Annabelle and Savy Review The Gossip Girl Reboot

The Reboot 

“Hey Upper East Siders, Gossip Girl here... and I have the biggest news ever”...On September 19, 2007, our worlds were forever changed when Kristen Bell - the iconic voice of GG - uttered these even more iconic words. And just 15 years after this famous day, the Gossip Girl reboot premiered. We hurriedly logged into HBO Max, eagerly awaiting the return of our beloved Serena, Nate, Chuck, Blair, Dan and, most importantly, Dorota. What we were met with, however, was quite different. Instead of a new and improved Non-Judgemental Breakfast Club, we were introduced to Julien, Zoya, Max, Aki, Audrey, Obie, Luna, and Monet. The reboot follows these precocious “high-schoolers” through the new and improved trials and tribulations of attending school at S., B., N., C., and D.’s alma mater, Constance Billard-St. Jude’s. We’re here to tell you why the new GG is (or isn’t) worth giving a watch. 

XOXO 

The academic. The kind one. The “ultimate insider." Dan Humphrey was certainly one of a kind, and he left big shoes to fill. It wasn’t obvious to anyone, or at least to all the characters themselves, that Dan was actually GG. In our humble opinion, the fact that the entire show culminates in the discovery of who really runs the scandalous site is truly a perfect ending. In the reboot, however, it’s revealed in the first episode who Gossip Girl is. While Humphrey was no fan favorite, Kate Keller certainly takes the cake. Technically, given her role as GG, we think she is meant to resemble Dan, but we do not see much alike between them. To start, she is a teacher while he is a student, and as Andy Cohen said in his cameo, Kate is “far more brutal” and just “straight up mean." Unlike Dan’s Gossip Girl, Kate Keller had no storyline to follow, and instead just attacked the students and the parents with whatever tips she got sent to her. Why is a teacher so invested with meddling in her students’ lives? We agree with Andy Cohen when he said that GG being a teacher is “kinda gross." It’s like Ms. Carr, but way worse. Not sure about you, but we think that knowing who it is all along just takes some of the fun out of the journey, and it leaves the ending looking like a flop compared to the OG series. 

Who’s Who? 

Now, let's talk about characters. Although there might be some far off resemblances, there are a TON of new personalities. But, let’s start with the similarities. We think that Audrey is a sort of half representation of our favorite Queen B., but as Blair said, “not everyone can” be like her. Monet and Luna (kind of) seem like the more humanized versions of Blair’s classic minions. Next, we get a wannabe Serena vibe from the Instagram influencer, Julien Calloway, but her dad who is in trouble with the law gives off the same vibes as the Captain (Nate Archibald’s father). Seriously, what is with these parents acting like children? We also see Aki, Audrey’s long term boyfriend, as a Nate-esque character who is a fan fav because of his pure nature and his deep care for his family and friends. On the other hand, we meet Max Wolfe, and although his family story is different, he provides us with many references to classic Chuck Bass moments from the original show. Plus, there is the last name play on words with animals. Max WOLFE and Chuck BASS. Get it? Anyways, Zoya, the outsider, gives a big flashback to Dan’s original storyline, and Obie seems to be in his own world with no real comparison to any of the original characters. As for the parents, we don’t get many similarities except for that of Nick Lott, who is Zoya's father. He reminds us of Rufus Humphrey, with his good nature and values. And Obie’s mom, Helena, gives us a little taste of our classic Lily Van Der Woodsen with her protective antics. If you squint hard enough, you might be able to find your Serena or Blair, but they certainly aren’t the same.. 

Sending in a…DM? 

Now, if you have seen Gossip Girl before or even just heard of it, you would know that Dan posted all of his tips on a website that he created. But, in the reboot version, as it is set in the more recent years of social media, Gossip Girl is actually an Instagram account run by teachers at Constance. We don’t know about you, but we kind of wish that they stuck with the original website idea as Instagram for us does not seem on brand for GG. Also, Insta accounts require contact information in order to post, and this makes it much easier for hackers to get into the account and have direct access to the users information, therefore making the identity of Gossip Girl much easier to find. But, not only that, we didn’t love that in all of her posts, GG could get comments. When Dan was Gossip Girl, all of the comments were made out loud because his website had no space for dialogue, whereas in the world of Kate Keller, all viewers were able to voice their opinions on her content. This made room for a variety of reactions, and while we appreciate the attempt to stay up to date with trends, we think that this was definitely not the vibe of the original show. 

Blasts from the Past 

If you are a classic Gossip Girl lover like we are, and you wished to see more of the original characters, you are in luck because the reboot does actually feature some blasts from the past. If, like us, you also feel that Kristen Bell’s voice instills a sense of calm inside you, we recommend the new show because she does return to be the iconic voice of GG once again. Now, onto cameos, in one episode, Max Wolfe and his dads visit the classic Waldorf home and we get to see some of our favorite people. During their Hanukkah dinner at the Waldorf’s, we were not only happy to see Cyrus, Eleanor and Vanya, but we were ecstatic when Dorota came out of the kitchen carrying their meal with her classic, comforting smile plastered on her face. To be honest, I think we actually screamed when we saw her!! Now, if we skip forward, we get extra lucky because we get to see our favorite villian, Georgina Sparks, for multiple episodes. Not to spill what happens, but Georgina with her classic hacking and intuitive skills knows that Kate is GG, and we get to watch her relive her old ways of manipulation and puppetry on Kate. Lastly, in our final episode, we get one more cameo, made by the man who was actually able to hack into the GG website as a high schooler in the original series. That's right, we get to see Eric’s long term boyfriend, Jonathan. Not only do we learn that he and Eric actually got married, but we also get to watch him use his vengeance against Gossip Girl by helping the kids take down Kate. Now, probably like most of you, we did wish that we got to see one of the members of the original Non Judgemental Breakfast Club (Blair, Serena, Nate and Chuck), and now we will never know if we are going to see them again because the show got canceled after its second season (something that would never happen to the original show…). 

The Essence

We have to admit, we feel a little bit like GG right now—we’ve done a lot of bashing. But, even she had her (rare) moments of kindness. In that spirit, we want to wrap up by saying that in reality, the show isn’t all some copycat version of the original. We still get our courtyard craziness, our Met Steps melodrama, and our scathing scandals. Take it from us, the girls who literally couldn’t pause the TV for the entirety of the 22 episodes. Was it as good as the original? No, but if we’re being honest, nothing will ever be. But, should you watch it? For sure. Anywho, you know you love us. XOXO, Savy and Annabelle