To write a successful storyline for this season of “Gossip Girl” is to have multitasking skills that would put a single parent octopus to shame. Though the show has a main ensemble cast of  between 6 and 10 characters, each individual member of the show follows their own journey, a journey that will, at season’s end, culminate with all the independent narrative threads being woven together to make one complete story quilt. Add in the fact that the show’s primary audience is as diverse as Blair’s collection of head gear, and you can begin to see what a tough task lies ahead for these valiant wordsmiths. With this week’s episode, “Portrait of a Lady Alexandra,” the writer’s of “Gossip Girl” tried very, very hard to keep all their dramatic juggling balls in the air. Unfortunately, the effort was palpable.

In reality, the ‘no child left behind’ act might be viewed as a highly desirable move towards a better future. In TV land, however, not so much. “Portrait of a Lady Alexandra” simply took on a bit more than it could chew in its attempt to keep a number of extraneous story-lines perpetually moving forward. Sure, no character, and no demographic, was left behind– but it really felt like some of them should have been.

At this point, there are 4 clear divisions in the relationships of the show. In one corner, we have Nate and Serena bound together by their deeply inappropriate (and related) sexual partners. In another, Georgina and Dan make it their business to lose friends and alienate people. In the third corner rest Rufus and Charlie, intertwined in an eternal game of ’7 Minutes in Heaven.’ Finally, Chuck-Blair and Lilly-Bart occupy the fourth corner, supposedly brewing a multi-offensive war campaign, but actually just staring out of windows and brooding over glasses of scotch. In “Portrait of a Lady Alexander, ” many of these groups were brought to the same place at the same time and forced to interact. The thing with pulling threads in, however, is that it places equal emphasis on all the characters. And the thing with “Gossip Girl” is, some of these characters’ stories are just not that interesting.

To be more specific, Nathaniel’s financial strife and role as unwitting vessel for scandal– a position once taken up with great aplomb and unnecessary puns by Gossip Girl herself– is not only barely relevant, but also gives Chace Crawford more screen-time to be a terrible actor. Meanwhile, Rufus and Charlie took up some space on the episode, but the impact of their movements was both negligible and immediately reversible. Same for the complicated story involving Serena, her newest undeveloped love interest, and her mother.

Essentially, all the action was up to Blair-Chuck and Dan-Georgina. The latter pair made their big play only in the last five minutes. The former, on the other hand, were gifted some Big Themes– we’re talking politics, economics and (give it a few episodes) no doubt religion too. In any other show, Big Themes would indicate the potential for Big Payoffs. However, in a show where the action is also split between Serena’s vaginal inmates and Nate’s tragic lack of business acumen– surely caused by the fact that he doesn’t appear to have gone to a single class while he was registered at Columbia last season– really Big Themes most likely indicate a Lack of Substance.

Ah well, at least everyone looks good.

The article “Gossip Girl” Season 6: “Portrait of a Lady Alexandra” Fades with Time appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

There is nothing that the CW’s “Gossip Girl” does better than a finale, and nothing worse than an opener. As the first episode for the shows 7th and last season, ‘Gone Maybe Gone’ was, in a way, the opener to the grand finale. However, in order to assess what promise the future holds for our favourite espresso chugging, Prada shopping, beret wearing Manhattan megalomaniacs, one really ought to look at this season’s second offering too: ‘High Infidelity’. While ‘Gone Maybe Gone’ answered a few of the questions season 6 left hanging in the Upper East Side air, ‘High Infidelity’ posed a whole new set. And, buried deep among them is: will this once glorious show end with a bang, or is this going to be another interminable season of half-baked plot-lines saved only by Serena’s magnificent and highly visible cleavage?

Let’s discuss.

At the end of season 6 we were where we’d been a thousand times before, each character going their own way for the summer; Blair pursuing Chuck, Chuck pursuing his father’s legacy, Serena spiraling out of control and Dan sporting the hair of a much, much cooler person. Bring on Season 7 and the gang re-unites, with lovable bad-girl Georgina in tow, as so often before, in the search for missing Serena. However, part of “Gossip Girl”‘s charm is its strict adherence to its own traditions; so what ‘High Infidelity’ brought to the fore was an indication of new factors that might shape the show’s progression. All of which are coalesced around the various relationships being torn down and rebuilt.

On one hand we have Blair and Serena– not besties anymore, but not all up in each other’s respective grills either. Could it be that our trust-fund babies are handling themselves like young trust-fund ladies now? Highly unlikely. In fact, like many of the choices behind the relationship dynamics for the season, Serena and Blair’s feud makes barely any sense. After years of saying unconscionable things to each other, and more than one fight that would put the Real Housewives of New Jersey to shame, it seems highly improbable that ‘I never want to see you again’ was the straw that broke the Serena-Blair camel’s back.

Same thing applies to the bizarre pact between Chuck and Blair. There is no earthly reason why Chuck and Blair cannot be together. Indeed, all obstacles have been taken care of: Louis, Dan, the unborn heir assumptive of Monaco. However, instead of each episode beginning with Limo-sex and La Perla, the writers of “Gossip Girl” have decided that Chuck and Blair have to find themselves before they find each other — the implication being that they will eventually do just that, and end the show collapsing into an Iranian cushion of young love and light bondage. For the viewer, it’s the tantric sex of prime-time television (Chuck and Blair would approve).

Last but not least, Dan and Georgina are together and up to no good. Throughout the show, Dan Humphrey has prided himself on being the only moral character in a society that would make Patrick Bateman shiver in his over-shined dress shoes. Sure, at times Dan’s great morass of moral superiority manifested itself in twisted ways and his aborted relationship with Blair undoubtedly left him in a fragile state. But never in his wildest dreams would Dan Humphrey be keeping prolonged and voluntary company with a girl whose idea of a fun night out involves a sex-tape and a bit of light murder. After she destroyed his relationship, fake-carried his child and almost ended his budding literary career, it’s safe to say that beneath all that rakishly curled hair, even Dan would know better than to hop on the Georgina train again.

So there we have it, three sets of inexplicably feeble relationships defining the narrative arc of the grand finale season of what was once called the defining show of our generation. It seems “Gossip Girl”‘s writers were faced with a decision: to create plausible TV, or make TV as juicy as possible. If we’ve learned one thing from the first two episodes of the season, it’s that the choice has been made.

The article “Gossip Girl” Season 7: ‘Gone Maybe Gone’ But Not Soon Forgotten appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

On Tuesday April 17, the first season finale of The CW’s ‘Ringer’ aired, and many have doubted if the series will live to see a season two. Despite premiering to a strong figure of 2.8 million viewers in September, the ratings have been in a steady and ultimately precipitous decline to the point where just 1.16 million viewers watched Tuesday’s finale. The fate of the series is now in serious question.

This all marks quite a contrast from this time one year ago when ‘Ringer’ was one of the most buzzed-about and eagerly-awaited new pilots. It marked star Sarah Michelle Gellar’s return to series television after an eight-year break following a seven-year run on the critically-beloved ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, and brought together an eclectic supporting cast including Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd and ‘Lost’ star Nestor Carbonell.

Originally developed for CBS by ‘Supernatural’ writers Eric Charmelo and Nicole Snyder, the series features Gellar in a dual role as twin sisters Bridget and Siobhan. In the pilot, Bridget, a recovering drug addict and former prostitute, was set to testify against a murderer when fear for her own life prompted her to contact her estranged, not to mention extremely affluent, sister Siobhan for protection.

However, once reunited, Siobhan faked her own death for unknown reasons and Bridget in turn assumed her sister’s identity in an effort to escape from her predicament, but consequently placed herself in even more danger due to her sister’s own problems.

The plot itself is perhaps indicative of why ‘Ringer’ failed to connect with a mass audience. From the first episode alone, ‘Ringer’ featured a convoluted story and a multitude of storylines. As the season progressed, further twists were introduced including, but not limited to: affairs, kidnappings, murders, corporate blackmail, faked assaults, and a paternity mystery which was not resolved until Tuesday’s finale.

With every twist, ‘Ringer’ became more and more of a plot-driven series which relied on sensationalism and shock-value as a means of compensating for its under-developed characters and rushed narrative developments.

Add this to the fact that ‘Ringer’ was paired on The CW’s schedule with the younger-skewing ’90210′, and that it aired opposite heavyweights ‘The Voice’, ‘Dancing With the Stars’, and ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’ which cumulatively attract upwards of 35 million viewers, and it becomes clear that ‘Ringer’ was not in the position to come out of the gate with an intricate premise which depended upon undivided attention from its audience from the get-go.

To make things even more challenging for the creative team behind the series, The CW placed ‘Ringer’ on a nine-week hiatus in the middle of its season, meaning that production on much of the second half of the season went on without any audience feedback.

Once ‘Ringer’ returned to the schedule at the end of January, it was too late to make any changes, and all The CW has been able to do is to sit back and watch the ratings drop in a year where almost all of its other series have been in significant ratings decline.

‘Gossip Girl’, ‘Nikita’, ’90210′ and newcomer ‘Hart of Dixie’ are all hovering around similarly low levels, but none had the expectations of success that ‘Ringer’ had, nor did they have the spectre of Gellar’s cult-classic ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ looming over their heads.

Now with its season wrapped well before May sweeps, a renewal for ‘Ringer’ is looking less and less likely. Even if The CW did consider giving it a last-minute pick-up, the new season would not premiere until September, meaning that the series would be off the air for at least five months, a break twice as long as the one ‘Ringer’ already went through this season and which already proved detrimental to any ratings momentum ‘Ringer’ may have had in its early weeks.

It would take a giant leap of faith on the network’s part, and an even larger creative restructuring behind-the-scenes for ‘Ringer’ to live to see another season.

The article ‘Ringer’ – TV’s Biggest Disappointment appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Long-running teen drama ‘One Tree Hill’ aired its final episode on Wednesday April 4 after 9 seasons and 187 episodes. The series premiered in the fall of 2003 on the now defunct network The WB, then in 2006 the network merged with UPN to form The CW, where the series has aired ever since.

‘One Tree Hill’ originally centred around two brothers who conflicted when they joined the same basketball team. Over the years, the series broadened to focus on their friends, family, lovers, and careers, while the producers utilised several narrative time jumps to either jumpstart new storylines or to account for numerous cast changes.

The final episode of ‘One Tree Hill’ centred around the 10-year anniversary of Tric nightclub, which had been a staple on the series since Season 2. The event saw musical numbers from acts such as Tyler Hilton, Gavin DeGraw – who provided the series’ signature theme song ‘I Don’t Wanna Be’ – and actress Bethany Joy Lenz, who has starred on the series since its very first episode.

Other storylines involved Mouth McFadden (played by Lee Norris) inheriting $500,000 from the recently-deceased Dan Scott (played Paul Johannson), Julian Baker (played by Austin Nichols) turning the characters’ lives into a TV show, and Clay Evans (played by Robert Buckley) formally adopting his son with fiancee Quinn James (played by Shantel VanSanten).

Series creator Mark Schwahn wrote and directed the finale, which featured several callbacks to previous episodes. Brooke Davis (played by Sophia Bush) visited the recreated childhood bedroom of her best friend Peyton Sawyer (formerly played by Hilarie Burton), Mouth used his inheritance to found a scholarship in honour of two characters who died in Season 3′s high-profile school shooting episode, and Haley James Scott (Lenz) told her son, “There’s only one Tree Hill, and it’s your home,” the very same line which Karen Roe (Moira Kelly) told her son Lucas (Murray) back in Season 1.

Immediately prior to the final episode, The CW aired a special retrospective titled ‘One Tree Hill: Always & Forever’, in which the cast and creator spoke about their time with the series. Schwahn said:

This was somewhat of a coming-of-age show. We met our characters as juniors in high school. To spend 9 years with those characters – you can feel so much growth.

While never a massive ratings hit – its highest rated season attracted 4.3 million viewers – ‘One Tree Hill’ developed a cult online following, and integrated enough product placement and fan involvement that it managed to win last-minute renewals year after year.

Now with it ending, ‘Supernatural’ is the only remaining scripted series on The CW which crossed over from The WB, and thus, the passing of ‘One Tree Hill’ marks the end of a specific era for teen drama series.

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The current US television season is only just half-underway, but already the major networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and the CW) have made the majority of their pilot orders with regards to new programming for the 2012-2013 season.

John Wells, former show-runner of the hit medical drama ER and current show-runner of the cable dramas Shameless and Southland, makes his return to network television with two pilot orders this development season. The first of his pilots is a comedy co-effort with Glee actor Mike O’Malley for FOX, and is currently titled Prodigal Bully.

The premise of the series, if it is picked up beyond its pilot order, would be that of “a young boy genius who uses his brains and brawn to get whatever he wants“. As for Wells’ other pilot, he is developing a remake of the British drama hit Bad Girls for NBC. This series would follow the activities of a group of female prisoners, and ran for seven years in the UK.

Other notable figures to have sold new pilots to the major networks include: JJ Abrams (Lost, Alias, Alcatraz), who has sold Shelter to CW; Josh Schwartz (The O.C., Chuck, Gossip Girl), who will be writing Carrie Diaries, a teenage prequel to the Sex and the City franchise); and NCIS star Mark Harmon, who will be producing Joey Dakota for the CW.

It is unusual that so many pilot orders have taken place by the beginning of February, as several midseason shows have yet to debut for the 2011-2012 season, while the fates of such long-running hits as FOX’s House and NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit remain uncertain. In any case, the networks appear to be stockpiling in a effort to combat the ratings decline which has struck many of them this season – particularly, The CW.

The CW came into this season with the high-profile television return of Sarah Michelle Gellar, however, its ratings declines have been well-documented and the network has now picked up five drama pilots with the potential pick-up of several more. This aggressive development move is in contrast to CBS which has so far picked up just a handful of projects, although, CBS’ ratings are in a much stronger position.

As the remainder of the 2011-2012 season plays out and the networks learn of the fates of their long-running shows, while also seeing how their new midseasons shows fare among established competition, it will become more clear just how many of the ordered pilots will indeed make it to air in the fall, how many will be benched until midseason and how many will be put out of contention altogether.

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