For those of a certain age and inclination, that iconic phrase – sing-songed by the equally quintessential Kristen Bell – represents a weekly escapist retreat into the fictional lives of the young, rich and scandalous of Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Based on the Cecily von Ziegesar novel series, Gossip Girl debuted in September 2007, just before the economy collapsed and Barack Obama won the presidential election – respectively, the ruinous and uplifting milestones that kicked off a rollercoaster of a decade for millennials. In its six seasons, the infamous teen drama thrilled and frustrated a generation. It was aspirational in style and taste: characters like Serena van der Woodsen and Blair Waldorf became style icons who helped move serious units of alice bands for New York-based designers and beyond. Gossip Girl’s voyeuristic premise – a titular blog that closely tracked the misadventures of Manhattan’s private-school elite – was a fun, scary and prescient glimpse of many social media realities to come. But the show’s characters were confined to a narrow demographic scope (namely: white, cisgender, hetero) and, like many teen dramas, many of its machinations grew stale.
Now is getting a second lease on life, and its showrunner, Joshua Safran, is promising much more than a reboot when it premieres on HBO Max later this year. Perhaps a future kindred spirit to the network’s own , it features a racially diverse new cast and pledges queer inclusivity – a proper culture reset, without baggage. Same neighbourhood, same schools, only anchored in the broader realities that Gen Z is living through and helping redefine. That goes for the tech, too – gone is the blogosphere Gossip Girl once ruled (though, in an auspicious casting move, OG teen fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson will be joining the series as a character named Kate Keller). When Instagram accounts like @Deuxmoi now spill the most scalding tea, where will Gossip Girl most efficiently insert herself? The show hints at the “most modern, relevant form” a voice of social surveillance could take in 2021. Instagram? TikTok? Discord? Its very own app? Who
