Straight Talk About 'Gossip Girl'

What happens when a 17-year-old has a $200,000 trust fund and millionaire parents (usually divorced, neurotic and never around) whose self-absorption rivals any preening adolescent? Millions of teens are tuning in to CW's new drama Gossip Girl to find out.

Based on the bestselling series of racy "young adult" novels by Cecily von Ziegesar, Gossip Girl chronicles the exploits of über-privileged Manhattan teens battling for social supremacy. Soapy, syrupy, silly and sappy—not to mention sexual—this hormone-and-cash-fueled drama is narrated by an anonymous blogger dubbed, what else, "Gossip Girl."

The story commences with the return of Serena van der Woodsen, a captivating former queen bee who mysteriously disappeared to "boarding school" the year before. Now she's back—much to the consternation of her erstwhile BFF, the conniving Blair Waldorf.

Orbiting these two alpha girls is a constellation of beautiful teens who arrive at school in limos, sip martinis and puff on the occasional joint like veteran clubbers, and compete for one another's affection and attention. An outsider named Dan captures the essence of it all when he describes Blair as someone who represents "basically everything I hate about the Upper East Side rolled into one 95-pound, doe-eyed, bon mot-tossing, label-whoring package of girly evil."

But girly evil, of course, is exactly why people are checking out Gossip Girl.

Sex and the CW
Minutes into the premiere Blair drags longtime boyfriend Nate to her bedroom to consummate their relationship. Frenzied kissing and removal of her dress halt when Blair mentions Serena is back. Serena's "It Girl" magnetism propels Nate out of the room, zombie-like, leaving his partially clothed but fully enraged girlfriend behind.

Cue the catfights.

Soon we learn that Nate can't get Serena off his mind for a reason: The pair wandered into an impromptu sexual tryst at a wedding reception the year before (information delivered via another passionate, bodice-grasping flashback). And when Blair finds out about that little indiscretion ... well, look out.

Illicit activity seems to always lurk, and is particularly evident in the case of a promiscuous cad named Chuck. But not every Gossip Girl episode focuses the camera lens so closely on teen lust in action. Interestingly, a significant portion of the plot actually turns around Serena's resolution to leave her bad-girl ways behind. For how long, only the drama's writers know.

Meet the Parents
Arguably worse-behaved than the onscreen teens are their rich parents. The word to describe these hyper-rich progeny producers is bad. Bad behavior. Bad examples. Bad values and advice.

For starters, there's not an intact marriage to be seen. And Blair confesses that her father left her self-consumed fashion-mogul mother for "a 31-year-old model ... a male model." Mom's tawdry tidbits of motherly wisdom include winning messages like this one: "You'll never be more beautiful or thin or happy than you are right now. I just want you to make the most of it." Meanwhile, when Nate tells his dad, "Not everything in life is about money," the older man responds, "Come talk to me in 30 years."

The only bright spot when it comes to parenting is Rufus, the aging rock-star father of Dan and Jenny. Rufus is a bit rough around the edges. But he's trying—spending time with his kids and working to put them through an expensive private prep school so that they can go to the best colleges. When Dan runs into the problems that come from not having monetary means to manipulate the system, Dad tells him, "I know what you're capable of. Nothing, not my last name, not my bank account, is going to keep you from getting what you deserve. Not if I can help it."

Dan and Jenny are the only characters who have any semblance of a functional and loving relationship with their father—the only parent who can't provide them with any material "blessing" their little hearts desire. There's a lesson here, and not even a show with such a low view of parents in general is capable of ignoring it.

Fashionable Flashes of Maturity
Another surprising theme is forgiveness. Blair unleashes withering attacks on Serena in her attempt to wreak "total social destruction," but Serena takes the high road. She works hard at extending an olive branch to Blair. She's kind when she doesn't have to be. And she (mostly) refuses to retaliate, forgiving Blair for the "girly evil" she's done. The result, however tentative, is momentary reconciliation.

Serena also sticks to her guns when it comes to plotting a course out of her wild past. As she tries to shrug off damaging labels like "whore" and "slut," she tells Dan, "What's happened is in the past. All I can do is try to change." Serena's developing character is also evident in her devotion to her younger brother, Eric, who's in a psych ward following a suicide attempt.

A Modeling Job
Actress Blake Lively, who plays Serena, recently told CosmoGIRL!, "When you don't have someone to model yourself after, you're going to make mistakes. There's no one there to tell them what's right or wrong or who is a positive example." This show definitely fleshes out that truism—mostly by showing that kids with no positive examples will make terrible decisions.

Which logically leads to this question: Which of Gossip Girl's wildly mixed messages are young viewers (who made the premiere the most watched show among 12- to 17-year-olds this fall) most likely to internalize—and emulate? Will they pay closer attention to Serena's mature decisions to turn from destructive choices?

Or will it be the parade of high schoolers drinking, gambling, smoking pot, flaunting lingerie, occasionally engaging in casual sex and living as if there were no rules?