Gossip Girl reboot reviews are in: What do critics say about the new series?
"The new series fails to capture the magic the original did."
This just in: the first reviews for the HBO Max Gossip Girl reboot have been posted, and suffice to say they're... mixed.
Set in post-pandemic New York, the series has big ambitions, with original executive producer Joshua Safran setting out his intent to differentiate the revival from the CW original.
"There isn't enough screen-time [for original cast cameos]... If Blair showed up for two scenes, you'd say, 'I want more Blair.'
"The decision was: Let's get season one under our belt, and should we get season two, we'll have the chance to bring in cameos that are more than glorified cameos but actually give them storylines," Safran explained to Entertainment Weekly.
And while the new series includes visual nods and Easter eggs referencing the original, various critics have argued that the Gossip Girl reboot strays too far from its successful predecessor.
One critic said that the revival appeared "more interested in commenting on the old show than establishing a new one worth watching," while another argued that "the new series fails to capture the magic the original did".
Others were more blunt; one critic described the HBO Max series as a "plain old mess," while another stated, "Gossip Girl 2.0 feels as glossy, buttoned up, and boring as its influencer’s Instagram page."
The first four episodes were made available to Stateside reviewers, ahead of the series debut in the US later this week (if you're wondering how to watch the Gossip Girl reboot in the UK , BBC One and BBC iPlayer have secured the UK premiere rights).
Read on for our round-up of reviews for the new Gossip Girl reboot series.
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IndieWire
"Gossip Girl seems more interested in commenting on the old show than establishing a new one worth watching... Without any interior drama from the characters or exterior commentary about their place in society, Gossip Girl 2.0 feels as glossy, buttoned up, and boring as its influencer's Instagram page."
"Frankly, the original Gossip Girl did not really have enough personality traits to sustain its first cast, let alone a new one...The new show is reiterating the same set of tired tropes as the first, so even four episodes in, it has acquired an exhausting sameness. You feel you’ve already seen all of it before...
"The new Gossip Girl careens back and forth between giving its audience frothy, minutely observed rich-people hijinks, and serving up shopworn and sentimental clichés about teen soap archetypes with the apparent belief that viewers will embrace them with a ready hand."
"The revised premise, which I’ve been asked not to say much more about before the premiere drops, requires some willful suspension of disbelief. But if you can make that leap, the setup works surprisingly well. Suffice to say that this time around, the show is less about ultra-privileged mean girls destroying each other for kicks than it is about relatively decent people getting lured into those same nihilistic power struggles."
Vulture
"So much of the new Gossip Girl is a familiar reworking of the first show's tropes and interests. And yet it also wants to be a revolution, and thinks it has to be one, even though it hasn't the foggiest idea of what that revolution should be, or even who it should be against.
"It is fundamentally hollow at the core, frivolous and frothy, studded with sequins and infidelities and students who lust for their teachers (but gay!). It seems uneasy with that emptiness, but it lacks the desire or capability to backfill everything with earnestness or do-goodery."
TV Fanatic
"Gossip Girl (2021) has a stellar cast, but the new series fails to capture the magic the original did off the bat when it burst onto the scene in 2007.
"With such a talented cast, you'd think there would be enough storylines to go around, but the show becomes tedious quickly due to the lack of development for most of the characters."
"Gossip Girl seems more interested in commenting on the old show than establishing a new one worth watching... “Gossip Girl” ends up as a series built on absence; there’s no Serena and Dan, so no central romance; there’s no Serena vs. Blair, which means no central conflict; Gossip Girl is there to evoke a reaction, but these kids are refusing to play along.
"Without any interior drama from the characters or exterior commentary about their place in society, “Gossip Girl” 2.0 feels as glossy, buttoned up, and boring as its influencer’s Instagram page."
"The new Gossip Girl is less deliciously messy, and more a plain old mess. Of course, this is only the first episode, and there is space for it to grow and settle into its own skin. Whether it makes it there, only time — and Gossip Girl — can tell."
While you're waiting, check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight.
