The gang of the Upper Eastside is heading to college but things are so topsy-turvy Blair (Leighton Meester) can’t believe what’s going on. Not only is she roommates with the one and only Georgina Sparks  (Michelle Trachtenberg), Dan (Penn Badgley) and Vanessa (Jessica Szohr) are on the way to being the most popular Freshmen on the NYU campus while the former High School Queen is quickly becoming a laughable joke.

On top of that, the person she left in control back at Constance, Junior it-girl Jenny (Taylor Momsen), is trying to tear down to the social status quo and put everyone on equal footing. But things don’t stop there as best friend Serena (Blake Lively) is skipping going to Brown for a year to apparently spend more time becoming the tabloid’s favorite target in hopes of catching her long-lost father Dr. William van der Woodsen’s (William Baldwin) attention. And while Nate (Chace Crawford) is still trying to cut ties with his grandfather William van der Bilt (James Naughton), Chuck (Ed Westwick) is finally on the verge of stepping outside of his late father’s shadow by opening one of New York’s swankiest new hotels.

As for Lily (Kelly Rutherford) and Rufus (Matthew Settle), both of them are fine save for the fact one is getting cold feet wondering if marriage is really for her while the other wonders why his fiancée has been spending so much time secretly away from home.

CRITIQUE

That description only touches on the tip of iceberg as to what is going during season three of “Gossip Girl.” There are so many twists, turns and what-have-you’s during this 22-episode journey my head aches just trying to ponder them all. Creators Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz have taken author Cecily von Ziegesar’s popular characters and spun them around so thoroughly knowing what way is up and which way is down is a virtual impossibility, the only constant being that the rich just keep getting snarkier even as their problems get way more serious.

That being said, I can’t say this season of the hit UPN show completely did it for me. Blair annoyed me far more than usual this season, and it wasn’t until the final few episodes where I finally felt like her character had turned a corner and become someone I actually liked being around again. She’s so petulant and childish (more so than usual, I mean) and her antics just didn’t cut it for me, the majority of her subplots going round and round in never-ending circles going positively nowhere.

It didn’t help that her relationship with Chuck felt just like more of the same for a great deal of the season. Even though the two were out of High School it was like they were fighting about a lot of the very same things, her constant jealously and insecurity driving me more than a tiny bit mad. It isn’t until episode 17, “Inglourious Bassterds,” that her character finally turns a corner and comes alive like she hasn’t the entire season, and it was from that point on I actually found myself interested in following her around once again.

Much of the same can be said about Serena. Pretty much all of the stuff having to do with her trying to get her father’s attentions or regarding her inability to open up to Nate in anyway whatsoever gets old extremely quick. Thankfully, a lot of the stuff she gets to do on the side is extremely entertaining and fun to watch, almost all of the material dealing with her internship/job as a A-list publicist absolute aces.

Where the show soars is in regards to Nate, Dan, Vanessa especially Jenny. All have a great deal to do, their characters going in interesting directions all of them evolving in ways that are consistently intriguing. Sure some of what they do irritates and annoys but that’s part of what makes them so fascinating, and the fact I hated many of their choices made it all the more irresistible when they did something to bring me back to their side of the fence.

This season also has some great guest stars, not the least of which is Hillary Duff of all people playing a major Hollywood movie star who decides to go to school at NYU and ends up falling for Dan. Their six-episode story arc is fantastic and she’s just excellent in the part, and if the producers are smart they’ll do everything in their power to make sure she comes back at some point during season four.

I wish I could say the same about Georgina. I’m a Michelle Trachtenberg defender and all from way back (seriously, Dawn was a great character and the “Buffy” folks integrated her extremely well, so there) but there’s little I can say positive about what she’s forced to do this season. Thankfully, the writers find a way to ship her overseas fairly quickly, not to be seen again until the final episode, “Last Tango, Then Paris.” Problem is her reappearance is even worse at the end than it was at the beginning, the cliffhanger she sends things out on so laughably bad I almost couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

Still, “Gossip Girl” is still about as glamorous and marvelous a guilty pleasure as network television has to offer. When the writers are on, they’re on in spades. Better, their dialogue is routinely some of the best of any program anywhere, so many of the putdown ands comebacks instant classics just begging to be repeated out loud and in real life. They also don’t forget to use their adult characters in interesting and creative ways that doesn’t belittle them, Rufus and Lilly in particular getting a great, and mostly believable arc during season three that rides waves of emotion constantly flirting between happiness, sadness and love.

For fans, watching season three is an absolute no-brainer. For the rest of us, “Gossip Girl” is still a solid guilty pleasure with an excellent cast worthy of keeping an eye on.

THE VIDEO

“Gossip Girl” is presented in its original 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. Still looks good, still wondering why this hasn’t been released on Blu-ray where it would look twenty times better.

THE AUDIO

“Gossip Girl” is presented in English (Dolby Digital 5.1) and French audio with optional English, French, Chinese, Thai and Spanish subtitles.

SPECIAL FEATURES

No audio commentary. No season retrospectives. Not a lot of reasons to get excited about the special features.

On the plus side, there is this thing called Gossip Girl Mode: Interactive Viewing Experience that can be found on episode 16, “The Empire Strikes Jack” (one of the season’s best), that some might find interesting. It’s basically a Blu-ray type feature that works on DVD, the episode filled with pop-up facts and tidbits while breaking every now and then from insights from the crew to talk about the how’s and the why’s behind a given scene or moment. For what it is it’s perfectly okay, but those used to similar, far more interactive (and thus easier to navigate) extras on many Blu-ray discs hitting shelves now (Warner’s Maximum Movie Mode comes to mind) won’t be impressed.

Other extras include the requisite (and in this case highly unfunny and really, really long) Gag Reel, the usual collection of Deleted Scenes, two Music Videos (Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” and Plastiscines’ “Bitch”) and the quite good featurette A Gossip Girl Fabulous Affair: Throwing a Party “Gossip Girl” Style.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Season three of “Gossip Girl” does not reflect the show at its best. Some of the storylines are tiring and go absolutely nowhere. But there is still flair and style to be found in this sexy little thing’s stiletto heels, and as long as she’s keeps strutting her stuff with confidence there’s little chance this Upper Eastside dynamo is going to be going out of fashion anytime soon.