Gossip Girl: OG vs. Gen Z
Spotted: OG vs Gen Z, battling for the title of the best Gossip Girl.
Who will be crowned Queen Bee? Who will be sent packing as a wannabe? Keep reading to find out which one reigns supreme.
I know I am a little late to this party, but I was incredibly hesitant to watch the new Gossip Girl because I grew up with the original, and those characters and dramas now live in television infamy. But the idea seemed to be sparking enough controversy as stills started coming out before the show was been released that I figured I owed the first season a watch before fully making up my mind. Now that all the episodes are out (of the first part of season 1) I feel like I can make a fully formed opinion. Spoilers ahead, but keep reading! It’s worth I promise.
Let’s start with the main difference I saw people mad about online that felt stupid to me: social media. So many writing reviews and talking about the main issues they had with the show was how social media played such a big part in this storyline. In the OG, social media wasn’t even a fraction as intense as it is now. Like at all. So having a big named influencer as one of the main characters, and having the voice of Gossip Girl not have her own site but function off of social media makes way more sense. It would be way weirder to have her live off of text blasts as she did in the OG. In 2021, social media is queen and if someone like Gossip Girl were to have power, this is how she would gain it. I personally feel like this was a natural arc to the way the character functions.
My first big grievance with the Gen Z is that Gossip Girl is being run by the teachers to keep the students in line. While the logic follows I guess, that was not the point of Gossip Girl. She wasn’t writing posts and sending out blasts to keep the peace and make her life easier; she was doing it to incite chaos around her and stir the pot. Maybe it is the drama queen in me, but having Gossip Girl being run by teachers to keep the peace and make their lives easier seems like the boring way to do it and takes away some of the drama right off the bat. Obviously, there is the whole storyline of the secret sister and how she got a scholarship into the school on top of all the other drama, but I still wish the element of “who’s Gossip Girl” was there for the viewer.
There are a few elements of the OG that were brought over into the Gen Z that I really did love. For starters, the fashion is still top-notch. The main reason I started watching the OG in the first place was a photo that I saw on Twitter of Serene in her dress for the kiss on the lips party. I spent the rest of the evening looking at photos from the show of the different looks that they were all wearing and was hooked before I was even sucked into the drama. Gen Z also has amazing style with great designers featured and the first episode even has a runway show for Fashion Week that would give real designers a run for their money. They also, of course, are episodes full of insane drama that only people this rich and unattainable could be getting into. There are intense sexual moments and situations, inappropriate interest in a teacher, parents who are just as immature as their kids, teenagers acting like adults and somehow managing to get into bars and clubs, and of course, everyone running around keeping secrets and ruining the lives of everyone around them. Gez Z adds the element of social media to the rumor mill which helps to really fuel some of the more outlandish moments of the Gen Z.
Gen Z also does some things that OG didn’t do that give Gen Z a leg up. One of them is that since it is now the cast is way more diverse now that it is 2021 and not 2007. There is only one white, blonde girl in the main group of friends and she's dating an Asian guy who is bisexual. Three of the other main characters are also WOC and are also some of the most powerful characters on the show. Sexuality is fluid and open, same with relationship dynamics, and there is an open conversation about consent that is happening all time. There are also seven main characters that are featured in every episode all with their own lives and characteristics. In the OG, we had the main four, Jenny as a close second, and then periodically Vaness and Georgina. Blair had minions that were never really given any kind of character arc, and that was about it. All the main seven teens we follow have their own strengths, weaknesses, desires, and personalities. Even if they suck, they are still unique characters. In the Gen Z, they also expound on the idea that more than just the Upper Eastside is expensive and somehow more prestigious. While there are some jokes in certain parts of the city, they do a lot in Brooklyn and have crazy rich gatherings all over the city. They also make less of a big deal of the kids going to different parts of the city.
I also really liked the fact that this one was put on HBO Max so that there was no censoring. The OG definitely didn’t censor a lot (sex, drugs, and literally everything else)but the Gen Z can actually cuss which makes perfect sense! The fact that this whole show initially existed without one character dropping an f-bomb the whole time did not feel genuine. This way, there does feel like a bit more reality to this very privileged way of living.
After all of this, after all the checkmarks in the pro column for Gen Z, I still 100% prefer the OG. Maybe it’s because I watched it first and my friends and I watched it together so there was more of an experience around it. Maybe its’ because I watched the OG in high school and all of the drama was a lot more fun and as an almost 25-year-old it seems less exciting. O maybe it all hinges on the fact that in the Gen Z the teachers are Gossip Girl and I just can’t get over it. It also needs to be said that the acting in the OG is way better from the get-go. It gets better over time for sure, but it starts out way better than the Gen Z does.
If you watched both, go ahead and comment down below what you thought about the new one and which one you prefer! I am super curious which ones everyone liked more!
XOXO,
Madey
Cover art by Avery Lynch