Warner Bros. | 2009 | 935 mins. | NR
As we’ve come to expect, the third season of Gossip Girl offered plenty of drama–a marriage, threesomes, ‘chair’ parties, etc.–the producers and writers gave viewers a little bit of everything. The third season of the series starring Blake Lively as Serena van der Woodsen, Leighton Meester as Blair Waldorf, Penn Badgley as Dan Humphrey, Chace Crawford as Nate Archibald, Taylor Momsen as Jenny Humphrey, Ed Westwick as Chuck Bass, Jessica Szohr as Vanessa Abrams, Kelly Rutherford as Lily van der Woodsen and Matthew Settle as Rufus Humphrey makes its DVD debut just weeks before the September 14th premiere of the fourth season. Leaving behind high school the upwardly mobile group of upper East Siders prepared to embark on college life.
Blair and Chuck are left to explore the complexities of their ‘Chair’ relationship, while keeping the high school love games alive through cavalier flings. Predictably, that doesn’t last long, when neither of them is comfortable watching the other with different people. Meanwhile, Serena returns from Europe with Chuck’s enemy Carter (Sebastian Stan) in tow. To make matters worse, she’s postponed college in order to look for her father.
Jenny, still in high school and suffering from chronic annoyingness is now Queen Bee. Though I’ll admit, I found that storyline mostly forgettable. Meanwhile, her older brother Dan, has a f relationship with celebrity teen Olivia Burke (Hilary Duff), though he doesn’t realize she’s famous. His friend Vanessa is hanging out with a mystery man named Scott, who, it turns out, is Lily and Rufus’s long lost son.
Speaking of Lily and Rufus, the Thanksgiving episode, “The Treasure of Serena Madre,” finally saw the twosome get married. Coincidentally, it’s during that episode that Gossip Girl seems to find its groove again. Up until then, things seemed to move away from Upper East Side life and into a maze of breakups, relationship issues and constant backstabbing. Shortly after the wedding episode, a woman comes to town (Laura Harring), who may be Chuck’s mother. This was definitely a welcome development in the drama department.
Serena and Nate finally quit playing games and got together for real. Unfortunately, high school Queen Bee Jenny still had her eyes on Nate. Jenny’s character really takes center stage this season as she comes into her own as a drug dealer. She also becomes the lead MacGuffin in all Gossip Girl relationship sagas.
And just when you thought Rufus and Lily might be able to enjoy life together, it turns out their not in the clear. Serena’s father shows up to try and break up their “happy” home. Everything comes to head in the season finale, which had a big shocker for fans. There were also old relationships that may be coming back in next season.
These 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfers sometimes showcase some light grain in darker sequences, it’s a small issues. Finely grained detail is sharp and strong, black levels are consistent and deep, and color accuracy is spot-on.
Fidelity is maintained well on these Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks, even if the overall sound design of the series is fairly plain. Dialogue sounds fantastic – it’s been recorded and placed in the mix with obvious attention to detail – however, surrounds are surprisingly underutilized. During some louder outdoor moments, we’ll get some nice atmospherics and music cues from the sides and the back, but for the most part, these are capably constructed mixes that stay pretty much front and center.
A Portuguese stereo track is included, as are English SDH, Complex Chinese, Thai, Brazilian Portuguese, Latin Spanish, and French Parisian subtitles.
The interactive Gossip Girl Mode feature for The Empire Strikes Jack here is a nice appendix, though not quite an immersive experience. Probably more enjoyable than a simple commentary, this trivia/background track allows us to get a peek beyond Gossip Girl‘s facade. Fans will enjoy it.
Unfortunately, the other bonuses here are pretty standard. The featurette – A Gossip Girl Fabulous Affair: Throwing a Party Gossip Style – is a bore, and the two music videos, blooper reel and deleted scenes are nothing to write home about, either.
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