On Monday night, Republicans gathered in Minnesota to celebrate their geriatric candidate and his new minx of a running mate. However, the GOP’s grand kickoff, complete with fierce antiwar protests and exciting baby news, was overshadowed not only by concerns about Hurricane Gustav, but by another convoy of teenagers having premarital sex: the second season premiere of the racy high school drama, Gossip Girl. The CW hit, which exposes “the lives of Manhattan’s elite,” was followed by an episode of The Hills on MTV, making Monday the waspiest night of television since the days of Leave it to Beaver. And although Mrs. Cleaver may not have approved of the shows’ (and the GOP’s) rampant superficiality and gratuitous sex, she probably couldn’t help but be a teeny bit entertained… While we may loathe to admit it, the guilty pleasures of The Hills and Gossip Girl are the highlights of our week.
For those unfamiliar with either show, the basic premise is the same: we follow young, attractive girls in their formative years as they go through boys and Blahniks, helped along by an endless trust fund that finances their many exploits. Both shows have likable female protagonists (GG’s Serena/The Hills’ Lauren), shameless male villains (Chuck/Spencer), and a supporting cast that provides much of the rich-white-people drama that we love (Jenny and Blair’s bitchy feud/Audrina and Lo’s nasty-look catfights). Gossip Girl is replete with older woman scandals, best friend betrayals, and (OMFG) social class mixing between the Upper East Side sophisticates and the intellectually-inclined bourgeois of Brooklyn. The Hills maintains its intrigue with the “unscripted” drama encircling Lauren and her friends, who spend their time making appearances at clubs, “working” as peons in Hollywood, and yelling at each other.
Both shows have managed to build an adoring, slightly-obsessive fan base. We have always had a soft spot for the spoiled rich girl (Kelly from Saved by the Bell, Jen from Dawson’s Creek). With the proliferation of similar shows, like the Real Housewives series and the return of 90210, the young TV audience today has embraced the immodest lifestyles of the elite. But even while we lap it up, the semi-serious storylines of our privileged friends almost seem denigrating to us “common” folk, who don’t drive Bentleys or summer in the Hamptons. While we may have been able to identify with Kelly or Jen, the lives of Lauren and Serena are far removed from the average viewer: most of us actually have a real job (ahem, Lauren), and most of us did not accidentally kill anyone in a cocaine binge (ahem, Serena).
The reality is, these shows are so entertaining not because we can relate to these characters, but because they represent a lifestyle that we find both fascinating and preposterous. The absurdity is what draws us in and keeps us watching. While socially conservative critics have condemned the shows’ excesses and moral hollowness, we’d argue that most viewers are discerning enough to separate fiction from reality… After all, if we’re looking for sex, lies, and scandal this week, Minneapolis is a good place to start.
