I guess that I differ from the Twitterverse because I am personally excited that Gossip Girl is going to be different than the original. I don’t want the same recycled characters, because trust me – no one is the same as when the original show debuted.
Variety spoke with showrunner Joshua Safran and shit hit the fan. Basically the writer of the article said that, ” HBO Max’s upcoming “Gossip Girl” continuation endeavors to avoid glorifying its characters’ wealth and exorbitant lifestyles.” And from the shit that I am reading online – people took it as the creator saying it.
But what he said was… “These kids wrestle with their privilege in a way that I think the original didn’t,” shared with the publication. “In light of [Black Lives Matter], in light of a lot of things, even going back to Occupy Wall Street, things have shifted.”
Now, in usual form Twitter was not happy. There was A LOT of reaction similar to this:
“I think the first [‘Gossip Girl’] showed a little bit of wealth porn or privilege porn, like, ‘Look at these cars, or here’s a montage of the best plated food you’ve ever seen,’” says Safran.
And that’s fair.
While a lot of people were pissed, I kinda get it, but I don’t Kids now a days have a different access to wealth than the time of the original Gossip Girl. Then it was this thing that we aspired to be, dreaming of having an inside look into what it was like to be rich and thinking that it was what Gossip Girl was.
But now wealth and what it is, as well as the illusion of what it is, is different. Social Media has changed the game. And so the aspirations of people are different and the drive to make a name for yourself is different.
These kids will be wealthy and judging just by the trailer, we’re going to see a lot of it. But the way they experience it will be different. And that’s just advancing with the times.
Gossip Girl will premiere July 8th, on HBO Max.
