The new Gossip Girl is very queer — and very Canadian

Queeries is a weekly column by CBC Arts producer Peter Knegt that queries LGBTQ art, culture and/or identity through a personal lens.

Almost a decade after the original iteration ended, Gossip Girl is back — bringing with it a new generation of Manhattan private schoolers whose wildly dramatic social lives are being spied on by an anonymous and omniscient internet presence voiced by Kirsten Bell. The setting and Bell's voiceover are pretty much the only constants between the reboot and its predecessor; this time, Gossip Girl's antics move from a blog to Instagram and the teenagers they monitor are much less white and much more queer.

Without giving too much away for those who have yet to make their way back to Constance Billard (and as you can imagine, there is much to give away), the new drama centres around queen bee Julien (Jordan Alexander) and her estranged half-sister Zoya (Whitney Peak). Having never met Julien, Zoya starts attending Constance shortly after the pandemic has stopped wreaking havoc on New York, joining an ever-imploding teenage society that includes Julien's wealthy boyfriend Obie (Eli Brown), pansexual party boy Max (Thomas Doherty), bicurious Aki (Evan Mock) and Aki's girlfriend Audrey (Emily Alyn Lind). 

Over the four episodes I screened, the second coming of Gossip Girl quickly makes clear it has no interest holding back on its explicit depiction of queer sexuality — something Alexander, who identifies as queer herself, wishes she'd seen more of in her own youth. (Like most of the cast of this and almost every other teen show, Alexander is actually in her twenties.)

"Oh my god, if I could have seen something that was so representative at the time, that would have been so nice," she tells me over a group Zoom with other members of the cast. "It is diversity, but it's mostly just trying to undo exclusion. It's not like gay people or queer people are new; it's just certain expressions and certain humans have been excluded for so long. And now we're making an effort to not do that."

"It's really exciting — I think for everyone, right? Because then even if you're not queer or whatever, you're just like, 'Oh, right, I can be whoever I want. I can do whatever I want.'"

"When we did a press junket two weeks ago, Jordan, you said something that was I thought very insightful," adds her co-star Brown. "Like, even if you're not queer, if you're not part of that community, the suppression of people around you still affects you. You need everybody around you to be thriving to have a good community and a good, strong society."

This queering of Gossip Girl certainly makes for a much more satisfying experience this time around, and never feels tokenistic or forced. Keeping the delicious level of high society drama that made the original so addictive, and adding in the possibility that seemingly any of the characters could sleep with any of the others regardless of gender, actually ups the ante.

Interestingly, beyond being a very queer show with a very diverse cast, the new Gossip Girl is also very... Canadian. Alexander was born in Burnaby, B.C., and her on-screen half-sister Peak was born in Kampala, Uganda, but moved to Port Coquitlam, B.C., as a child. Meanwhile, Alexander's on-screen father is played by Hamilton's very own Luke Kirby. Not to mention the first two episodes are directed by Toronto's Karena Evans, who rose to fame directing music videos for Drake. 

"We definitely ganged up on the Americans," Peak says. "Like if you're not Canadian then it's... game over."

Alexander added that Kirby would often slip into "hockey talk" on set.

"He'd be like, 'Ooh, yeah, eh?' And then we just riff a little bit. I love him."

With all the hype leading up to the show, Peak is very happy to just finally get it out there. 

"Everybody was so quick to be like, 'Your life's going to change when the show comes out,'" she says. "And it's definitely been life-changing — being in New York and going onto the streets and having that encounter of, like, 'I've seen you on the show!' and then just going on with your day."

Coming into the show they knew was about to change her life, it was a nice comfort for Peak to know she shared a Canadian connection with her on-screen sibling.

"I was born in Burnaby, and Whitney called me from Burnaby when she found out that I got cast," Alexander laughs.

"It was crazy because I tested with everybody, but nobody that came from Canada," adds Peak. "And then when I found out she had the role I was like, 'Oh my goodness, this is insane!' I called Jordan right away from Burnaby and was like, 'I'm going to play your sister!'"

You can stream the very Canadian, very queer new Gossip Girl every Friday in Canada on Crave.