STUDIO: Warner Brothers
RELEASE DATE: August 19, 2008
STARRING: Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley, Chace Crawford, Taylor Momsen, Ed Westwick, Kelly Rutherford, and Matthew Settle
CREATED BY: Josh Schwartz & Stephanie Savage
FEATURES: Unaired Scenes
"Aron" - Garth Jennings' Original Short Film That Inspired Son of Rambow
"The Beginning, XOXO: Concept to Execution"
"Gossip Girl Couture"
"A Gossip Girl Wedding"
LOL: Gag Reel
The Pierces Music Videos
Downloadable Audiobook of the Original Best-Selling Novel Read by Christina Ricci

Gossip Girl is redefining television as much as anything on the air. Yep, I said it. Gossip Girl. Is it the best show on TV? OMFG, no, it's definitely not, although its common designation as a "guilty pleasure" does kind of take something away from how well-crafted and scripted this show can actually be. The reason Gossip Girl is one of the most interesting stories in the medium for 2008 is that it's changing the rules about what networks consider a hit. Gossip Girl is tapping into the next generation of TV watchers, those who are more likely to turn to iTunes for an episode than to their cable box. It is a series that is not watched by that many people, according to a traditional ratings system, but is considered a hit because it's watched by the RIGHT people - teenagers with money to burn at the mall every weekend and twenty and thirtysomethings looking for the next The O.C. or Melrose Place. Gossip Girl only averaged around 2.61 million viewers for its first season, but they were the right viewers to make it one of the most-buzzed about shows on TV. NCIS may have seven times as many actual viewers, but you don't see the stars of that show on the cover of popular magazines or jumping to guest roles on Entourage. Gossip Girl is proof that with so many different ways to watch television, the traditional definition of a hit is going to have to change and some spoiled socialites will lead the way.

The pop culture phenomenon that is Gossip Girl is one thing, but what about the show itself? It's actually pretty good. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' Blake Liveley stars as the spectacularly named Serena van der Woodsen, a socialite returning from a prolonged absence. Her best frenemy is Blair Waldorf (the show-stealing Leighton Meester), who Serena left behind when she disappeared. "Betty and Veronica 2.0" are surrounded by Blair's boyfriend Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford), Nate's sleazy best friend Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick), and the Humphreys, Dan (Penn Badgley) and Jenny (Taylor Momsen), who don't come from the same silver-spoon background as the other characters, but find themselves caught up in their drama. The series is narrated by a seemingly omniscient character (voiced by Kristen Bell) who calls herself "Gossip Girl" on her blog. Cat fights, infidelity, drug use, and much more play a role in this tawdry soap about the Upper East Side.

Most viewers would dismiss the writing on a show like Gossip Girl, assuming being sleazy is easy, but the fact is that being bad is not as simple as it looks. The writers of Gossip Girl have to keep surprising their audience, throwing bigger and bigger left turns into their ensemble piece, while still giving them characters to care about, and, for most of the first season, they pull it off. Personally, I'm fascinated with Leighton Meester's Blair, a seemingly cold and heartless bitch who Meester gives enough humanity to that you start to care about what happens to her. On the other side of the coin, I find Lively kind of boring as an actress. She's too often the straight woman to the chaos that surrounds her and I wish the show had a stronger centerpiece. More damagingly, the setups for the show can get awfully repetitive. Nearly every episode centers around a major event like a brunch, a party, a mixer, or even a masquerade ball, where all the characters can get together and go at it. I hope they mix it up more in season two, which starts this Monday on The CW.

The DVD for the first season of Gossip Girl is a beauty. Once again, it's almost funny that a show that usually couldn't crack 80th place (out of 100 shows) received such a gorgeous season set. The video is remarkably good. Upconverted, it looks practically high-def. And the sound is just as notable. But the extras are what will truly impress fans. Featurettes, music videos, unaired scenes from nearly every episode, and even a downloadable audio book are included. Will Gossip Girl fade away like Melrose and 90210 or will it burn out like The O.C., which was hot stuff one day and unwatchable the next? It's way too soon to tell. But, for now, it's rewriting the rule book on TV and DVD. Everyone should pay attention to what Gossip Girl has to say.