Yes, it's technically no longer Sunday (at least not in my time zone), but I've never really been one to quibble over technicalities like that, or maybe I have, what do I know? In any case, what I'm really here to write about is whatever it is that I've been watching or reading or otherwise absorbing over the past week. The biggest discovery by far has been the first (and only) season of Freaks and Geeks, certainly one of the most brilliant shows to ever graze television screens, thereby insuring its quick and painful death. Whether or not it wowed critics in the same way that HBO's The Wire has is unknown to me (I was not really paying much attention to what NBC was running back in 2000), but I am aware of the sort of cult following it has acquired these past few years, and I must say that it is entirely justified. Both painfully funny and achingly sad, Paul Feig's high school saga is not only an excellent coming of age narrative but also a testament to the wonders of television. Although I'm just a little over halfway done watching Freaks and Geeks' 18-episode season, I can safely say that, Gilmore girls aside, it is the most touching portrayal of young life (or life in general, for that matter) that I've ever seen.
While we're on the topic of television, why not segue into an even more bizarre taste that I've developed over the past few weeks: Gossip Girl? Jacques Demy and his two best films, 1964's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and 1967's The Young Girls of Rochefort, are not without their uses in defending the CW's unexpectedly brilliant show. Sure, whoever directed the show's 13 episodes may not be quite as graceful or skilled as Demy, but the Shakespearean construction of the narrative is there, as are the missed opportunities and unfulfilled desires. The connection was made painfully obvious somewhere in the show's tenth episode, wherein one of the main character's stepfathers mentions her striking resemblance to Catherine Deneuve, the star of most of Demy's films, including the two mentioned above.
Having not actually seen very many teen drama shows, chief among them The O.C., I can't say that I'm very up to date on what these shows are supposed to do or achieve, but I do think it's quite obvious that Gossip Girl, with its luminous compositions, its extraodinary location shooting, and, perhaps most surprisingly, its engaging narrative, is nothing less than a tremendous achievement. Part of this is no doubt indebted to the fact that the show will only have one season (as far as we currently know). From the time I began to catch up with its 13 episodes, I knew that this intricately-constructed Upper East Side tragedy would have to be resolved in little over eight or so hours of television magic. This made me expect something different, something more akin to the pleasures of Freaks and Geeks (another show with only one season) or even a really good film, perhaps Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1975), another narrative likewise interested in class struggles and their effect on the individual.
If there's something about Gossip Girl that I don't particularly like, it is, in fact, the entire gossip girl angle. I don't think it adds anything to the story, nor is Kristen Bell's narration that inspiring. In fact, I think more people would have taken the show seriously (not that it matters much when a show is this good) if the relation to the books--none of which I have read--had been restrained, given that these stories are nothing if not made for television and don't benefit in any way from their chick-lit background. Everything else, however, is simply lovely. And if it's not quite as life-affirming as any of Demy's movies, then maybe Gossip Girl is as fictionized an account of teenage life as it presents itself as, and it's just as well.
