By Cheyenne Autry
Contributing Writer
It is the beginning of the first semester in college and all anyone can talk about is Netflix and their addiction. Many students use it for just movies or to pass time, but then you have the big majority who are just addicted. To what show you may ask? If you ask a majority of girls on campus their answer will be Gossip Girl, I am also one of these girls. What makes Gossip Girl so addicting? The drama and suspense between the characters and plot of each episode provides the perfect recipe for ultimate TV addiction.
Gossip Girl provides girls with the ultimate drama experience and a look into the elite life of New York. Every girl dreams of having a mother who is a designer, a life where all it takes is a snap of your finger, to be chauffeured through the city in a limo and for everyone to know your name. This TV show provides the experience of all this through the lives of Blair (Leighton Meester), Serena (Blake Lively), Chuck (Ed Westwick) and Nate (Chace Crawford). These four characters are the stars of New York, and everyone knows it. They have grown up with very wealthy families and enterprises. Without their families’ names, however they would be stuck in Brooklyn in a loft working for every dime, just as our new friend Dan (Pen Badgley). He is the son of a musician who did not quite make it in the 80’s but has worked every day of his life to provide the best education for his two kids.
Unlike the wealthy and privileged, Dan is almost invisible. He has to work to make a name for himself in society to ensure he makes it as a writer in an Ivy League college. This is until he finds his one and only, Serena. She is trying to start a new life and has grown a small crush on Dan, but will this ruin her reputation around New York? As soon as word gets around that Serena and Dan have been dating social media, Gossip Girl, starts raging. They are the center of attention at all times. Serena however, has a past and it will catch up with her.
As season 1 progresses Dan and Serena are happy and together, but Blair and Nate are not so happy. Nate has to live up to the reputation of his father’s legacy and help prolong his alliance with Blair’s mother by dating Blair. This is a fine until Nate realizes he does not truly love Blair. He seeks advice from his best friend Chuck who is a lonely man with money. Nate has lived his whole life allowing his father to tell him what to do, and Chuck persuades Nate to cut loose of the reigns and go out on his own. As Nate begins to leave the sheltered life of his father he realizes his father has an addiction, a drug addiction. Soon this addiction catches up and he finds himself in jail leaving Nate out all alone to face the social suicide of New York.
While Nate is defending his father’s name and deciding his love life, Serena’s past comes back to haunt her. Eventually karma strikes back and everything Serena has worked to fix is soon demolished simply by one girl, Georgina (Michelle Trachtenberg). This evil girl blackmails Serena to the point of no return. She is drove away from her beloved Dan and into the arms of her friends Blair, Nate and Chuck. Serena is forced to lie to Dan to secure her secret, but eventually that secret is revealed.
You may be sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for that secret, asking where Nate’s father is, wondering what happened to the love birds, or many other questions. This is just the beauty of the true suspense and addiction of the TV show. Why is this show so addicting you make ask, it is all in the unanswered questions in the story. While you sit and ponder upon your question I will continue live in my addiction into the elite of New York.
