Gossip Girl/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

• There are two things I have accepted about Gossip Girl. One: the overall writing on this show has gradually gotten from bad to worse over time. However, this show's rampant shout outs to its actors (e.g. references to Ed Westwick's neck and, um, focus, Romances on the Set, etc.), fashionistas like Carla Bruni and labels such as Bottega Veneta go over the heads of at least the fans I see on Tumblr trying to make "picspams" of scenes from the show. So while the scripts themselves are truly ridiculous, some of the individual lines from the show are actually quite clever. Two: as I have noticed in this article from Jezebel (as well as other places on the internet), people try to give feminist criticism about the show... but then again, this show (let alone the book series it was based off of) was not created for a feminist audience in the first place.--Heartnibbler
  • I found Vanessa to be one of the most sympathetic and relatable characters on Gossip Girl by far, specifically because she is so different from the petty, vain, shallow, materialistic, Manipulative Bastard, Alpha Bitch villainous protagonist Blair Waldorf. I was surprised to learn that the bulk of the audience considers Vanessa to be The Scrappy... until I realized that the target audience for the show is girls who want to be like Blair. -Shaen The Brain
    • For me, the fridge brilliance occurred when I realised that the reason why the vast majority of viewers loathe Vanessa is that she's very much like Blair in many ways. She's very shallow (has almost no money and spends it on designer clothes), a chronic backstabber, manipulates people all the time, extremely prejudiced (she hates the UES kids simply for having money, never bothering to get to know them before she passes judgment), and generally just screws people over every chance she gets. And unlike Blair she doesn't have nearly enough heart or charm to make up for it. What she does do however is constantly get up on her high horse and preach how Blair and the rest are morally corrupted for doing the exact same things Vanessa herself does on a regular basis. - Pingvin.
• Possibly unintentional, but Blair's favourite movie is Breakfast At Tiffany's and she wants to be like Holly Golightly. Blair's also (in the beginning) desperate to get the all-important Vanderbilt ring from her boyfriend as a sign of commitment, since he's a Vanderbilt which is very important. One of the women Truman Capote based Holly Golightly on is socialite Gloria Vanderbilt - one of Nate's ancestors, perhaps?
  • Also, in the book of Breakfast At Tiffany's, the male protagonist is gay, but in the film he's straight and in a relationship with the main female character. In the books of Gossip Girl, Chuck Bass is bi, but in the TV series he's straight and in a relationship with the main female character. Also probably unintentional.

Fridge Horror

• Gossip Girl isn't the kind of show you'd think would have many of these, but you'd be surprised. Most of them are to do with actions before we find out about Blair's bulimia. Firstly, in the fourth episode, her mother pretty much orders her not to eat a roll like Serena is and suggests a fat free yoghurt instead, leading to Blair looking crushed and mentioning that she's lost weight. Secondly, in the episode we find out about her eating disorder, we find out because her mother essentially ordered her to take a dessert and go sit by herself. Ordered. A former bulimic. To eat a whole dessert, by herself. Also, later her mother asks Serena if Blair's condition is coming back, because she's heard her throwing up. This is forgotten because the topic of the episode is that Blair might be pregnant so it's assumed to be morning sickness. Except she's not. So Blair actually does still throw up, which is never brought up again.