subject: Gossip Girl – is it really the new generation of Sex and the City? [print this page] Gossip Girl is it really the new generation of Sex and the City?
It goes without saying that any show stepping into the shoes of Sex and the City has its work cut out for it, and most of the aforementioned hit show's faithful followers were quick to write Gossip Girl off before it had even premiered, claiming that Sex and the City was irreplaceable.
Gossip Girl, does have some similar features to Sex and the City, but one does wonder whether the two can really be compared.
First and foremost, the target audiences are completely different - Sex and the City was the guilty pleasure of 20, 30 and 40-something women, living their lives through the four fashionable and charismatic characters of the show, who are followed on their continuum of sexual conquests and relationship disillusionment. Gossip Girl, on the other hand, is the preserve of the teenage rebellion, with audiences following the lives of privileged youngsters barely teenagers and living life as equally to the full as their older counterparts in Sex and the City.
Having said that, similarities between the two do exist, in that they're both set among the fast paced, glamorous, high fashionable pavements of Manhattan's most affluent, living lifestyles that their audiences can only aspire to. Gossip Girl, like Sex and City, is also narrated, a format which seems have been inspired by the latter in several TV series of recent year Desperate Housewives is another example.
Arguably, the most striking comparison between the two shows, however, is the iconic status each has achieved among their audiences, particularly where fashion is concerned.
Gossip Girl has produced a new generation of fashion icons, in similar measures to those seen with Sarah Jessica Parker back in the late 90s. Leighton Meester, who plays Blair Waldorf in the show, is all too often photographed parading the same streets as her character in Louis Vouitton and Chanel dresses. Even the young chaps of the show are making fashion waves, with Ed Westwick, who plays Chuck Bass, regularly appearing in the men's styling sections of the glossies.
Regardless of any attempt to compare the two, it can't be ignored that Gossip Girl has attracted unprecedented attention since it first premiered in August 2008, with an extensive host of nominated and won awards under its belt.
Compare them or not, one thing that's for sure is that Warner Bros Gossip Girl appears to have created a lot of buzz for itself. Perhaps it is the Sex and the City for the younger generation.
