how it's gonna represent you uh in totality people weren't ready to bet on it and now you can see that gossip girl was able to flourish in the show the sets were crazy they built tons of sets really well done i bet people were fighting to even get their clothes like featured on the show like gossip girl was a
Starting point is 00:40:50 tastemaker yeah like the show not just not the blogger not dan not free nor kate the teacher okay eric de man who was the original designer for Gossip Girl for costumes for the first series, is also the designer for the second series. Yeah, he made a mood board, I guess, of every character. I would kill for one of those. I'm like, I want those mood boards. I must see them for each character. My personal favorites, I actually love this because we have some different favorites, I think. Aki and Audrey are my favorite fashion icons on the show.
Starting point is 00:41:30 Also, I love Maxwell's style, but Aki and Audrey are like, I just really like both their styles. Stunners, bangers, Aki's Hawaiian Night of the Living Dead shirt. I have an alert on Google set up so I can find it when it comes up for cheaper. I'm like, I'm gonna buy that shirt.
Starting point is 00:41:44 It was amazing. And I have to shout out that his dad, Succession Grandpa Menzies, he it's Malcolm McDowell. Now, he played Alex in Clockwork Orange and in the last episodes
Starting point is 00:42:00 Aki wears a Clockwork Orange hoodie. So cute nod. There was also a nod to Helena's actress was in Madoff, the miniseries Madoff. And there was a Madoff reference of the finale. And I just think that was kind of cute. I'm like, you know, they were thinking of the actors a little bit because there were some great actors brought in for the parents, but great little fashion connections. Yeah, it's funny i actually saw helena first in fort salem which was a show that i think also got canceled about witches yep and yeah actually no i really do love
Starting point is 00:42:35 aki and audrey's style too like audrey wears this bodycon black dress with like a little dip in the bosom area that i was like i want that and i've been like looking out if in case that something like that ever comes across like any of my feeds i'm like gonna snap it up if anything like that ever shows up but i was like chloe will talk about them i loved i loved zoya and julian's styles i also love l Luna's styles, but they were just like really fun. And Zoya, I think has a much more playful aesthetic. And yeah, I liked their fashion as well. And of course, you know, Julian's effortless, but influencer, you know, she's the Serena Vanderwoodson of the show. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I think something great is the uniform,
Starting point is 00:43:24 right? the uniform being the foundation because it was always the foundation for constance in the first series just very vaguely right look at blair who was constantly bending it and she was really the one much like how they were like um we make the rules and teachers go in the back entrance only it's not for you you can't go through this entrance this is our entrance. Much like that. That was Blair, right? She laid the law down. She made the rules. She was like, you wear your headband on this side, like the episode where the girls come up to her. They're like, are you Blair? And she's like, yes, your headband's on the wrong side. But yes, I am. Thanks for adoring me.
Starting point is 00:43:58 She was the rulemaker and the tastemaker there. And you actually see that with julian especially at the end of season one when her dad's life has kind of you know in the middle end has kind of ruined her life she has a style breakdown and you can actually see it's intentional and she starts kind of you know wearing broken down sweaters or jerseys and very to her roots and uh earth down to earth and just like not as crazy as she was before with her crazy outfits her great influencer style ironically though it catches on right the girls around her with her chic sadness her chic my dad is illegal status she's wearing these outfits and everyone starts adding it slowly to their uniform so you're seeing these people in the background wearing similar to her yeah yeah it's uh it's great to see her trends catch on regina george style right real life and fast forward to season two you have the
Starting point is 00:44:57 deb ball her gown actually she got it from a brooklyn. It's Andrea Pitter's Pantora Bridal. And Eric DeMond said that this is kind of to show her roots to Zoya, a little more in her allegiancy and showing like, hey, I'm with my sister now. I want her to know I'm really actually trying. And then she also later wears a really great bright knitted jumpsuit from the Jamaican designer Edvin Thompson during the fashion off with Monet, which the opposite of this is for Monet, right?
Starting point is 00:45:32 From the very beginning, we see her perfectly coiffed, perfectly manicured, always in Dolce or vintage Gucci, a dry suit, you know, like something very stiff and something very approved by Blair Waldorf. Exactly. The old money shows through. Yes. Yes. She is very about tradition. She's very about form, about how she needs to appear to people.
Starting point is 00:45:48 And you see that opposite journey for her, right? By the end of season two, Julian has kind of transitioned out of wearing the calmer casuals to the roots things, and she's wearing the bobbly Taylor Swift gown at the Met Gala, right? She's wearing outfits that are a little once more eye-catching and more bright and a little more, she's a little more self-absorbed during that time in finding herself and in taking down Gossip Girl and going for her own goals, where Monet kind of relaxes. Monet goes from wearing kind of the more stiff Prada outfit here and the
Starting point is 00:46:21 really nice designer look and chic and old money look and she kind of by the end is wearing a beautiful slinky leopard print cheetah print dress and very comfortable in her own skin knowing that she's found herself. Yeah. I didn't pay attention to Zoya's journey
Starting point is 00:46:40 as much but you start out with her trying to imitate her sister's style a little right which makes sense and that's why it was so sad i really love like their bond as sisters and then at the end you kind of start seeing her branch out a little more she's kind of taking on more of this sort of androgynous youthful in a way style and i i would have loved to see how that plays into who she becomes in season three because she's talking about how I think this is my chance to finally get to actually live a life in New York
Starting point is 00:47:10 without an adult harassing me yeah and we know that's not gonna happen but now it'll just be all kids all day long on tiktok but how fun how fun foroya Lott. There's a really great growing up story going on for her, right? Because you get Lil' J in the original series, which I think kind of comes into a parallel for Zoya in some ways. But Lil' J also was very about expressing herself and being herself, even when she loses herself, right? Which does show through in the costuming and show through in the makeup and what she's kind of doing with her look and where she's going and who she's hanging out with like Damien Damien or you know
Starting point is 00:47:50 the lot like that those evil drug dealer boys from Gossip Girl Generation One but she still gets to express herself that's her form that's what she loves and I think Zoya really got as we kind of start talking about some of these character arcs and comparisons and dynamics with these characters i think zoya got the short lot no pun intended because i feel like she got screwed over by every guy she even looked at i know she was second fiddle to her sister's machinations always yeah and i think okay so i feel and you and i had the same thought. I think we were moving towards bisexual Zoya and she was going to maybe end up with Monet. That was my ship. I would love that.
Starting point is 00:48:32 Zoya, Monet, I ship it. I really love that. I love their dynamic. I loved their entire dynamic when Monet started to get a little more screen time. And they had that back and forth of knowing one another's secret with the the sex tape god Zoya my poor Zoya she really got through the fucking ringer and then she like the last guy she meets is a fucking stalker that we'll talk about I mean Zoya my poor Zoya but at that same token just said, Lil' J had all those kind of plots, right? She had Chuck Bass. She had Damien.
Starting point is 00:49:08 She had all these boys that were assholes that she learned lessons of life through. And I just felt unfair for Zoya. Though, the one thing I love is that she got Shan, right? I loved the addition of Shan. Shan is, I guess, somewhat Vanessa-like, question mark, in a way. Oh my god, wait, is Zoya Dan? Not Lil' J? Wow. But Shan kind of comes along as the down-to-earth friend, right, that sometimes is sensible, or sometimes not, which I also love.
Starting point is 00:49:38 She was the one who had, like, a healthy home dynamic, right? And she's, like, she's rebelling a little, but also nothing that i think is egregious in a teenage sense you know she was somehow like the most normal person throughout the whole show and she yeah she was sort of a grounding character especially for zoya but also i guess is is key to some of zoya's plots right in going to that party in Philadelphia which I thought that was hilarious oh I love that episode though otherwise yeah Shan being British
Starting point is 00:50:11 yeah right and then the names that they use and yeah Monet exactly and like that leading to all everything else that happens but yeah you keep talking about little J in the context of Zoya and that's because they kind of play i think similar roles but it's hard to write a character like zoya without retreading the same ground because you're writing again like what's meant
Starting point is 00:50:37 to be your sort of outsider's perspective but in that way the most normal perspective like that your audience like can enter the story through, right? That's your introductory character that you're supposed to, like, feel related to. And that makes sense because I'm realizing, you know, her father's name is Nick, right? Then you have Julian's last name, Calloway. Is it an homage to the Great Gatsby, right? Where you have a character who is your entrance into the world of the rich, the elite, and his name is Nick Carraway. So playing with some of those sounds a little, you get, you know, the great Gatsby, original Gigi. I'm so glad you brought this up because I think it's true. I really do think it's true. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:51:17 I think it's definitely a big shout out to the classics because that's all that they love to do. I mean, look at, look at, well, yeah, exactly. But look at, you know, the episode titles. Look at some of the references. High literature, high theater, high arts. You know, the arts are very kind of a central theme around a lot of how these episodes have evolved. And not even that, but also some of the premises, right?
Starting point is 00:51:42 You have My Fair Lady kind of style themes showing up in episodes. You have different plays, different references. And they do a good job of blending things, you know? Yeah, what I'm trying to tell you is that Gossip Girl is art. It is philosophical, actually. I know it is. It turns out Gossip Girl is that deep.
Starting point is 00:51:59 It is, it is. But at the same time, there were times in season one where I felt like it was trying too hard to be that. And I'm like, just let it do it. it just let it do it and i think season two starts getting into that in a way that works but yeah they tried too hard to you know you and i've discussed this to make it i think a little parable-ish and i'm like i don't need gossip girl to teach me how to be a good person i need gossip girl to to be like an art can be about messy people look at anna karenina right like messy yeah everyone's messy yeah and like i don't need
Starting point is 00:52:34 gossip girl to teach me how to have morals i need gossip girl to be there to to be fun and that can still be art you know what i I'm saying? And speaking of. It's interesting. Yeah, right. Speaking of, I want to talk about Obi because I had a journey about Obi. I had a journey about Obi and I'm actually so amazed. Obi from episode one, we meet Obi and he is the only one that does not follow Gossip Girl on Instagram. He didn't even have Instagram. not follow gossip girl on instagram he didn't even have instagram now there's another piece of meta for you that max is the only one that's ever blocked gossip girl that we see
Starting point is 00:53:10 he has her blocked at the start so these are big these are great things to kind of play about the phones now opie is our nate archibald turned up to 10 made out with dan humphrey right like he's a perfect actually put him in the blender like a nate archibald that actually did something right that man said i'm gonna defend the world allegedly did something he he has as we've learned in gen 2 he his i'm sorry i've just gotten a correction i've just gotten a correction from my friend josh no i'm just kidding i just got a correction from eliana i don't know if you said like we were gonna see me in this anyway we'll get back to that so season one no instagram by the end of the season he has one and by season two he knows how to use
Starting point is 00:53:55 invisible mode successfully i don't know how to use that i don't even fucking use that me either and you use instagram all the time and not only that, he's navigating it mostly like a pro, minus the fumble and slip. We'll talk about that. What an arc. I actually really love that from the start, I like that Zoya challenges him and is like, you're a fake. You play a big game because you're guilty about your family,
Starting point is 00:54:18 but I need you to go do something for real. And then season two, he does and everyone hates him. And I feel for him because i mean obviously he was selling out his friends the whole time he did it but i really loved how adamant his character was about that plot like it felt very much like original gossip girl to me like a plot a subplot nate is going on right like it did have that vibe yeah it was consistent it made sense the reveal of his sister being the actual quote-unquote villain in all of this was great it was perfect gossip girl twist i loved it his
Starting point is 00:54:53 his character starts really working in the second season and that plot because in the first season like you said he's supposed to have like this moral core because he has like this guilt about his family and i'm like it it doesn't work for me because it feels shallow because i'm like look at your family right how good can you be with all that and then they do critique that that aspect of him throughout like season one but in season two it's kind of funny because he does really you know he wields gossip girl for some 4d chess with uh i mean real world politics and then that would have started going well into whatever was happening in season three and everyone's like annoyed at him but it's kind of funny because i don't think anyone's ever really that mad at him for what he did in selling
Starting point is 00:55:34 them out because they're like i don't know we kind of get it your family was i guess doing bad shit we get it and they forgive him pretty easily yeah it's interesting because they have like mosquito memories right they're like what was i doing eating blood it's like a sitcom it is a sitcom like it's funny because he was the only one with consistency for 10 episodes right like he was like i've been doing the same thing for 10 episodes and none of you have noticed none of you i got put in the hospital because of it and none of you have noticed uh which again very nate archibald or dan with their subplots because those two always had very consistent subplots i feel like that weren't just like changing every other episode i would have liked to see the heidi stuff with obi was interesting and i think that would have been really interesting i assume that would have
Starting point is 00:56:19 continued into later seasons i love it because you had that drama with Trip, right? For Nate with Trip, his cousin. Oh, yeah. With the politics. And then you also had like Chuck and Jack. So there was a lot of really great tension from the inter family like that. So I would have loved to see more of that. And his mom, I mean, I really liked that she was somewhat innocent, quote unquote, right? I don't know about how innocent, but that she was, innocent quote-unquote right i don't know about how innocent but that she was you know not actually the real big bad in this moment and i'm interested to see where they take her plot from there that's so true i mean you we would have had two people in prison right like helena helena and and kate and how we would be able to kind of i think compare and juxtaposes experiences i assume that would have been interesting yeah yeah i like that
Starting point is 00:57:06 heidi's name for him autocado i love that name that was fun he had a lot of nicknames didn't he have like autobahn was probably obn of itself is a nickname is a nickname yeah yeah but yeah let's let's move on to the influencer herself you know you love her xoxo stop the story we're here right now with eliana to talk about julian calloway stop the story it's time for you to share your story eliana oh my god if julian said that one more time i would i know i would off myself i would throw myself down the stairs yeah i love it stop the story i love it she's such a mess and she thought that was a good idea she really thought she had a lot of things she thought were good ideas she's the serena van der wensen you know like absolutely effortlessly cool somehow accidentally or not accidentally i don't know just fucks everything up in one way or another.
Starting point is 00:58:13 It's funny, she starts out as not putting much stock in Gossip Girl, but then as soon as the whole followers thing happens, she cares, alright? She gets sucked into it, which is also what happens to Serena, but in a very different way. But she does stay consistent right from the beginning of the series of wanting to take Gossip Girl down. That has always been consistent in her character. And I think they do a good job of exploring the ups and downs of that. I also love, this is a small thing, but like a sisterly thing, right? Of when Julian shows up to Nick's apartment that one time and she just automatically lies and covers for Zoya. And it's like, oh yeah, no, she was with me earlier, of course. And that just feels true to me. And this is why my best friend's mother hates me, because that's what you do for your sisters, you know? You lie and you cover for them.
Starting point is 00:58:53 Even if it's so clearly a lie, you're like, yeah, no, she's with me. Yep, you lie. You lie like a motherfucker. Until you get caught, you lie. I got caught pretty fast but i i blame her mom like you should have known where your daughter was saw me anyway i just lie about it i just misdirect you from the truth eliana oh okay well only to parents something i really love and the arcs really stood out to me on this last watch through the three times I've watched Gossip Girl in the
Starting point is 00:59:28 last two months Kate and Julian are actually on the same exact arc opposite one another they are literally doing the same thing against one another Kate and Julian both become consumed by the power and the need from Gossip Girl just on the opposite
Starting point is 00:59:44 and receiving ends of it I think it's fascinating that because of this obsession you can see like Kate what Kate becomes and Julian that's what you could become it's more like Kate what Julian was is what you could become right you were saying that this isn't like rings of power but like let's be real Gossip Girl the account and all of it that power it is the one ring okay it's the one ring yeah absolutely and yeah they're the same character it's even called out a couple of times in explicitly they're like you are the same and yeah how they had they could consume by it and then they keep just finagling and making all these crazy schemes for everything they love scheming these two characters and oh yeah and how they end up blowing up their own romantic relationships multiple times because
Starting point is 01:00:31 of it it's really fun incredible yeah incredible maybe we should talk about kate for a second too like that actress was really fun she had great every time she would narrow her eyes and be like she was she was funny yeah i love that and look up i need to know how large the heels zoya was wearing in the penultimate episode versus kate where if you're watching next time you'll see what i mean zoya towers over her i'm like kate how short are you girlfriend you must be so tiny she's so short i. I know. I do really like Kate. I think she had very funny comedic timing. I know there were some complaints in the fandom, like we don't care about these teachers,
Starting point is 01:01:12 but I actually did start to care about Kate, even though the I'm trying to do better thing got old, you know, after a while, as we discussed, it got a little crusty. Like, come on,
Starting point is 01:01:22 Kate, come on, Kate. But I enjoyed that. As you said, Josh Safran took that and he transformed that idea and let it consume her like she i love that she got to be the villain oh my god so happy for you girl and they ended it great right like she's like no i want that recognition right she she partially got into gossip girl she was intrigued by the idea of best-selling novelist dan humphrey and like that was her dream right and so it plays on the meta
Starting point is 01:01:50 again and yeah and then they're all like no one wants a story of a teacher that's gross and sad they like literally more or less are like that's pretty gross and what's even sadder is that it's not like she's and i don't care if she is an old crone. I'm like, girl, go off. If you're an old crone on Gossip Girl, you're killing it better than half the game. But she isn't that much older. First of all, she's actually three years younger than I want to say Audrey's actress. Really?
Starting point is 01:02:18 Which is kind of funny. That's funny. In true Gossip Girl manner, you know, casting youngsters and oldsters opposite one another but that's funny also josh saffron pointed out in an interview that like private schools you have younger teachers because they get paid less and that's who accepts those paychecks and is willing to put up with the bullshit that comes with some of these private schools so more than likely kate isn't that much older she's only a few years older than they are. That's kind of interesting.
Starting point is 01:02:45 So no wonder she gets sucked in. Yeah, she gets so sucked into it all. Like, of course she does. She's barely out of the same stuff. Yeah, the younger teachers don't have that. The other teachers, they're fun. We could, I guess, talk a little bit about... Jordan?
Starting point is 01:03:00 We could talk about Jordan, but I don't really care about him. Knock off Andrew Garfield. I actually came to love him. No, no, no. I came to like him. He came to be fun, but I don't really care about it. Knock off Andrew Garfield. I actually came to love him. No, no, no. I came to like him. He came to be fun, but also at the same time, this isn't like the Gossip Girl Bible. Yeah. We'll be talking about him in just a bit, actually, when we talk about the thoughts
Starting point is 01:03:14 on the finale. But I do want to bring up Wendy, their little third sidekick. Love her. She's funny. Silly, silly. Yeah, I got to give her a shout out. She was very fun showing up at inopportune moments saying inappropriate things yeah i really liked that about her same same um
Starting point is 01:03:32 not to group them into one group but let's talk about the thruple real quick because unironically one of my favorite parts of the show and i don't know if that's because i'm a messy bitch but i loved it i actually thought it was a great slow burn. We'll talk a little more as we get to the finale thoughts. I liked Audrey's plot. I wish she had had a little, I don't know. I liked, I liked the entire slow burn of their plot, all three of them together and them trying to find themselves as well as their relationship with one another throughout the
Starting point is 01:04:00 two seasons. I think it was perfectly done slow burn. I mean, I kind of forgot on rewatch that they didn't get together together official like out to everybody official until basically the last few episodes of season two like mid season two and season two you know
Starting point is 01:04:16 everybody kind of knew but they weren't official till the end so it was kind of a perfect Gossip Girl timing that they break up at that season. 22 episodes per season. 22 episodes per season. Yep.
Starting point is 01:04:30 Thought they were fun characters. It was hard because I think that there could have been more focus on their plot too at some points. And it was hard to get a handle on the first season, but they figured it out second season. And I really liked Audrey's arc at the beginning or like during season one as well. But y'all know I'm like a sucker for a parentified kid with like parents with substance abuse issues and stuff. We'll talk about Max in a second. Aki, I liked his story, but there wasn't enough of it that stood on its own. And I think that they were starting to finally get there.
Starting point is 01:05:06 They were building up to it in season two, right? Because you can't, I think that, you know, Josh was trying to introduce things to us in like bite-sized ways. And I understand his timing. He had a large overarching vision. He had a long-term plan. And I think he had a long-term plan for Aki, too.
Starting point is 01:05:26 And now we're never going to get it. Yeah, I appreciated some of the cross-pollination for Aki's family, for his father with other characters. But I wanted a little more from them. I really loved the succession style, the summit. I loved that episode. I love that was kind of fun. I would have loved more from Aki and his mom.
Starting point is 01:05:46 I would have loved to have some more interactions in season two on that. I liked what they had in season one. I thought it was really great to have them interact and have her be really accepting of him as he's starting to come into himself and understand himself more. But there did come with the problem with the throuple, right? Is that the throuple was treated as the throuple and you didn't get as much individual. I mean, squeaky wheel. It's Aki, he got to make out with Ingrid. That's what he got this season, which is, you know, it is what it is. I do love, have to shout out the scene where he and Obi are at dinner with their parents and him and Obi are just like, fuck it.
Starting point is 01:06:23 Fuck it. Wow, this feels great to say. Like, have you ever gotten to say fuck off basically to them before? Love that scene. I was sitting here cackling watching it the other day. I was like, oh, good for those boys. You tell those parents to fuck off. I really did appreciate Aki and Obi's relationship also.
Starting point is 01:06:38 Their friendship was amazing. I just really liked the way they were able to be around each other and be honest with one another and support one another. I think it was a really good show for both of them. But we didn't get Aki. Like, obviously, Aki likes movies. Yeah, I got that much. And they were gonna start the Criterion channel. Exactly. They're gonna start going into that in his own dreams, maybe of being a filmmaker or something. And that's what they were. The Ingrid plot was kind of about right? Like, do your lovers
Starting point is 01:07:05 actually support you i don't know but as you said like when he was with obi he got to actually i think be more of aki's character and they were starting to focus more on him and yeah i think they were gonna build that out season three rip it was his time to shine and now we'll never have it now his watch has ended oh my god his watch is ended. Oh my god. Our watch is ended. So is all these characters their watch is ended. You know, Max, right? Love him.
Starting point is 01:07:32 Love his family. Exactly. They had like a really fun family arc. Messy. Comes back together. Interesting. And I would have liked to see also where his character goes. He's presented in a way at the beginning, right?
Starting point is 01:07:45 He's Chuck Bass coded, but he ends up being such a different character from him. Chuck is always kind of, I think, self-sabotaging. Max, yes and no, but he was a very different character. He's very vulnerable. He was very open. He's much more open about his feelings as the series goes on.
Starting point is 01:08:03 Yeah, he's a Pisces, and he doesn't assault people. Yes. Which is... He does top, though. Step one, not assaulting people. Honestly, he kind of actually, this is really sad, gets assaulted himself quite a few
Starting point is 01:08:20 times. I don't know that we would say, there's an argument to be made, like Heidi taking advantage of him. At the end. But like. Also teacher. The teacher assaulting student. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:08:29 Absolutely. That plot happened. Yeah. Yeah. It's very. Very Riverdale of them to do. It's interesting. In the light of like.
Starting point is 01:08:38 Dan Humphrey. With the hot teacher. And it was just messed up. Because finally the teachers were like. All the parents were like. What? one of our teachers is hooking up with this young man we must stop it and like that
Starting point is 01:08:50 was treated like it was like a sexy sad thing yeah in the original series so I actually really respect the way they took the Rafa plotline weren't we rewatching those episodes together yes we were the ones with the Dan Humphrey teacher I'm like what is going on here why is this Miss Carr yeah why is Miss Carr like as an adult Yes, we were. anyway she was a predator yeah rafa kate jordan take notes yeah weirdos or else you'll end up in
Starting point is 01:09:28 jail like kate yeah miss car wasn't arrested but maybe i don't know maybe she should have been but uh uh so i thought it was kind of interesting about max as you pointed out he blocks gossip girl at the beginning he doesn't ever really care about gossip Girl that much if at all his life is not that like it doesn't revolve around it as the other characters do at the same time is the one who in person amongst his friends is the
Starting point is 01:09:56 one who's the most misunderstood right like he doesn't need Gossip Girl to put on like a fake image of who he is everyone just already thinks he's a certain way somehow but he isn't actually that way in his day-to-day life whereas with everyone else they are who they are and it's everyone else through instagram or a gossip girl that's miss misunderstanding or how they're being misrepresented yeah i love that because you
Starting point is 01:10:22 actually get to see the real side of him with luna right with luna law who's one of my personal favorites yes i must say we got a yellow name out but i really loved their relationship and what it brought out in one another that they both seem to understand who the real them is to one another and like luna understands what max wolf actually wants and what's in his heart and is a good friend to him and vice versa with him to her uh I felt like that was a really great way to show the true side of Max and to show those discrepancies popping up around him with his relationship versus who he is and what he wants exactly uh Luna yeah that's that's another one where I'm really sad Luna was a really fun character so smart Julian took advantage of her absolutely so smart julian took advantage of her absolutely so hard every day every day of her life julian took advantage of her she had an angel yeah
Starting point is 01:11:12 in her midst she had an angel that fixed her life whenever she blinked good for luna that angel's breaking away yeah you know she like broke away from one her mom and then maybe she was seeing like her recreating patterns or something with julian but we're never gonna go maybe we will i don't know i haven't given up hope entirely when josh saffron gives up hope i hope he knows to call me and tell me everything yeah but until then someone buy it buy gossip girl please yeah my children are dying my children I don't have children my gossip girls my gossip girls are dying clear to God say
Starting point is 01:11:50 Monet speaking of Luna Law and her tremendous success that I am so happy about and happy for her because now she is sparkling on the inside out again like you said we had just started to get her mom and all of these little plots about her I'm so bummed i wanted more this was the season to start that yeah they just needed one more they just needed one more luna law was gonna be ultimate nepo baby
Starting point is 01:12:13 like she was like on that i think she was gonna be like bella hadid levels you know of like model etc and i think that would be really fun to explore. She's so beautiful. I can't get over it. She literally is, anyways, she's gorgeous. She's fucking gorgeous. Her and Monet are so solid. They held a great amount of the show for me with their humor, with their timing, with just the
Starting point is 01:12:37 simple reveries from their eye rolls and stuff. Oh my god. Eye roll cut of both of them would be amazing for Monet and Lunauna i'd love to watch that but i love that we get monet more in season two and all these family dynamics with dean fogg and with her mom fogg yeah monet becomes like a really big part of season two and it's funny she's like described she doesn't get that much in season one other than being you know a julian one of julian's henchmen they do name her though as a school villain in like the first episode and that's why they don't
Starting point is 01:13:10 choose to go after her initially but they actually let that come through as part of the plot in season two big sad that her mother thinks that i don't know gossip girl made her better and i'm like y'all are so dumb when really it was actually seeing luna law and like her best friend's like broken relationship with her mother that sparked monet to start trying to you know connect with her mother more but her parents were like really mean yeah they were ultra villains like over villains at the end of the day. Everything they did was like evil. And even the mom had these great moments of sensitivity like with Kate. I loved their scenes.
Starting point is 01:13:52 I thought they were interesting. There's a really great shot where they are in that atrium of the DeHaan household. And Kate is on one side and the mom is on the other. And there's the giant flowers in between them. And it's like, it's really great because they like quite obviously are playing a cat and mouse game and they're walking and the camera's rotating and they have something between them literally
Starting point is 01:14:12 like they aren't seeing each other just right through the flowers again because Kate is like four feet tall but in real life she might be compared to me I don't know I just don't know yeah Monet really needed some time to breathe. I love that they broke her down.
Starting point is 01:14:28 I love when she had her own henchmen from the other school, Kripa and whatever her name is. A throwback to Blair, really. Yeah. That is kind of a throwback to Blair with her henchmen. I love that. I love the balance of her and Luna Law, right? That Luna was kind of the creative design and she was the executor.
Starting point is 01:14:47 She was like, I make it happen. You design it. I think they were such a great pair together. A great little power duo for the show. I like that Monet does not care about her grades. So that really differentiates her from Blair, you know? Yes. Well, let's talk about the things that we wanted
Starting point is 01:15:05 yeah yeah let's talk about the finale and our thoughts on it and the end credits which I missed the very first time I will out myself I did not know there were end credits I didn't until I read these interviews and I was like oh shit yep gotta go back gotta go back I guess you just don't expect it but love that there was you know since episode one they've made such a great point that gossip girl is super fucked up right like we already knew that but yeah it's cyber stalking it's bullying it's harassment there was a line in season one that gossip girl is moments away from making a snuff film right how are there never real world consequences to this so i was happy to see the finale finally show real world consequences to this. So I was happy to see the finale finally show real world consequences.
Starting point is 01:15:46 The teachers are the bad guys is such a great, powerful theme of it. And watching that power of Gossip Girl consume them, like Rafa in season one, turning into a bad guy. Julian's dad is a bad guy. Season two, Kate losing control, becoming that villain. Zoya's dad,
Starting point is 01:16:02 Nick, getting burnt. I feel like there were all these great contrasts of the adults and their exploitative behaviors and how it affected these kids considering we had plots in series one like Serena and Armie Hammer. Any of those little side stories. Polly or
Starting point is 01:16:18 Georgina, right? Georgina herself. Georgina and her friend Savannah. Yes. Yeah. gina herself georgina and her friend savannah yes yeah honestly you know as you said there were there were lots of like really great moments and they started as you said getting the themes down they had some fun callbacks to like things at the beginning of the series i was like oh my god they mentioned andy cohen in episode one and then there he is season two finale amazing i was like oh my god josh was thinking he was he was he was thinking you know like five years like or more he was thinking like five-year plan five-year plan for josh 30 years ahead i he was playing 40 chess
Starting point is 01:16:58 and yeah you're talking about the whole way that they're showing that actually the adults are the bad guys, or they are not very good, and that the kids are kind of just imitating. And I think that's so true, because, you know, the season one plot, for some reason, it is like, why is Julian being held responsible for her father's actions? He is the adult, right? Or Audrey, again, constantly being responsible for managing her mother's moods and then, like, her brand or something. And, like, why are the kids managing their parents' lives? But the parents were also very messy in Gen 1. Let's be real. And, yeah, I mean... Lily. Oh, my God, the messiest.
Starting point is 01:17:42 Rufus? Putting my children in rehab, putting them in a mental facility so I don't have to deal with them or parent them you know my husband who's dead but isn't dead and also cheating with rufus and gonna run away with him oh my god the cancer plot with lily's mom and lying to rufus and then bringing back serena's dad you know i could keep going there were so many like the parents were as much part of the drama of gossip girl whereas in this one a little less so they were the adults were part of the drama in a different way yeah you have some great parallels too with like you know when everyone when julian's getting canceled people are like i think she
Starting point is 01:18:21 should leave the school how that kind of parallels with zoya and and that fire and having to leave her school and then also like it was kind of messed up because when the scholarship gets taken away they're all like yeah zoya your scholarship is jeopardized and teachers are telling us that your grades have slipped and i'm like all of these teachers are in on it all these teachers are why her grades are slipping you are literally cyber harassing her what do you think yeah like look at monet and her family dynamic and then apply it there holy shit yeah oh my god and yeah not only that but i it makes me think of abbott elementary a little and how like the complete opposite tone of a show right it's a sitcom it's more wholesome happy go lucky but you have the teachers there that the whole goal is like, despite the conditions
Starting point is 01:19:05 of the school, despite the conditions of their household lives, despite the conditions of the children's lives at home, they are trying with minimum resources to provide the best education they can, you know, give you heartwarming parables at the end of the day that Eliana only wants from that show, not from this show.
Starting point is 01:19:22 Making sure we know that. And Gossip Girl, you know, is the inverse of that. only wants from that show not from this show making sure we know that but and gossip girl you know is the inverse of that like this generation was the absolute inverse of that and it was like oh no what if the teachers really didn't care and they couldn't put your parents pettiness above this and they were like fuck it ruin the kids lives uh yeah horrible and i loved in the finale like in totality the finale as a heist right the finale as a heist was amazing it was like oceans 11 in this bitch uh the running water of the shower for jordan in the sink in the kitchen and then versus like julian in the bathroom in the shower while obi is texting her at kate kate
Starting point is 01:20:05 gossip girl is amazing when he fumbles and hits general instead of delete my heart skipped a beat i said oh no obi obi you put it in general you didn't delete it you stupid i was so upset i was like you're too new at this you're too new at instagram you're you're too new at this. You're too new at Instagram. You're too new. And there was something really meta in the finale about them using the phone, all of them having access, using their phones to tell like kind of lies, but also kind of true things about one another to Gossip Girl, right? To post them from all over in order to break down Gossip Girl. Like for the first time they're actually telling the truth about one another even if it's disparaging and hurtful it's almost like
Starting point is 01:20:51 this weird hash out trauma session for them at the Met because yeah at the ball they're like they're putting their traumas out in front of one another to prove slash to distract slash to confuse that they are Gossip girl and they they become gossip girl it's a giant show that is that is the title of the episode i am gossip they are gossip they do it together though even though they're also ruining each other's lives in the same moment but it's like honesty and it's like shit that needed to be said right like it's it's stuff that they couldn't just keep going on hiding and living that way from one another and it's a very meta final piece that like to destroy it this is what they do
Starting point is 01:21:31 if it works or not for better or for worse this is what they do yeah it's a lot of meta at the met which is the biggest thing the show has ever done and honestly i'm proud of them for doing it and honestly i'm proud of them for doing it and yeah there's there's like as you said they're finally divulging everything it's sort of a mingling of both performance which is what in and like the simulacra well to get philosophical about it of gossip girl but then that becoming also the real and like melding it together. And this is kind of funny that I'm about to say this because, and it's only because we just read this story. I'm like, it's like The Gathering or The Grishka before the confession. Oh yeah, the song for Leah. Yes, exactly, exactly.
Starting point is 01:22:18 And I don't know. I just, I would have loved to see what they come up with next. I don't know if you can go bigger or more expensive than The Met. I think plot-wise you can. I think spectacle-wise, maybe not. But that's fine. I'm glad that he got to do it. I'm glad he got out, he went out on a bang. Yeah, Josh Safran literally did go out on a bang by doing this because they had never done this. Yeah, amazing job.
Starting point is 01:22:46 But they never got to do this. Like, they never got to do this like they never got to do the met gala and this was something they always wanted to do in the first series and they couldn't so i know this was a big deal for them which is funny though you think about it because blake lively was someone who got a lot of attention for her met gala looks when you think about it did the muse inspire the art or what, you know? Interesting, interesting. There's almost a suspension of disbelief that Zoya could have been Gossip Girl. Like, obviously, we know she's not, but I loved how gaudy it was that she showed up,
Starting point is 01:23:17 and I loved her dress. I love what a tacky idea it is, though, that she's like, I'm Gossip Girl, and they're like, oh my god, it's her, it's her, and they're like oh my god it's her it's her and I'm like and then she's like crashing it like Cinderella right and like I like the quilt dress it's cute it felt more effective on rewatch than it did on the
Starting point is 01:23:34 initial watch and I will say I thought it would be it would have been really cool if there was like a scene where they took the materials to Kiki to make that dress. But it would have been cool if there was a scene before that of them compiling the materials and if it was of their moms. I know it's not really that show, but I was just thinking,
Starting point is 01:23:53 wouldn't that have been cool if the dress had been made from things of their moms together? Like, we did it together. Yeah, but I think the dress- This is what she would have wanted. The dress in and of itself, it is a designer one, and then the apron was added onto it. So I think if you wanted to buy the quilt dress you probably could for like a bazillion dollars um and uh the symbolism of the quilt right it shows their patchwork lives sewn
Starting point is 01:24:14 together right that these children like it's not a perfect designer smooth one piece of silk right it's several pieces patched together and sometimes those pieces don't fit but sometimes in life you got to make them yeah it was art the show and like what they did with zoya and there is a suspension of disbelief that people would believe it but at the same time everyone like believed and accepted that dan humphrey was so it's not that big of a stretch you know if you're going from a world where in within a world where dan humphrey actually is gossip girl you could believe that it was zoya and that's what they were playing on which again fun it's fun yeah well eliana do
Starting point is 01:24:51 you want to hear what could have been because i know some of what i know i know some of and i'm just it make it hurts it hurts for those of you listening at home there is a great deadline interview look at what they took from you we'll link it below for you to check it out but here is kind of a little bit of what he's let slip so the finale was not intended quite obviously to be the series finale he actually asked to edit the finale when he had kind of a hunch that it was getting canceled so So he went back in and edited the entire finale. 30 minutes of scenes at least were removed. So they had to add things back in. He had to change stuff around just to make it so it could be final.
Starting point is 01:25:35 Luna and Max versus Monet and Julian was about to be the next plot. Monet and Julian were going to be jealous of Luna's real fame versus Julian, who's never of Luna's real fame versus Julian who's never really experienced that real fame, superstardom, and they were going to try to take her down during season three. A good old fashioned gossip girl takedown. I would be
Starting point is 01:25:56 very excited about that. A Cece Winston mess around. Yeah, Winston don't mess around. It's a classic winston bishop turn takedown exactly uh but uh yeah i would have liked to see that you kind of get hints that julian does want that fame right because she's like oh my god i've never been invited to the met gala anymore and now obviously luna is about to become like a met gala staple right but that level of fame
Starting point is 01:26:25 she's like i said she's they're making her to be like this I don't know sort of one of the Jenner's like slash Bella Hadid-esque sort of character or Gigi you know and not only that but it was apparent at the dinner after right because the two months later they are in Italy and they at dinner are kind of finally call around like are you mad you should be mad about it you should be mad that she got your contract so you could tell it was going to be a big focus for the next season moving forward roger menzies right our malcolm mcdowell and jordan so our after moment there after the end credits. Yeah, Logan Roy approaches Tom Wamsgans and says, we're going to turn Gossip Girl into TikTok. It was classic.
Starting point is 01:27:12 Very amazing. I would have loved to see that because Jordan's in too deep. Part of me is like, Jordan, baby, you're in too deep. And you also committed crimes and you admitted it. Like right here and there. He straight up was like, oh, so were you her accompl her accomplice because i'm not stupid i know someone had to be helping her and obviously to get the job he kind of has to say yes at this point or to continue the offer but also now logan roy i mean roger menzies i mean rupert murdoch now knows that you were
Starting point is 01:27:42 partially responsible for these crimes you know like take he doesn't know exactly but you didn't take photos of fucking naked teenagers basically asshole yeah um for your girlfriend and he knows you did it for love yeah he knows that there's more to uncover there so that is going to be you sorry that was going to be used against him in season three you can tell that roger's going to end up leveraging that and fucking jordan over and i would have actually really liked to see how that plays out between jordan and kate too because like him taking this thing that was like kind of you know kate's baby and then like democratizing it but not and then because he broke up with her over her fixation on gossip girl and then for him to go and monetize it, like, that would have been interesting.
Starting point is 01:28:25 Because they did say they weren't done with Kate's character. Absolutely. He did also say that if he had opened it for Kate's character, she would have been in jail. Yeah. Or in prison. Yeah. I love it.
Starting point is 01:28:36 Good to know. Very, very... Like you said, next door sell. Not nearly as glamorous or as cool as Anna Delvey, because obviously that's what she was hoping for that's why she's like i'm here for the shonda rhimes meeting and then they're like no one wants to cover your story weird loser what a great reveal it's a trap there is a mystery guy that we see that the guy that meets zoya right so this is one to follow this got cut pretty much completely
Starting point is 01:29:01 this had a handful of scenes that was supposed to lead us into season three that Aaron Dominguez would have played a guy that was involved with Zoya Julian Audrey somehow. You hear a reference to him at the end when they talk about how they met someone in Italy. And there's also a scene that was cut where he's watching them at the bar.
Starting point is 01:29:19 But the guy that offers the cigarette lighter or lights a cigarette for Max that is also him. Is it him or was it like But the guy that offers the cigarette lighter or lights a cigarette for Max. Was that supposed to be him? That is also him. Is it him or was it like his ex-boyfriend or something? Because he's saying in Berlin and that was probably Berlin. Yeah, from what I'm seeing, maybe. I don't know.
Starting point is 01:29:37 The whole idea is that Aaron Dominguez should have been in all these. The references, I guess, is what was supposed to happen. So it might have been his ex then. But needless to say, he meets Audrey at the museum he meets Zoya at the theater and they were all supposed to be saying oh I met him oh I met him oh I met him so yeah and we don't know how interesting we'll never know yeah we don't know how he would have met Julian interestingly we have like obviously as you said hints that he would have met audrey at the gallery which is very callback ish to some of blair's plot plot lines too but i don't know how he would have met julian and i'm curious what his character would have been
Starting point is 01:30:15 like i love it because you have some of those plots like dan and serena's half siblings right or their half sibling through Lily and Rufus that character kind of plot where he's kind of stalking them for a season and then there's a reveal of why he's stalking them so I'm curious what it would have been about especially because there's also that plot for Julian then searching for secrets from her family right in Italy unveiling secrets about her mom and dad's relationship maybe and maybe why her mom ran away with yeah perhaps uh so that that's kind of great because it's very serena right very serena serena going to get answers about her father with carter i like that we got to kind of see them go for the summer i like that there were excuses right like
Starting point is 01:31:02 max won't come he you know wouldn't tell us where he's going for the summer. I like that there were excuses, right? Like, Max won't come. He, you know, wouldn't tell us where he's going for the summer. So very Chuck Bass probably getting drunk somewhere in a corner on an island. And Monet couldn't come. Her parents wouldn't allow her or whatever. Who knows if that's the truth. She might not have been invited. Who knows? Yeah. No one knows.
Starting point is 01:31:19 No one knows. No one will ever know. We could. It could happen. Now, the final thing I want to tell you is that the throuple was canon. I can see that. I can see how that would be the case. He kind of spoke about how the triad breaks up
Starting point is 01:31:38 and that Josh Saffron said he viewed the three of them as being endgame and that breaking them up was the biggest regret of his for the finale. The one thing he wished he could have changed if he knew that they weren't getting a season three. So that means they were going to break up and find their way back to one another slowly
Starting point is 01:31:54 over the seasons. Amazing. I love it. We would have had to see them all break up. You know, like, entirely. Not just Aki and Audrey in one thing. I think they would have had to all break up and, like you said, find their way back to each other. And maybe it would have been in college, and maybe it would have been a long time from now, like how it took Serena and
Starting point is 01:32:10 Dan the entire series to get back to one another. Exactly. And Chuck and Blair on and off. Big sad. But they looked like Endgame. I mean, they were so happy together. There was a few yeah i mean they were so they were so happy there was like a few minutes
Starting point is 01:32:26 there you know where they were they're in high school i mean listen aki audrey three words eight letters say it and he's yours like it wasn't that hard there it wasn't that hard just say it just say it i know they will come to love one another in the afterlife of this show that's for sure eliana what are the dynamics that we're going to miss the final things that we wish they explored or had time to resolve what do you think uh i've already said it i would have loved to see what happens with kate's storyline and how they would have expanded that with with regards to where it goes now that she's been caught and then also like i said i think monae and zoya were going to be a ship at some point and then aki getting to be a character outside of audrey and max and really coming into his own
Starting point is 01:33:19 having his own motivations and also like heidi's stuff i've already I think gone in depth with all these things that I've wanted I can't I can't believe it I want more Heidi yeah at the end there I love Obi outed her shit and that was great too I really loved that moment it was just like oh you little fucker good for you
Starting point is 01:33:39 but I really do want more of Heidi I think she could be a really interesting character again very like Jack Bass right come back and be a little villainous and stir up trouble I loved that and actually that is her but with Max right like that's the Chuck
Starting point is 01:33:55 Jack Blair kind of thing going on there that she kind of comes back like Jack Bass for Blair Nick and Kate they're endgame somehow in true gossip girl fashion i think their end game i think that somehow despite her cyber stalking his daughter despite that somehow they would get together in the end i'm not kidding you they have great chemistry they i mean throughout all of, everything she did in that penultimate episode, unposted right there on Gossip Girl, yes, she was trying to take down the DeHans, but also she thought that she was helping Nick, even though she was putting the nail in the way that nick regarded her in that final episode
Starting point is 01:34:45 i don't know but if they did get together that would be some granted i guess lily and rufus were not on game right um but yeah they were not but that would have been like some lily rufus shit just doing things not caring about your kids well-being i mean i think there's a way that the great poet a genius josh saffron could have done it i do think so and i actually really don't think i mean i don't think her and jordan are end game no no i think it's her and nick i think all these stupid little revolving ones would lead back to nick in the end or she could have died there's that one moment where they're like we're gonna kill Gossip Girl and I'm like
Starting point is 01:35:28 oh they're gonna kill but they didn't kill Gossip Girl. You know what was really funny? Someone should have died. The day that that episode came out and they were like we're gonna kill Gossip Girl, a couple hours later they were like Gossip Girl has been killed. Bound in the streets, cancelled. I'm not kidding
Starting point is 01:35:44 that literally happened to us. It was pretty ironic. I'm so glad we've laid this show to rest together, but I'm also so sad. We've done it. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I might have to finish my rewatch. I skipped around to finish up some episodes before this, but there are some episodes I didn't get
Starting point is 01:36:02 to thoroughly enjoy, so I might go back, finish those episodes, mourn, mourn my losses, and get ready for the next big show we watch. I don't know. I think if any network picked it up or streaming service, I think there's a chance Hulu could do it, but I don't think that they would be able to invest how much it costs. Maybe Amazon, but it doesn't seem like that's the direction amazon's
Starting point is 01:36:25 going i don't know i don't know i i guess the big problem and josh josh saffron talks about this in some of the interviews is cost right uh anywhere that he takes it it will likely automatically be a degradation in quality of the product so So at that point, it becomes what kind of degradation and is it worth it to the product, right? Keeping the show alive, putting it on life support, for it to be a half-life version of itself without him being able to have the right control or the right things he wants. I mean, obviously he could do it and if it's a passion project it's worth it and it's worth it that's fine but I get it that it's not the same unfortunately the network to really have had it on is HBO yeah I mean that makes sense right the whole point of Gossip Girl is the opulence it's the extravagance and if you can't blow the money to make that huge thing like it's not the same
Starting point is 01:37:22 as you said people tune in for the fashion and the clothes and you really needed that and i don't know i'm sad there won't be uh there won't be a generation three for a little bit huh if there ever is maybe a decade yeah if they might try again eventually one day but maybe it's us maybe we are the next showrunners with josh saffron for generation three of gossip girl i could come up with some unhinged shit they could always go back to their roots Maybe we are the next showrunners with Josh Safran for Generation 3 of Gossip Girl. I could come up with some unhinged shit. They could always go back to their roots, right? And release it as novels.
Starting point is 01:37:51 Even better, they could actually adapt some of the other novels, the spinoffs, like The It Girl. They could adapt that. It could be fun. It could be fun. Something new for Josh and his team. They had a vision. R.I.P. Well, thanks for listening to Gossip Girl's Gone Canon. It could be fun. Something new for Josh and his team. They had a vision. R.I.P.
Starting point is 01:38:08 Thanks for listening to Gossip Girls Gone Canon. That's all for now, Upper East Siders. Yeah, I've had a really good time. Will we ever cover it again? That's a secret. I'll never tell. I also don't know. XOXO. Gossip Girls Gone Canon.
Starting point is 01:38:29 Thanks for listening and tuning in for this very special episode. This mini-ish episode on Generation 2 of Gossip Girls. Like Aliana said, we might be back. We might be back. Like and subscribe below
Starting point is 01:38:44 if you were into the content we'll be back with bran a storm of swords for next week next one's about gossip our friend and in a way it is no way it is about gossip as always upper east siders i have been one of your hosts chloe and i have been another one of your hosts, Chloe. And I have been another one of your hosts, XOXO, Eliana. Goodbye. Goodbye.

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