Gossip Girl: The Magnificent Archibalds

Let's talk about things I miss in Gossip Girl.

I miss bad Blair. Blair used to be a badass bitch that didn't take shit from anyone, and actively manipulated and used the people around her to get what she wanted. Now, all Blair does is whine and defer to Serena for advice on things that she's more than capable of handling herself.

I miss evil Chuck. Chuck hasn't done anything truly, truly evil in awhile now, and I don't understand where he went or why he suddenly seems to be reforming.

I miss bitchy Serena. I miss Serena and Blair getting into stupid fights every other week and treating each other like shit. I want to see Serena act like a wild child. I want to see Queen S rule the school with Queen B using every tactic in the book to usurp her throne.

I miss cool dad Rufus. Kicking Jenny out of the house? Threatening to turn her over to the cops? Lamenting over how to convince Jenny to be what he wants her to be instead of encouraging her to become the person she's always wanted to be? Chill out, Rufus, and get a life. Or a love interest.

I miss Nate and Jenny. Okay, so they were never technically together, and they only kissed, what, twice? But I liked them together, and I really wish Dan would just die so that he would stop interfering with Jenny and Nate's lives.

I miss Dan not being a dufus. How is it that even when he's not trying, he manages to ruin EVERYTHING?

I miss Vanessa having a storyline. The writers have again doing that thing where they just throw her character in random parts of an episode to make sure that she gets some screentime so viewers don't forget about her. Give me something more! Give me more of those feisty Blair/Vanessa catfights! Give me the complicated Jenny/Nate/Vanessa love triangle! Something! Anything! But if she's going to be a part of this show, please just give her something real to do! With this week's episode, it seems like there may be some good Jenny/Nate/Vanessa action in the future -- hopefully all of that foreshadowing actually comes to pass!!!

I miss Eric. Plain, simple. And I actually loved him in this episode. I do hope he gets more screentime in the future. GG has been severely lacking in the cute-younger-brother department.

Most of all? I miss the qualities that GG had in season one. I miss the more convoluted storylines, rather than these one-off standalone eps that don't seem to develop the plot or the characters in any significant ways. This show is nothing like it used to be -- and in fact, it's starting to parallel equal parts The O.C. and 90210 in a big way. Not good, Josh Schwartz, not good.

I'm still hopeful that November Sweeps will bring about a death that will change the characters and move the plot to new territories (we know it's going to happen -- we can only hope it happens during Sweeps, and from the trailers I'm guessing that the next ep is the golden charm). I'm confident that there will be a death and things will change, but it's up in the air as to whether these changes will last for the rest of the season or be boringly resolved in subsequent episodes.

---Adela P.