Thievery, treachery, infidelity, romance, deceit. Are all of these..
. the characteristics of a Shakespearean play? Perhaps a soap opera? Not quite – try a mid-aughts show about a group of preppy high schoolers whose favourite accessories are thousand-dollar designer shoes and candy-coloured leggings. I’m talking, of course, about the original Gossip Girl .
Though the show premiered when I was six, I thought I’d have a lot in common with the girls and boys of Constance Billard and St Jude’s. I went to school in Manhattan, peddled through the city in a Catholic schoolgirl uniform, and traipsed down the streets of New York City with my crew like thousands of other high schoolers. Although I’m no Upper East Sider (scholarship-based commuter student here), and the closest museum steps to my West 13th alma mater were at the Whitney, I figured I’d at least see a few of my old haunts on screen and feel waves of nostalgia.
All city teens snacked on a slice of dollar pizza and Arizona Tea after school, no matter where they were from, right? Wrong, apparently! Watching the likes of Blair Waldorf, Serena van der Woodsen, and the rest of New York’s fictional one per cent was like entering a fever dream – a dramatic, high-stakes, plot-churning fever dream. But I buckled in, and what I can say for sure is that I was never, ever bored. Here is everything I thought after watching season one of Gossip Girl .
I Wasn’t Prepared for How Many Scenes Would Leave My Jaw on the Floo.