DVD Review: Gossip Girl: The Complete First Season

TV Show Info:
Writer: Various
Director: Various
Cast: Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley, Chace Crawford, Taylor Momsen, Ed Westwick, Kelly Rutherford, Matthew Settle, Kristen Bell
Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Warner Bros

Release Info:
Original Air Dates: September 19, 2007 – Present
Season Air Dates: September 19, 2007 – May 19, 2008
DVD Box Set Release Date: August 19, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon: $36.99
Episodes: All episodes from the 1st Season

If you take a healthy dose of Beverly Hills 90210 and mix it up with Sex in the City you will have something akin to the new pop sensation, Gossip Girl. While some have said that Gossip Girl was meant to fill the void of The OC I never watched it so I cannot comment one way or another, though I can certainly see fans of the other shows I mentioned enjoying the plotlines and performances here.

The life of high society can be interesting in any form, but when you focus on the drama of teenagers with too much time on their hands, not enough parental supervision, and the need to break free and get wild before going off to college (if they go at all) you are pretty much guaranteed a hit on your hands. Despite just entering it’s second season, which this first season box set release was set to coincide with, Gossip Girl already has a huge following.

Fans adore the show and rightfully so. While the idea may not be completely original, the show remains well written, well acted, and incredibly addictive in all the right ways. I picked the show up for the first time when I had to review it. Before I knew it, I had watched the entire season and was looking forward to the beginning of the second season. I am sure it must have been torture having to wait a week to find out what would happen next. Luckily, I didn’t have to experience that wait with the first season, though it looks like I will be in the second season.

The Gossip Girl: The Complete First Season Plot
The first season of Gossip Girl includes 18 episodes. The premise of the show includes narration by “Gossip Girl” a high society gossip blogger that talks about the people in the show. Kristen Bell provides the voice for Gossip Girl. Rather than tell you bits and pieces of the first season, you can see a brief description of the 18 episodes below.

“Pilot”: During the first episode the families of the Upper East Side elite are introduced. The families for Serena (Blake Lively), Blair (Leighton Meester), Nate (Chace Crawford), and Chuck (Ed Westwick) are shown. Serena, who has been away to boarding school, returns home when she learns that her brother Eric (Connor Paolo) attempted suicide.

“The Wild Brunch”: Serena’s mother (Kelly Rutherford) shows that you don’t have to be young to be involved in nefarious behavior. While dating Chuck’s dad, Bart (Robert John Burke), she ends up getting reacquainted with Dan’s Dad, Rufus (Matthew Settle). Meanwhile, Dan and Serena are unable to get involved when Blair and Chuck tattle to Dan about Serena’s history.

“Poison Ivy”: Serena and Blair battle back and forth in a serious feud. Blair goes as far to begin mentioning Serena’s non-existent drug problem. Blair eventually befriends Jenny (Taylor Momsen) and then makes up with Serena after she discovers that Eric was the one with a problem dealing with “depression”.

“Bad News Blair”: Serena chooses Blair to be the face of a fashion line, but things get out of control when Serena is picked for the job instead and she is not informed that Blair was dropped from the spot. Blair regrets making up with Serena after she learns what happened, but Dan explains that it wasn’t Serena and that his mom made the decision to switch things. In other news, Chuck gets caught up in a crazy game of poker and Nate has to come to his rescue.

“Dare Devil”: An intense game of Truth or Dare ensues when Jenny and Blair break Eric out of the treatment center. Lily calls Dan while he and Serena are enjoying a date to tell him that Eric is nowhere to be found. However, they soon find the three game players and send Eric back to treatment. Once there, Lily decides to just take him home. Jenny’s parents save her from being arrested, another part of Blair’s game and Blair ends up respecting her for her parents, if nothing else.

“The Handmaiden’s Tale”: Dan’s childhood friend Vanessa (Jessica Szohr) returns to town, leaving Dan confused and interested in two girls. Meanwhile, Blair holds a masquerade party and Nate has until midnight in order to find her so that they can intimately seal their relationship and become lovers officially. Vanessa and Jenny crash the party, Nate mistakenly kisses Jenny thinking she is Serena, and Chuck gets left outside in the cold thanks to Jenny.

“Victor/Victrola”: Serena and Dan finally admit their feelings for one another, which leads to a romantic evening alone. Chuck wants to make his father proud, but all he ends up doing is confusing things that his dad has going with Lily, which pushes her deeper into her relationship with Rufus. Blair loses her virginity to Chuck after dumping Nate because he kissed Jenny by mistake.

“Seventeen Candles”: Blair is upset about her breakup with Nate, though as her birthday rolls around she attempts to at least fake happiness for her friends. Serena gets upset when Dan brings Vanessa to the birthday party, hoping that she can bond with Serena. Nate skips Blair’s party and she is shocked to receive the present she expected from Nate is really from Chuck.

“Blair Waldorf Must Pie!”: Dan invites Serena’s family to Thanksgiving, which creates an awkward situation for Lily and Rufus. During the festivities the kids all learn how acquainted their parents already are with each other.

“Hi, Society”: Serena does not want to attend the Debutante Ball, but her grandmother CeCe (Caroline Lagerfelt) insists that she must be a part of the ceremony. Nate wants to make up with Blair, but Chuck wants to stop that from happening. Finally, Lily reveals the truth about why her relationship with Rufus was broken up years ago.

“Roman Holiday”: Blair’s father Harold (John Shea) comes home for the holidays. Unbeknownst to Blair, he brings home his boyfriend Roman (William Abadie). Blair is unable to accept her father’s guest or their relationship, so she comes up with a plan to get Roman out of their lives.

“School Lies”: Serena and the gang break into the school swimming pool for a little fun. Unfortunately, someone almost drowns and the school plans to expel the person responsible for the break-in. Blair and Nate’s relationship is strained to say the least, which only gets worse as Chuck continues to blackmail her.

“The Thin Line Between Chuck and Nate”: Dan thinks he is going to be a father when he learns that Gossip Girl is reporting that Serena was out buying a pregnancy test. What Dan doesn’t know is that the test was really for Blair. Meanwhile, Serena has to enlist Chuck for help because Blair refuses to take the test.

“The Blair Bitch Project”: Blair returns to school though it’s hard for her now that she is no longer Queen Bee. Jenny steals Hazel’s mom’s Valentino dress because she is ashamed of her middle class status and needs something appropriate to wear for her birthday. Serena struggles to deal with living with Chuck, her soon to be step brother, and is bothered by some disturbing packages that she continues to receive from an unknown location.

“Desperately Seeking Serena”: Georgina Sparks (Michelle Trachtenberg) returns to New York. As Serena’s former partner in crime, the two hook up and paint the town. During a dinner, Georgina spikes Serena’s drink causing her to miss her date with Dan. Nate and Vanessa hook up and Jenny meets a guy that just might make her popular.

“All About My Brother”: Blair and Jenny continue their war by sending various rumors in to Gossip Girl. Eric and Dan realize that Asher is not all he seems to be, but Jenny won’t hear of it and thinks that Eric is just jealous. Dan gets more involved with Sarah (Georgina) and he seriously upsets Jenny when he leaks it to Gossip Girl that Asher is gay. Georgina announces that Eric is gay, too, and it comes out that he was the one kissing Asher.

“Woman on the Verge”: Nate and Chuck head over to Blair’s to discuss the situation with Serena. No one will tell Dan what happened with Serena, who is currently staying with Blair. Serena makes up a lie and tells Dan that she cheated on him. However, what she tells her friends is that Georgina was trying to film a sex tape but instead filmed someone dying. Lily finds the tape during the wedding rehearsal and tells Serena that she plans to send her to reform school.

“Much ‘I Do’ About Nothing”: Serena finds Dan and Georgina together and comes clean about her attitude as of late, telling about her connection with Georgina. Dan decides to get even and along with Blair, they call Georgina’s parents and let them know what she’s been up to without their knowledge. At the wedding, Dan decides he cannot be with Serena. Blair and Chuck confess their feelings for one another, but that doesn’t mean a whole lot at this point.

Storyline/Plot:
Replayability:
Acting:
Directing:

Audio/Visual:
As you would expect from a brand new television show, Gossip Girl comes out looking amazing. The 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen offers a high definition feel that is entirely pleasing. There are no compression errors and the visual aspect is free of grain, noise, dirt, and other unwanted problems that commonly plague DVDs and box sets. The colors are strong and the video is sharp. It’s obvious that WB wanted to give this top notch treatment. This was a good move on their part because it only added to the show, making me wanr to keep watching every crystal clear episode.

WB also makes sure to give the sound treatment a nice boost with Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround. Like with the visual aspects, the audio sounds amazing just the way it is. The music sounds great and the dialogue is perfectly clear. Volume toggling never became an issue. In addition to plain English sound there is a Portuguese Dolby Digital track, as well. When it comes to subtitles you can take your pick of languages, with WB adding tracks for English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Korean, Thai, and Portuguese.

Visual:
Audio:

Bonus Features:
The most shocking thing about the special features for Gossip Girl is that there are no commentaries. While not all television shows put commentaries on all episodes, usually there will be one or two that receive the special treatment. It certainly would have been nice to see that here, but it is probably the one main fault of this section, and that’s really not so bad.

Each disc has a smattering of deleted scenes available for viewing. While nice to watch, it is obvious to see why many of these scenes hit the cutting room floor. Many of them are too bland to make it into the show. However, fans will like to watch them to see what could have been added into the show, what was taken out, and why.

The majority of all other special features are found on the fifth disc of the set. One of the most exciting features for GG fans will likely be the audiobook download for the series on which this show is based. The book is read by Christina Ricci and if you like the show you aren’t going to want to miss hearing the book. Two music videos and a gag reel are also included, along with three featurettes that range in time from 23 minutes to as short as 5 minutes.

The featurettes start off with “The Beginning, XOXO.” This featurette is fairly lengthy, offering the viewers a chance to see just how things got going for this series. The book is discussed, as well as how it would be adapted, the cast and crew that would work on the show, and Schwartz discusses his thoughts on everything, even the actors. One of the highlights had to be the audition footage that was thrown in. Fashionistas will love the featurette that is dedicated solely to Gossip Girl fashion. Finally, the shortest featurette is “A Gossip Girl Wedding.” This final featurette looks at the wedding that occurred during the shows season 1 final episode.

Bonus Features:

Bottom Line:
If you’re looking for something filled with drama, sex, and high society you don’t need to look any further than Gossip Girl. The first season is filled with excellent episodes, talented actors, and loads to dish about with your friends. This complete season box set offers all episodes from the first season along with plenty of special features making the price well worth a purchase. If you haven’t had a chance to watch Gossip Girl yet, this gives you the perfect opportunity to check it out before moving into the second season.

Overall Rating:

Technorati Tags: Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley, Chace Crawford, Taylor Momsen, Ed Westwick, Kelly Rutherford, Matthew Settle, Kristen Bell, Gossip Girl, The Complete First Season, DVD, TV on DVD, Warner Bros, The CW, Drama

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Written by Ashtyn - Visit Website
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Ashtyn Evans is a writer, advocate, free thinker, and all around cynical person. Always quick to find the negative in anything pop culture, she loves being a part of that which she despises. Ashtyn and Dominick own numerous blogs together, as well as a full-time writing business. In her spare time she is a full-time college student studying History and Psychology. She plans to one day give up her freelance career and be a full-time blogger, novelist, and domestic goddess. She can be contacted for writing projects, fan mail, or just to say hi. She really is friendlier than we make her look.