do me a prop and read this NY Mag article, The Genius of GG and why it's CHANGING TELEVISION FOR-EV-ER. this article obviously isn't the same as watching (and imminently falling in love with) the show, but you might gain a better understanding of the craze.
some highlights of the article that struck a chord with me:
Technically, we’re a little old for Gossip Girl—our own high-school experience was kind of a while ago. Like, 90210-was-still-on-the-air a while ago. But it’s not just tweenage girls who are hooked on the show.
At first we cloaked our adoration in irony. "It’s awesomely bad," we explained to friends. "You know, like Showgirls. Or a Bloomin’ Onion." But before long we were covering the show pretty much exhaustively on the Daily Intelligencer, the blog we write on nymag.com. And then a funny thing happened: E-mails and texts from fans of all ages began filling our in-boxes. "S. at Cafe Gitane, not with Lonely Boy!" read one text, from a 28-year-old marketing executive. "OMG!" we texted back. "Is she cheating?" "No, he is a gay." (Translation: Blake Lively, who plays Serena van der Woodsen, was spotted with someone other than Penn Badgley, who plays her onscreen boyfriend and whom she’s rumored to be dating in real life. The "he" who is "a gay" is just some guy who looked that way to the texter.) The more we wrote about Gossip Girl, the more its radically invested fan base began to reveal itself to us. We were like a support group for the fully grown, employed, non-pervert adult fans of the show.
But there should be no shame in a love of Gossip Girl. After all, it is (and we have come to this conclusion honestly) the most awesomely awesome show ever. And so on the eve of the show’s return from writers’-strike limbo, we are here to give you the six best reasons you should openly love Gossip Girl, even if you’ve never seen it before. Why waste so much time writing about something so insipid? Because, dear readers, it’s not.
the authors go on to give lots of insight into the hot stars (some of which is very surprising), as well as their 6 reasons why they believe GG is revolutionizing television.
one point i found fascinating is the CW's frustration with modern day access to their golden program. when you can watch online for free, why suffer through commercials? when no one's watching commercials, how does a network make money?
As the CW struggles to figure out how to make money off Gossip Girl, it’s overlooking what an amazing thing it has on its hands, which is a show that may foretell a future of multiplatform entertainment whose success is determined not by traditional ratings but by what Schwartz and co–executive producer Stephanie Savage call "cultural permeation." It’s not a new goal—as Us Weekly editor Janice Min puts it, "The best thing that could happen to a show is for someone to be able to say ‘Jen and Courteney’ and you know they are talking about the stars of Friends"—but it is an entirely new way of getting there.
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