My girlfriend has recently gotten into the show Gossip Girl. Now, I don’t have a problem with this at face value because everyone is allowed to like what they like. Who am I to judge someone who watches Lost religiously? I mean, I will still watch Saved by the Bell if it’s on, so I really can’t criticize anyone’s TV-watching habits.

But, I do have a problem with that fact that my girlfriend is trying to get me to watch GG with her.

Whenever my girlfriend starts to watch a new show, she tries to get me into to it, too. Normally, I just watch the show. That way, I have that in my arsenal the next time she makes a face when I say I want to watch the Cowboys game or the NASCAR race. But with GG, I just can’t watch it.

Originally, she added the show to her Netflix queue. I was lucky enough to avoid watching those episodes with her. I’m not sure how many episodes she watched, or how many there actually are, but I did catch part of one episode that she was watching one day.

I knew I wouldn’t like the show when Nate Archibald showed up to play football in a cardigan and khakis. Who the hell wears a cardigan and khakis to play football? Natty A! That’s who!

I guess I should back up and tell you what this atrocity is about. The show revolves around some rich kids (played by adults) who attend (though they never actually attend classes) a private school in New York. I believe they started the series in high school and then moved up to college. (I asked my girlfriend if they’re ever shown in class. She said no, but she assumes they go because they’re not failing out of school. Ha!) Actually, it seems that they do little more than attend upscale parties, drink and do drugs, hang out in bars, clubs, and coffee shops, have sex, stab each other in the back, and blackmail each other.

How that translates into successfully completing high school and getting into elite colleges is beyond me. But, it’s a TV show, so it doesn’t really need to be rooted in reality. I mean, in Rescue Me, Tommy Gavin lost his cousin on 9/11, son in a hit and run, brother in a shooting, boss (chief) to suicide, father to natural causes, and – based on the season finale – maybe his life to being shot by his uncle. If that were reality, he wouldn’t have experienced all of that tragedy. And, if he did, he’d be insane. So, I get it; TV is not real. I don’t expect it to be.

But come on! GG doesn’t contain anything clever, or at least entertaining. It’s basically strung-together, clichéd, over-dramatized vignettes. There’s no central plot, and the characters are flat and boring. I don’t know if it is the acting skills or the writing, but it’s awful. Newsflash: Models do not make good actors. See Ashton Kutcher.

The kids also seem to know everything and need no parental support. I guess when you come from money; you grow up faster and know more than your parents. It’s nothing for Natty A to drop $50,000 on a poker game he isn’t even playing in. Carter has to go work on an oil rig (do kids who like this show really know what an oil rig is?) to settle a debt (with the Buckleys?) and he isn’t happy about it. Natty A decides to get Serena in the poker game, so she can win and get Carter off the hook. But Serena isn’t that good at poker, and she loses big.
 
As a result, Natty A throws in a pic of his cousin Trip about to take a bong hit. Since Trip is running for office, that’s probably a bad thing. But, turns out the pic is fake, and when it’s revealed Trip will look good AND Carter will be free to live like an elitist instead of an oil rigger. Serena gets mad, and takes the real photo to the Buckleys, which keeps Carter from having to go to the oil rig, but it doesn’t result in her and Carter getting together since instead of being glad to be off the hook, he says he would rather have proved himself. Then he bounces in his limo. Yes, he’s got a limo and a driver, but can’t settle a debt without working on an oil rig; or producing a picture of Trip, as it were.
 
See… this is exactly why I didn’t want to watch this show. I start to remember too much stuff about it, and it becomes a part of my life. It’s like an infection you can’t control. Next thing you know, I’ll be showing up to play football in a cardigan and khakis!