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
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+.
