After reading a feature in “New York Magazine” showering The CW’s “Gossip Girl” with praise, I felt a need to set the record straight … or at the very least inject my own opinion into the matter.

“Gossip Girl,” while a predictable, typical teen soap drama that plays on the same rich kid stereotypes that “The O.C.” did, is pretty good. Although the artsy film liking, indie music listening, science-fiction loving part of me cringes every time I admit to someone that I am a fan of the show, there’s no denying that I enjoy it. Its delectable teenage drama featuring a dreamy cast set somewhere that is finally not California.

The fact that its good and that it attracts a new generation of text-crazy vapid teenagers is nothing new–yet the “New York Magazine” dubs it as “genius.”

While a good portion of the article is in itself a giant gossip gush about the show’s actors and producers, the real genius in the show and the article is its ability recognize the value of a media experience. The feature describes rabid fans not only watching the mysterious Gossip Girl and her subjects of critique on television, but engaging in their own gossip about the show and its actors.

Predictably, the shows fanbase are largely tech-savvy teens who watch and engage online, rather than on television. Though the show’s ratings are fairly dismal, its online communities are reflecting an army of fans that is usually overlooked. But this time, these fans have triggered the network to campaign tirelessly in support of the show, as well as winning it a 24-episode second season. (Too bad equally the massive fanbase of the critically acclaimed “Veronica Mars” didn’t make quite the same impression–note my bitterness.)

But genius? “Gossip Girl” is hardly the first television show to attempt to bring the world they’ve created onscreen directly to their viewers. In its pilot season, NBC’s “Heroes” created a Web site that allowed viewers to ‘hack’ into the private files of the “The Company,” a sinister organization disguised as a paper company, and collect clues on its objectives. Many of the Web sites used by teen-spy Veronica Mars on UPN’s “Veronica Mars,” were actual Web sites set up by the network. NBC recently created an interactive Web site called “Dunder-Mifflin Infinity,” in which users can virtually work at the fictional paper company featured in “The Office.” You can set up your virtual desk, apply for management positions at your branch, and earn SchruteBucks

Nor is it the first show to draw on a tech-savvy online audience. “The Office” found its comeuppance on iTunes sales, and cancelled programs like “Firefly,” “Dead Like Me,” and “Arrested Development” have found solace in full-length films as a result of dedicated internet fanbases.

What “Gossip Girl” does that those that I have mentioned don’t (and has probably done so unintentionally), is spread the social stereotype they have the opportunity to criticize. While putting high school gossip into a position that has the potential for decent social satire, by engaging its audience in vapid gossip about its cast, “Gossip Girl” does a 180 and forgoes satire in favor of promoting giggling teenage girls to exchange scandalous text messages about their unsuspecting peers.

Shows like “Gossip Girl” and Web sites like Dunder-Mifflin Infinity pose some interesting questions.

How far should the “new media experience” go?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 2:09 am and is filed under Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Archives

• May 2008
• April 2008
• February 2008
• January 2008
• December 2007
• November 2007