by Jeff Alan, Contributing Writer
The 2021 reboot/sequel of the hit CW series Gossip Girl returns with a long-awaited new season this winter, bringing with it copious amounts of drama and treachery between everyone in their friend group. While the new season does hold some interesting new partnerships and rivalries, a dark cloud hung over the last week or two of its airing, which put a damper on the entire experience.
The new season picks up almost immediately after the first season where Julien (Jordan Alexander) has agreed to provide Gossip Girl with the latest news and drama plaguing her inner circle’s lives, but at the same time is feeding her false stories in the attempt to bring them out into the open and reveal their true identity. Meanwhile, Julien is taking a step away from her influencer lifestyle and the power grab for the new “it-girl” is being pursued by Monet de Haan (Savannah Lee Smith), Julien’s former PR representative and confidant. Zoya (Whitney Peak) is getting used to the new living situation of Julien taking up residence at her and her father’s apartment, since Julien has abandoned her own father’s home after his sexual assault scandal from the previous season.
Meanwhile, after Aki (Evan Mock), Audrey (Emily Alyn Lind), and Max (Thomas Doherty) agree to join as one relationship, dubbing it a “throuple.” While Max is ready to take the relationship public, Aki and Audrey grow more and more hesitant, and urge Max to give them more time to “take it at their own pace.” But the more time they spend getting comfortable with the arrangement, the more rumors keep spreading out their joined relationship, which sends everyone into their own tailspin.
While all this teenage drama is ensuing, Kate (Tavi Gevinson) — who is now the sole owner of the Gossip Girl social media account — meets a new teacher at Constance who is on a mission to expose dark secrets about the students, teachers, and their benefactors. After some careful digging from her and Jordan (Adam Chanler-Berat), they discover that his intentions are much more devious than they expected.
While all of this drama seems to be a lot to wrap your brain around, it is merely a fraction of the issues and problems that arise in this series. Much like the original series, the true contents of this season’s plot points would take more than my required word count to fully explain, and by the time I explain it, the entire situation would be different by the next episodes. Alliances change on a dime, and motives are tested by all parties, which leaves you wondering if there are even true friendships between any of the high-class clique members in the series.
That isn’t to say the new season of Gossip Girl is bad. This season delves more into the lives of the members of the pack that didn’t get as much screen time as the previous season, and even digs even deeper in to the lives of the main members and their family lives, which make for several fun dynamics later on in the show. Sexuality is one thing this series does not shy away from, putting things like polyamorous relationships and their complexities especially into the spotlight. One thing it does well, is depict how people could potentially navigate those relationships, and how partners give attention to each other equally in them, which is at first very foreign to watch, but as you go through their journey with them it becomes almost beautiful in a way.
However, just in time for the season finale, HBO Max made the decision to cancel the show after its current season, leaving the creators to shop around to other networks to hopefully get the show picked up on another home. Unfortunately, the outlook does not seem likely, given the somber tone of the showrunner’s social media post announcing the news. While the show has found an audience and had several new aspects to the story that the original series did not, and despite bringing in a few minor characters from its predecessor to keep fans of the original interested, the show just did not garner enough views to make the show a hit, and HBO Max ultimately took notice of that.
For those who waited to binge the newest season, I say enter at your own risk. While the beginning and middle have some fun moments and stories, the end comes to a strange conclusion that — even in the wake of its cancellation and without spoiling its ending — doesn’t leave you feeling any way satisfied with how things are left. Not that there is any major cliffhanger at all, but the story wraps up making you feel like, “Wait, that’s how that is resolved?” And even though I had a good time watching the series while it was on, I cannot say that I will be missing it sorely. It will frankly never hold a candle to the original.
Score: 6/10
Gossip Girl is currently streaming on HBO Max
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