Racing for Attention

Gossip Girl's back, and while it's too soon to judge the high school to college transition (that will come next week), we can look at where this season's heading. Thankfully, for one episode at least, the show seems free of the dead-end plots that made up most of last season. No Duchess, no Uncle Jack, no awful 80s flashbacks. So let's look at where that leaves everyone.

Is it a bad sign that I'm actually most interested in Nate's storyline so far? Yes and no. No, because it may eliminate some deadweight (Vanessa still can't be helped). Yes, because since when do I care about Nate? Well, since he got himself involved in the kind of wacky feud between ultra-rich families that only seems to exist in soap operas. Which, at least for now, sounds kind of fun.

More so than Chuck & Blair anyway, who, despite claims that "we could never be boring," have managed to succeed from my standpoint. I know, I know, this is the CW and their everlasting love is the #1 reason 16 year old girls (ie 95% of the CW's audience, if not specifically Gossip Girl's) watch the show. But enough already. I don't care. I don't go to Gossip Girl for super serious teen angst. Wait, so what do I go for? I'll go with ridiculousness.

Which is why the subplot with the most potential is still Dan's creepy half-brother stalking around and trying to be besties with his bio family without revealing himself. How long before this Ice Truck Killer starts leaving Barbie dolls in Dan's fridge (it's a Dexter reference, deal with it)? And will Vanessa be playing the part of Deb? I'm just saying, he seems up to no good.

So who's that leave? Oh right, Serena and her neverending parade of paparazzi. Was it supposed to be a big mystery what she was doing in Europe if we already knew the answer? For now, I'm saying this storyline depends entirely on who they cast as Serena's dad. Let's see, who's blonde, age appropriate, and a cool enough get to justify all this screentime for Carter? Any suggestions?

Lastly, Lila was very noticeably MIA this week, which either means she was having her baby or in divorce court, since TV shows don't bother to go through that much effort to explain a character's absence if they just weren't needed in the episode. Seriously, how many times did we need to be reminded she was with her mother?

Next week sees Blair & Georgina as roommates and the full-on college initiation. Most shows set in college tend to go "frats! uh...what else happens in college?" Since I don't think NYU even has frats (and I know Columbia barely does), I think we're safe on that front. If we see them in class even twice as much as we saw them in high school, I still don't think anyone will notice the difference.