Comments on: Sex and the Upper East Sider

By: Amanda

Amanda — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 21:52:33 +0000

DEGRASSI! Sorry, I thought I was the only American deeply involved in that show and its characters. It handles its issues so maturely. For the 3 pregnancies on the show, one was aborted, one chose adoption, and one raised their child.

And they handled Paige’s rape so well, especially the part when they emphasized that it wasn’t her fault that Dean raped her. The writers used the typical rapist-justification logic. Her losing her trial was heartbreaking.

By: Beth

Beth — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 19:27:15 +0000

I’m with Sally, bring on the trash. Currently my fave new shows are the soapiest on primetime: Gossip Girl, Cashmere Mafia, and Private Practice. Um……..no none of them are really all that progressively feminist. PP actually just had an episode on female masturbation and Addison said nice girls didn’t “do that”. Ok, they resolved it, but srsly. These are not great shows, they’re shows I have to watch because they’re just SO soapy. And I love it, I can’t get enough.

By: Kate AuH2O

Kate AuH2O — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 19:00:36 +0000

duh, i watch it. it's the greatest show of all time. everyone must go immediately to new york magazine's blog and read their daily (and end-of-season) recap of each episode: they award reality points to things that are realistic about the show (like the way they have the most awkward, accurate teenage dialogue) and subtract points for when they do not represent new york realistically (like when rufus walks FROM DUMBO TO THE UES, yeah right.) the bloggers are hilarious and totally spot-on. about the pregnancy scare/final episode they say

Serena says to Blair: "You need to know whether you and Chuck are going to have a baby." Wait a second. Did Judd Apatow write this script? UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE WOULD BLAIR HAVE CHUCK'S BABY. There would be a quickie schmaschmortion with a discreet private phyisican, and no one would ever know it never happened. We'd give minus points, but the panic is so real (as is the excitement in being part of something extremely dramatic in high school that doesn't actually affect you), we'll call it a wash.

indulge deeper into your guiltiest pleasure here

By: Sally

Sally — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 05:00:37 +0000

The thing is, I don’t always want quality television. Sometimes I want entertaining trash.

By: Lelielle

Lelielle — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 04:29:48 +0000

I’ve never been a fan of shows like this, but Degrassi (in all its forms) wipes the floor with them when it comes to discussing important issues, it seems Americans have finally discovered this Canadian gem of a show -I suggest watching eps from the original series to see some great stuff.

By: mipa

mipa — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 02:26:19 +0000

I agree Fellow-ette: Friday Night Lights is the best show on TV right now. If anybody is looking for an awesome way to unwind – go pick up the first season on DVD, it’s really beautiful (yes, beautiful) television.

By: Fellow-ette

Fellow-ette — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 22:05:55 +0000

For a much, much, much better and more realistic depiction of what teens are like, and an even more honest and searing critique of gender roles in HS, tune into Friday Night Lights. And I’m saying that having graduated from a tony NYC prep school whose students are the type GG attempts to portray (though thankfully I’m from the west, not east side),

By: Jill

Jill — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 18:37:17 +0000

Ok Jill, most of the time I think you are dead on for most things, but this time I think you’re taking GG (also my fave guilty pleasure) a little too seriously.

Ha. Yeah, I wasn’t going to write about it at all, because you’re right — it is a really silly TV show, and I think it does simply attempt to reflect reality rather than send a social message. But then everyone else was doing it, and I couldn’t help myself ;-)

By: Christine

Christine — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 17:46:37 +0000

If this show did a pregnancy story line I would laugh so hard. It would be soap opera at its best. Did I miss some religion in this show?

By: mipa

mipa — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 07:16:21 +0000

I like Gossip Girl. It requires no thinking, it is entertaining, and Serena always wears amazing dresses. Is it feminist? Well, no – but I don’t necessarily think that it is terrible either. I agree Jill, the slut-shaming really brings out the ugliness of the shamers. I agree that it is odd that abortion wasn’t mentioned (as it would be a likely choice for Blaire), but I think they probably just didn’t want to make the episode into a should-she or shouldn’t-she show.Who knows – maybe somebody will get pregnant and they’ll do that show later on (but probably not).