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Four episodes into HBO Maxs newGossip Girlreboot, the anonymous dirt-dishing gossip writer types a new Instagram caption.
You thought I was a person, she writes, but I never said I was.
Or at least, what it thinks it needs to be.
So much of the newGossip Girlis a familiar reworking of the first shows tropes and interests.
are so worldly, so adult, so preternaturally hardened and knowing.
And yet the currency of this incarnations references and cultural models comes with an equally current anxiety.
Surely these hyper-privileged teens must be aware of their privilege?
It has to beGossip Girlanditalsohas to be a revolution.
That anxiety is expressed in multiform ways.
The newGossip Girlis much the same.
Its a slick, winking, high-gloss depiction of a specific NYC upper crust, but it isalsoa revolution.
The wealthy students are awful and the underpaid teachers are going to take them down a peg!
Its not that none of this makes for an enjoyable television show.
One of the parent characters is a direct take-off of theater producer Jordan Roth.
Juliens It Girl status is undergirded by her Olivia Jade-esque makeup influencer brand.
Does it love these characters or loathe them?
Should we the viewers do one or the other?
Do we root for a teacher to devastate these teenagers?
Does she even want to devastate them?
Or maybe what it thinks it needs to look like its trying to be.
In practice, its just more name-dropping.
Itd be a relief if the show could just admit it.
