So this is kind of a different Throwback Thursday. I started watching Riverdale... and I finished it- and it reminded me of Gossip Girl- so I watched the first episode of that... and while the tone of the show is similar... the biggest differences between the two kind of have to do with when the shows were first aired... and there's definitely been some progress made since Gossip Girl ended.
I'm just going to get into the big difference between the two and that is how they handle sexual harassment and assault.
In the Pilot episode of Gossip Girl, Chuck Bass forces himself on Jenny Humphrey and Dan and Serena need to get her away from him... I haven't re-watched further on in the episode... but I remember Chuck kind of becoming someone I rooted for. I liked him with Blair and I wanted the two of them to be together... and he didn't really change at all to kind of warrant me rooting for him. I actually found it kind of hard to watch his parts and I fast forwarded them to be completely honest. Ed Westwick has also been accused of rape in real life- which made me conflicted as to whether I wanted to watch the show or not. I have wanted to watch the show from the beginning for quite a while... so I decided to watch it anyway.
Riverdale reflects the more modern view of sexual assault. In season 1 they have a character that says he did something with the girls that he never actually did and Betty and Veronica confront him about it until he admits what he did and gets suspended from school. Betty, believing her sister was hurt by one of the football players hurt her sister, went as far as to turn up the heat of a hot tub so that she could torture him. While that seems a little harsh... really? Suspended from school? Not expelled? Ugh. I guess he didn't actually assault anyone- and in season 2 you can see that he's changed and he's trying to be better and he asks Josie out and they dance... and it is cute... but still.
There's also a character in season 2 that does drug and force himself on Cheryl Blossom- Veronica, Josie, Melody and Valerie all save her- beat up the guy and get him off of her... and Cheryl wants to press charges but her parents won't allow her... I don't want to give too many spoilers on this one... I don't know that this is that important but I think it'll come back sometime soon. But it reflects the unforgiving nature of today... where famous respected men are losing their jobs and their fame because of accusations of sexual assault and misconduct.
After watching Riverdale and living in today's day and age... it's kind of hard to go back to watching Gossip Girl knowing how different things are now than they were 10 years ago. I didn't go into re-watching the show thinking "This wouldn't happen like this on tv today" but... it wouldn't. Today I think people would be more like me and say "I don't really like watching this..." and they just wouldn't watch it because they kind of act like this huge thing is nothing... and then the next week people just went on living their lives like nothing happened. Dan and Jenny were still angry... but throughout the series I think not much really happened... whereas on Riverdale it seems to have lasting effects.
One thing I was a little surprised wasn't all that different: The fashion. I feel like Veronica's outfits are very similar to Blair's... Serena had a more casual outfits... they weren't too similar to anyone's on the show but it was cute. It was more like something I'd wear today.
I think that is everything. I think I'll probably still watch some more Gossip girl... maybe I'll watch the whole series- maybe I'll just try watching the highlights... I'm not sure. Either way it was interesting to see the difference between teen dramas 10 years apart.
Byeee!
-Shannon
I'm just going to get into the big difference between the two and that is how they handle sexual harassment and assault.
In the Pilot episode of Gossip Girl, Chuck Bass forces himself on Jenny Humphrey and Dan and Serena need to get her away from him... I haven't re-watched further on in the episode... but I remember Chuck kind of becoming someone I rooted for. I liked him with Blair and I wanted the two of them to be together... and he didn't really change at all to kind of warrant me rooting for him. I actually found it kind of hard to watch his parts and I fast forwarded them to be completely honest. Ed Westwick has also been accused of rape in real life- which made me conflicted as to whether I wanted to watch the show or not. I have wanted to watch the show from the beginning for quite a while... so I decided to watch it anyway.
Riverdale reflects the more modern view of sexual assault. In season 1 they have a character that says he did something with the girls that he never actually did and Betty and Veronica confront him about it until he admits what he did and gets suspended from school. Betty, believing her sister was hurt by one of the football players hurt her sister, went as far as to turn up the heat of a hot tub so that she could torture him. While that seems a little harsh... really? Suspended from school? Not expelled? Ugh. I guess he didn't actually assault anyone- and in season 2 you can see that he's changed and he's trying to be better and he asks Josie out and they dance... and it is cute... but still.
There's also a character in season 2 that does drug and force himself on Cheryl Blossom- Veronica, Josie, Melody and Valerie all save her- beat up the guy and get him off of her... and Cheryl wants to press charges but her parents won't allow her... I don't want to give too many spoilers on this one... I don't know that this is that important but I think it'll come back sometime soon. But it reflects the unforgiving nature of today... where famous respected men are losing their jobs and their fame because of accusations of sexual assault and misconduct.
After watching Riverdale and living in today's day and age... it's kind of hard to go back to watching Gossip Girl knowing how different things are now than they were 10 years ago. I didn't go into re-watching the show thinking "This wouldn't happen like this on tv today" but... it wouldn't. Today I think people would be more like me and say "I don't really like watching this..." and they just wouldn't watch it because they kind of act like this huge thing is nothing... and then the next week people just went on living their lives like nothing happened. Dan and Jenny were still angry... but throughout the series I think not much really happened... whereas on Riverdale it seems to have lasting effects.
One thing I was a little surprised wasn't all that different: The fashion. I feel like Veronica's outfits are very similar to Blair's... Serena had a more casual outfits... they weren't too similar to anyone's on the show but it was cute. It was more like something I'd wear today.
I think that is everything. I think I'll probably still watch some more Gossip girl... maybe I'll watch the whole series- maybe I'll just try watching the highlights... I'm not sure. Either way it was interesting to see the difference between teen dramas 10 years apart.
Byeee!
-Shannon
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