Tuesday, March 10, 2009

best path to stardom: eat sh*t and die

Gossip Girl Season 1:
Serena is the obvious lead, though Blaire becomes a lead in her own right fairly quickly into the season.  

v.

Gossip Girl Season 2:
Blaire is the obvious lead.  Serena is relegated to the romantic subplots, etc.

Maybe this is unfair: I've only seen about half of each season.  But I was a shocked at how important Serena was in Season 1 after "knowing" her as only the lame friend in Season 2.  (Vice versa with Chuck).  

But then I realized why Serena seems so unimportant now: when she had bad things happening to her- in all facets of her life- in Season 1, she was a lead.  In season 2, she's pretty charmed, so she's just a side-character-caricature.

Meanwhile, Blaire has had more and more bad stuff piled on her left and right.  Hence: her importance has grown.  (Same with Chuck).

So: the lead/hero is the person the bad sh*t happens to.  GOOD TO KNOW!

I also wonder: how much was planned out in advance?  

Here's Chuck's "evil" to "good" turn around so far:

Episode 1: wanna-be rapist.  DOUBLE rapist!  
Episode 3: helps Blaire, but by being a HUGE asshole 
Episode 4: saves his best friend, Nathan, from some predatory older guy
Episode 6: gets his comeuppance when Jenny (a freshman he tried to rape in ep. 1) leaves him naked on a rooftop.
Episode 7: genuinely cares about his dad (stresses over business plan, wants to prove himself)... AND Blaire (is there for her after her breakup)
Episode 8: tells Blaire he's into her, buys her a necklace, and really seals the deal.

That HAD to be thought out before the pilot was shot- it fits together SO tightly.  But I'm interested to see if Chuck's (re-)fall is as tightly plotted, or if it feels more like the writers said, "sh*t, Chuck's more fun evil."  

Wonder how the ups and downs of Chuck's fortunes has to do with his importance in the show- the more important he needs to be for the plot, the worse his "life" is?  

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