Gossip Girl Centennial!: Review

Last night marked the 100th episode of the CW's hit show, and one of my favourites of all time, Gossip Girl. As expected, big things happened, scandalous in fact, as the eyes of the world turned to the biggest wedding of the (US teen television) century.Queen Blair Waldorf is getting married!! I can't just sit here and say nothing of course. It's the centennial episode! Therefore it warrants the best review I have ever written...or perhaps, even the biggest rant to ever set off my 2012. Shall we commence?

After five seasons of rocking pristine hair, make-up and wardrobe, THIS is what they chose to do as her wedding day hair do? SERIOUSLY.

Firstly, I must say that in all honesty, the primary reason behind me watching this episode is the fact that favourite villain Georgina Sparks came back to rain on Blair's parade. That alone was worthy of the attention, especially since it seems Gossip Girl is just grasping at straws this season and needed something fun and INTERESTING to invite audiences back. In terms of the whole story premise, I knew Blair would have gone through with marrying Louis because otherwise, choosing Chuck right away would have just been too BLAH and redundant. YES, we know that Blair and Chuck are meant to be but since GG is still vying for another two seasons on air, they can't really have that happy ending just yet. As far as Dan and Serena are concerned, that storyline is as weak as Chace Crawford's ability to act. Next. I think it's safe to say that most of the plot was obvious, given GG's history. Of course Father What's-His-Name wouldn't succeed. Of course Georgina was only going to succeed by the skin of her teeth.

'Jesus owes me one.'

There were some welcome returns and great moments in this episode however, and all was not left to waste. I have been a fan of Dan and Blair's alliance from the beginning at the end of Season 4, and it pleases me that they have all but gotten strong this season. The fact that Dan has become Blair's person speak volumes on the maturity of her character, though to be perfectly honest, there was always a more stronger rapport between him and Blair than Blair ever did with Serena, in friendship or otherwise. Another welcome element was the inclusion of Blair's entourage. This of course includes Cyrus, Eleanor, Harold, and the Constance and Columbia bitches (ah..am I the only one who has finally grown to love and miss Penelope?). In light of the obvious weakness of the past couple of seasons, whenever these people appear in an episode, they always provide excitement even though they hardly ever act or participate. Their mere presence evoke the earlier glory days of the series and I must say that had they brought back Blair's heir apparent (still!) Jenny Humphrey and Nelly Yuki or maybe even Jonathan, it would have been a much better and more EXCITING episode. The wedding setting was beautiful and Blair's dress was to die for. I now am adamant that on my wedding day I too will have peonies everywhere. Obviously because it was a 'Royal' wedding, I have to take my hat off to the costume committee for pulling together a very suave, and well fascinated (get it?) wardrobe setting. Finally, I have to admit, I enjoyed the opening nod to Marilyn Monroe's legendary 'Diamonds Are A Girl's Bestfriend' number from 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'. They could not have chosen a much better indicator of how vastly different Leighton and Blake are as actresses, so for that one I say, good call!

LOL at the boys dancing! You could see Ed chuckling halfway through his gentleman routine.

Now on to the more unfavourable and disappointing elements of the episode. While it was a genius, albeit predictable, choice to welcome back Georgina as Blair's grey cloud, I think the writers failed to really optimise her character. You'd think that after being banished to Belarus, Georgina would have a much better plan than just leaking a recording of Blair's revelation and profession of love to Chuck online. They may as well have brought back Jenny Humphrey to at least make any attempts at sabotage doubly effective. God forbid, even Vanessa would have upped the ante. That's another thing. I know that Taylor Momsen has quit completely from the show, but how AWESOME would it have been to have her back? Either as a double agent who ends up turning on Georgina or to finally smack Blair off her pedestal after years of torture? She is the marmite of the series for sure, and I happen to love her character. I feel that out of all the people in GG, Jenny was the most potent yet very under-used figure and it is very unfortunate that the writers didn't do anything about it. Remember all the havoc she caused back in Seasons 1-3? Uhm, they were the best episodes of the series, and the Blair, Jenny and Georgina love triangle just WORKED.

'I could have made this shit better!'

As far as Louis and the royal Monaco party are concerned, I'm confused as to how far GG plans on keeping this storyline in. It's losing its touch and the worst they could do is embarrass Blair worldwide as a royal fraud, which obviously they won't do because if they did, there is no way that she could ever recover from that. I guess we shall see in a few more episode as the season closes for the summer. With regards to Dan, I have a feeling that Blair might explore that possibility again somewhere later on. If the writers decide to do so, of course we can expect Serena to butt heads with her bestfriend again. I know they already referred to Princess Diana and Dodi with the car crash, but maybe Dan can be a Dodi 2.0. Finally, I feel like the writers should include the Waldorf and Humphrey clans more. Yes, they are there and its great that Lily and Rufus helped in foiling Georgina's plan, but is that what they're reduced to now? Maybe we have exhausted any possible storyline for the families but since there aren't many interesting characters this season, the least they could do is expand more with who's left. It makes me sick to think that I wish fake Charlie 'a.k.a. Ivy Dickens' Rhodes came back. Which reminds me, OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH, the real Charlie Rhodes have resurfaced! Major family drama potential there, so we'll see how they work it in. Perhaps Nate will discover everything and out it on The Spectator?

Overall, I can say that the 100th episode of Gossip Girl was, OK. It's not the strongest or most interesting. Not by a mile. But I guess with what they have and what they have unravelled this far in the game, it was the best they could come up with. Back in Season 3, I started to feel that as they kept unravelling more and more crazy subplots, the thinner and weaker the series have become and I was right. Of course, as it should be with every series there should be a consistency, hence the Graduation and College and Adulthood being worked in the plot. However, character development aside, I really do feel that Gossip Girl is way past it's expiry date. They can't do anything that can top the first three seasons and it is unlikely that they will make it any better...unless they pull a Shonda and shock us with a shooter in a series finale a la Grey's Anatomy. 

Oh yes, before I forget. Georgina is not Gossip Girl. Or at least I don't think she is. She probably just hacked the website and tried to get her own back. I don't think GG is the type of figure who, even Georgina Sparks would be able to manipulate and not get punished for it. I assume, maybe since her shady 'loyalty' to Blair and Serena has been dampened by Serena's stint at blogging for The Spectator, she COULD have let G take the reins for a bit, but that sounds unlikely. 

What did you think of last night's show?