Noir Elements

Gossip Girl features a group of middle and upper middle class high schoolers and eventually college students. It seems like there wouldn’t be any noir elements in the show since all the kids are over privileged but the power that they have allows them to become villainous. Their easy lives are flawed by jealousy and a desire to have the most power in Constance. One character in particular that stands out as wanting more and uses blackmail is Blair Waldorf.

            On the outside Blair Waldorf looks like a perfectly manicured student at Constance, but when she doesn’t get her way she immediately turns into a devious character that takes her uses her minions to get back into her position of power. In the 2.17 episode Blair exploits a false relationship between her best friends boyfriend and her teacher because her teacher doesn’t know the hierarchies of the school. Nobody messes with Blair. When Blair receives trash duty she does everything in her power to take out Miss Carr. This feminine power that is apparent in the Gossip Girl is a film noir element. The female characters in the show are always scathing and working against one another. The dark side of New York City’s elite prep school is run by the richest kids leaving the less wealthy kids, Dan Humphrey, in the dust as merely a character in their plot to make it to the Ivy Leagues and become powerful woman when they graduate from college.

            The dark and manipulative behavior of the Blair Waldorf drives other students to succumb to her millennial noir behavior. Gossip Girl uses its online network to allow all of the intimate secrets and rumors to quickly get circulate around campus creating even more noir drama for the viewers.