I have ranked the top 68 television shows of the '00s, and will be presenting them, one-by-one, starting with 68 and working down. The rankings are more or less based on the show's popularity, it's cult status, it's critical acclaim, and my personal liking of it, with a heavy dose of arbitrariness added in. If a show was a big enough phenomena, I'll keep it on the list - but if I don't like it, I may drop it some spots. One other caveat - these are primetime shows (I apologize if I put a cable show that wasn't, I thought they were all primetime shows - the main point of this is just that no talk shows, no Colbert and Daily show that would be on otherwise).

47: Gossip Girl

In terms of the overall amount of scripted televsion on in any given year, there's only a far smaller number of shows that I actually even consider starting to watch on a consistent basis. I choose this obviously by seeing them once that happens, but before that I consult friends, and read about the shows online both to figure out what they're about and to see how they're reviewed, and what people whose opinions I value think about them. Gossip Girl is one of the few shows that fell right on that line - and as someone who never quite got on the OC bandwagon, I didn't know how to feel, and ultimately ended up not watching it, but in certain circles it was talked about as water cooler fodder trashy TV of the year. Was it ironic, trashy, trashy ironic - I'm not sure. I decided to watch an episode and I started with the first.

First, I'll throw out what I know about the show before watching it, through what I hear, and a quick perusal of the wikipedia page - it's a show about the trail and tribulations between upper crust high school students in Manhattan's ritzy social scene, and it stars Blake Lively, Leighton Meester and some other people.

Now after watching...

It was more or less a fairly enjoyable primetime soap. I finally truly understand the gimmick, which is that Kristen Bell, narrating, is the voice of the anonymous "Gossip Girl" a website which reports on the doings of these high schools - who has been seen fighting who whom, what big social events are coming up, and seems to be giving different characters nicknames - S and B for the main two, Serena (Lively) and Blair (Meester). Apparently Serena has just returned from a mysterious year at boarding school, but has trouble reuniting with her former best friend, Blair, and it is revealed that just before her trip away, Serena hooked up with Blair's longtime boyfriend who now seems to be in love with her. Intrigue, drama, catfights, hot chicks - a classic set up.

Honestly, I wish I had more to say about the show. I went in expecting either to hate it or love it, either to see the brilliant cult value shine through or to see what utter filth it was, but I wasn't particularly moved either way. I kind of enjoyed it, and I suppose I would consider watching it again. Perhaps if I watched further I would get to see if it earns its slightly over sized place in pop culture's hierarchy aside from its second season advertisements which mockingly cut quotes saying how inappropriate the show was.

Quickly, I would be remiss not to say that the show had an excellent soundtrack. Definitely a factor that wouldn't make a show, but could put it over the top.