Roush on Gossip Girl
Question: I know that there has been some concern about the content on the CW's new show
Gossip Girl. Drugs, alcohol and sex really don't offend me. Shows have been doing that forever, and it is pretty true to most high school experiences (save for the endless amounts of cash these kids appear to have). The one thing I found offensive and horrible was the character Chuck. I understand this guy is the villain and a total sleaze, but he attempts to rape two women in the first episode! He is not reprimanded, shunned by his friends or arrested. In fact, he remains friends with the inner circle as though this is normal behavior. I did read the books, and this bothered me then as well. If the show goes the way of the books, this kid will continue to act this way and see no repercussion for his actions. How can the CW stand behind this? It's a sad and terrible message to send, especially to the demographic that is watching.
— Julie H.
Matt Roush: Surely you don't think anyone is going to be watching the spoiled brats in the super-heightened over-the-top world of Gossip Girl in search of role-model behavior. This is wish-fulfillment, guilty-pleasure escapism all the way, and since every fairy tale requires a dastardly villain, Chuck more than qualifies. The fact that neither of his sexual assaults was successfully executed in the pilot (thankfully) makes him something of an inept villain, but who's to say that he won't eventually get a comeuppance. I haven't read the books, but it doesn't surprise me that in this world of largely unsupervised adolescent debauchery, there's a dark side to some of the sexual behavior. Gossip Girl winks at most of these shenanigans, but I wouldn't say it presented Chuck as a hero. If you were appalled, and you're not the only one to write in to say you were, then the show made its point.
