Just the tip: HBO's Gossip Girl reboot has potential to be something if it can decide how to handle its legacy

So many shows, so little time. How do you know what's hot and what's not?

That's where our first impressions come in. We will watch the first episode of the latest series to hit your screens and tell you whether it's worth your time.

This week, we're looking at...

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Gossip Girl (HBO GO)

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What is it

Hello, Upper East Siders, I'm back, and I know you've missed me. xoxo, Gossip Girl.

In this Gossip Girl reboot (which is more like a sequel since it takes place years after the 2007 series), a new batch of rich and popular students at Constance Billard School reign supreme. But as their tyranny becomes overbearing, Gossip Girl is resurrected as a social justice warrior to take them down — by spilling the tea as usual.

What we like

There is something new yet familiar with this reboot sequel and it is not hard for fans of the classic Gossip Girl to dive right back in. Sort of like when you meet your friend after years of being away and you guys pick up right where you left off?

Yeah, pretty much that.

All of the drama, high fashion, and glitz and glamour of living as a socialite — it's all back in spades and if you enjoy the essence of the classic Gossip Girl, there's no reason you won't enjoy this as well since it's practically in the same setting.

One big difference is, Gossip Girl's identity is revealed, like, 20 minutes in.

The writers also want you to know that this is definitely set in 2021 or the equivalent of it and wastes no time in hammering that in.

Everything is on Instagram now and Twitter is out. In fact, it's so passe, anything that's posted there gets lost in the interwebs. One character even gets called out for using it.

As for the other social media platforms, not even a blip. So don't even bother or Constance Billard will eat you alive.

It is very relevant though, and really elevates the level of credibility in this fictional world. We all know Instagram is our 'kween' and the crazy rich of the Upper East Side will not be caught dead on TikTok because it's so not on brand.

Diversity is also a big deal in this sequel and there's an emphasis on it through the main characters that we are introduced to.

We have Julien, an African-American girl with a buzzcut — likely the Blair of the show — flanked by her posse consisting of Luna and Monet (seemingly of Hispanic and African-American heritage respectively).

Rounding out the group are Otto (Julien's boyfriend who has more grounded beliefs and values — cue tension), Max (a hedonistic bisexual, or perhaps pansexual, who somehow draws the line at consuming drugs on a school night), and Kate and Aki (a couple whose biggest problem is Kate's diminished attraction to Aki — #firstworldproblems).

What is also refreshing about the formula is that Gossip Girl has been revived as some sort of social justice tool to keep our Upper East Siders in check. It's not rehashing a tired story plot and is giving more purpose to this voice in the sky. Let's be real, if Gossip Girl were to exist as it is today, she would have been cancelled.

(Side note: Can we just take a moment to appreciate the miracle that is Kristen Bell as she returns to voice Gossip Girl again? Like, oh my god, I never knew how much I missed her voice until she read her first line and I legit gasped and clutched my pearls.)

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So it is heartening to know that the creators and writers are socially aware, but this subtle rehabilitation of Gossip Girl also kind of rings hollow and empty because while her intentions are noble, her means aren't.

And do the means justify the ends? Well, that's something she may never tell because the writers don't seem interested in exploring that moral dilemma.

So that brings us to...

What we didn't like

The Gossip Girl of old has had her upstanding moments as she exposed 'villains' threatening our favourite Upper East Siders.

But, morality is a very grey thing in Gossip Girl as our central characters are not complete paragons as well.

In the reboot, Gossip Girl is positioned to be a good thing and employed as a check and balance against our Upper East Siders to make them eat some humble pie. Ironically, her methods are exactly the same — exposing their deepest, darkest secrets to humiliate them regardless of the collateral damage.

Though there was a moment of introspection as to whether it is the right move, it was quickly rationalised as the need for the greater good outweighs their shady methods.

Considering who is behind the Gossip Girl's resurrection, it's even more perplexing that there isn't more thought given to their actions as they are supposed to be the more, well, mature ones in this scenario.

However, this is just the first episode and perhaps there is more of a moral struggle down the road, but shows like these rarely get that deep so I'm not holding my breath. That said, I would be happy to stand corrected as the series progresses.

And, what would Gossip Girl be without Blair and Serena?

That isn't lost on the new iteration of Gossip Girl who openly mulls about needing a new Blair and Serena before stumbling on the one tip that would pit Julien and her half-sister Zoya against each other.

Kudos to the team though for not immediately letting Julien and Zoya fall prey to Gossip Girl's machinations but, like the writers said, the show needs a Blair and Serena rivalry and so, they fall back on a lazy plot.

After a (very predictable) misunderstanding between Zoya and Julien's boyfriend Otto, coupled with Julien's plan to get back at Gossip Girl backfiring on Zoya, the two half-sisters are now rivals.

Oh, and let's not forget the obvious growing attraction between Otto and Zoya who are just vibing since the latter doesn't come from money at all and can identify with Otto's grounded and practical nature.

Just one problem: Neither Julien nor Zoya is as charismatic and compelling as Blair and Serena. The whole rivalry plot also seems as forced and confused as Julien's acting when she tries to convince everyone that it doesn't matter that she kind of sponsored Zoya's scholarship to Constance Billard.

Oops.

At the end of the episode though, it does seem like Gossip Girl has effected a change as Julien is not the same snooty 'it' girl she was at the top of the episode.

To watch or not to watch

This is a tough one because I did genuinely enjoy myself during the moments where I wasn't critically questioning it in my head or experiencing secondhand awkwardness at what I knew was about to come.

It has all the hallmarks of the classic Gossip Girl series and holds its own as a sequel and successor to what came before. There are plenty of nods to the past, including a quick look at the original Gossip Girl blog, and all of these Easter Eggs are great fanservice.

But perhaps its greatest triumph is also its greatest downfall.

So much has changed in the past 14 years — from our social wokeness down to our media consumption habits — that it's hard for this modern take on Gossip Girl to have any real impact when it's still clinging on tightly to its legacy.

For example, the premise of a show being driven by a rivalry between two women? When much has been said about how women should not follow the playbook written by men and step on each other in order to rise to the top?

Or how about having to sit through a rather predictable plot that is so circa 2007 when Mare of Eastwood offers so much more food for thought about the human condition?

I will say this, there is huge potential in this series and while the critic in me laments a wasted opportunity (in its first episode) at breaking away from tired stereotypes, I did find myself wanting more.

So, there is light at the end of the tunnel; but only if the show chooses to walk out of its shadow and take a gamble on its formula.

bryanlim@asiaone.com