Gossip Girl- Season 5 (TV Series)

l-r: Serena (Lively), Blair (Meester), Chuck (Westwick),
 Dan (Badgley) and Nate (Crawford)

This season of 'Gossip Girl' has become very similar to a car crash- I know I shouldn't watch it but I just can’t look away. Season five has seen just as much treachery, deceit and over-the-top indecency as the four that have preceded it, which is exactly what’s making Gossip Girl incredibly repetitive and frustrating to watch.

The principal characters Serena (Blake Lively), Chuck (Ed Westwick), Blair (Leighton Meester), Dan (Penn Badgley) & Nate (Chace Crawford) are joined by new permanent character Charlie Rhoades (Kaylee DeFer), who was actually revealed at the end of the last season to be an actress named Ivy Dickens hired by Serena’s aunt in order to con the family out of millions of dollars. This remained the last truly shocking thing that’s happened on the show since, apart from the unexpected return of…a certain former character whose name I won’t reveal for those who haven’t caught up yet.

Rhoades/Dickens (DeFer)

This season also sees Elizabeth Hurley guest star throughout the series as Diana Payne, the head of ‘The Spectator’, a gossip blog desperate to take Gossip Girl herself out of business. However, along with most other storylines in the show, what Payne was actually trying to do got caught amongst the over complicated waves of goings-on that take place on the Upper East Side.

A main problem that runs throughout the show is the fact that there are no likeable characters; as every character is out to get someone else for one trivial problem or another. The show is consistently defended by the fact that in real life, there are no strictly good or bad people which is an incredibly good point…although of course this isn’t real life…it’s a television show, which makes it extremely difficult to sympathise or empathise with any of the group: you’ll love them one minute, and hate them the next.

Since some may think I have unfairly bashed Gossip Girl, I’ll end on a positive. Since season 2, Nate has been riding on the coattails of other characters storylines, but it’s safe to say that Crawford has obtained the most use out of his character in the last 24 episodes than he has in years, and with the show set to end for good this December with a short and hopefully sweet 11 episode run, let’s hope 'Gossip Girl' goes out that way.

In short, this season has been an incoherent mess.

C-/D+

Key episodes: "Riding in Town Cars With Boys" "G.G"

Ringer- Season 1 (TV Series)

The CW network aired it’s last episode in the first (and possibly last) season of the so-called Sarah Michelle Gellar comeback 'Ringer' on the 17^th of April, closing many chapters within the season long story, while setting up a few new ones, for a possible 2nd season return in September.

Sarah Michelle Gellar as Bridget Kelly/Siobhan Martin

The premise of the show is as follows: Gellar plays a set of twin sisters, Bridget and Siobhan. Bridget, an ex-drug addict and stripper goes on the run when she is seen witnessing a crime at the hands of series antagonist Bodaway Macawi (Zahn McClarnon), who subsequently wants her dead whether or not she testifies against him. Bridget flees to her estranged ice cold twin sister in New York, to try and clear her head. However when Siobhan goes missing on a boat trip and is presumed dead, Bridget seizes the opportunity to pose as her sister from then on, fooling her husband, Andrew (Ioan Gruffudd) and best friend Gemma (Tara Summers) among others, as she is the only person who knows (or better yet, thinks) Siobhan is dead.

Complicated isn’t it? That’s the simplified version of the original idea of the show, which only gets more twisted and intricate as time goes on. This, remained one of the biggest problems I have with ‘Ringer’, which was a consistently difficult TV show to follow. The season did have its strong moments, as the audience is constantly on edge during the first few episodes as Bridget could possibly be discovered at any given point, but the show buckles and stumbles on its ridiculously soap-y plot points. 'Ringer' ranges from being a dark thriller-type drama, to a more mature 'Gossip Girl' in a matter of minutes, and whether that’s a good or bad thing, depends entirely on your opinion of whether "thriller" and 'Gossip Girl' are two things that can exist in perfect harmony.

Those who have worked on the show have said that although there are things that they wish they could take back or redo, they are mostly happy with the way things turned out with 'Ringer'. I however, remain on the fence with this show, although with the cliffhanger in the final episode, this will make for an interesting second season, if The CW gives the show a green light.

However soapy, or “Gossip Girl-y” ‘Ringer’ has been, I will say this: it’s been damn good to see SMG on TV again.

C

Key episodes:  “It’s Gonna Kill Me But I’ll Do It” “That’s What You Get For Trying To Kill Me” “I’m The Good Twin”