DVD Review: Gossip Girl The Complete First Season

Canceling Veronica Mars left a void in my CW viewing. Fortunately, Kristen Bell is involved in a new teen drama — even if only as the never-seen, snarky narrator. Gossip Girl may not be about a sarcastic teen detective, but the private-school offerings do serve up some guilty pleasure fodder. Throw in the fact I went to prep school and the show was almost guaranteed to be a hit -- at least for me.

Gossip Girl is the deliciously racy new CW offering of The O.C.’s teen-soap experts. This batch of privileged teens attend an Upper East Side prep school and take the life of luxury to an extreme the likes of Marissa and Summer couldn’t even imagine in Newport Beach. Nay, their lavish lifestyles aren’t contained in ocean-side mansions. The Waldorfs, van der Woodsens, and Archibalds are used to expensive Manhattan hotel penthouses, champagne, and randier sex lives than the stars of Debbie Does Dallas. That’s merely the tip of the iceberg of gossip for which these teens live or guilty pleasures thrive. Strangely, these underage elitists never seem to have a problem drinking in NYC’s hottest bars. Stranger still is lack of smoking cigarettes, apparently smoking is worse than casual sex under the influence of who knows what or drug overdoses.

Cecily von Ziegesar’s young adult series of a mystery blogger known only as Gossip Girl serves as the inspiration for the teen drama where an instant can change friends into enemies and enemies into your only ally. The juicy gossip of Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) and her BFF Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) are enough to get Gossip Girl on monitoring groups like the Parents Television Council. The juicy details that kick off the series are enough to make some parents wish they could lock up their children to keep them pure as Serena returns from an abrupt disappearance to boarding school a year earlier. Why did she leave? Because she had drunken sex with her best friend’s boyfriend of course. But don’t worry because Blair returns the favor to her boyfriend by sleeping with his best friend -- her first time in a limo no less.

But nevermind the naughtiness the parents don’t like, the overboard and extreme nature of Gossip Girl is everything we viewers want in our guilty pleasures. Even more desirable is the first season being out on DVD. The DVD set includes typical special features like unaired scenes (at least two episodes on each disc have them), gag reels, music videos and behind-the-scenes looks. Also included is a downloadable audiobook of one of the popular novels read by Christina Ricci. Warner Brothers are also taking a green-approach by packaging the five discs into the space of one.

Even though the storylines are over-the-top, these young actors bring their characters to life. Dan Humphrey (John Tucker Must Die’s Penn Badgley) and Serena van der Woodsen give all TV couples a lesson in what chemistry looks like. His younger sister Jenny (Taylor Momsen) gives a chilling performance as the girl who goes to almost no ends to make it into the popular crowd. And while Serena’s charisma makes her beauty non-intimidating, Blair is the one who really steals the show. It’s pretty powerful when someone can do all in her power to oust her best friend from the in-crowd and still illicit sympathy from the audience. Naturally everyone on the screen is gorgeous and represents the people we sometimes dream about becoming.

If you want a glimpse into the life you wish you had, I’d recommend you buy the complete first season of Gossip Girl. XO XO.

DVD Review: Veronica Mars - The Complete Third Season

Veronica Mars came to a cruel fate. It was a great show, had a fan following, and received critics’ praises. Usually, that is a recipe for a long-running series, or so you would think. Not so much for Veronica Mars, which was canceled after only three seasons. Now people are hoping for something like Firefly/Serenity with a feature film version, or perhaps a made-for-TV movie and some comics.
For those who live under a rock in a cave and never saw Veronica Mars, you’re lame. Okay, in all seriousness it is worth checking out. Veronica is a teen girl who works for her dad, who happens to be a private investigator. He used to be the sheriff but some stuff went down so he was fired and then he gets to be sheriff again, and well, that’s a different story. Veronica has a knack for investigating things herself, which naturally gets her some side jobs, and some unwanted trouble. Each episode has its own contained mystery, and then there are arcs within the series that work out over anywhere from seven episodes to the entire season.

Season Three saw Veronica in college. She’s up to her same tricks, discovering who a campus rapist is, what really happened to cause the dean's death, there’s even a nerd in love with a prostitute he wants to save. While the third season wasn’t as strong as the first two, even the weakest episodes of Veronica Mars were heads above the best episodes of most TV shows on the major networks.

As far as the DVD set of Season Three is concerned, five discs are your typical bundle of episodes. None seem to have commentary tracks available. But the little booklet that comes with the DVDs is nice enough to include the original airdate, who wrote each episode, and who the director was .The true gem is the sixth disc – it is why any fan of Veronica Mars must get the third season DVDs right now.

The first special feature is one of the best features I’ve ever seen on any DVD set ... ever. It is called “Season 4 Presentation” and is a teaser of what the next season would have been if the show lived to tell the tale. Veronica is a special agent in the FBI and just as prickly as ever. The next featurette is “Pitching Season 4” with supervising producer Dan Etheridge and creator Rob Thomas (not the Rob Thomas from Matchbox 20). It discusses how the new direction of the next season came into being – from the concept of Veronica in the FBI to the color shift to give the show a new look.

Then there is a multi-part feature called “Going Undercover with Rob Thomas” and the sections are ‘Main Titles: Why the Change?’, ‘Rob’s Directing Experience,’ ‘Favorite Guest Star Moments,’ ‘Veronica Mars: Mean Girl,’ ‘The Politics of Veronica Mars,’ ‘Favorite Veronica and Logan Moments,’ ‘Favorite Veronica and Keith Moments,’ ‘Do-Overs?’, and ‘Highlights.’ Thomas and Dan Etheridge host this special feature as well. It sort of serves as the commentary that is lacking in any individual episodes on the other discs.

But wait, that’s not all. The next feature is the Webisode Gallery, which is more of a goofy look at some of the crew and actors on the show. Then there are some of your typical deleted scenes with an introduction from show creator Thomas. Finally, there is the Gag Reel.

Overall, the special features alone are reason to buy the third season of Veronica Mars. Add in the fact that Veronica Mars was a great show and there really is no reason it shouldn’t be part of your DVD library.

Save Veronica Mars

It seems Veronica Mars fans aren’t quite ready to throw in the towel. At least not yet.

Last year’s attempt to save Veronica Mars worked, so why not try another “Save Veronica” campaign? Oh wait, they do have one going on. This year Veronica fanatics are sending a sweet message to the head of The CW, Dawn Ostroff. They are working together to ship Mars Bars and marshmallows to her office in California. Hopefully the reasoning behind the Mars Bars is pretty obvious, but you might wonder why marshmallows are included in the delicious demands for more Veronica Mars. In the pilot episode of the show there is a memorable line saying, “Veronica Mars, she’s a marshmallow.” Plus, marshmallows are lighter with cheaper shipping costs and can pile up pretty quickly to make a large shipment.

But how did this year’s campaign to save TV’s hottest detective start? The guys at Ain’t It Cool News came up with the bright idea to send Mars Bars to The CW. The Indian Food Store sells imported Mars Bars (from England) on Amazon. One day he woke to realize Veronica Mars fans had purchased more than 600 bars from him in under three hours. Jumping on the Save Veronica bandwagon, The Indian Food Store is now offering free shipping to the CW building. The store has also started a blog with information about the campaign to save Veronica Mars and how more folks can contribute.

Not only is the seller offering free shipping, but they’ve set it up where the code VERONICA will ensure your scrumptious purchase will be included in the delectable attempt to save Veronica Mars. Ain’t It Cool News has the shipping address for your convenience. So go on and save Veronica Mars, you know you want her.