‘Gossip Girl’ Fans Would Love These Shows Streaming Now
Most Gossip Girl fans know that a Gossip Girl reboot series is on the way through HBO Max, but until that reboot arrives, fans can content themselves not only with the original show but other shows like it.
Especially in trying times like these, viewers tend to delight in the trials, tribulations and other misfortunes of the well to do. Fans love the cattiness of rich people clawing at each other, and shows like another reboot, Dynasty, can give them that flavor.
Additionally, shows like Looking for Alaska and Elite tap into a similar YA vibe.
‘Gossip Girl’ vs. ‘Dynasty’
Gossip Girl ran for six seasons from 2007 to 2012 on the CW, making the careers of Blake Lively, Penn Badgley, Leighton Meester and Chace Crawford. Lively played Serena van der Woodson, who returns to Manhattan’s ritzy Upper East Side and tangles with other would-be it-people. It was one of the shows that cemented CW’s image as the home of shows starring hip, hot young casts. The reboot is scheduled to premiere on HBO Max.
One of the shows that Gossip Girl took cues from was the evening soap opera that was ABC’s early 80s answer to Dallas. Whereas Dallas became famous for the “Who Shot JR” mystery, Dynasty tried to one-up that by having practically the entire cast shot at the end of one episode. It ran for nine seasons.
The Dynasty reboot airs on where else but the CW, featuring Elizabeth Gillies, Nathalie Kelley, James Mackay, and Robert Christopher Riley. Earlier this year it was renewed for its fourth season.
The critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes, where the show scored a 49 percent, said, “Dynasty‘s revival retains enough of its predecessor’s over-the-top allure to offer a glamorous guilty pleasure in its first season, even if it never quite recaptures the magic of the original.”
Two of its seasons can be found on Netflix.
What’s ‘Looking for Alaska?’
If Hulu’s Looking for Alaska feels similar to YA Dramas like The Fault in Our Stars or Paper Towns, that’s because it’s based on the debut novel by the author of those stories, John Green.
The story is about a friendless youth who switches from a traditional school to boarding school to seek “The Great Perhaps” — something more, whatever that turns out to be. The Alaska of the title refers to a girl he meets at the school. Since it’s a John Green story, tragedy has to enter the picture.
The series shares DNA with Gossip Girl in that it is also produced by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. It stars Charlie Plummer and Kristine Froseth.
Critical reception for Looking for Alaska was very positive, with the series scoring a 92 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The critical consensus reads, “Bittersweet and beautifully performed, Looking For Alaska is the rare adaptation that deviates from its source material only to find something even better.”
What about ‘Elite?’
Elite is a Spanish drama that follows wealthy and powerful families near Madrid, going so far as to include a murder mystery plot, with a flash-forward structure that allows the story to take place in two timelines. It’s a Netflix series that was just renewed for its fourth season.
This show has also been highly acclaimed, with a 97 percent score overall and a 100 percent score for its first season, for which the Rotten Tomatoes consensus was, “Elite is highly digestible, technically strong trash TV for anyone with a guilty pleasure palate.”
Whether the show is Gossip Girl, Dynasty, Looking for Alaska or Elite, pleasure will be found as long as troubled and affluent youths butt heads with each other.
It will be particularly interesting to see how the pandemic affects stories of this sort going forward, particularly if it’s ever incorporated into any of the plots. Let’s see how this crowd does with social distancing.
