Gossip Girl season 1 episode 6 review: Parents just don’t understand

Spotted: The midseason finale of Gossip Girl had some twists and turns, but are they memorable enough to carry Upper East Siders through to November when the series returns?

While we’ve previously met Zoya, Julien, and Max’s dads, and Audrey’s mom, “Parentsite” saw the introduction of Obie’s mother and Aki’s parents, giving more context to the lives of the characters we’ve been following for the past five episodes.

With Audrey’s mom in the hospital, Max and Aki took turns taking care of their girl (sweet but gross). But, of course, they each had their own fires to put out.

After ending things with Rafa, Max found himself in a precarious position with the predator as Rafa didn’t want to end things and turned lecherous, threatening blackmail.

Meanwhile, Aki’s dad (played by the legendary Malcolm McDowell) showed up in town to close a deal with Obie’s icy, German mother amidst an LGBTQ workplace discrimination lawsuit, leaving the only-out-to Audrey Aki feeling very awkward.

Gossip Girl has all of the pieces in place to tell a compelling, dramatic story. But something about the tone of the reboot is completely off.

Let’s look at the music, for example. The score is a beautiful, lamenting score that feels like it belongs on a standard HBO drama, not a teen show. In the context of Gossip Girl, it’s stultifying and claustrophobic. There are numerous aesthetic choices like this that hem in the writing.

Later in the episode, Audrey inadvertently outs Aki to his parents, then goes to the bathroom and screams. It’s kind of a great acting choice on the part of Emily Alyn Lind, but there’s nothing in the direction to support it. Nothing in the cinematography or music.

It’s a shame because there are so many puzzle pieces of the show that could make it work but it just…doesn’t. Here’s hoping the hiatus allows the Gossip Girl crew to piece some of that together.

Until November, XOXO.

What did you think of the midseason finale of Gossip Girl? Make sure to tell us in the comments below!