Fall TV Preview - Gossip Girl - Pilot Training

Gossip Girl - Pilot - directed by Mark Piznarski
Premieres Tuesday September 18th, 8pm on CTV (Regular Timeslot 7pm) and Wednesday, September 19th, 9pm on The CW

Here's yet another Josh Schwartz show (The OC, Chuck) and another slick young adult/teen drama on The WB The CW (which I know, I swore off) that has Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) as the narrator, which buys itself points but still doesn't excuse the network for cancelling Veronica Mars (on a side note, was this director dude Mark Piznarski the inspiration for Piz on VM? I think it was).

But I'll be nice for a moment and give Gossip Girl its own chance. For now. At least until it has its own fashion faux-pas. Gossip Girl gossips about the lives of rich New York (wait, where did I just hear this before?) teens, particularly when Serena van der Woodsen (above) returns after disappearing for a year, and finds herself out of the IT group led by former best friend Blair (below, with bf Nate who had a fling with Serena before she disappeared). Whatever.

All you need to know is that there are plenty of pretty girls, pretty boys, bitchy dialogue, party scenes and more recent hit pop songs before the first commercial break than MTV has played in the last 5 years. What's not to love?

If you're one of the 6 people that mourned the end of The OC (and yes, I was one of them), then Gossip Girl will fill the void. They have every stock character possible, from reformed-bad girl Serena (Blake Lively, Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (the girl that wasn't on Joan of Arcadia, Gilmore Girls, or would be on Ugly Betty)), the actualy bitchy bad-girl Blair (Leighton Meester), the moody hottie Nate (Chace Crawford), the creepy slick schmarmy rich kid Chuck (Ed Westwick)(and who really is just SOOOO GAY), the misunderstood invisible loner who happens to be cute as hell Dan (Penn Badgley), the overbearing mean mother that explains her daughter's bitchiness Eleanor, the naive young flower about to be de-flowered Jenny (Taylor Momsen), and the Rock & Roll dad who was rich but escaped that world so is the good guy in the show Rufus but looks so young that he could be his son's brother (Matthew Settle).

If you're looking for deep intelligent thought provoking dialogues and story, keep moving to another channel, but if you're looking for a fun, frothy soap that gives you an excuse to stare at young hotties without feeling like a pedophile (because all the actors are obviously NOT High School age but play it on TV), this is the show for you.

3 Stars (***), though it leans towards 3.5 stars based on the slick pilot and the fact that Kristen Bell is sort of involved in a half-assed way, and I enjoyed Gossip Girl slightly more than Dirty Sexy Money and I give much of that credit to Blake Lively and Penn Badgley.

Here's the promo for Gossip Girl:

Gossip Girl Promo

Blake Lively

Penn Badgley

Leighton Meester

Chace Crawford

Ed Westwick

Taylor Momsen

Nicole Fiscella

Nan Zhang

Matthew Settle

Video uploaded by SeriesBlog