Gossip Girl goes to college - or so she says. In the new season of Gossip Girl, we find ourselves trailing after our favorite drama queens (and kings) outside the exclusive gates of Constance Billard as they navigate the collegiate world. Whereas Seasons One and Two explored drama from a high school standpoint (because who doesn't have appletinis before dinner and a web-publicized sex life in high school), Season Three attempts to keep the gossip alive at a university level.
The Gossip Girl writers must have realized how complicated that would be because college seems to be as much an accessory as Blair Waldorf's scarves.
The majority of the characters attend NYU, except for Nate who is enrolled at Columbia, but we have yet to see him doing anything remotely academic (unless, of course, you count his new girlfriend).
The fact that the primary characters have moved on to higher education hasn't been focused on as an actual plot point. Perhaps the only thing that has changed is the addition of a new set, NYU dorm rooms (which, I might add, are portrayed as the size of a classroom), and the elimination of the endearing role of Jenny Humphrey.
Sure, Jenny still traipses around during the "big happy family" scenes, but her role has essentially disappeared. Did the Season Two finale prepare us for nothing? When Season Three began, viewers may have been expecting a continuing sub-plot focusing on Jenny as Constance Billard's new Queen Bee. However, expectations have not yet been met.
The new season of Gossip Girl hasn't been entirely a let down, due to the introduction of a few new recurring characters. Writers have kept the necessary amount of drama (which is outstandingly high) alive by adding femme fatale Georgina Sparks (Michelle Trachtenberg) and rich boy Carter Baizin.
As the crazy, pill-popping ex-best friend of Serena turned born-again Christian, Georgina weasels her way into becoming Blair's NYU roomie (because it's so easy to pull strings in college administration). As amusing as Georgina is, Trachtenberg has not signed on as a series regular, which only means one thing: Georgina will be going out with a bang (or should I say spark?).
Carter's role as Serena's new squeeze could potentially thicken the plot (especially after the end of the third episode), but it seems as though he too will soon be disappearing from the show.
If it were not for Carter and Georgina's interactions with lead characters, the story line would fall flatter than it already has. It seems as if the writers can no longer sustain an interesting story line without adding more bored rich kids to the plot.
That isn't to say that this new season hasn't been entertaining. Gossip Girl really is one of the best mindless shows on television - 90210 and Melrose Place can't hold a match to its acting or fashion.
While no one watches it for an intellectual challenge or its highly developed and intricate plot, Gossip Girl has become a bit too blase even for a lover of bad television's standards. It hasn't crossed as far over into "nighttime soap opera" as 90210, but it's not that far from it.
Cases of mistaken identity can only span so many episodes - and being seduced by your enemy is hardly enough to sustain a story arc (though it did fill quite a few episodes during the epic cuckolding of Chuck Bass). Gossip Girl needs to bring back those scandalous, dramatic story lines that got everyone gossiping in the first place.
