Whether you’re a millennial who watched the show back when it aired on the CW or you just recently binged the series on Max, you’re likely familiar with “Gossip Girl” — which means you’ve seen Blake Lively’s performance as Serena van der Woodsen. As the flighty, beautiful society girl who flees Manhattan before the story starts — only to kick off the proceedings in earnest with her mysterious return — Lively pouts and flirts her way through the series, whether she’s (mistakenly) confessing that she committed murderer, repeatedly dating her step-brother Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley), or running away and changing her name to Sabrina (convincing).
Serena can be a maddening character, thanks to her on-again, off-again friendship and rivalry with queen bee Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), her constant romantic foibles, and the fact that she just shows up in person all the time instead of placing phone calls. Luckily for the character, Lively infused Serena with so much charm that you couldn’t help but love her.
“Gossip Girl” is, it has to be said, a blatantly ridiculous and over-the-top show — and that’s precisely why it’s such a delight. (Unfortunately for the 2021 Max reboot, it didn’t manage to find that same unhinged balance and was ultimately canceled.) Flanked by castmates like Meester, Ed Westwick, Chace Crawford, and future “You” star Badgley, Lively shines as the impetuous, often lovestruck Serena, and the show clearly got her career off to a pretty terrific start.
