Serena and Blair: A 'Gossip Girl' Love Story

Call it what you want - a guilty pleasure or a dirty little secret, but here's a confession: I love 'Gossip Girl'. Considering some of the elite shows I've dissed in my column during the year or so I've been writing, I'm sure it doesn't do my credibility much good to admit loving such a trashy, tasty little teen show. But under all the drama, designer clothes and inflated bank accounts, I maintain that this show is about an important relationship, one that's not often depicted honestly. And I'm not talking about Chuck and Blair.

The one thread that consistently runs through 'Gossip Girl' is the power struggle between Blair and Serena, best friends and best enemies. Season three saw this storyline take a back seat, but the season four premiere last week brought it to the forefront, and I'm glad. I imagine some fans of the show will think it's re-tread of old issues, but for me, it's an epic story, one that can never be finished.

With the departure of 'Sex and the City' from the airwaves, stories about girlfriends are few and far between. Some of the adult dramas like 'Grey's Anatomy' and 'Desperate Housewives' have moments where they showcase women's friendships, but few make it the central premise it often is in our actual lives. As if our friends are supporting characters - and I suppose sometimes that's how they end up. I've certainly noticed that as the marriage rate goes up among my friends, the closeness of girlfriends goes down. But 'Gossip Girl' covers a time in our lives when the only relationships that really mattered were those between girl friends.

I had friend like Serena Van Der Woodsen. Beautiful, possessed of easy graceful manners and a warm intelligence, and prone to taking the easy way out. I was more like Blair Waldorf. Achingly aware of the truth of the social hierarchy at school, I did what I had always done - I tried to succeed. Like Blair, I was always honest about my intentions - to win. I didn't realize that part of the game is not acknowledging the game. My friend and I never had the arguments that Blair and Serena have. I never told her I hated living in her shadow, or that I envied how easy it was for her. And she never told me to get the hell over it and find something more meaningful to care about. But it was all there, vibrating under the surface or our after-school coffees and weekend shopping trips.

I know we weren't alone; there were other odd pairs like us all over our high school. The guys travelled in gangs, leadership shared between three or four of them. But girls paired off, and often it seemed that one was the star - the athlete, the actress, the brain - and the other functioned somehow as her assistant, her social secretary. Beware the social secretary - like Blair, she's more dangerous than she looks. And don't be fooled by the mean things she'll say about her superstar friend when her back's turned - the love she feels is fierce.

I've felt what Blair feels for Serena - that gut-wrenching combination of love and jealousy - so no matter how much baby-mama drama and other BS the 'Gossip Girl' writers throw at me, I keep coming back to see what becomes of Blair and Serena. Eventually, the circle jerk of love-and-hate they're been involved in since junior high has to end. But do they get to stay friends? Do they become enemies? Or worse - do they just stop knowing each other? I would understand if they gave up on each other, exhausted by the prospect of another round of who's-hiding-who's-light-under-a-bushel.

I'm lucky. My 'Gossip Girl' love story has a happy ending. My friend really is like Serena - unwilling to let a good friend go. She wrote to me and called me for years without much reciprocation, until I woke up one day and realized she's not just a Serena anymore, and I'm not just a Blair. Things aren't always easy for her - if they ever were - and I found more meaningful things to care about. We survived.

And I fervently hope that Blair and Serena survive as well. In the meantime, if they happen to have another hair-pulling fight on a university campus, I can't wait to watch it.