How <em>Gossip Girl </em>Got Creepy
The late Janet Malcolm, for in 2008, delighted in the heartlessness of the teenage characters—their voyeuristic cruelty and the sharp satisfaction they take in the downfall of their peers. What the series understands, Malcolm wrote, is that “children are a pleasure-seeking species, and that adolescence is a delicious last gasp (the light is most golden just before the shadows fall) of rightful selfishness and cluelessness.” Why else do adults cherish teen drama, particularly on television? Its most predictable element, apart from conspicuous wealth and a photogenic class of aspirants, is usually malice. Older and wiser, we can enjoy watching it precisely because, as divorced from our own experiences as it might be in some ways, it also reminds us why we don’t want to go back.
