Gossip Girl: The Wild Brunch

Ok. I very much enjoyed Gossip Girl's premiere last week, but this week's episode was even better! I have absolutely found my substitute for The O.C.

Highlights:

• Is it wrong that every time I hear Kristen Bell say, "You know you love me," I grin like a fool?
• The scene where Serena got out of the taxi and Dan waved at her was hysterical! Dan getting his face hit by the door was priceless. He suddenly seemed very Seth Cohen-like in that moment. And I loved the next day recap conversation about "the wave" between Jenny and Dan. It reminded me in the best way possible of Seth and Ryan talking after Marissa told Ryan she loved him and Ryan said, "Thank you." Jenny's "It was a nice wave," was just like Seth's "At least you were polite." Bring on the awkwardness, Josh Schwartz! You do it so well!
• Dan and Jenny have the oddest apartment situation. There was a big metal door that you can pull up and down between their bedrooms. Seems like that might get a little annoying.
• Blair's friends have matching Prada turbans!
• There was a very Marissa/Julie Cooper dynamic going between Serena and her mom.
• I love the scenes with Dan and the front desk guy. They're hilarious. I hope there's a scene between the two of them in every episode.
• Mrs. van der Woodsen: "I'd like to get out of here before someone throws me down and tattoos me."
• Dan: "I live in Brooklyn--not the Ozarks. No offense to the Ozarks."
• And we have another crazy fancy party, and this one is complete with female models pretending to be statues. Wow. Loved that Dan tried to talk to one of them.
• Say what you want about Chuck, but he is one snazzy dresser.
• These people's parents are across the board awful. No wonder Blair, Chuck and Nate are insufferable.
• Blair (after Nate repeats the excuse that he and Serena were just going to talk about not talking): "That doesn't sound any smarter the second time."
• The climatic five-person group talk was great.
• Is it wrong that of all the secrets Blair revealed, I was most upset that she mentioned Dan's Cabbage Patch Doll? That is a low blow! What a bitch! :-) Poor Dan and poor Cedric. [Although I'm wondering how Dan came to have a Cabbage Patch Kid, since they were popular way before his childhood, which should have been in the mid-1990s.]
• Gotta love that there was another party and another fight.
• Gossip Girl: "Some might call this a fustercluck, but here on the Upper East Side, we call it Sunday afternoon."
• An awful lot has happened with these people in less than two days.
• Jenny bought hydrangeas! Someone definitely did not learn the lesson she should have learned from the Kiss On the Lips dance debacle. She's on a slippery slope.
• Serena was left alone in a very gritty looking NYC at the end.
• And it's only the 2nd episode and we've already got Rooney in the soundtrack. That's not surprising.

This is definitely the one new show so far that leaves me wanting to see more and more. Forget middle-aged doctors having emotional crises. Forget underachieving WalMart employees who suddenly find themselves saving the world. Forget people with special abilities. As far as I'm concerned, just bring on the rich white kids who throw fancy parties and tear each other to shreds! It might be shallow, but it's just so freaking entertaining.