Gossip Girl ran for six seasons, though, unfortunately, its finale became a controversial one.

Gossip Girl follows a group of privileged teenagers attending a prestigious high school in the Upper East Side of New York City. Leading the group are on/off best friends Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) and Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), and they are constantly involved in drama, in large part due to a mysterious blogger named “Gossip Girl.” Throughout six seasons, Serena and company get into many fights between them and with other characters, which is a result and a large part of the show’s harshest reality and one of its biggest strengths: how unlikable they all are.

The Harshest Reality About Gossip Girl Is That None Of The Characters Are Likable

Some More Than Others, Really

The core group in Gossip Girl was formed by Serena, whose return to the Upper East Side is what kicks off the show’s events; Blair, the queen bee at school and Serena’s on/off best friend; Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley), a scholarship student and thus an outcast among his wealthy classmates; Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford), a legacy student often in a love triangle with Serena and Blair; and Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick), another legacy student and the player of the group. Throughout Gossip Girl, they are ed by ing characters like Vanessa (Jessica Szohr), Georgina Sparks (Michelle Trachtenberg), and even their parents.

All the characters in Gossip Girl’s main group are narcissistic at different levels, selfish, and disloyal.

While it might be expected that the main characters of a TV show are likable so the audience won’t be drawn away, the truth is that the characters in Gossip Girl – both main and recurrent – are unlikable, with some rare exceptions (like Dorota, the Waldorf’s housekeeper and Blair’s closest confidante). All the characters in Gossip Girl’s main group are narcissistic at different levels, selfish, and disloyal, betraying those closest to them more than once and lying to their benefit (or, even worse, to hurt others).

These traits and more can’t really be blamed on the characters’ high social status (though Gossip Girl definitely shoots its shots at the wealthy and privileged at different points), as those at “lower” levels of the social and economic pyramid aren’t that great, either. Surely, characters like Georgina and Juliet Sharp (Katie Cassidy) had to be unlikable due to their antagonistic roles in the story, but at different points in the show, the main characters were as unpleasant as they were.

Gossip Girl's Terrible Characters Made The 2000s Teen Drama More Entertaining

Unlikable Characters Made Gossip Girl More Engaging

As strange as it might seem that a TV show is full of unlikable characters, that’s exactly what made Gossip Girl so entertaining. Gossip Girl is a full-on drama with some light and funny moments here and there, but the whole point of the series is to show the drama among the young and wealthy. As mentioned above, Gossip Girl shoots its shots at those at the top of the social pyramid and many times falls into satire territory with its depiction and criticism of these social circles, and as such, it couldn’t have likable characters.

This added a layer of unpredictability to the characters, making the audience speculate about what their next move would be and against whom.

A large part of what made Gossip Girl so engaging and made the audience wonder what would happen next to and among the characters is precisely how awful they all are. This added a layer of unpredictability to the characters, making the audience speculate about what their next move would be and against whom, which was key to keeping the conversation going and retaining the audience’s attention between seasons. Had all or most of Gossip Girl’s characters been morally great characters made for the audience to like them for being good people, the show might not have lasted long.

Gossip Girl Stood Out From Other Teen Shows Because Of Its Distinct Characters

Similar Characters, Very Different Worlds

Gossip Girl wasn’t the only popular teen drama TV show in the 2000s, and though it was similar to some, it stood out mostly thanks to its characters. The show Gossip Girl is often compared to is The O.C., and with good reason – not only were both developed by Josh Schwartz, but both focus on privileged families and the drama within the families and with outsiders. The big difference, however, is that The O.C. had many likable characters, such as Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) and his father, Sandy (Peter Gallagher), and even the problematic ones, like Ryan (Ben McKenzie), were very charming.

90210 was another competitor back in the 2000s, and just like its predecessor (the classic and iconic Beverly Hills, 90210), it followed a group of wealthy students attending West Beverly Hills High School. Just like The O.C., 90210 had its likable characters, which gives these and other shows a different way of building drama and tension that Gossip Girl didn’t have nor had to worry about. The conflict and drama in Gossip Girl were very natural thanks to how terrible the characters were, and though they share similar archetypes to its rival TV shows, making them unlikable ultimately made them stand out.

13 Years After The Show's Ending, Characters Like Serena & Blair Remain Iconic

Gossip Girl Has Stood The Test Of Time So Far

As mentioned above, it might seem strange that the characters of a teen TV show are all unlikable, but it might be even stranger that it contributed to making them iconic and timeless (so far, at least). Characters like Serena and Blair remain iconic for different reasons: they became fashion icons, their on/off dynamic made them relatable, and the never-ending drama between them still keeps viewers talking about it. Other characters, like Dan, became iconic for perhaps not the right reasons, such as his big reveal at the end of Gossip Girl.

Dynamics and relationships like those between Chuck and Blair, Dan and Blair, and Serena and Dan have also kept the audience talking about and interested in them, as there’s a lot to unpack in all of them. Gossip Girl has stood the test of time so far and still doesn’t feel dated, as has happened with other teen dramas, and it continues to be one of the best and most popular TV shows of the 2000s and 2010s.