The imitable teen classic Gossip Girl has endured as an impressive example of how addictive teen television can become. While the ending might not have been the most logical reward for six seasons of viewing, it still made for a dramatic twist that sent shockwaves around its viewership.
With a reboot (with a new cast, don’t get too excited) in the works, you’ll soon get more screen time on the Upper East Side, but if you can’t wait that long, here and ten similar shows you’ll probably love too.
Pretty Little Liars
In a lot of ways, Pretty Little Liars is the perfect show to get into once you finish Gossip Girl. At its heart, it’s the same: a stalker-spy is interfering with the lives of teens, while they get on with their otherwise rather trivial, privileged side-stories. In fact, it’s so similar that a lot of the characters actually look roughly the same (Jenny and Hanna, for example).
The only real difference is that Pretty Little Liars gets a lot darker, scarier and bloody. The only real death in Gossip Girl ended up being retconned (temporarily) anyway.
One Tree Hill
Premiering way back in 2003, One Tree Hill was actually around way earlier than Gossip Girl. Rather than taking on the female-led perspective of Pretty Little Liars or the gender-split of Gossip Girl, the show mostly centres on two half-brothers, Lucas and Nathan, played by Chad Michael Murray and James Lafferty respectively.
One of its more interesting moments come when the brothers leave high school (putting them at a similar age to the Gossip Girl cast) at the end of season four, and are transported ahead by four years for the start of season five. They go forward in time by another year between season six and seven.
You
With Dan Humphrey himself taking up the lead role of Joe, the sheer presence of Penn Badgely is enough to lure more Gossip Girl fans towards Netflix’s ground-breaking, twisted drama, You. He was literally Gossip Girl in the flesh.
While many of his creepy, stalking mannerisms are common between the show, You is much more violent, much scarier and a whole lot more intense. If you like the laid back semi-drama of Gossip Girl, then perhaps this wouldn’t be right. If you liked its Dan-centric stalk-a-thons, then dig in.
Gilmore Girls
I mean, the name sounds pretty similar so it has to basically be the same show, right? Well, not quite, but in general… yeah. Gilmore Girls takes a more comedic approach than Gossip Girl on the whole, but there are many themes throughout that are very similar. They come from the same network, so there was always bound to be a crossover.
The general premise of the show is that Lorelai and Rory Gilmore are mother and daughter living in a small town full of side-characters. We essentially see their lives play out in a typically dramatic, comedic fashion.
13 Reasons Why
Another one of the much darker teen dramas, 13 Reasons Why is centred on suicide. In fact, it pretty much exclusively revolves around the subject. The entire title is derived from finding out the thirteen reasons behind the suicide of Hannah Baker. It lacks the comedy (mostly) of Gossip Girl, and the low-consequence light-heartedness is firmly out the window, but the high school setting and teen dramas are still in abundance.
However, if suicide, sexual assault and bullying aren’t drawing you in, then stay back.
Glee
Taking almost the exact opposite route, Glee is designed to bring exactly what it says on the tin: Glee. Set in a school full of kids way too familiar with High School Musical, everyone is singing pretty much all the time. This is probably the element decidedly least similar to Gossip Girl out of anything, but there are plenty of other reasons why you’ll probably love it.
It’s an easy watch, no overwhelmingly complex dramas. It’s fun and funny while avoiding becoming a full-on comedy. It has a lot of high school problems rolled into every episode.
The O.C.
The parallels between Gossip Girl and the O.C. have been pointed out for many years. The show was created for Fox by Josh Schwartz, who is also the mind behind Gossip Girl’s TV iteration.
The primary character, Ryan, is not unlike Dan Humphrey. He is troubled, and quickly launched into a world full of luxury and money, in this case through his adoption by Sandy and Kirsten Cohen. In true Gossip Girl fashion, the show explores teenage romance, high school drama and the clash of cultures between the central characters.
90210
Aimed at teens just like Gossip Girl was, 90210 is the fourth iteration in the ongoing 90201 franchise. The franchise itself first started with Beverly Hills, 90210; Melrose Place, and has recently been revived, even if the original show was barely mentioned in this one past the first two seasons.
With a setting of Beverly Hills, California, the luxury lifestyle of the Gossip Girl characters is very quickly mirrored. The shows follows Annie and Dixon as they navigate their fancy new lives.
The Carrie Diaries
Technically, in order to cover every base of ‘high-class American, sex-centric, privileged-drama’ shows, Sex And The City would be on this list. However, thanks to The Carrie Diaries, it doesn’t need its own entry.
Rather than exploring the lives of the characters as adults, this show is a prequel centred on Carrie Bradshaw while she gets through high school, interns at a law firm and a magazine company, and goes through various friends and boyfriends.
More Gossip Girl
Beyond the original run of Gossip Girl, there were a variety of foreign language remakes. If you really, really crave more Gossip Girl, then this can get you there fast. Sure, you’ll hurdle subtitles and storyline re-hashes, but it could be an interesting cultural experience. Having said that, they’re all notoriously bad in terms of production, acting and writing and were all quickly cancelled.
Beyond that, just wait a few months and you’ll be able to take a look at the new generation of Gossip Girl when the reboot finally hits our screens.
