I was shocked when I saw his face as a regular in the season 6 intro. Also, the way they removed Darren Star's name from the intro was wild too. Without giving away too many spoilers: once Dylan leaves, Ray's days are numbered. He's not there very long. I actually thought Ray/Donna was the most interesting thing about the last stretch of season 5. It was intense and brought a lot of sadness out of Donna. I agree with you about Ray though. Repulsive. And that made him a good villain in season 5. Not so much in season 6.

I'm thrilled you loved it so much!

I loved your insight there with Nate so much. Isn't this show incredible? And it's season five! Most great shows start folding at this point, but Gossip Girl outmaneuvered the usual traps other teen shows fell into.

Yes! I wholeheartedly agree with all your points about season six and seven. Toni was boring and she was intimately connected to a storyline that was too convoluted and silly to care about. I love Rebecca Gayheart, but that wasn't it. I also liked David and Valerie in season six. If I'm not mistaken, Brian and Tiffani were a couple, right? There was good chemistry there, but I felt that trying to redeem Val was kind of pointless and boring. Then they made her the villain again only to have her do one dimensional and cartoonish things. I loved David's mental health storyline. That really spoke to me and I felt all of it. Donna Martin is my cult wife, and I love her. Without a doubt, my favorite couple. Brandon and Kelly are super boring. I can't tell if it's Brandon's characterization or Jason's theatrics, but he's become a strange and unlikable lead. I miss Dylan, I miss Brenda. I don't think I'll miss Brandon. I'm in it to win it. No giving up now. I'll fight my way to the end of the show. I'm getting a pretty good idea about who Aaron Spelling was as an artist. Next video will be about season 8 and season 9.

@@yourcultboyfriend great points! Yes they dated but i think only in season 5 because he got jealous on set. Brandon is just not it and the worst part is he keeps dragging kellys character down. She becomes cindy 2.0 and dresses like a 38 year old housewife. It doesnt help that she sees him as god himself saving her from the harsh world. You‘re right she needs someone to challenge her and dylan did that.

Thanks, I'll check that one out.

I'm really glad you're appreciating the show so far. As I've said many times, Gossip Girl is my favorite work of art ever made.

Wow, thank you so much. I've always liked this analysis, but I never knew if anyone actually appreciated it.

That was perfectly said! Ryan always bothered me because of that. It think Schwartz was conscious of Ryan's non-presence because of the (beautifully) chaotic way he developed Trey Atwood in the second season. The show's premise simply goes unrealized in the first season. Marissa does most of the narrative heavy lifting. The pilot promises that Ryan will be a symbol of rebellion and liberation, but he quickly becomes symbolic of conformity instead. I think Ryan's underwhelming presence also hurt his chemistry with Marissa. Now that I've watched Gossip Girl, I like to view The OC as a necessary warm-up or practice run. The OC is still good. It's a clever and sensitive show. The second season was brilliant, but it fell off completely after that. Ryan was a broken character, and I don't even mean emotionally, I mean that he didn't operate properly within the narrative itself. And the show tried to make the only broken character its centerpiece. That's why truly conflicted characters like Marissa and lovable ones like Seth and Summer easily overshadowed him.

@@yourcultboyfriend i completely agree with you. it‘s a shame to know the potential that was there but i do agree that season 2 did an excellent job with the trey storyline bringing up parts of ryan that he wanted to hide.

Damon and Stefan are probably the only "couple" that's properly threaded through the series. They're still so vicious and cruel to each other. Bonnie's "relationship" with her own magical ancestry (personified by the Bennett ghosts) was also good. So much of The Vampire Diaries was about our "relationship" with the past, and with couples comprised of historical doubles. I loved Katherine so much. Elena got my nerves, but Katherine was great.

They're great! They just didn't make the list.

@@yourcultboyfriend Hey your opinion is your opinion I just really love Buffy and Angel

I was just thinking maybe you should watch the Summer I turned Pretty when you finish 91210

Enjoy the journey!

It might be a poor imitation of prestige tv. I have a feeling there will be plenty of meta jokes about how "over the top" and "disagreeable" the original series was. I think it's great that you pointed out the limitations when the actors take more creative control in later seasons. That's a really cool point. 50% of the time, you're absolutely right. If Two Tree Hill goes the prestige route, I'd hate it. It's as if they wish that they were on Friday Night Lights (which was good, but had a lot of problems because of it being decidedly "prestige"). I think it's going to be a sequel with a lot of tonal inconsistency and mood swings. That, or they're going to be making fun of the original. If they could somehow manage to be like Gimore Girls: A Year in the Life, that would be great. OTH, part of its brilliance, was the emotional and narrative balancing act. It was daring. I don't think anyone attached to the sequel so far can pull it off.

I can see that happening, and that would be sooooo dumb and cheap. I hope they don't do that.

@@yourcultboyfriend i hope too

That makes it sound like Brooke and Peyton might take a back seat. Maybe a more "prestige" take on Degrassi: The Next Generation? I'll try to keep up with information as it breaks.

Lol. I really hope old grudges won't hold the sequel back from being good, but I wouldn't be surprised. I love Sophia Bush and I love Chad.

Thanks for jumping in. It's a difficult discussion to have. Basically everything on the planet is exploitative in some way, but not everything has to be abusive. Great art can exploit feelings and memories as well as actors and crew members. Guys like Mark and Joss were pretty bad though. Geniuses like Kevin Williamson, Darren Star, and Amy Sherman-Palladino prove that abusive behavior is the exception, not the expectation (I pray to God this sentence ages well). I think there's a fine line between utilizing resources and treating them unfairly. In cases such as those with Mark, the conversation is more intense because he went beyond exploiting unfairly, he was allegedly abusive and threatening. I don't really think anyone is beyond redemption. I'd personally love to hear Mark talk about his creative vision and the art of coming-of-age stories. He was unbelievably brilliant, but he was also seemingly cruel, petty, and aware. One Tree Hill was super unique and the show itself was often deeply exploitative. It's equally fascinating and revolting how Mark used a shool s**oting to shamelessly push his soap opera narratives into an artificially "prestige" framework. That was wild. A lot of the more controversial or intense storylines on OTH were handled in creative ways that bordered on the psychotic. That's part of Mark's brilliance. He had such an incredible understanding of television art and didn't seem to express any shame in that. I'm perfectly comfortable praising the art of problematic artists. I don't even like to separate the art as I feel the artist intimately informs the art itself. The actors as well as the fans have performed a complete erasure of Mark from his own creation. That's fine, and simple enough to do, until you try to make a sequel without his involvement and it ends up failing. It's then you'll have to ask, "What would Mark have done differently?" And I believe he was so insane, so singular, that no one but Mark himself would be able to accurately answer that question. Is all great art inherently exploitative? Isn't everything inherently exploitative under capitalism? We have to remember that OTH was quoting Ayn Rand by the second episode in a way that was genuinely inspiring and beautiful. OTH played by a different rulebook and philosophy altogether. According to Mark's philosophy within the show, exploitation is not simply intrinsically connected to great television art, exploitation is one of its strengths.

I like to think that the heart/soul of the show is shared between Brenda and Dylan. For different reasons. I'm a big Doherty/Brenda fan too. I wish they had provided an interesting boyfriend for her after Dylan, but her other romantic interests fell flat. Not her fault. I like that we can disagree on this, and I like that this triangle continues to be a contentious storyline. I feel that the chemistry Perry and Garth had was undeniable, palpable, and genuine. I also LOVE the drama from their relationship and I'm a sucker for their kind of romance. I thought they were so deeply sincere and attractive together. I also appreciate that I can see how Dylan/Kelly inspired many of my favorite teen soap couples. I honestly thought that Dylan/Brenda became stale near the end of season 2. Kelly made both of them interesting again in season 3, and the conflict led to some seriously superb acting from Doherty. Ultimately, I believe the genre itself benefited so much from Dylan/Kelly, as did the show and the characters involved. I thought they were super romantic and made me think about fascinating stuff. I definitely miss Brenda. Season 4 was excellent. You certainly feel her absence in season 5, but the show still managed to pull through. I'm on season 6 right now and... well, it's not so great 🫠

@@yourcultboyfriend I think Kelly and Dylan had a couple of really beautiful moments. When Kelly reveals her profound self-loathing in the swings scene and Dylan tells they are soul mates, it is undeniably powerful as two unloved souls find each other. Unfortunately that potential was not exploited and for the rest of their relationship, Dylan and Kelly did very little more than constantly fight. I think Brenda, Dylan are Kelly are all great characters who have complex, complicated, humanly messy relations with one another.

Agreed! It hurts so much with Roswell because the first two seasons were GREAT. Then it was all wasted. I hope that you will like and appreciate some of my other videos. Thanks for watching.

Thanks for the love!

I'm glad you liked that part!

Comparing college era Dylan to college era Pacey makes a lot of sense. They weren't fully integrated at all lol. Like, Chuck Bass didn't go to college either and spent a lot of time in life or death soapy conflicts too, but at least he was intimately involved with the rest of the characters. Dylan also reminds me a lot of Logan Echolls. Poor Little Rich Boys. I love soapy stories though. I'm always entertained by Dylan. Dylan, or maybe just Luke, had a habit of bringing the best out of the cast. He makes me like Brandon so much more than I ordinarily do. He has had excellent moments with all of them and keeping him so distant is hurting some of the other characters too, because they shine so much in his presence. David is a great character. I think he's emblematic of the nineties. I love the guy.

I love Donna and David so much. I am genuinely thrilled that these videos have made you like Donna more. If Donna is proud of me, I'm proud of me. David and Donna are the best. It's a shame about Jamie Walters. All he did was play the character well! He was good as Ray. Based on what I saw in season five, the character was pretty irredeemable. Ray was a solid character and a truly despicable antagonist. I wish it didn't have to ruin a his career. He was an easy character to hate. Nothing wrong with that. The actor didn't do anything wrong. I think I've heard stories about Paul Johansson being attacked/insulted in public, mostly for OTH. Some guys are just great at playing villains. I like a good villain, especially in a teen soap. Dan Scott forever. Ray was hard to simply like. And I adore Dylan and Kelly.