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| Gossip Girl - The Complete First Season | 
 enlarge | Actors: Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Chace Crawford, Taylor Momsen, Kristen Bell
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $59.98
Buy New: $36.50
You Save: $23.48 (39%)
New (39) Used (13) Collectible (1) from $34.02
Avg. Customer Rating:  58 reviews
Sales Rank: 114
Format: Ac-3, Box Set, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Chinese (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Korean (Subtitled), Portuguese (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), Portuguese (Dubbed)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 5
Running Time: 60
Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.7
MPN: WARD039249D
UPC: 883929022540
EAN: 0883929022540
ASIN: B000W6ZUUC
Theatrical Release Date: September 19, 2007
Release Date: August 19, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Want to know a secret? A really juicy secret? Look no further than the latest message from Manhattan's notorious blogger Gossip Girl. She keeps tabs on the city's most elite teens as they make the rounds from the preppiest school events to the most lavish, decadent parties. And between Serena and Blair's explosive friendship, Dan and Serena's budding romance, Nate and Blair's fairytale relationship (or is it?), Chuck's escapades and Jenny's introduction to the glamorous life, there's a lot to track! In this 5-disc, 18-episode Season One, friends, lovers, rivals and enemies abound. Even the darkest secrets don't stay hidden for long. You know you love it. XOXO!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 53 more reviews...
 The premiere guilty pleasure show of the 2007-2008 season May 24, 2008
32 out of 47 found this review helpful
GOSSIP GIRL could well be the first and last hit show developed by the CW in the wake of the merger of the WB and UPN. With multiple industry sources indicating that the network is in serious trouble and may cease operation following the 2008-2009 season, GOSSIP GIRL could well find itself at a new network in the 2009-2010 season, assuming that it maintains its "buzz" well into its sophomore season. But if the CW is able to reverse its current difficulties, GOSSIP GIRL could well be the reason it survives.
For a while in this past season, GOSSIP GIRL and DIRTY SEXY MONEY were fighting it out for title of top new Guilty Pleasure Show. It was neck and neck at the break for the writers' strike, but with DIRTY SEXY ending its season prematurely, GOSSIP GIRL roared past it in the second half of the season.
GOSSIP GIRL was one of two shows created by Josh Schwartz that debuted in the fall of 2007. The other was CHUCK. Both shows were heavily indebted to Schwartz's previous big hit show, THE O.C. It was as if he separated out the cool nerd elements of THE O.C. and distilled them into CHUCK (the lead role of which is reputed to originally have been offered to Adam Brody, Seth on THE O.C., though Rachel Bilson, who played Seth's girlfriend Summer, did guest on CHUCK) while the social politics of the idle rich were distilled into GOSSIP GIRL, though transposed to the East Coast. The result was two thoroughly likable shows, though also two very different shows. Which one prefers will depend exclusively on personal taste.
THE O.C. was seriously marred in each of its first three seasons by the introduction of a series of thoroughly despicable and evil characters, emblemized by the infamous and desperately hated Oliver from Season One. My guess has always been that Schwartz and his co-creators never sufficiently distinguished between characters we love to hate and characters we merely hate. Season Three of THE O.C. largely led to the show's demise with a long string of horrid and evil guest characters, even though the abbreviated Season Four was one of the series' best. So far GOSSIP GIRL has done a splendid job of avoiding this pitfall. The most prominent evil character so far has been Georgina, played by BUFFY's Michelle Trachtenberg (though Dawn has definitely grown up), and unlike Oliver was an utter delight. So perhaps they've finally gotten this down.
My lone problem with the show has been the focus on the children of New York City's social elite, a group of human beings I could not possibly have less interest in (well, perhaps I find them more interesting than the history of wood lice in Iceland). This is largely redeemed by a good-looking and talented group of young actors. The show is an adaptation of a series of juvenile novels that I have not read, so I suppose that is why some of the lead characters were stuck with such god awful names like Serena van der Woodsen and Blair Waldorf (though I'll hasten to add that Serena is the best character on the show and the actor who portrays her, Blake Lively, the show's break out star). But whatever the limitations of the source, Schwartz and his team of writers did a great job of making the characters interesting and, in their own way, likable. The central interest in the show is the Manhattan/Brooklyn romance between Serena and Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley). The cast of characters is rounded out by Queen B Blair, her romantic interests/entanglements Chuck Bass and Nate Archibald (odd to have a character on a TV show with the name of a famous athlete). Dan's younger sister, Jenny, is played by Taylor Momsen, who is the only teen character who is the age she is supposed to be playing. But she does a great job of hanging with the oldsters. Everyone in the cast does at least a creditable job. Ed Westwick is quite good as my least favorite character on the show, Chuck Bass. Why do I hate him? Well, early on he is presented as a serial rapist. 'Nuff said. In Hays Code Hollywood it would be a strict requirement that he would have to atone for his sins by dying before the final curtain rings down. I'm not sure how you can redeem a rapist on a show like this. My guess is that they are going to ignore that he is a sex offender and instead just pretend that he is just sowing his wild oats. But drugging a woman for sex is rape, pure and simple. I hope the series sees him going to prison. There are also some great adult characters, much as in THE O.C., but so far the adults have not been as interesting as those in Schwartz's earlier show. I like Dan's father and Serena's mom, but neither is as interesting as Sandy and Kirsten Cohen, let alone Julie Cooper. And why, precisely, does Serena's mom Lily ALWAYS have a glass of champagne in her hand?
One other member of the cast deserves special mention and that is the one who portrays, entirely off screen, the title character: Kristen Bell. I was and still am devastated that VERONICA MARS was cancelled, but in that magnificent show's demise Kristen has been, like Elvis, spotted almost everywhere. One of the things that made VERONICA MARS so successful (at least artistically, if not in terms of viewers) was Kristen Bell's wonderful voice-overs. The premise of the show is that an anonymous blogger is posting online all the adventures of Serena, Blair, Dan, Jenny, and company. Bell's narration is simply the supposed content of that blog. I'm not sure if they will reveal precisely who Gossip Girl is, though you figure it would have to be someone acquainted with the major character. Perhaps it will turn out to be the Waldorf maid.
One other thing to mention as contributing to the show's success: it is filmed on location in New York. I've found so many shows irritating because of their supposed location. I live in Chicago and while I enjoy SAMANTHA WHO, every exterior shot of Chicago in that show drives me batty. Who could have guessed Chicago looked so much like L.A.? Ditto UGLY BETTY. At least that show will be moving to NY for its third season. But GOSSIP GIRL benefited at every point from its setting in New York.
All in all, this was a delightful show in its first season. A great show like BUFFY or BATTLESTAR GALACTICA or FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS or SIX FEET UNDER? Absolutely not. Those shows aspire to be more than merely popular entertainment. But if you need a guilty pleasure show, a series that has little in the way of redeeming qualities apart from delighting in the wicked, wicked exploits of the idle rich, you can't top this.
 The Ultimate In Guilty Pleasures January 31, 2008
18 out of 22 found this review helpful
This is the ultimate guilty pleasure show. The characters are shallow at best, yet somehow you find yourself completely sucked in to the totally unbelievable soap opera they live in, complete with whimsical names, parents that don't care, and more money than most bank tellers see in a year.
The show starts out about Serena (played by Blake Lively) a good girl with a bad past, yet somewhere after the first few episodes Blair (Leighton Meester's character) Serena's best friend/enemy, starts to completely outshine Serena with her complicated love life, parent troubles, and glossed over eating disorder.
My only complaint is that (I imagine due to the writers strike) the season finale completely sagged. Hopefully (if there is a...) next season, it will pick back up again.
Worth watching, though I couldn't exactly tell you why. It's a complete guilty pleasure, and somehow, no matter how ridiculous the plots may seem, it always keeps you coming back for more.
gossip girl fan September 21, 2007
15 out of 27 found this review helpful
im the biggest fan of gossip girl ithink this show will make it to the top . its the best , blake livey is such a beautiful actress. and blair is a good charatar very much evil. and has alot of seasons coming up hopefully. this show is the best . and i have much recpect for the writers. thanks for listening kristen.
Eye candy - Love it, but I wouldn't let my teenager watch April 8, 2008
12 out of 17 found this review helpful
I'll start by saying that I'm 31yo, female, married with kids :) I've always been fond of teenager drama; something I never really outgrew. I've found this show's storylines interesting and entertaining, enjoying both the stories of the teenagers and their parents.
The show's greatest perk imo is in the costuming. Each character in each scene is wearing an eye catching, or in some way riveting outfit, including the men. Accessories are used beautifully. The actors themselves of course provide their own eye candy.
A WORD OF CAUTION TO PARENTS however. In the seven episodes I've watched so far there has been a great deal of alcohol imbibing by the teenagers, including a 14yo. It is implied that one of the teenagers habitually uses a drug, pot if I remember correctly, which is discussed as trivial in light of a parent's cocaine use. One of the teenager characters is occasionally seen sleeping with women paid by his father.
From the first episode it is clear that almost all of the teenage characters are sexually active or plotting to be. In the seventh episode, a parent gives advice on ambience for his son's planned night of virginity loss in his bedroom on a night the rest of the family will all be out of the house.
Bottom line - A lovely guilty pleasure for adults who enjoy the genre but off limits to minors whose parents are hoping to instill morals in their children and teenagers.
deliciously wicked and highly addictive-will draw you in just as the books did May 19, 2008
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
I have been religiously reading the book series ever since it first came out, so when I heard about the TV show, I had extremely high expectations, and must say I was not at all happy with the first episode. I could not believe the way that they had completely changed the look of some of the main characters. So for a while I stopped watching the show, but my curiousity got the best of me, and after it came back after having been on hiatus for a while, I resumed watching it, and I admit, I was hooked.
Although many things are completely different than the book series, the show still has that provacative, addictive edge that will keep you coming back for more.
Now, if you are a fan of the books, such as myself, yet have never seen the show before, I feel this are some things I must warn you about.
First of all, many of the storylines that happen on the show, never happened in the book. I won't go into detail about any of the plots though, because I don't want to give anything away.
I was a bit angry about everything being so different at first, but then after having thought about it rationally for a while, I realize that this is after all a TV show, and if they went exactly by the book, chapter for chapter, then the show certainly wouldn't have enough plots to last for more than one season!
Second of all, (the thing that disappointed me most) the characters of Dan, Rufus, Jenny, and Vanessa look extremely different on the show, than the way that they are described in the book. Drastically different, in fact. And in the books, Serena has a hot older brother, yet on the show, he turns into her younger brother.
But they did get a few of the characters right.
The extremely sexy Chace Crawford makes THE perfect Nate Archibald...in fact he may even be more delicious on the show than the way they describe him in the book! The only flaw that he has is that in the book he is a chronic stoner, but not on the show, although that's really no big deal.
The lovely Leighton Meester makes a wonderful Blair, actually coming very close to the way I had imagined her to be in the book, and the same goes for the beautiful Blake Lively, who plays the role of Serena.
And then we come to Ed Westwick, who plays the role of Chuck Bass. I am extremely impressed. He makes the perfect Chuck, from the way he looks, right down to his personality.
So yes, ill admit I started off being very critical, but now I consider myself a fan of the show, and am eagerly awaiting for it to come out on DVD, as well as for the new season to begin.
If your a fan of the books, who started out skeptically as I did, then I feel that you should give the show a chance. You might find that you actually enjoy it!
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