With the fictional lives of my favorite deviant juveniles on hold during the bitter stasis of summer hiatus I wait with baded breath for the forthcoming season of Gossip Girl, (a guilty pleasure that I won't even subject my well intentioned boyfriend to, given the fact that I actually want to listen to the program and not his mumblings over how his flat screen is hooked up to his XBox "for a reason" whatever that means).
However, by the divine (well, quite honestly overly-contrived) intervention of the Bravo network's new summer lineup I am introduced to a summer teaser aptly titled NYC Prep. This new reality show brought to us by executive producers Scott A. Stone and Lenid Rolov, seems meant to be a homage but turns out to be a poor man's version of the Gossip Girl coterie, as the true insecurities of adolescence seems all too wearable on the personalities of these Upper West Enders.
The series introduces us to a clique of wealthy caricatures that seem to be carved out of Gossip Girl slabs, only these real-life walking talking models of a one-sided upbringing, seem to be injected with a sense of, well actual young-adult need for approval. Such is the case, when we're introduced to Kelli, a junior, who tries so hard to playoff being repeatedly grounded by her parents saying that when her parents are in the Hamptons she doesn't even care about being grounded anyways, and with an uncomfortable laugh and awkward shrug to her friends, there we see the true "Blair Waldorf" bad-assery in her uncomfortable disposition.
However, in the same scene we see the would-be "Chuck Bass", a senior known as "PC", as he deigns to hang out with said juniors, Kelli and friend Camille. Scoffing at their mentions of even being grounded, at his wise old age of 17, he remarks haughtily in his off-cam interview that "these girls are just little effing young bitches that have no idea what their talking about". Right Lethario, and I'm sure you have a wealth of worldly knowledge to impart on us viewers.
But of course they know a thing about the world! In an interview during the preview special with one of the seemingly more mature characters, Jessie, we are introduced to the world according to the Prep brats as she forcefully comments that "fortunately in NYC, for a lot of kids, we get to lead different lives and we grow up a lot faster". Sure, if by "different" you mean the tired replicas of one another, and by "grow up faster" you mean grow into the over-inflated persona you're trying to embody faster, I'll buy that.
Now one other facet of the Gossip Girl world that we can't overlook is the parental presence. While many young adult programs overlook the fact that the offspring in their show must belong to the loins of someone over the age of 18, Gossip Girl ties the parental units into some strong story-lines that make up some of the more interesting portions, specifically in latter episodes, (forbidden love and illegitimate children anyone?) but the producers of NYC Prep do a fine job of cutting around anyone with wrinkles. For instance, the previously mentioned Kelli, doesn't even live with her parents but rather lives with an 18 year old brother while her parents stay in the
While this show may be nearing some outdated faux pas, I mean the far reaching effects of the economy and unfortunate plague of unemployment doesn't make the island of Manhattan impregnable to the consequences pf our real non-fictional recession, but all that pretty B-roll footage and cut-arounds of the "for rent" signs does make up for what we don't really want to see. The truth is, the fictional counterpart of this show, Gossip Girl, is just more titillating and accepted because the little bubble they live in is meant to be just that, an over-inflated bubble, while in the "real world" we just want to pop that bubble and watch these kids tumble out.
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