Gossip Girl levels up in Season 2 (based on the first five episodes), finally rising to the heights of the original thanks to a catty craziness worthy of the GG name. Not only are the "kids" great and the plotlines wildly outrageous, but the teachers are having fun and worth watching, too.
Pivoting Monet to the "villain" position (though there are plenty of twists there) lets the show not only embrace the insanity, but also separates Monet and Luna into their own characters vs a duo act working for Julian, with their own needs and wants. And a more balanced focus on the ensemble as a whole, something they were figuring out towards the end of season one, helps the show soar and the individual characters pop more... Zoya, for example, works so much better here now that she has a Julian as a foil, rather than trying to play nice all the time. And the Max/Audrey/Aki throuple takes some of the weight off Aki and lets him be an adorable goof working off the other two, who still kill every scene they're in.
The Season 2 premiere is the best of the bunch (and probably the best thing the rebooted show has done so far, with at least one wildly staged/hilarious scene they could have never done in the original Gossip Girl), but I had a blast inhaling all five episodes. XOXO.
tangentwithtanner
areudirty
2087
