I am – Hercules!!
It’s a new hourlong, based on the novels by Cecily von Ziegesar and adapted by writer-producer Josh Schwartz (who also created “The O.C.” and “Chuck”), about hot, rich, troubled, substance-abusing teens in Manhattan. “Gossip Girl” has all of “O.C.’s” soapy excess but Schwartz’ other new fall series, NBC’s sci-fi actioner “Chuck,” inherited most of the comedy in the family. And, candidly, it was the humor in netlet chick shows like “Buffy,” “Gilmore Girls” and “Veronica Mars” that kept me tuned. Having said that, I was in no way bored by and find no strong negatives in the pilot, and I’ll keep “Gossip” on the TiVo’s season-pass list a while – at least until Kristen Bell (who voices the title role on “Gossip”) turns up on “Heroes.” I can’t say most of the fall shows have earned the same shot. Time says:

… Packing a sharp designer shiv, this clever saga of haves vs. have-mores proves the East Coast can be as enjoyably sudsy as the West. …

Entertainment Weekly gives it a “B” says:

… The cast is as good as the pilot script, and I may not be its target demo, but I admire its fleet pace and sly craft.

USA Today gives it three stars (out of four) and says:

… As is common with teen soaps, the behavior is often more believable than the dialogue and the attitudes. But soap fans will likely be pleasantly surprised by how much Gossip gets right. …

The New York Times says:

… It’s not what the show is missing that misses the point of the books; it’s what it adds — namely parents. …

The Los Angeles Times says:

… although the literary effort may not have quite captured the lush, almost fetishized fascination of prep school youth seen in "The Catcher in the Rye," the television version does. … "Gossip Girl" is eye candy, and mind candy, as pretty as a perfectly prepared martini -- one that some nasty, picture-perfect have-it-all may or may not have drugged. Just for the occasion. …

The Chicago Tribune says:

… there’s no real spark to any of these budding relationships or businesslike friendships, especially given the generally flat acting and bland casting. Sorry, “O.C.” fans, there’s no Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) or Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie) here, nor any of the razor-sharp quippage that could redeem even the most far-fetched or slack stories on that Fox soap. …

The Washington Post says:

… "Gossip Girl," from the teen-addled brain of Josh Schwartz, who served up the canceled "O.C.," carries on the legacy of that West Coast soap opera and perhaps turns it up a notch with both drama and sheer teen-soapy goodness. …

The San Francisco Chronicle says:

… Of course, spying for a blog and reporting on celebrity are very 2007, and so Schwartz and the CW have the zeitgeist angle nailed. But a series can't sustain itself by that alone (can it?). So the main action is pretty much standard soap fare. … It may not be weighty and important television, but it was never intended to be (and it does its job better than its older counterparts on other networks).

The Boston Globe says:

… They're Paristocrats. And, Lord help me, I loved spending an hour hating them, their pedigrees, and their unlimited credit cards. It was like studying the peculiar mating rituals and shopping habits of the species Manhattanus Elitus. …

The Boston Herald says:

… snarky, addictive … Parents won’t love “Gossip Girl,” but teens will find the appeal of rich kids behaving badly irresistible.

The Miami Herald says:

… Welcome to the tawdry, tantalizing and altogether terrific world of Gossip Girl. … If this sounds a little bit like an East Coast version of The O.C., it's because both shows were created by producer Josh Schwartz. He's painting the same picture on a different canvas: kids moving too fast, parents too preoccupied or morally crippled to help, all of it observed by outsiders desperate to make it in a rich kid's world. Clichés, certainly, but Schwartz spins them so creatively, with characters so engaging (or mustache-twirlingly villainous), that the show is irresistible. …

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:

… a fun, juicy mix of popular music and melodrama … One thing "Gossip Girl" lacks in the pilot is a sense or humor. While quickly paced, the tone is somewhat dour. Then again, "The O.C." pilot was much harder than the episodes that followed, so "Gossip Girl" may get giddy yet. …

The Hollywood Reporter says:

… so consumed with its of-the-moment zeitgeist embodiment that it forgets to give its characters any depth beyond their reshaped noses. … What's instantly missing from this show that fueled the quick-hit phenomenon of "The O.C." is any sense that these characters are real people. They can be rich and impossible to relate to as long as we believe the veracity of their words and actions. …

Variety says:

… hardly breaks any new ground. Still, with soaps, timing and intangibles can be everything, so as GG would say, "We're all just dying to see what happens next."…

9 p.m. Wedmesday. The CW.

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