Gossip Girl: This train wreck of a TV show is finally over! Yay! (My thoughts on episode 6x10 “New York, I Love You XOXOXO”)

Given how incredibly lackluster the first eight episodes of Gossip Girl’s final season were and how truly horrific the previous episode was, I went into the series finale with extremely low expectations, but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised to see that the series finale was actually pretty good. The series finale was definitely the best episode of season six, if you ask me, and I can’t help but think if the rest of the final season had been as good as the series finale was, then the final season could have potentially been very good. Instead the viewers were subjected to eight incredibly dull and ridiculous episodes, and episode nine, which was without question the worst episode ever of Gossip Girl.

Let me just start off this review by saying that I’m not going to talk about just the series finale alone. Instead I’m going to spend most of this post reflecting on the series as a whole. From where I’m standing, the first eight episodes were so dull that they make watching paint dry for an hour for eight weeks in a row sound as epic and entertaining as the TV show Lost was. Personally, I would like to act as if episode 6x09 “The Revengers” doesn’t exist given how bad it is. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that the series finale was perfect, because it definitely wasn’t. Certain aspects of the series finale were a mixture of ridiculousness, awfulness and totally WTF random moments.

If I had to say which character had the ending that I was happiest with, it would definitely be Nate. I know that some people are disappointed that Nate was the only character who didn’t end up with someone in the flash-forward five years into the future, but I’m personally glad that he wasn’t in a relationship at that point in his life and instead was choosing to focus on running The Spectator and contemplating running for Mayor of New York, especially considering the fact that he dated so many women throughout the show’s run and pretty much everybody else on the show, with the exception of Ivy, ended up with somebody. It was actually refreshing for me to see at least one person who was single at the end of the series. Personally, given the fact that Nate was such a man-whore throughout Gossip Girl’s run I’m surprised that he never got into any major trouble with women, forcing someone to come to his defense and a give a speech like this one from Grey’s Anatomy:

For the record, that’s one of my all-time favorite scenes from Grey’s Anatomy, but I digress.

While I like that The Spectator became very successful and that Nate went on to have a successful career running it thanks to Dan giving him information on him (Dan) being Gossip Girl so he could be the one who broke the story, I did think the idea of Nate potentially running for mayor of New York was a bit on the ridiculous side. Nate just doesn’t seem like the type of the guy that would be a good mayor, and if he were to become the mayor of New York, a sex scandal would be an inevitably for him. I think it’s ridiculous that Sue Ellen is running for Governor of Texas on TNT’s Dallas, but the idea of Nate running for any political office is a trillion times more ridiculous than that is to me.

One thing that really makes me view Nate in a more positive light than I view all the other characters in now that the series is over is the fact that Nate is apparently the only character amongst the kids on the show who never sent in a single tip to Gossip Girl. When I try to put myself in the shoes of anyone who ever had stories posted on Gossip Girl about them, that probably didn’t feel good given the fact that the Gossip Girl website was basically an online tabloid about the teenagers who live on the Upper East Side of New York City. That being said, I wish the writers had given an explanation as to why Nate never sent in any tips to Gossip Girl. Perhaps he never sent any tips in because his family was a frequent source of scandal and he knew how it felt to have people gossiping about others. Regardless, it really would have been nice if the writers had explored that some more than they did since they mentioned that about Nate on several occasions.

I’ve always felt like Serena and Nate’s storylines were frequently very similar throughout the show’s run in the sense that the majority of their storylines revolved around their love lives. That always really pissed me off, especially when it came to Serena since there was almost never anything special or particularly interesting about her love interests, except for maybe Colin Forrester, but that was mainly because he was involved in the storyline with Juliet in season four.

While the majority of Nate’s storylines also revolved around his love life, I always had a higher tolerance for the writers doing that with Nate than I ever did with Serena. This is mainly because I feel like there was in most cases something about his love interests that made them interesting characters. Out of all the love interests that Nate had throughout Gossip Girl’s run, my favorite was definitely Juliet Sharp. Juliet is my favorite of Nate’s love interests mainly because I loved the whole storyline with Juliet trying to get revenge on Serena because she wrongfully believed that it was Serena who was responsible for sending her brother, Ben, to prison for a crime he didn’t commit. It was very refreshing to see someone who didn’t act like Serena was God’s gift to the world.

The other reason why I always had a higher tolerance for a large chunk of Nate’s storylines throughout the show’s run revolving around his love was because at least he had some interesting storylines involving his family to help balance them out. With Serena, it just felt like 99% of her storylines throughout the entire series were centered pretty much entirely around her love life, and pretty much none of her love interests had anything that was particularly interesting about them. I always felt like the writers were just being lazy by having the majority of Serena’s storylines revolve around her love life. Although, I do have to give the writers a little bit of credit for having Serena remain single for pretty much all of season five. I can’t give them too much credit though, because she was extremely self-centered numerous times throughout season five.

When the show started, Dan was definitely my favorite of the guys on the show with Nate being a very close second favorite for me. Given the fact that Dan was a writer, he was definitely the only character that I was ever really able to relate to since I love to write. Also, in terms of the characters’ financial situations, he was one of the easier characters for me to relate to. That being said, I feel like the writers almost completely assassinated Dan as a character in the season five finale, and they continued to assassinate Dan as a character throughout the final season, which in my opinion is truly the worst season of the show.

The fact that I’ve always had a hard time relating to most of the characters on Gossip Girl is a big part of why I prefer 90210 over Gossip Girl. Personally, I think that most of the characters on 90210 are simply easier to relate to than the characters on Gossip Girl, but I digress. If you’d like to read more about why I like 90210 more than Gossip Girl, then I suggest you read these posts where I talk about why I feel this way in more detail:

Why on earth did I give Gossip Girl higher viewing priority over 90210?   

90210: Even with its schizophrenic writing, I still love it a lot more than I love Gossip Girl

With that said, I think that I will go ahead and rank the seasons from my favorite to my least favorite: 1, 4, 5, 3, 2, 6.

Let me just preface my next comment by saying that with the exception of watching the fifth season again when it came out on DVD in September and watching first episode of Gossip Girl shortly after the series finale aired, it’s been a long time since I’ve watched any of the other seasons of the show. That being said, I’ve always thought that season one was definitely when Gossip Girl was at its best. The reason why I ranked season two so low is because I feel like the first half of season two was great, but I thought that the second half of the season was rather dull. Season three definitely had quite a few good episodes in my opinion, so it definitely ranks higher than seasons two and six for me. Season four, in my opinion, was definitely the second best season of Gossip Girl. The storyline with Juliet during the first half of season four is definitely one of my all-time top favorite storylines that Gossip Girl ever did, and the blossoming friendship between Dan and Blair during the second half of the season is another one of top favorite storylines. I had always loved Dan and Blair’s scenes together before that, so I loved seeing them become true friends in season four.

Season five was also great in a lot of ways, if ask me. The continuation of the Dan and Blair friendship in and seeing them become a couple was one of the best things about season five for me personally. Also, season five features some of the best character development for Nate as a character. Unfortunately, it also featured some really stupid writing, such as the pact that Blair made with God in order to save Chuck’s life after they were in a car accident and his life was in danger and the whole thing with Blair’s dowry after she wanted to divorce Louis. Also, the season five finale singlehandedly ruined an otherwise great season of Gossip Girl. Season six is definitely my least favorite season, because with the exception of the series finale, it was extremely boring and the writing for the final season was simply god-awful.

I have to say that the only season where I really liked Serena was the show’s first season. After that, she just became absolutely annoying and at times painful to watch, and I felt that way until the end of the series. Maybe I’m remembering incorrectly just how many times Serena whined to Dan about how she had changed and she thought that he knew that, but I feel like she constantly did that. Did she ever really change for the better though? I personally don’t think so. She was constantly acting self-centered, especially when she found out about Dan’s book Inside in episode 5x04 "Memoirs of an Invisible Dan". Louis was upset about the things that happened with Blair’s character in the book and Blair’s relationship with Louis was at stake because of that, and yet all that Serena cared about was how Dan had portrayed her in his book. I actually cheered when Dan pointed out that if she cared more about herself than Dan smoothing things over between Blair and Louis, then perhaps she was more like the Sabrina character than he had originally thought. Ouch! Her self-centered behavior only continued after that all the way until the end of the series.

I have to say that it really bugged me that the writers had Dan and Serena get married at the end of the series finale when they jumped ahead five years. I’m not saying that because I’m a Dan and Blair shipper and I’m mad that they almost completely ignored their relationship this season. The thing that upsets me the most about it is that I feel like Dan and Serena getting married basically takes away any meaning or significance of all the times Dan called Serena out on her crap. Besides, I personally never really understood why Dan and so many other guys were always so infatuated with Serena in the first place.

It really makes me laugh when I think about the part of the episode where Dan was telling Serena about why he created the Gossip Girl website and how he considers her to be his muse, because I can’t really think of anything that’s truly inspiring and amazing about her. Personally, I think Serena is extremely overrated as a girl. She’s self-centered, shallow, and I also think she constantly acts very immature. Plus, I also don’t think she’s very smart, and yet Dan and so many other guys act like Serena is God’s gift the world. As far as I’m concerned, she could discover a cure for cancer and she still wouldn’t be deserving of half the worship that she got throughout the show’s run. The only thing amazing about Serena is that she never contracted an incurable STD during the show’s run, especially when I think about how many guys she dated throughout the series.

Speaking of episode 5x04 "Memoirs of an Invisible Dan", I like to think that episode was a major turning point for Nate and his character development. He was upset that Dan hadn’t seen him as being significant enough to him to warrant having his own character in the book; instead Dan combined some of Nate’s traits with some of Eric’s traits to make a character. The whole thing with Dan not giving Nate his own character in Inside is a big part of why I love that Dan gave him information about him being Gossip Girl so he/The Spectator could be the one who broke the story about Dan being Gossip Girl. Dan doing that and helping Nate’s career in the process kind of makes up for the whole thing with Nate not having a character in Inside in my mind. That also seemed to be what motivated Nate to work really hard at The Spectator and really make something of himself after that. As much as I liked Nate’s character development after that, there was definitely a major hiccup in Nate’s character development on the writers’ part in season six, and that would be Nate’s relationship with Sage.

I thought it was really gross that Sage’s father, Steven, allowed Sage to continue to date Nate considering the fact that she was underage and in the eyes of the law, Nate’s relationship with Sage would be considered statutory rape. Sure, Sage basically guilt-tripped him into allowing her to date Nate because he was dating Serena at the time, but in the real world there has to be some law that would send Steven to jail for allowing Sage to date Nate. Although, considering the fact that this storyline was written by the same people who’ve continued to act like Chuck and Blair’s relationship was some epic fairytale romance even after it became increasingly sick and abusive, I can’t say that I’m not surprised that they did that storyline and handled it the way they did.

Let me state for the record that I used to be a major Chair shipper, but I stopped being a fan of the Chuck and Blair relationship after Chuck pimped Blair out to his uncle, Jack, in order to keep his hotel in season three. That to me was just sickening, and their relationship only got even more sick and twisted after that. I really do think it’s disturbing that the writers for the show think of Chuck and Blair’s relationship as being like some epic fairytale romance. That being said, I did love the reference to the whole “three words, eight letters” thing from season two during Chuck and Blair’s quick wedding in the series finale, because it reminded me of when I actually liked them as a couple.

I have to say that I loved that they brought Katie Cassidy, Jessica Szohr and several other actors from previous seasons back to make brief appearances during the sequence where they show everybody discovering that Dan is Gossip Girl. Although, I have to say that a part of me wishes that their appearances in the series finale had been longer than just one line of dialogue, but it was still cool that they did that.

Kristen Bell’s appearance in the series finale was great, in my opinion, especially since it also involved a surprise appearance by Rachel Bilson. Given the fact that Rachel Bilson was one of the stars of The O.C., which Josh Schwartz also created, it was cool that she made an appearance in the series finale. That scene was definitely one of the best things about the series finale.

I know that I already brief discussed my thoughts on Dan being Gossip Girl in this post:Gossip Girl: And the real identity of Gossip Girl is..., but I have to say that I’m really glad that Dorota or Rufus didn’t turn out to be Gossip Girl like some people had speculated. Personally, I think it would have made Dorota or Rufus a bit of a pedophile if either of them had been Gossip Girl given some of the things that were posted on Gossip Girl throughout the show’s run. It also upsets me that the producers never had a specific character picked out as Gossip Girl from the very beginning instead of not deciding on which character would be revealed as being Gossip Girl at the end of the series until they were writing the final season. Dan being Gossip Girl raises more continuity issues than I can count. Plus, it tarnishes Dan as a character even more in my eyes than the season five finale and the rest of the final season did when I think about his/Gossip Girl’s role in the car accident that Chuck and Blair were in back in season five, which led to Blair having a miscarriage. Considering the fact that he was supposedly in love with Blair at that time, it seems messed up that he played a role in Blair’s miscarriage. I’m glad that the writers did mention Chuck and Blair’s car accident when Dan was talking to Serena about him being Gossip Girl though. Also, I just feel like the fact that the writers expect viewers to just ignore all of the continuity issues that Dan being Gossip Girl raises shows how little respect they have for the show’s viewers, which is very upsetting to me.

The writing for the series finale really was surprisingly good considering how far downhill the quality of the show went starting with season three. That being said, this episode definitely had some rather random elements to it, such as Lily and William getting back together, Rufus ending up with the singer Lisa Loeb, Chuck and Blair naming their son, Henry, which is the name Chuck used when he dated Eva in season four, and the idea of Nate running for mayor. Georgina and Jack becoming a couple also seems extremely weird and random to me, but at the same time I love the idea of them being a couple.

I know that a lot of people didn’t like the character Ivy, but I’m upset that the resolution with her character was so abrupt and incomplete. I feel like they should have showed what happened to Ivy after William rejected her. Personally, I thought the way William talked to her was beyond horrible, and I have to say that I felt really bad for Ivy despite all of the horrible things that she did.

All things considered, this episode was a pretty good way to end the series after an incredibly lackluster final season. The writers actually managed to exceed my expectations for the series finale, but that’s not saying very much considering how low my expectations for the series finale were to begin with.

That being said, I give the series finale a rating of a B+.