Why We Still Love “Gossip Girl” Over 10 Years After It Ended

Despite ending in 2012, you can find Gossip Girl content all over TikTok. Whether it’s fan edits of favorite couples like Chuck and Blair or funny compilations, it’s no secret that streaming has allowed the show to gain a new generation of fans, as well as reignite fans from back in the day who like to rewatch for a nostalgia kick. 

The show’s popularity inspired a 2021 reboot, but it failed to live up to the original and lacked what made the show stand out from other teen dramas of its day, like its complex characters, extravagant fashion, and absurd plotlines.

The Characters Have Compelling Arcs

Gossip Girl has plenty of complex and compelling characters. Nate struggles to do the right thing while living in an immoral world, Serena is a free spirit struggling to find a way to remain true to herself while pleasing those around her, and Dan pretends to be morally superior to all while secretly running the Gossip Girl blog. Despite these great characters, it’s no secret that Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass (and their relationship) are the heart of the show, and it’s no coincidence that they have the deepest character arcs.

When we first meet Blair, she’s the stereotypical mean girl. As the daughter of a wealthy businessman and successful fashion designer, she lives in a world of luxury that most of us could only dream of. However, her wealth doesn’t make her immune from personal issues like her struggles with her parents’ divorce, self-esteem issues, and eating disorders. It doesn’t take long for fans to realize that Blair is mean to girls at school because she’s deeply unhappy and insecure. She likes to control others because she feels out of control in her own life, and she unravels when this control is taken away from her. 

Despite her flaws, Blair has plenty of redeeming qualities. She’s fiercely loyal to the ones she loves, smart as a whip, and has an exceptional work ethic. As the show progresses, we watch her positive traits come out more as she grows up, leaving her petty, mean girl past behind. Even though she comes from a privileged background, she’s one of the most relatable characters in the show because her struggles with body image and self-esteem resonate with viewers. She’s far from a perfect character, but it’s impossible to root against her.

Anyone familiar with Gossip Girl knows that Chuck Bass is a fan-favorite character, but that’s hard to believe if you’ve only seen the first few episodes. Chuck starts the show as a villain, the spoiled son of a billionaire who takes advantage of everything and everyone around him. He’s cruel and manipulative, but it doesn’t take long for fans to learn that he behaves this way because he desperately craves his father’s approval. In the second season, fans learn that his relationship with his father is strained because his mom died giving birth to him, and his father blames him for it. Chuck finally starts to earn his approval, but then his dad dies in the middle of the second season (only for him to rise from the dead in the fifth season and die again while trying to destroy Chuck in season six, because why not?), and he has an identity crisis. Is he really cruel and manipulative, or was he just acting that way to gain his father’s approval?

After his father’s “death,” Chuck inherits his business and works hard. He becomes confident in himself and his ability to run the business, but it all changes when his father comes back from the dead and threatens to take it away from him. Chuck not only learns that his father is far more evil than he ever thought he was (including trying to kill Chuck) but comes to realize that he doesn’t want to be like the man he grew up idolizing. Chuck comes full circle at the end of the series when he realizes that he doesn’t need his father’s approval because he’s a better man than his father could ever be, and that’s enough for him. While Chuck makes plenty of mistakes along the way, he makes an effort to learn from them.

Chuck and Blair’s relationship is perfect for a teen drama because it’s overdramatic and full of rich people's problems that nobody can relate to, but both characters are so complex that it’s easy for most of us to see a part of ourselves in at least one of them. Despite their toxicity (let’s be real, this relationship wouldn’t make it in real life), the way they grow as a couple and as individuals throughout the series makes them impossible not to root for, so their happy ending is satisfying for fans.

The Fashion Is To Die For 

In a world that seems to celebrate ugliness, it’s fun to look back at Gossip Girl and see the beautiful outfits.

Out of all the characters, Blair and Serena have the best sense of style, and both of their personalities are reflected in what they wear. Blair is‌ very traditional and loves Audrey Hepburn, making her style sophisticated, classic, and preppy. She rarely wears anything trendy and sees fashion as a form of art, making many of her looks elaborate and beautiful.

Serena’s style is more boho-chic and fits her more easygoing personality. It’s trendier than Blair’s, but you’ll never see her wearing something that’s going to be out of style in less than a year. It’s also a bit on the sexier side while being more practical than Blair’s sense of style, but she still gives us plenty of iconic looks to swoon over.

When it came to the reboot, the fashion was lackluster, to say the least. Two of the characters, Julien and Audrey, had similar styles to Serena and Blair (Julien being Serena and Audrey being Blair), but their outfits failed to compare to their original counterparts because they were not as glamorous.

The best part about the fashion of the original show is that it was over-the-top. During their high school days, Serena and Blair accessorized their uniforms to the point where it would have been far beyond the dress code guidelines, and they managed to have flawless hair and makeup despite being high school students running on little sleep. After they graduated high school, their outfits were even more elaborate, with looks that were beautiful but impractical for everyday wear. It added to the fantasy of the show, and we all loved them for it.

Some would argue that the lack of glamorous clothes in the reboot (including the guys wearing hoodies and sneakers to school, which Dan Humphrey wouldn’t be caught dead in) is more realistic, but that completely defeats the purpose of the show. Gossip Girl isn’t supposed to be realistic, and that’s what makes it great.

Some of the Plotlines Are Absolutely Wild

In the first season, we see high school students get into swanky bars and drink martinis. We watch a 16-year-old Chuck buy a burlesque club and later a luxury hotel before he’s 21. Underage drinking aside, Gossip Girl has plenty of absurd plot lines. From Nate’s cousin trying to kill him to Blair hazing her Shakespeare teacher for giving her a B on a paper to Chuck’s dad coming back from the dead, it’s safe to say that this show is unhinged. While you could argue that some of it was cringey, you certainly can’t argue that it’s boring. 

Two of the main reasons the reboot failed were because it was boring and it was political. It tried to make the characters socially conscious of their privilege, ignoring that the absurdity of their wealth is one of the many things that made the original show great. That could almost be forgiven if the reboot wasn’t so unimaginative, which is the cardinal sin of entertainment. They tried to create scandal through a love triangle between two sisters and a possible throuple involving one girl and two guys, but it didn’t feel scandalous. It was obvious that it was going to happen, eliminating the “will they, won’t they?” that keeps viewers hooked. Without the romantic tension or shock value, there’s nothing to these “scandalous” storylines, and they pale in comparison to the plotlines in the original Gossip Girl. In order for a reboot to work, creators have to retain the elements that made the show iconic in the first place.

The original Gossip Girl is pure escapism. Sometimes, we don’t want to watch a show with social commentary or a political message. The show gives us an escape from reality by allowing us to indulge in the fictional but eventful lives of rich kids on the Upper East Side. Like Emily In Paris and Sex And The City, we know it’s not realistic, but that’s why we love it.

Closing Thoughts

Television shows come and go, but few have stood the test of time quite like Gossip Girl. When we look back at what made the show so great, we not only notice why we still love it after all these years, but why we’ll likely never see a show like it again.

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