On Monday, it will be the big Blair-Serena showdown on the season finale of Gossip Girl. Need a refresher? true.loves.suicide has all the gossip on Gossip Girl.

And who am I?
That’s one secret I’ll never tell.
You know you love me.
XOXO, Gossip Girl

First a New York Times bestselling novel series written by Cecily von Ziegesar, Gossip Girl has been adapted into a TV series by The O.C.’s Josh Schwartz, with much controversy surrounding its content. The pilot was described as a ‘guilty pleasure’ rather than a must-watch hour of TV. Cecily von Ziegesar showed her support of the series, appreciating that many of her plot points were presented in the pilot.

Gossip Girl revolves around the lives of rich young-adult socialites living in the Upper East Side of Manhattan who attend elite academic institutions while dealing with sex, drugs, and other teenage issues. The main characters are Serena van der Woodsen, Blair Waldorf, Nate Archibald, Chuck Bass, Dan Humphrey, and Jenny Humphrey.

The Gossip Girl pilot first aired in September and revolved around resident bad girl Serena van der Woodsen’s mysterious return from a year-long stint at boarding school. The apparent reason for Serena’s abrupt return is revealed to be her younger brother Eric, who unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide but is now living in a psychiatric institution. Fortunately, not even “Gossip Girl” is aware of this. The reason for her leaving in the first place have remained secret throughout the series, saving the best for last. Serena’s return spawned plenty of gossip when everyone found out about her homecoming from the popular blog site hosted by an unknown person who pegs herself as Gossip Girl. Serena’s best friend Blair Waldorf is not so happy about her return, as she is still hurt from Serena leaving without telling her. After a long heart-to-heart talk, Serena and Blair patch up their differences, only to once again have a falling out over Serena sleeping with Blair’s boyfriend, Nate Archibald, the night before she left for boarding school.

As the series progresses Serena begins dating Dan Humphrey, a not-so-rich socialite, and Blair loses her virginity to Chuck and ends up losing Nate in the end. Serena and Blair come to an impasse and end up returning to being best friends once again. Jenny Humphrey takes over Blair’s spot as Queen Bee once it gets out that Blair slept with both Chuck and Nate. Eric’s homosexuality is outed by Serena’s friend, Georgina Sparks, who turns out to be more trouble than she’s worth. Nate begins a relationship with Dan’s best friend Vanessa Abrams, Blair once again claims her spot as Queen Bee, and the real reason for Serena leaving Manhattan is finally revealed.

This fandom isn’t quite as full as many of the ones out there, but so far the Chuck/Blair pairing seems most popular. Others have no pairings at all and just show character growth or switch up the original story with a bit of a twist.

This is one of my favorite shows on television at the moment; I have a thing for watching what people call ‘guilty pleasures.’ I enjoy just being able to sit down and watch an hour of TV that doesn’t make you over think or try to piece together a mysterious puzzle through the entire thing. This is a show you can just relax and watch; the storyline is easy to follow and the characters are all very endearing.

I’m not exactly sure why the fandom hasn’t taken off; it has everything needed to create a great story. Many people have expressed concern about the content depicted in the show, but it’s really no different or worse than any of the other shows currently on TV. With the great array of characters and only one steady pairing in the show, it leaves everything wide open for the fans to sculpt. I think we all deserve to have a guilty pleasure every now and then.

The first season comes to a close on May 19, 2008, but a second season is expected to air some time this September.

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