I Am Chuck Bass

Discussed: When The Gossiping Gets Tough, Work Schedules We’d All Like To Have, Without The Internet - Who Can Hear You Scream, The Return Of Security Blankets, Chuck Close - Enviable Best Friend, Art Vs Commerce, Asking If Ok Is Enough, Delineating Drug Differences, How Lonely The Real Aaron Rose Must Now Be - Left With No Fervently Texting Friends, A Remarkably Close Shave - Even Without Product Placement, The Haunting Of Molly Hartley 2, Getting Your Groove Back

CLIFFHANGER: WILL THE BACKSTABBING SECRETS EVER CEASE?

Oh, CW, you’re really making it hard for us. In deference to your lackadaisical holiday programming schedule for GG, we too engaged in a full blown lackadaisical du force, with week upon sorry week of no IACB posts here, no Mixtapes, no Elements of Style - how on Earth did Alexandra know what to think of contemporary music and the screaming markdown of the Phillip Glass box set online?

Alas, we digress, and must admit, while the arriving prospect of a January 5th return of GG to our life managed to maintain its usual exhilarating thrill, in the end, what we were given was a wee difficult to muster the same level of excitement for. “In The Realm Of The Basses” was an all together fine installment, but seems to be indicating what may prove to be a sophomore slump for Gossip Girl. For any other show, the Season 2 we’ve been given thus far would luminously suffice, but on account of the heady apexes of Season 1s refined artfulness, this just does not compare.

Admittedly, perhaps we’re harshing a mellow here. But…

Let’s look at the facts. Chuck’s been off on an emotionally numbing hash/whore fueled bender. And in following in the heady tradition of unceremoniously dumping characters from the show, Aaron Rose vanished into thin patchouli smelling air to the say-it-ain’t-so nostalgia of no one. Serena and Dan are back together again (yawn) while the looming threat of the worlds largest emotional baggage having parents/couple promises to keep hurtful secrets and tear their offspring’s Faberge bond apart, post haste. Proving the patriarchal lineage of preposterously named Bass’, we were introduced to uncle Jack Bass, who appears to have rung in the new year horizontally tangoing with Blair.

This closing scene, Palin-approved “gotcha!” revelation seems a bit preposterous, given Blair’s episode long quest of supporting/loving/saving/mothering Chuck, but such is GG life. Continuing this sentiment, why Blair would want to join that uppity old woman’s club remains a mystery, as it lacks the same power wielding, fashion admonishing good times the Met Steps girls relish in.

Nelly Yuki further decomposed beyond recognition from the morally upstanding awesome character first introduced last season, deigning to scrape the disgusting artificiality of Pinkberry™ product placement from what’s her names shoe and then worshipping at the throne of thankfully normal-again Little J’s appetite for do-goodery in what turned out to be a lame ‘The Departed/Infernal Affairs’ non-twist.

And rounding it all out, we saw Rufus get a bit of the crazies, sneaking off to Boston hunting his son and hot-headedly lecturing everyone remotely associated with Lily whilst maintaining the most locked jaw ever.

So, clearly some good times to be had. But, in the sake of logic, where was Chuck’s best friend Nate through all this? Sure, there’s a lot of characters to squeeze in there, but barring another shoddily made horror film Chace Crawford couldn’t stand not being in, there’s kinda no excuse.

Judging from next week’s episode, things are bound to get a whole lot Bassier. The fact that there is a next week though, is good news for all of us. We, and they, are back in the swing, so let us withhold judgement a bit longer.

Until next time, XOXO.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 5:16 pm and is filed under Episode RECAP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.