Not too much to add, I couldn't possibly watch that many shows.
But - I happened to watch Gossip Girl, and it was pretty lame, yet somewhat compelling. The thing is, the main girl is supposed to be all rad and awesome and have intangible star like qualities - everyone is talking about her like she is the second coming - but the actress isn't really that special. In fact, her face has an Ellen Barkin vibe, which would be cool if she was Ellen Barkin, who is hot and rad, but this girl isn't. She just doesn't have quite that much charisma.
To her credit, her face isn't as twisty and weird as Barkin's, so it kind of evens out. Also? This "highschool" girl has deeper lines around her mouth then I do. Also, she was sipping martinis at some hotel. Sure, it's possible - but my point is that she looks way older than she is supposed to be. The rest of the cast fares better, looking young wise, but the story lines and action seem more as if this were a group of 26 year olds, overall.
Except, inexplicably, for the parents of these people, who are super hot, and time defyingly young to have kids this age. This one kid, he was supposed to be 17, and his dad was super hot, and looked about 32. The dad looked so young, and was so cute, and had such good jewelry and feathery/floppy preppysurfermusician hair, that I was actually
confused about the plotline for a few minutes. Then I laughed. Of course the dad was a musician/surfer/poor guy. Thus, the drama - there's this one poor family (allegedly) in New York, and the kids go to a rich school, cause they are so smart and on scholarship, and the rich cool girl (Ellen Barkinfacsimile) is going to date the poor son, who is so nice, compared to her rich boyfriends (der) and the rich girl's mom already dated the hot surfer poor dad a long time ago, back in the day, when they were hippies and free, until she bagged a rich husband, and now she wants him to "stay away from me, I have a new life, even though we are both totally hot" because she is rich now and doesn't want any super hot previous lover guy who seems to be a California surfer to ruin her New York society shizz. Even though she was poor with him before. and so it goes.
Like "Tell your son to stay away from my almost hot, Barkinesque daughter!!! I don't want her dating a poor guy who is really nice! I want her to date rich asshole guy!!"
Same old stupid shizz.
Still and all, it is lame. You might want to watch, but in a night time soap kind of way, where everyone is attractive, wears great clothes, never has to work, and is really glamorous. Except when they are non charismatic and Barkinesque. The girl's old best friend who is bitchy is pretty good. I'm biased cause she looks a bit like me. But innyways, supposedly the golden girl's old best friend has been dating one (gay) guy since kindergarten, but this guy actually has fallen in love with Barkinfacsimile, but is trying to deny it, cause his parents asked him to, and his girlfriend had a hissy about it.
So there is this tension b/c between the best friends, the boyfriend likes the other best friend that he shouldn't like. I feel I have to add that said coveted boyfriend is pretty lame. Unless you are gay. Like, I can't imagine them really being pissed off about this guy.
I, personally, will watch to see how they overcome the fact that the whole special girl of the show isn't really that special. Maybe that is the point, she is supposed to be "nice" and "down to earth" despite being rich. She's going to date the non rich boy with the hot dad, which will indicate how deep she is.
She may be deep and nice, but she is not especially exciting to watch on screen. She's like a girl who would be cool in real life, but on TV is boring. I will also watch to see if they can overcome the horrible cliched writing that this show boasts.
In other news, there is this weird half asian rich asshole kind of guy who is interesting. You know, because he is a debauched asshole? But cute? He's like the almost rapist, or the rapist. And he is all the rich kids' friend, because he parties, and has the drugs, and is cruelly yet cleverly shallow, or whatever. Of course he knows some big "secret" of the Barkinesque girl that he is trying to blackmail her with. Either way, he seems like the best, most compelling actor.
It's like a big remake of the movie Cruel Intentions.
Or the South Park episode: "South Park in Aspen!". For real.
Okay, but really, the show is stupid. It is exactly a night time soap. I might watch for the clothes...
Let's remember that I don't have cable.
Also, L&O SVU rules.