Blake Lively Fans Need To Stream Max Series Immediately

Sure, Blake Lively didn’t actually start out in Gossip Girl. We actually caught a glimpse of her much younger in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. But although she had a memorable role in that film and its sequel in 2005 and 2008, respectively, it was Gossip Girl that launched this starlet to true fame.

In 2007, the world met Serena van der Woodsen, a ridiculously wealthy junior in high school from the Upper East Side of Manhattan. I never watched the show when it came out. I was far too old for anything teeny-bopper.

But I’ve turned to Max to give me a bit more Blake, and I’m loving it. 

The show is pure soap opera drama, and I remember my much younger sister loving every minute of it. Serena and her best friend/enemy Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) take on society in this series that had a successful six season run. We meet Serena first, as she re-enters society after having been gone for six months in “boarding school.”

She steps into the train station, flips her fabulous blonde hair, and everyone turns to look, on and off screen. Yes, Blake Lively, and her hair, were on everyone’s minds from the moment Gossip Girl debuted. 

The series is narrated by “Gossip Girl” the voice of a young woman who writes a smart and sassy gossip column for young socialites, and it seems Serena, Blair, and their classmates all pay close attention to what GG has to say. We learn quickly that Serena left town because she had a fling with her best friend’s boyfriend, Nate (Chase Crawford). Blair of course doesn’t know, but she finds out within the first few episodes.

Nate, we learn, is still in love with Serena, but Serena is adamant about being a better person than she was when she left. This is where most of the drama for Blake Lively in Gossip Girl is centered. 

You see, Serena meets and falls in love with a “good boy,” Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley), a classmate of hers at their private school, Constance. Dan attends the school on a scholarship, and his father, a struggling artist and owner of an art gallery, struggles to pay the tuition for Dan and his sister, Jenny (Taylor Momsen). Dan, it turns out, has been in love with Serena since his freshman year, and she’s only just paying attention to him now that she aims to turn over a new leaf.

The question for Blake Lively throughout her run on Gossip Girl is, will she stay good? 

Throughout the series, it seems this question hovers in the air, along with what devious plan Blair will put into place, whether Serena and Blair are friends or enemies on any particular day, and which new character will pop up to stir the pot. There’s also the ever-present figure of Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick), the uber-wealthy step-brother of Serena, who you love to hate and then find yourself hating to love. Each episode delivers more stunning Blake Lively and her glamorous costars in Gossip Girl, and you can’t help but click “next episode” as the credits roll, even if it’s well after midnight.

GFR SCORE

Yes, Gossip Girl is a soap opera, but it’s a well-done one. And it is so much fun to go back and watch these stars in their early days. While the whole cast really does a great job of bringing the steamy drama, Blake Lively is Gossip Girl through and through. Indeed, it has to be her role in this show that landed her the part in A Simple Favor, my favorite of hers still to this day.

Stream Gossip Girl on Max and just try to stop yourself from binging.