I actually disagree when it comes to Rufus. He had a double standard when it came to Dan opposed to Jenny. Dan slept with a teacher and had no repercussions, yet Jenny skipped school to work but he was so livid over that, she wanted to date and he was so opposed to her even doing that at 15 yet Dan was obsessed with Serena since he was 15. It's ridiculous, Rufus gave everyone grace but his own daughter. He even told Lily that Jenny was wilder than Serena, excuse me?!! Serena was doing drugs, partying, drinking and known to be promiscuous. All Jenny wanted was friends and to be an established designer. He gave Serena more empathy than his own daughter. He let Dan do whatever he wanted but had strict rules when it came to Jenny. In S1 when she gets caught with Hazel's mother's dress and everything is revealed. He wasn't sympathetic to her struggles when she explained it perfectly. She wanted friends, she had to do everything she can to keep them. He chose to send her to a school for the wealthy and expected everything to be fine when that's not the world. They were rich af and would tease scholarship and poor kids. Rufus didn't understand and didn't want to. He only focused on what she did wrong and not why.
Yes I was going to cover this in my Gossip Girl deep dive because there were many flaws in that relationship and Rufus was very sexist raising his kids in a way he didn’t seem to be aware of
“He chose to send her to a school for the wealthy and expected everything to be fine when that’s not the world.” truer words Rufus is actually the most unreal character in the show for this and for his own relationship + marriage with Lily. it’s kind of just a plot device on some level, but if you look at his decision making and trajectory over the course of the show it could not make less sense. like what benefit did that guy see in his kids’ private school education, what did he see in Lily? it’s never clear, because he’s always unhappy with the obvious consequences of his decisions
@longlostgf Exactly. Perfect example is when it came to the USHER positions for colleges and Nate got the position over Dan because Nate was a legacy. He really came off as naive because Dan and Jenny realized that they would always be treated differently in that school yet Rufus said he wanted to believe the best in people and had to get Dan by serving drinks. It's unrealistic and they got no opportunities from going to that private school that he insisted on. Even with Lily. The buildup to the relationship was good but once they got married - it went downhill. He finally realized why Lily remarried so many times, she keeps secrets and didn't care about his feelings. Majority of that marriage was just him alone, Lily was always with William. Rufus was always unhappy and bitter about the different worlds they came from, just like Dan.
@@starlight4013 right? surely there’s a better way to get the ivy league education that his kids didn’t even get after all of that. i don’t really see Rufus as bitter about the different worlds thing, though. if anything, i think he’s the opposite of Dan. Dan was unhappy about being excluded; Rufus was unhappy being included. big time agree about his bizarre train wreck of a marriage with Lily, though. it became apparent real quick that Rufus being into Lily was one of her very few redeeming qualities. just the trajectory from her running off to Dr Fake Cancer in s3, to the reveal that she casually sent a guy to prison for no reason in s4, to her going scorched earth against Ivy in s5 (which, again, more of Dr Fake Cancer, like you said), to finally husband #4 miraculously returning from the dead and her choosing him over Rufus. Rufus was unhappy about literally all of those things, as he should have been, but that was who Lily was all along
Also about the obsession that the show had with jenny’s virginity thing, I think the show had since season one this obsession with the concept of being pure because Blair is respected while she is a virgin and the moment she looses her virginity to chuck and everyone knows she plummets in the social hierarchy So I think is more the writers being HUGE weirdos about virginity in general than Jenny’s specifically
They really did the character dirty, but I always loved how she was career centered instead of male centered always. Gotta love a gal who follows their dreams
I enjoyed Jenny's arc of wanting to become a fashion designer in Season 2, and hated what direction they took her character from Season 3 onwards. Taylor Momsen doesn't look too fondly on her acting career, stating that her parents pushed her into it as a child, and she simply enjoyed playing music more.
what upset me the most is how the show dealt with taylor momsons exit… season 1 they have chuck assault her. then to have jenny sleep with chuck so blair could banish her? thats nasty. shame on the writers for handling that the worst way possible. nate and jennys relationship should have been brother/sister never romantic. i despise the way they handled jenny as a character
@@caitlynl7213 Oh I understand, for me the most upsetting scene was when Serena was so high on cocaine or what it was and that man (who ended up dead) was taking advantage of her.
Well and they fact she’s DRUNK, it’s very blurred lines cuz there is such a thing as TOO DRUNK TO CONSENT and she’s taking shots etc it’s not okay, the writers…I wouldnt be surprised if they’ve SA’d someone…
You're so right that this character was done dirty, as was the actress. Tim Gunn was out of pocket for those comments to the media. I don't remember anyone from the cast sticking up for Taylor either. They definitely did write stories to make Jenny look bad, even made her the scapegoat even when stuff had nothing to do with her. The way the show and the media mistreated the actress was disgraceful, and I'm so glad she's happy now doing what she wants. You should check out The Pretty Reckless, especially their first album Light Me Up, fresh off the set of GG. In "My Medicine," Taylor sings the line, "Pour another drink Mom, I don't even want it," which definitely supports the theory that she was being hugely mistreated by nearly everyone around her. In 2012 after a TPR set, I met Taylor and she was nothing but kind and gracious, welcoming all of the girls around who wanted to come say hi but were too shy, taking photos with everyone around. Very kind, generous and down to earth person, and she deserved better at the time.
I had completely forgotten about the Chuck sleeping with Jenny storyline. It's so disgusting the writers put that in given the fact that Chuck literally was a out to assault her in the first episode (which i also thought was insane to move past that given his redemption arc and they clearly hadn't thought that through if it had been planned.) I also really wanted to root for Jenny but her character was just extremely frustrating and annoying to watch. I also never realised how much trauma she went through later on and how much no one really cared about it. I really wish she could have mended things with her father better and would have been cool to get a storyline where she pursues fashion school and has new adventures.
The writers between season one and two switched, so the redemption definitely wasn't planned. I don't think much was planned during the filming of the pilot. Chuck even mentions his mother as if she's alive and well in it when her being dead is a huge part of his character.
The change of style in season 3 was more to do with Taylor Momsen's personal style (I remember hearing that in an interview). She's actually the lead singer of a rock band "The Pretty Reckless". She left the show to persue her music career. I actually knew her as the lead singer of the pretty reckless before I knew her as Jenny Humphrey. I agree though, they did her character dirty.
Not gonna lie, I always loved her character, she was my favourite up there with Blair. And I loved her in every season. And the thing about Jenny and her character arc that is very special is that it really felt like a natural progression considering her circumstances. She was only fourteen trying to befriend her idol which is Blair who made her feel so worthless that it made her want to prove herself even more, which ended up affecting her personality as a whole changing her morals and goals on a road. I loved that. And to be fair, I feel like Taylor Momsen is in top 3 best actors on this show, cause her emotional scenes always get to me however many times I rewatch them.
This is going to be a BIG spoiler who hasn’t finished gossip girl but I need to talk about something that ruins even more Jenny’s story The thing that makes the story even more sad is that HER OWN BROTHER is the one who wrote a HUGE ARTICLE ABOUT HER LOOSING HER VIRGINITY TO CHUCK, because there is a Gossip girl monologue after they do it so that means that in universe Dan: 1) knew about it 2) wrote 3) published it, AND DIDNT EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT HOW THAT WOULD EFFECT HER SISTER’S LIFE BECAUSE HE CARED MORE ABOUT HIS BLOG AND CREATING DRAMA
Right, that’s wild & cruel. And the fact that Jenny & everyone else just got over it like for second about Dan being you know who, is crazy to me. What really got to me is, while being with Serena the whole time, he wrote those things about her was sick to me. Who does that to their girlfriend ?
@ the way they all went like “oh Dan” while being happy is so baffling because their lives got so fucked up because of Dan - And Serena WAS THE PRIME VICTIM, she was the FIRST post (about her having a transparent shirt because she got wet I think?) like Dan was sexualising and slut shaming her all the time for YEARS, she was being HARASSED BY PEOPLE ON THE STREET BECAUSE HE PUT A TRACKER FEATURE IN THE GOSSIP GIRL WEBSITE AND THEY TRY TO PAINT IT AS ROMANTIC
When Rufus confronted Dan about it, Dan said Jenny knew he was GG and went along with it to get out of New York. It didn’t make sense. If Jenny really wanted to leave NYC, I’m sure Rufus would’ve let her given the circumstances.
One of the few things I really disagreed with Rufus about Jenny was when she did the guerrilla fashion show and he tried to get her ARRESTED. I know why he did it, I really do, but for me, weaponizing the police is just REALLY messed up. Also, Lily and the elite guests all clearly loved the show. Lily was right to say she wouldn’t press charges and save Jenny from spending the night in jail. She’s a rebellious teen, but JAIL??? C’mon Rufus! Find another way!
As a huge Jenny fan I wrote this essay sort of analysing her, it’s so long but I had to💀 I will never understand why people hate Jenny Humphrey. Finding her a little annoying in season 3/4 is acceptable, but I will never let anyone ever hate her. The girl was 14-15 in the first season. She moved to the upper east side and started a life in a completely different environment than she’s used to. Obviously she would have a hard time adjusting to it. Blair and all her minions did everything to make her feel unwelcome there, yet with the sleepover and everything she managed to earn a little respect from them. A freshman. That must’ve been hard- and are people forgetting that she was literally r@ped in the first episode?? That’d definitely cause some trauma. When Blair lost everyone’s respect with the whole Chuck and Nate thing everybody started turning to Jenny. That was the first time she wasn’t constantly bullied and looked down upon, so she seized the opportunity. Everybody would if they were in her place right? The whole stealing a Valentino thing was not really defendable but she was 15. She made wrong decisions sometimes but she was literally a freaking teenage girl. With the whole fashion thing in s2, she was a bit extreme but…it was her dream. Rufus wouldn’t let her do it for her own good but at that time she was so obsessed with it, why does anybody expect her to be like “oh my dad literally did everything to ruin my hopes and dreams, but he did it for my own good I love him so much he’s the best!!” Yall can’t expect that kind of maturity from anyone her age😭her dresses, her dream, everything she worked hard on, was burnt and torched by some crazy btch and she lost everything she had. That is SO traumatic honestly. They were her whole life. in s3 if she wasn’t a strict queen b like Blair was everybody would turn against her and her minions would leave her, again making her face the same treatment she did previously😭remember how Blair said “you need to be cold to be queen”? Jenny was just taking her advice, being “too nice” never gets you any advantages and bffr no one is a saint. At her age, the characters yall love sm were drinking, smoking, getting high, selling their gfs for hotels and sleeping with their best friends bfs and having affairs with married men and what not- if ppl can use their traumatic past and bad childhood to defend them then why can’t you do the same for Jenny? Her mother abandoned her and her family, her brother was obsessed with girls and in his own world, and even if her father loved her a lot, what girl at the age of 15-16 ever understood that?? The whole stealing Nate from Serena thing was extremely wrong but at that time Nate was the only person who understood her. He rescued her, he was someone to rely on for her, and probably the only one who she could talk to about her problems without being judged or smth😭 Yall can’t expect a good girl to stay good forever according to your expectations, she changed, accept it. And she slept with chuck when him and Blair were BROKEN UP. Blair forgave Serena when she slept with Nate WHILE THEY WERE DATING. at least with the whole drugging Serena thing she was honest and came forward, it wasn’t much of her fault. She should’ve stayed imo I loved her
Also it was so sudden that Nate stopped being interrested in her after showing so much attention. The letter stolen by Vanessa thing, and her accepting that + Vanessa being the new love interest when she was still having high hopes.. I always hated most Gossip Girl characters (Blair, Serena, Chuck, Vanessa, Dan...), but I liked Jenny and I also liked Nate because they were nice. Jenny was never recognized as nice but as a villain when she was seeing everything around her doing evil shit and being praised for it, but everytime she stepped one foot away from the tracks she was shamed so brutally and punished beyond reason without any communication about why, how, or other options she coumd go for, and all that only because she was less rich (sorry but she's not poor.... Never skipped a meal, living in New York, going to private school? Yall don't know what being poor is). Everything was so unfair when she was involved that I actually stopped watching the show that I was watching for her and her fashion design interests to start with. (And also Taylor Momsen is a great singer and songwriter). Oh and at the time, it went way beyond the show. Everytime I would try to defend the character on the internet people were mocking the shit out of it, and they also were super cruel to the actress and making fun of her music when it was so good and something she actually wanted to do and started working for since she was a kid.
Jenny’s family failed her. Rufus didn’t try to understand why she had no friends at Constance. Her mother was too busy living the single life in Hudson. Dan understood to an extent but got more of an “in” into the Upper East Side through Serena. Although the Humphrey kids were considered “poor outsiders,” it was easier for Dan to infiltrate the UES circle because he’s a man. In reality, the show would’ve ended with Jenny having her own brand or fashion house that rivaled Blair’s. Not becoming her business partner.
Wait, you just did a video about my favorite Gossip Girl charachter, and I just found out now?!! XD I loved Jenny, such a good underdog turned badass storyline. In my headcanon she and Nate were endgame.
I feel like her and Nate had a really nice connection and onscreen chemistry, but she rly put him on a pedestal because she was too young for him 😭 They should have dated later in life, I think that relationship was kinda creepy on the writers part
Because I focus on the character’s ages and not the actor’s, I do come up with head canons of her and Nate being a power couple in a healthy relationship at the end of the show.
@@SerenaSkybournei agree. When I come up with head canons for them, I always wait when she is a bit older and they both mature before they come back together.
@@SerenaSkybourneI think for sure when she got older they should have gotten togheter, on Gossip Girl Reddit I did a anylasis about the charachters's feelings/romances and I think Jenny was the only girl Nate really cares about deeply, he never walks out on her like he does with Serena and Blair.
The writing and the characters never acknowledge the psychological toll that come from bullying - and the bullying Jenny experienced in Constance was so intense. Hell even years later, Blair is still sabotaging Jenny whenever she can.
OMG this! Blair slut-shamed Jenny and banned her from Manhattan after the Chuck/Jenny hookup. Yet Dan dates Blair a year later. He was one of the biggest hypocrites on the show.
There were a couple of times where Rufus did not respect her wishes or wanting to listen to her. She kept trying to tell Rufus that her school is awful and she keeps getting picked on. The internship was a refuge for her, but instead of trying to suggest home schooling or something, Rufus just yelled at her and took the internship away altogether. Because this was a pattern, she wanted to be emancipated from her family. I was one of Jenny’s haters, but the more videos I watched about her, the more I feel bad for her because she was taken advantage of a lot and every time she rebels, people only yell at her without trying to figure out why she does this. I always change that scene in my season 5 or 6 rewrites of Blair just being done with Chuck once and for all after finding out that he slept with Jenny. I wanted them to finally end the feud and maybe becoming friends instead of her just yelling at Jenny and banning her from NY. Oy! She did not deserve the multiple times of having her designs destroyed.
@gabrielleduplessis7388 She was getting bullied and he continued to scold her for choosing work over school. He wasn't empathetic to her struggles. Except when Serena didn't want to go to college, he was even scared to tell Lily and tried to help Serena find a good way to tell her.
This show is awesome and the books are even better! I'm glad you went back and gave it another chance, Serena! Thank you so much! Can you please review the revival seasons starring Jordan Alexander from HBO Max/Max? I love to see that happen!
Taylor Momsen has said that the edgier dark look was something the writers did with her in mind because it was her natural style and they incorporated it into the character. (I remember her saying this in Pod crushed, please correct me if I'm wrong y'all)
Jenny was the most interesting character on the show. All of your opinions are so valid. I really hope you do a video on Vanessa next. I always said if the writers took their times with both characters they would’ve been something so great but yet they focused on Blair and Serena so much.
it's frustrating watching older shows because I always have conflicting feelings between loving the shows and having nostalgia but wishing certain storylines and how the characters were written were different. Especially when it comes to the female characters because you can always tell that they were written by men who just do not understand the female experience. Most of the time, it affects the ending of the characters because the writers prioritise punishing the female characters or making sure their entire character is about their romantic interest. Blair's entire storyline becomes about Chuck when there are other interesting stories they could have given her. They seemed to focus more on punishing Jenny then giving her a satisfying character arc. A lot of her storylines have a weird predatory undertone because of how young she is. If they had actually addressed how young and out of her depth she was and wrote a conclusion it would have been better. I did like her with Nate but the age gap is always there. They should have made it like the Chinese drama Hidden Love where the female lead had a crush on the male lead for years but because he was older (and best friends with her brother), he only saw her as a little sister and helped her out. Then they are separated after he goes to university and reunite when he's graduated and she is now in university. Even then they still only have a sibling/friend relationship until they get to know each other better as adults and fall in love. The actor of the male lead also acted it really well because he literally only sees her as family until she's an adult and his gaze starts to change. It wouldn't have worked if he acted it out in a more slimey way. Jenny's character may have benefitted if this was the trajectory her and Nate had. She also could have had at least one person actually looking out for her with truly good intentions and it would have given Nate more to do because they clearly struggled to make him interesting and give him more to do.
Love Jenny and hated what the writers did to her. I honestly wish for Nate and Jenny had been given a better story arc and ending. Hear me out Nate gave every love of his major love interests a second chance, but not Jenny. I would have loved a flash forward to epiloge, where they are now both older and have seen errors their ways up for see them as end game.
I think a lot of the comments you’re making about the writing for Jenny aren’t necessarily correct. I think it’s very accurate for a 15 year old girl to be so naive to the world, and to older men, and to thinking they can do anything they want. I wouldn’t describe the writing as ‘gross’. I think her relationship with rufus makes a lot of sense considering the age of her character. She doesn’t understand the repercussions of her actions yet and when she gets told no she doesn’t like it and acts out. That’s exactly how my teenage sister acts too.
GG is one of my quilty plessures! I'm glad you start a series about it!❤ I agree with you so much. I can't belive that Jenny ended up working with Blair at the end. Remember Jenny's bag in the last ep, 'J for Waldorf? I can't belive she would give Blair her line.
@ she found an opportunity to make money as awful as it was but when compared to the people whose world she became a part of, her faults are so minuscule it’s not even funny
Taylor Momsen reminds me of Sasha Pieterse - both insane w their acting skills, both being so much younger than their coworkers yet being so good (and both sadly being sexualized in their roles, sigh). Gossip Girl came out my freshman year, so it was perfect timing for me, lol. None of my other friends who watched it liked Jenny besides me, and I never understood why they disliked her so much. And now, at nearly 32, she's still my favorite (probably because I also loveee The Pretty Reckless. Taylor's a wonderful musician). I could see how badly she wanted to fit in and get ahead, but she realized, sadly too late, that to do that, it was going to come at a depressing cost. She was so young, had good aspirations, but was surrounded by people who only wanted to use and abuse her, and then she started to spiral. And I understand that all too well. Also, thank you for bringing up how horrible it was that the writers had her end up sleeping w Chuck. That scene is so... dark to me (I'm a victim of SA and just.. I hate that decision so much. Taylor's acting in that scene is so good though) and I've never heard or even really read many other people discuss just how fucked up it all is.
I loved her in season one and two. I thought her character arc surrounding her wanting to be popular and a fashion designer. But she didn’t progress after that. She kinda stayed awful the whole rest of her time on the show. In season one she was really sweet and I really liked her, but then they made her mean and annoying 😂
I understand people being a little frustrated with her but hating her??? she was used abused all while being 14/15 and people still genuinely think that she's more despicable of a character than chuck - a literal rapist. people call blair and chuck 'ambitious' but to jenny is supposedly 'power hungry' - she's a young girl with big dreams and stuck in a world where everyone has more power than her despite them not deserving a thing.
I think all Jenny needed was her mom. Her mom basically abandoned her kids and started a new life, causing a huge trauma for her daughter (and surely for Dan too, but fortunately he was a bit older and more mature), in a very sensitive age. She knew she didn’t fit in because of her status, her only friend was Eric (who’s actually pretty great, but he also had a lot going on), no girl friends, and of course she was a teen, it was natural, that she was trying to break the rules and testing her (and others’) limits. I didn’t like Jenny back then, she was annoying, but as I got older, I got to understand her and I’m sorry for her character. I wish they had never recorded that scene with Chuch in season 1. It’s simply disgusting, and Jenny sleeping with him later made it even worse.
I completely agree with this video, but I have some other thoughts as well. I think the writers of the show from S1 to S3 wanted to depict a young adolescent who was trying to break into the upper side, start her own business, gain notoriety, and work for herself, but the way they wrote it was completely off. I think there were stories where she had a romantic interest or was forced to interact with other older characters and do crazy things, like they wanted her to be on par with the older characters (Blair, Nate, Serena), and I found that to be really annoying. I wanted to include her father as well. In my opinion, the show had a strange tendency to make the parents unsupportive of the kids so they would have an excuse to act wildly. This is more common in characters like Serena and Chuck Blair, but it doesn't make sense for Jenny's storyline. Although he didn't perform as well as many of the other parents in the show, her father was the most loving and supportive person in the world. They could have created an intriguing plot about a father and daughter relationship, but nothing really happened. Her father was quite kind and would do his best to support his children it wasn’t amazing but he was the only one trying in the show as a father and it really annoyed me again on how they were trying to make her have the same style as the older teens when it just doesn’t work because she isn’t interested in dating or drama she is interested of making her own business and become a creator. (This will be brief, but I still don't think their father was good, surprisingly so, towards Dan as well. He seemed to think he was becoming older, thus in circumstances like being with a teacher!!!, he didn't really support him or care to check on him, He never made an effort to figure out what he could advise his son not to do, just as he didn't support or care about his son dating a famous person; instead, he focused more on Jenny, even though both of his children were actually engaging in bad behaviour.) Now I want to talk about the bond between Jenny and Eric, which I believe to be the best in the show, surpasses that of Nate and Chuck as well as Blair and Serena. This is my final half-part. Since they were both young teenagers, they had to deal with being outsiders. What was more intriguing was that they came from different social classes-Jenny from the working class and Eric from a wealthier society-but what kept them together was that people treated them as though they were ignorant and in need of help rather than being mature enough to make their own decisions. Eric was a young teen who was prone to s-harm and queerness, and Jenny had to deal with the issue of wealthy people stealing her ideas and treating her poorly, I don’t think the show realised how interesting that story could be. I think they just put two of the love interests siblings so they could do something. (Dan and Serena) They were close friends, and they were able to move past Jenny's genuine meanness towards Eric showing they did care for each other no matter what. I can identify with both of them as characters: Jenny, who was trying her hardest to succeed and gain recognition, and Eric, who was dealing with s-harm and being queer. However, people took away her talent, making it seem as though she needed to change, and people not caring about Eric who was dealing with issues with his mental health (like when Blair made to look like Serena was a mental patient just to be mean.) The lack of alternate plotlines for both of them is what bothers me about this. They also had to cope with their parents and siblings acting badly and getting called out for situations for no reason. (Like in the same episode Eric had to come out towards everyone in his school in a upper class party at the same time Jenny now knowing her boyfriend was lying about himself and had to lie about her doing it with him in a UPPER CLASS PARTY.) I didn't particularly enjoy how they hurriedly moved Eric along in his plot, giving him a boyfriend so soon, while Jenny was still dealing with other issues. At this point, they had nothing in common; Eric was happy and had a boyfriend, while Jenny was still going through hardships, and they had no reason to speak to each other, other than because Serena and Dan were together. I would prefer a plot in which they collaborated in some way, such as if he joined Jenny in her design company or even in the Jenny drug storyline, where Eric could have dealt with his family's lack of concern for him in a group setting rather than alone storyline with Jenny and the guy. They had a lot in common and could have similar plots, but I was simply so over the show when they would reject their friendship, largely due to Jenny's popular narrative line. It was so unnecessary. in many moments. We saw a hint of the idea in S1 when Jenny was tricked to do truth and dare by Blair into going to a nightclub and telling Eric to come over. As his sister Serena arrived, Eric began acting sarcastically, demonstrating his tendency to be very reckless and only act because of Jenny. But again they only did this towards Jenny making her worse more and more towards s4 when she wasn’t even a herself she was just a character to make the older main characters like Blair and Serena have problems with her. Hopefully this all adds up and makes sense I had a lot of points so everything could be over the place!
I so love (read: hate) that nothing Jenny does even reaches the level of destruction that Chuck and Blair leave behind, but Jenny is the worst and has to leave town.
i watched gossip girl for the first time at the beginning of this year, i thought jenny was okay in seasons 1 & 2… but in season 3, i sympathized with her a lot. edit: i understand as to why taylor momsen left the show to focus on her band (the pretty reckless) because she was forced into acting by her parents.
it’s disappointing that Taylor Momsen had a mediocre to bad experience acting in this show, but outside of that, i can see how Jenny was difficult to work out narratively after s1. Jenny’s big contradiction in the show is that she has the most raw talent of anyone in the gossip game, she’s the biggest shooter, but she has no real power. like, the scene in s1 after Jenny takes down Blair where Penelope says Jenny doesn’t have to carry her books is like a guy getting made in The Sopranos, it’s hilarious. but then she’s back to stealing that $15k dress and nonconsensually bearding Eric’s bf and she gets KO’d, basically. a similar thing happens in s3 when she comes up with the genius drug dealing plan but Damien throws it away because he’s trying to maybe f Serena. she’s always guaranteed to lose by the rules of the game even though she’s the best at it. i think it’s partly a question of what exactly the Humphreys are doing there in the first place. because, on the one hand, they need to be there to be an outside, relatively normal perspective on the bourgeois decadence of high society, but on the other, they need to be excluded in a meaningful way for the rules of the game to matter. that’s the main tension of the show, because otherwise it is 100% rich ppl shenanigans. all 3 Humphreys engage in that world in different ways, but only Dan’s route is a winner, and Jenny has the shortest, most unsustainable path of being a player, straight up. even after Jenny gets written off, there are all these lesser Jennys who play the same role: Juliet, Ivy/Charli, Lola. all young women outsiders playing the game one way or another, faking it until they make it, and for the most part taking brutal, humiliating al’s. it’s kind of narratively compelling, but unfortunate that the actual creators of the show were at least partly coming from a place of real misogyny instead of depicting misogyny as critique. best case scenario for Jenny: comes back in s4-5, becomes Blair’s genuine bestie, Blair apologizes, Blair and she have each other’s backs and Jenny is on Blair’s side throughout the Chuck/Louis/Dan wars as the show’s biggest shooter. glad that Taylor Momsen got to play her music, though
Jenny Humphrey is My Third Favorite Character in Gossip Girl and she Truly was The Most Tragic Character in Gossip Girl and Taylor Momsen’s Performance was Incredible Making Jenny Humfrey Fun, Rebellious, Entertaining, Relatable and Sympathetic. I Definitely Agree Jenny Humphrey was Done Pretty Dirty Throughout The Show but She had her Moments and I will never understand The Hate for Jenny Humphrey.
I loved Jenny she was definitely my favorite character throughout the whole show but I really hate how dirty the writers did her especially in season 3.
rufus was really unfair with her so I don't blame jenny for choosing school and fashion over her family. she was treated really bad during the entire show and I think that the writers made her annoying so that we could easily hate her
If I was Jenny, I would ask my parents if I could get my GED. Then she just devote herself to fashion. Then maybe later she'd attend fashion and business school at night?!
Oh I'm so glad you're covering this was just talking to to my daughter how most of the poor characters were done dirty compered to the rich but i guess that's real life is, just hate how Dan turns against his sister and Vanessa for Serena. spolier i know what they did to Serena was terrible but most of the other characters have done worse or the same so for Dan to turn his back it always felt yucky but maybe that's who he really is considering his GG.
Jenny was done SO DIRTY. She wasn’t even a bad character, and her shenanigans wasn’t the worst thing on the show. I hate how everyone was so condescending to her (including Dan) about the UES changing her personality. When both Dan and Rufus changed bc of moving there. Dan ends up being GG for crissake!
I liked Jenny in the beginning too, and I was disappointed with her arc as well. However, I want to note how you said that when you first started watching the show you disliked the characters and thought they were horrible, because I think that was the point. I mean, in the beginning, I actually liked some of the characters: Rufus, Dan, Jenny, and Vanessa all seemed like decent enough people, and Serena had a past, but was trying to change and seemed genuinely nice. As the series went on though, the likable characters became less likable (with the exception of maybe Rufus) and there is this almost gaslighting of the audience where we're meant to sympathize with the characters who are doing horrible things and essentially horrible people (like Chuck). It wasn't until the finale that I got it. They ARE horrible people. Every character (again, except maybe Rufus) is a terrible human being and this is exactly the point. The show is a cynical (or realistic, depending on your point of view) analysis of the upper class elite, and the thesis is that everyone in that "world," either starts out horrible, becomes horrible from being in that world, or becomes horrible TO be in that world. You can't be an Upper-Easter-Sider without being terrible. Making it in this world means not only being a horrible person, but suffering zero consequences and being accepted for being horrible because it is expected. I agree that Jenny was in a horribly toxic environment, and you make a good point about her age, and how her trauma wasn't properly addressed. Honestly, I think leaving was the best thing for her, and it's a shame that even after she leaves, she can't seem to disentangle herself, but she is just another example of what that world and trying to fit into it does to people. She's the female reflection of Dan, who was also desperate to fit in and was willing to become a terrible person in order to do it. They are all terrible, and that is exactly what the show is trying to say.
I still think you are to harsh with that character considering all the respect rapist Chuck, harrasing Blair and on her high horses cokehead Serena got.People hate teenage girls that is all.
Can you please make a video about Serena her pain is overshadowed people keep coming in and out of her life and people always try to hurt her it’s sad to watch but I love her so can you please video about her please and thank you also I have the same ear buds as you I love you
Jenny definitely had her annoying moments but most of that was her growing up/learning from the older kids surrounding her. They blamed and attacked her for just being a kid. Blair is a favourite character but all of her good gets uglied every time I watch or think about how she treated Jenny. Jenny was barely hated for me.
it honestly baffles me how a depressed teenage girl who was bullied and terrorized by a bunch of rich girls is more hated on than a rapist ... they tried SO HARD to villainize her. Yes, she did shitty things, like stealing Nate from Serena but if you compare it to a girl sleeping with her best friend's boyfriend who also recorded a sex tape without someone's consent, OR a girl who blackmailed a teacher because she didn't like the grade she was given, who's also a classist, elitist and a misogynist she seems like an angel from heaven. Props to taylor for acting her ass off in that mid show with an annoying ass fandom.
I’m not sure if you’ve finished the show, so spoilers: I’d love a video about the Dan us Gossip Girl reveal. And who you think would have been better (unless you like him or GG?)
I would like to hear what would you change in the story of the whole series if you could be a screenwriter. I'm also interested in your thoughts about improving the character development of main protagonists but and also some minor roles in the series. I think that the series has so many flaws (althought I enojoyed first 3 seasons) that I'm most interested on your look on possible improvements.
i love love jenny and i absolutely hate her haters. cuz all of jenny haters are chuck lovers. i'll admit i disliked when she scheme against the other characters but that was because i knew it would blew up in her face and the others would win as usual. chuck tried to SA jenny and serena and possibly others but its all forgiven and forgotten because he said his full name and his toxic love with blair. BUT JENNY HUMPHFREY??? oh nah she gets hated for being a teenager, with mental health issues, that wants to fit and find her place in the upper east side
Well what do you expect from Chucky's a serial rapist I'm interested to see what video you will have on him! I think her losing her virginity to him was to show how far she'd fallen, (Many also compared Jenny to Hanna Mirin from PLL). But no they were not good to her they should have been better.
Don't care for her character after the first two seasons. I am 53, though, so looking at her as a parent. She was an absolute spoiled brat. Her dad had double standards for her versus her brother. So that was unfair. Of course, I thought the whole show was ridiculous. The drinking all the characters did from age 12? maybe even lower. I Know the "older kids" looked older, because that is because the actors were.
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@SerenaSkybourne I was wondering if you’ll ever do a video of the show switched at birth
I actually disagree when it comes to Rufus. He had a double standard when it came to Dan opposed to Jenny. Dan slept with a teacher and had no repercussions, yet Jenny skipped school to work but he was so livid over that, she wanted to date and he was so opposed to her even doing that at 15 yet Dan was obsessed with Serena since he was 15.
It's ridiculous, Rufus gave everyone grace but his own daughter. He even told Lily that Jenny was wilder than Serena, excuse me?!! Serena was doing drugs, partying, drinking and known to be promiscuous. All Jenny wanted was friends and to be an established designer.
He gave Serena more empathy than his own daughter. He let Dan do whatever he wanted but had strict rules when it came to Jenny. In S1 when she gets caught with Hazel's mother's dress and everything is revealed. He wasn't sympathetic to her struggles when she explained it perfectly.
She wanted friends, she had to do everything she can to keep them. He chose to send her to a school for the wealthy and expected everything to be fine when that's not the world. They were rich af and would tease scholarship and poor kids. Rufus didn't understand and didn't want to. He only focused on what she did wrong and not why.
Yes I was going to cover this in my Gossip Girl deep dive because there were many flaws in that relationship and Rufus was very sexist raising his kids in a way he didn’t seem to be aware of
“He chose to send her to a school for the wealthy and expected everything to be fine when that’s not the world.” truer words
Rufus is actually the most unreal character in the show for this and for his own relationship + marriage with Lily. it’s kind of just a plot device on some level, but if you look at his decision making and trajectory over the course of the show it could not make less sense. like what benefit did that guy see in his kids’ private school education, what did he see in Lily? it’s never clear, because he’s always unhappy with the obvious consequences of his decisions
@longlostgf Exactly. Perfect example is when it came to the USHER positions for colleges and Nate got the position over Dan because Nate was a legacy.
He really came off as naive because Dan and Jenny realized that they would always be treated differently in that school yet Rufus said he wanted to believe the best in people and had to get Dan by serving drinks. It's unrealistic and they got no opportunities from going to that private school that he insisted on.
Even with Lily. The buildup to the relationship was good but once they got married - it went downhill. He finally realized why Lily remarried so many times, she keeps secrets and didn't care about his feelings. Majority of that marriage was just him alone, Lily was always with William.
Rufus was always unhappy and bitter about the different worlds they came from, just like Dan.
@@starlight4013 right? surely there’s a better way to get the ivy league education that his kids didn’t even get after all of that. i don’t really see Rufus as bitter about the different worlds thing, though. if anything, i think he’s the opposite of Dan. Dan was unhappy about being excluded; Rufus was unhappy being included.
big time agree about his bizarre train wreck of a marriage with Lily, though. it became apparent real quick that Rufus being into Lily was one of her very few redeeming qualities. just the trajectory from her running off to Dr Fake Cancer in s3, to the reveal that she casually sent a guy to prison for no reason in s4, to her going scorched earth against Ivy in s5 (which, again, more of Dr Fake Cancer, like you said), to finally husband #4 miraculously returning from the dead and her choosing him over Rufus. Rufus was unhappy about literally all of those things, as he should have been, but that was who Lily was all along
Also about the obsession that the show had with jenny’s virginity thing, I think the show had since season one this obsession with the concept of being pure because Blair is respected while she is a virgin and the moment she looses her virginity to chuck and everyone knows she plummets in the social hierarchy
So I think is more the writers being HUGE weirdos about virginity in general than Jenny’s specifically
They really did the character dirty, but I always loved how she was career centered instead of male centered always. Gotta love a gal who follows their dreams
Me toooo that’s why I was so sad when she made it her life’s mission to ruin Serena and Nate in season 3 😭😭
I enjoyed Jenny's arc of wanting to become a fashion designer in Season 2, and hated what direction they took her character from Season 3 onwards. Taylor Momsen doesn't look too fondly on her acting career, stating that her parents pushed her into it as a child, and she simply enjoyed playing music more.
She was awesome as Cindy Lou Who though always love Jim Carrey’s Grinch
The craziest thing is Taylor Momsen was only 12 when they filmed the pilot (which of course has that’s scene with Chuck)
I thought she was 14
what upset me the most is how the show dealt with taylor momsons exit… season 1 they have chuck assault her. then to have jenny sleep with chuck so blair could banish her? thats nasty. shame on the writers for handling that the worst way possible. nate and jennys relationship should have been brother/sister never romantic. i despise the way they handled jenny as a character
without going into too much detail here, that can be a very realistic scenario.
@ yes i understand that, it was just so upsetting to see. i wish they would have handled it better
@@caitlynl7213 Oh I understand, for me the most upsetting scene was when Serena was so high on cocaine or what it was and that man (who ended up dead) was taking advantage of her.
I’ll forever side-eye the writers for the Chuck and Jenny hookup.
Well and they fact she’s DRUNK, it’s very blurred lines cuz there is such a thing as TOO DRUNK TO CONSENT and she’s taking shots etc it’s not okay, the writers…I wouldnt be surprised if they’ve SA’d someone…
I also feel like Jenny kind of saw people with less talent then her (Blair) get handed all the things that she wanted and just got really power hungry
You're so right that this character was done dirty, as was the actress. Tim Gunn was out of pocket for those comments to the media. I don't remember anyone from the cast sticking up for Taylor either. They definitely did write stories to make Jenny look bad, even made her the scapegoat even when stuff had nothing to do with her. The way the show and the media mistreated the actress was disgraceful, and I'm so glad she's happy now doing what she wants. You should check out The Pretty Reckless, especially their first album Light Me Up, fresh off the set of GG. In "My Medicine," Taylor sings the line, "Pour another drink Mom, I don't even want it," which definitely supports the theory that she was being hugely mistreated by nearly everyone around her. In 2012 after a TPR set, I met Taylor and she was nothing but kind and gracious, welcoming all of the girls around who wanted to come say hi but were too shy, taking photos with everyone around. Very kind, generous and down to earth person, and she deserved better at the time.
Jenny totally deserved better the show treated her like a villain when she truly wasn't I felt bad for jenny
I had completely forgotten about the Chuck sleeping with Jenny storyline. It's so disgusting the writers put that in given the fact that Chuck literally was a out to assault her in the first episode (which i also thought was insane to move past that given his redemption arc and they clearly hadn't thought that through if it had been planned.) I also really wanted to root for Jenny but her character was just extremely frustrating and annoying to watch. I also never realised how much trauma she went through later on and how much no one really cared about it. I really wish she could have mended things with her father better and would have been cool to get a storyline where she pursues fashion school and has new adventures.
The writers between season one and two switched, so the redemption definitely wasn't planned. I don't think much was planned during the filming of the pilot. Chuck even mentions his mother as if she's alive and well in it when her being dead is a huge part of his character.
@@hopelessromantic3786yeah exactly
The change of style in season 3 was more to do with Taylor Momsen's personal style (I remember hearing that in an interview). She's actually the lead singer of a rock band "The Pretty Reckless". She left the show to persue her music career. I actually knew her as the lead singer of the pretty reckless before I knew her as Jenny Humphrey. I agree though, they did her character dirty.
Not gonna lie, I always loved her character, she was my favourite up there with Blair. And I loved her in every season. And the thing about Jenny and her character arc that is very special is that it really felt like a natural progression considering her circumstances. She was only fourteen trying to befriend her idol which is Blair who made her feel so worthless that it made her want to prove herself even more, which ended up affecting her personality as a whole changing her morals and goals on a road. I loved that. And to be fair, I feel like Taylor Momsen is in top 3 best actors on this show, cause her emotional scenes always get to me however many times I rewatch them.
This is going to be a BIG spoiler who hasn’t finished gossip girl but I need to talk about something that ruins even more Jenny’s story
The thing that makes the story even more sad is that HER OWN BROTHER is the one who wrote a HUGE ARTICLE ABOUT HER LOOSING HER VIRGINITY TO CHUCK, because there is a Gossip girl monologue after they do it so that means that in universe Dan:
1) knew about it 2) wrote 3) published it, AND DIDNT EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT HOW THAT WOULD EFFECT HER SISTER’S LIFE BECAUSE HE CARED MORE ABOUT HIS BLOG AND CREATING DRAMA
Right, that’s wild & cruel. And the fact that Jenny & everyone else just got over it like for second about Dan being you know who, is crazy to me. What really got to me is, while being with Serena the whole time, he wrote those things about her was sick to me. Who does that to their girlfriend ?
@ the way they all went like “oh Dan” while being happy is so baffling because their lives got so fucked up because of Dan -
And Serena WAS THE PRIME VICTIM, she was the FIRST post (about her having a transparent shirt because she got wet I think?) like Dan was sexualising and slut shaming her all the time for YEARS, she was being HARASSED BY PEOPLE ON THE STREET BECAUSE HE PUT A TRACKER FEATURE IN THE GOSSIP GIRL WEBSITE
AND THEY TRY TO PAINT IT AS ROMANTIC
Dan being Gossip Girl makes zero sense, and it makes the events of the show SO much worse!
When Rufus confronted Dan about it, Dan said Jenny knew he was GG and went along with it to get out of New York. It didn’t make sense. If Jenny really wanted to leave NYC, I’m sure Rufus would’ve let her given the circumstances.
One of the few things I really disagreed with Rufus about Jenny was when she did the guerrilla fashion show and he tried to get her ARRESTED.
I know why he did it, I really do, but for me, weaponizing the police is just REALLY messed up.
Also, Lily and the elite guests all clearly loved the show. Lily was right to say she wouldn’t press charges and save Jenny from spending the night in jail.
She’s a rebellious teen, but JAIL??? C’mon Rufus! Find another way!
Yeah Rufus was so sexist for that. He should’ve called the cops on the woman who slept with his teenage son
As a huge Jenny fan I wrote this essay sort of analysing her, it’s so long but I had to💀
I will never understand why people hate Jenny Humphrey. Finding her a little annoying in season 3/4 is acceptable, but I will never let anyone ever hate her. The girl was 14-15 in the first season. She moved to the upper east side and started a life in a completely different environment than she’s used to. Obviously she would have a hard time adjusting to it. Blair and all her minions did everything to make her feel unwelcome there, yet with the sleepover and everything she managed to earn a little respect from them. A freshman. That must’ve been hard- and are people forgetting that she was literally r@ped in the first episode?? That’d definitely cause some trauma. When Blair lost everyone’s respect with the whole Chuck and Nate thing everybody started turning to Jenny. That was the first time she wasn’t constantly bullied and looked down upon, so she seized the opportunity. Everybody would if they were in her place right? The whole stealing a Valentino thing was not really defendable but she was 15. She made wrong decisions sometimes but she was literally a freaking teenage girl. With the whole fashion thing in s2, she was a bit extreme but…it was her dream. Rufus wouldn’t let her do it for her own good but at that time she was so obsessed with it, why does anybody expect her to be like “oh my dad literally did everything to ruin my hopes and dreams, but he did it for my own good I love him so much he’s the best!!” Yall can’t expect that kind of maturity from anyone her age😭her dresses, her dream, everything she worked hard on, was burnt and torched by some crazy btch and she lost everything she had. That is SO traumatic honestly. They were her whole life. in s3 if she wasn’t a strict queen b like Blair was everybody would turn against her and her minions would leave her, again making her face the same treatment she did previously😭remember how Blair said “you need to be cold to be queen”? Jenny was just taking her advice, being “too nice” never gets you any advantages and bffr no one is a saint. At her age, the characters yall love sm were drinking, smoking, getting high, selling their gfs for hotels and sleeping with their best friends bfs and having affairs with married men and what not- if ppl can use their traumatic past and bad childhood to defend them then why can’t you do the same for Jenny? Her mother abandoned her and her family, her brother was obsessed with girls and in his own world, and even if her father loved her a lot, what girl at the age of 15-16 ever understood that?? The whole stealing Nate from Serena thing was extremely wrong but at that time Nate was the only person who understood her. He rescued her, he was someone to rely on for her, and probably the only one who she could talk to about her problems without being judged or smth😭 Yall can’t expect a good girl to stay good forever according to your expectations, she changed, accept it. And she slept with chuck when him and Blair were BROKEN UP. Blair forgave Serena when she slept with Nate WHILE THEY WERE DATING. at least with the whole drugging Serena thing she was honest and came forward, it wasn’t much of her fault. She should’ve stayed imo I loved her
Also it was so sudden that Nate stopped being interrested in her after showing so much attention. The letter stolen by Vanessa thing, and her accepting that + Vanessa being the new love interest when she was still having high hopes..
I always hated most Gossip Girl characters (Blair, Serena, Chuck, Vanessa, Dan...), but I liked Jenny and I also liked Nate because they were nice. Jenny was never recognized as nice but as a villain when she was seeing everything around her doing evil shit and being praised for it, but everytime she stepped one foot away from the tracks she was shamed so brutally and punished beyond reason without any communication about why, how, or other options she coumd go for, and all that only because she was less rich (sorry but she's not poor.... Never skipped a meal, living in New York, going to private school? Yall don't know what being poor is). Everything was so unfair when she was involved that I actually stopped watching the show that I was watching for her and her fashion design interests to start with. (And also Taylor Momsen is a great singer and songwriter).
Oh and at the time, it went way beyond the show. Everytime I would try to defend the character on the internet people were mocking the shit out of it, and they also were super cruel to the actress and making fun of her music when it was so good and something she actually wanted to do and started working for since she was a kid.
This!!
Jenny was completely done dirty! She was my favorite character in the first two seasons.
Jenny’s family failed her. Rufus didn’t try to understand why she had no friends at Constance. Her mother was too busy living the single life in Hudson. Dan understood to an extent but got more of an “in” into the Upper East Side through Serena.
Although the Humphrey kids were considered “poor outsiders,” it was easier for Dan to infiltrate the UES circle because he’s a man.
In reality, the show would’ve ended with Jenny having her own brand or fashion house that rivaled Blair’s. Not becoming her business partner.
Also, no excuse for Jenny, but Dan being Gossip Girl is ok.
Wait, you just did a video about my favorite Gossip Girl charachter, and I just found out now?!! XD
I loved Jenny, such a good underdog turned badass storyline.
In my headcanon she and Nate were endgame.
I feel like her and Nate had a really nice connection and onscreen chemistry, but she rly put him on a pedestal because she was too young for him 😭 They should have dated later in life, I think that relationship was kinda creepy on the writers part
Because I focus on the character’s ages and not the actor’s, I do come up with head canons of her and Nate being a power couple in a healthy relationship at the end of the show.
@@SerenaSkybournei agree. When I come up with head canons for them, I always wait when she is a bit older and they both mature before they come back together.
@@SerenaSkybourneI think for sure when she got older they should have gotten togheter, on Gossip Girl Reddit I did a anylasis about the charachters's feelings/romances and I think Jenny was the only girl Nate really cares about deeply, he never walks out on her like he does with Serena and Blair.
The writing and the characters never acknowledge the psychological toll that come from bullying - and the bullying Jenny experienced in Constance was so intense. Hell even years later, Blair is still sabotaging Jenny whenever she can.
I’m legit watching gossip girl for the first time so seeing you make a video about it genuinely made me sooo excited
I just finished watching it for the first time! Crazy
Dan lowkey was trash too. He saw how everyone treated his sister and was still friends with them.
OMG this! Blair slut-shamed Jenny and banned her from Manhattan after the Chuck/Jenny hookup. Yet Dan dates Blair a year later. He was one of the biggest hypocrites on the show.
There were a couple of times where Rufus did not respect her wishes or wanting to listen to her.
She kept trying to tell Rufus that her school is awful and she keeps getting picked on. The internship was a refuge for her, but instead of trying to suggest home schooling or something, Rufus just yelled at her and took the internship away altogether.
Because this was a pattern, she wanted to be emancipated from her family.
I was one of Jenny’s haters, but the more videos I watched about her, the more I feel bad for her because she was taken advantage of a lot and every time she rebels, people only yell at her without trying to figure out why she does this.
I always change that scene in my season 5 or 6 rewrites of Blair just being done with Chuck once and for all after finding out that he slept with Jenny. I wanted them to finally end the feud and maybe becoming friends instead of her just yelling at Jenny and banning her from NY. Oy!
She did not deserve the multiple times of having her designs destroyed.
@gabrielleduplessis7388 She was getting bullied and he continued to scold her for choosing work over school. He wasn't empathetic to her struggles. Except when Serena didn't want to go to college, he was even scared to tell Lily and tried to help Serena find a good way to tell her.
@ agreed.
This show is awesome and the books are even better! I'm glad you went back and gave it another chance, Serena! Thank you so much! Can you please review the revival seasons starring Jordan Alexander from HBO Max/Max? I love to see that happen!
I always thought that Jenny left the show because they were going to do a spin off of another series the author wrote called The It Girl.
Taylor Momsen has said that the edgier dark look was something the writers did with her in mind because it was her natural style and they incorporated it into the character. (I remember her saying this in Pod crushed, please correct me if I'm wrong y'all)
Jenny was the most interesting character on the show. All of your opinions are so valid. I really hope you do a video on Vanessa next. I always said if the writers took their times with both characters they would’ve been something so great but yet they focused on Blair and Serena so much.
it's frustrating watching older shows because I always have conflicting feelings between loving the shows and having nostalgia but wishing certain storylines and how the characters were written were different. Especially when it comes to the female characters because you can always tell that they were written by men who just do not understand the female experience. Most of the time, it affects the ending of the characters because the writers prioritise punishing the female characters or making sure their entire character is about their romantic interest. Blair's entire storyline becomes about Chuck when there are other interesting stories they could have given her. They seemed to focus more on punishing Jenny then giving her a satisfying character arc. A lot of her storylines have a weird predatory undertone because of how young she is. If they had actually addressed how young and out of her depth she was and wrote a conclusion it would have been better. I did like her with Nate but the age gap is always there. They should have made it like the Chinese drama Hidden Love where the female lead had a crush on the male lead for years but because he was older (and best friends with her brother), he only saw her as a little sister and helped her out. Then they are separated after he goes to university and reunite when he's graduated and she is now in university. Even then they still only have a sibling/friend relationship until they get to know each other better as adults and fall in love. The actor of the male lead also acted it really well because he literally only sees her as family until she's an adult and his gaze starts to change. It wouldn't have worked if he acted it out in a more slimey way. Jenny's character may have benefitted if this was the trajectory her and Nate had. She also could have had at least one person actually looking out for her with truly good intentions and it would have given Nate more to do because they clearly struggled to make him interesting and give him more to do.
The Jenny storyline was psychological torture p*rn.
Love Jenny and hated what the writers did to her. I honestly wish for Nate and Jenny had been given a better story arc and ending. Hear me out Nate gave every love of his major love interests a second chance, but not Jenny. I would have loved a flash forward to epiloge, where they are now both older and have seen errors their ways up for see them as end game.
I think a lot of the comments you’re making about the writing for Jenny aren’t necessarily correct. I think it’s very accurate for a 15 year old girl to be so naive to the world, and to older men, and to thinking they can do anything they want. I wouldn’t describe the writing as ‘gross’. I think her relationship with rufus makes a lot of sense considering the age of her character. She doesn’t understand the repercussions of her actions yet and when she gets told no she doesn’t like it and acts out. That’s exactly how my teenage sister acts too.
Thank you so much for posting this! #justiceforjennyhumphery
Of course!!
BLAIR WALDORF NEXT PLEASE
GG is one of my quilty plessures! I'm glad you start a series about it!❤
I agree with you so much. I can't belive that Jenny ended up working with Blair at the end. Remember Jenny's bag in the last ep, 'J for Waldorf? I can't belive she would give Blair her line.
It bothers me to no end that she didn’t achieve her dreams in the end, Jenny is too good to just be Blair’s “employee” like come onnn
@SerenaSkybourne Exactly! Should've been Blair who has the uncomfortable moment when she realises she would need to work with J to stay fresh 😁
Also while we’re at it, justice for Ivy.
Ivy was so incredibly annoying and lame, but also I feel rly bad for her at the same time, like she had no friends or family 😭
@ she found an opportunity to make money as awful as it was but when compared to the people whose world she became a part of, her faults are so minuscule it’s not even funny
I also like her raspy voice. Reminds me of Sophia Bush’s
What? 😂 They dragged the Ivy storyline for too long.
Taylor Momsen reminds me of Sasha Pieterse - both insane w their acting skills, both being so much younger than their coworkers yet being so good (and both sadly being sexualized in their roles, sigh).
Gossip Girl came out my freshman year, so it was perfect timing for me, lol. None of my other friends who watched it liked Jenny besides me, and I never understood why they disliked her so much. And now, at nearly 32, she's still my favorite (probably because I also loveee The Pretty Reckless. Taylor's a wonderful musician). I could see how badly she wanted to fit in and get ahead, but she realized, sadly too late, that to do that, it was going to come at a depressing cost. She was so young, had good aspirations, but was surrounded by people who only wanted to use and abuse her, and then she started to spiral. And I understand that all too well.
Also, thank you for bringing up how horrible it was that the writers had her end up sleeping w Chuck. That scene is so... dark to me (I'm a victim of SA and just.. I hate that decision so much. Taylor's acting in that scene is so good though) and I've never heard or even really read many other people discuss just how fucked up it all is.
I loved her in season one and two. I thought her character arc surrounding her wanting to be popular and a fashion designer. But she didn’t progress after that. She kinda stayed awful the whole rest of her time on the show.
In season one she was really sweet and I really liked her, but then they made her mean and annoying 😂
They made her sooooo annoying and cringey for no reason
I understand people being a little frustrated with her but hating her??? she was used abused all while being 14/15 and people still genuinely think that she's more despicable of a character than chuck - a literal rapist.
people call blair and chuck 'ambitious' but to jenny is supposedly 'power hungry' - she's a young girl with big dreams and stuck in a world where everyone has more power than her despite them not deserving a thing.
Literally, you can’t like say you hate Jenny if you love Chuck and Blair, that makes no sense
I think all Jenny needed was her mom. Her mom basically abandoned her kids and started a new life, causing a huge trauma for her daughter (and surely for Dan too, but fortunately he was a bit older and more mature), in a very sensitive age. She knew she didn’t fit in because of her status, her only friend was Eric (who’s actually pretty great, but he also had a lot going on), no girl friends, and of course she was a teen, it was natural, that she was trying to break the rules and testing her (and others’) limits.
I didn’t like Jenny back then, she was annoying, but as I got older, I got to understand her and I’m sorry for her character.
I wish they had never recorded that scene with Chuch in season 1. It’s simply disgusting, and Jenny sleeping with him later made it even worse.
I completely agree with this video, but I have some other thoughts as well. I think the writers of the show from S1 to S3 wanted to depict a young adolescent who was trying to break into the upper side, start her own business, gain notoriety, and work for herself, but the way they wrote it was completely off. I think there were stories where she had a romantic interest or was forced to interact with other older characters and do crazy things, like they wanted her to be on par with the older characters (Blair, Nate, Serena), and I found that to be really annoying. I wanted to include her father as well. In my opinion, the show had a strange tendency to make the parents unsupportive of the kids so they would have an excuse to act wildly. This is more common in characters like Serena and Chuck Blair, but it doesn't make sense for Jenny's storyline. Although he didn't perform as well as many of the other parents in the show, her father was the most loving and supportive person in the world. They could have created an intriguing plot about a father and daughter relationship, but nothing really happened. Her father was quite kind and would do his best to support his children it wasn’t amazing but he was the only one trying in the show as a father and it really annoyed me again on how they were trying to make her have the same style as the older teens when it just doesn’t work because she isn’t interested in dating or drama she is interested of making her own business and become a creator. (This will be brief, but I still don't think their father was good, surprisingly so, towards Dan as well. He seemed to think he was becoming older, thus in circumstances like being with a teacher!!!, he didn't really support him or care to check on him, He never made an effort to figure out what he could advise his son not to do, just as he didn't support or care about his son dating a famous person; instead, he focused more on Jenny, even though both of his children were actually engaging in bad behaviour.) Now I want to talk about the bond between Jenny and Eric, which I believe to be the best in the show, surpasses that of Nate and Chuck as well as Blair and Serena. This is my final half-part. Since they were both young teenagers, they had to deal with being outsiders. What was more intriguing was that they came from different social classes-Jenny from the working class and Eric from a wealthier society-but what kept them together was that people treated them as though they were ignorant and in need of help rather than being mature enough to make their own decisions. Eric was a young teen who was prone to s-harm and queerness, and Jenny had to deal with the issue of wealthy people stealing her ideas and treating her poorly, I don’t think the show realised how interesting that story could be. I think they just put two of the love interests siblings so they could do something. (Dan and Serena) They were close friends, and they were able to move past Jenny's genuine meanness towards Eric showing they did care for each other no matter what. I can identify with both of them as characters: Jenny, who was trying her hardest to succeed and gain recognition, and Eric, who was dealing with s-harm and being queer. However, people took away her talent, making it seem as though she needed to change, and people not caring about Eric who was dealing with issues with his mental health (like when Blair made to look like Serena was a mental patient just to be mean.) The lack of alternate plotlines for both of them is what bothers me about this. They also had to cope with their parents and siblings acting badly and getting called out for situations for no reason. (Like in the same episode Eric had to come out towards everyone in his school in a upper class party at the same time Jenny now knowing her boyfriend was lying about himself and had to lie about her doing it with him in a UPPER CLASS PARTY.) I didn't particularly enjoy how they hurriedly moved Eric along in his plot, giving him a boyfriend so soon, while Jenny was still dealing with other issues. At this point, they had nothing in common; Eric was happy and had a boyfriend, while Jenny was still going through hardships, and they had no reason to speak to each other, other than because Serena and Dan were together. I would prefer a plot in which they collaborated in some way, such as if he joined Jenny in her design company or even in the Jenny drug storyline, where Eric could have dealt with his family's lack of concern for him in a group setting rather than alone storyline with Jenny and the guy. They had a lot in common and could have similar plots, but I was simply so over the show when they would reject their friendship, largely due to Jenny's popular narrative line. It was so unnecessary. in many moments. We saw a hint of the idea in S1 when Jenny was tricked to do truth and dare by Blair into going to a nightclub and telling Eric to come over. As his sister Serena arrived, Eric began acting sarcastically, demonstrating his tendency to be very reckless and only act because of Jenny. But again they only did this towards Jenny making her worse more and more towards s4 when she wasn’t even a herself she was just a character to make the older main characters like Blair and Serena have problems with her. Hopefully this all adds up and makes sense I had a lot of points so everything could be over the place!
I so love (read: hate) that nothing Jenny does even reaches the level of destruction that Chuck and Blair leave behind, but Jenny is the worst and has to leave town.
I'm so excited for these gossip girl deep dives literally started watching cause of Taylor and was so upset how they did her character
same!
@fantomesauvage2663 I get that she wanted off but did they have to kick her out by having her lose her virginity to somebody that assa*ulted like what
YES! i havent even watched the video but i just know i LOVE IT , and love you
I love you 😭
i watched gossip girl for the first time at the beginning of this year, i thought jenny was okay in seasons 1 & 2… but in season 3, i sympathized with her a lot.
edit: i understand as to why taylor momsen left the show to focus on her band (the pretty reckless) because she was forced into acting by her parents.
it’s disappointing that Taylor Momsen had a mediocre to bad experience acting in this show, but outside of that, i can see how Jenny was difficult to work out narratively after s1. Jenny’s big contradiction in the show is that she has the most raw talent of anyone in the gossip game, she’s the biggest shooter, but she has no real power. like, the scene in s1 after Jenny takes down Blair where Penelope says Jenny doesn’t have to carry her books is like a guy getting made in The Sopranos, it’s hilarious. but then she’s back to stealing that $15k dress and nonconsensually bearding Eric’s bf and she gets KO’d, basically. a similar thing happens in s3 when she comes up with the genius drug dealing plan but Damien throws it away because he’s trying to maybe f Serena. she’s always guaranteed to lose by the rules of the game even though she’s the best at it.
i think it’s partly a question of what exactly the Humphreys are doing there in the first place. because, on the one hand, they need to be there to be an outside, relatively normal perspective on the bourgeois decadence of high society, but on the other, they need to be excluded in a meaningful way for the rules of the game to matter. that’s the main tension of the show, because otherwise it is 100% rich ppl shenanigans. all 3 Humphreys engage in that world in different ways, but only Dan’s route is a winner, and Jenny has the shortest, most unsustainable path of being a player, straight up. even after Jenny gets written off, there are all these lesser Jennys who play the same role: Juliet, Ivy/Charli, Lola. all young women outsiders playing the game one way or another, faking it until they make it, and for the most part taking brutal, humiliating al’s. it’s kind of narratively compelling, but unfortunate that the actual creators of the show were at least partly coming from a place of real misogyny instead of depicting misogyny as critique.
best case scenario for Jenny: comes back in s4-5, becomes Blair’s genuine bestie, Blair apologizes, Blair and she have each other’s backs and Jenny is on Blair’s side throughout the Chuck/Louis/Dan wars as the show’s biggest shooter. glad that Taylor Momsen got to play her music, though
Jenny Humphrey is My Third Favorite Character in Gossip Girl and she Truly was The Most Tragic Character in Gossip Girl and Taylor Momsen’s Performance was Incredible Making Jenny Humfrey Fun, Rebellious, Entertaining, Relatable and Sympathetic. I Definitely Agree Jenny Humphrey was Done Pretty Dirty Throughout The Show but She had her Moments and I will never understand The Hate for Jenny Humphrey.
Love your channel !
I loved Jenny she was definitely my favorite character throughout the whole show but I really hate how dirty the writers did her especially in season 3.
rufus was really unfair with her so I don't blame jenny for choosing school and fashion over her family. she was treated really bad during the entire show and I think that the writers made her annoying so that we could easily hate her
Blair is my favorite character, but I feel like the writers gave her all of the success that Jenny actually earned and it hurts my soul
Make Me Wanna Die by The Pretty Reckless is forever a bop
If I was Jenny, I would ask my parents if I could get my GED. Then she just devote herself to fashion. Then maybe later she'd attend fashion and business school at night?!
I❤The Actress Who Played Jenny( Her Band Is Awesome!)
loving this... total side point you look great in white🤍
Oh I'm so glad you're covering this was just talking to to my daughter how most of the poor characters were done dirty compered to the rich but i guess that's real life is, just hate how Dan turns against his sister and Vanessa for Serena.
spolier
i know what they did to Serena was terrible but most of the other characters have done worse or the same so for Dan to turn his back it always felt yucky but maybe that's who he really is considering his GG.
Jenny was done SO DIRTY. She wasn’t even a bad character, and her shenanigans wasn’t the worst thing on the show. I hate how everyone was so condescending to her (including Dan) about the UES changing her personality. When both Dan and Rufus changed bc of moving there. Dan ends up being GG for crissake!
I liked Jenny in the beginning too, and I was disappointed with her arc as well. However, I want to note how you said that when you first started watching the show you disliked the characters and thought they were horrible, because I think that was the point. I mean, in the beginning, I actually liked some of the characters: Rufus, Dan, Jenny, and Vanessa all seemed like decent enough people, and Serena had a past, but was trying to change and seemed genuinely nice. As the series went on though, the likable characters became less likable (with the exception of maybe Rufus) and there is this almost gaslighting of the audience where we're meant to sympathize with the characters who are doing horrible things and essentially horrible people (like Chuck). It wasn't until the finale that I got it. They ARE horrible people. Every character (again, except maybe Rufus) is a terrible human being and this is exactly the point. The show is a cynical (or realistic, depending on your point of view) analysis of the upper class elite, and the thesis is that everyone in that "world," either starts out horrible, becomes horrible from being in that world, or becomes horrible TO be in that world. You can't be an Upper-Easter-Sider without being terrible. Making it in this world means not only being a horrible person, but suffering zero consequences and being accepted for being horrible because it is expected. I agree that Jenny was in a horribly toxic environment, and you make a good point about her age, and how her trauma wasn't properly addressed. Honestly, I think leaving was the best thing for her, and it's a shame that even after she leaves, she can't seem to disentangle herself, but she is just another example of what that world and trying to fit into it does to people. She's the female reflection of Dan, who was also desperate to fit in and was willing to become a terrible person in order to do it. They are all terrible, and that is exactly what the show is trying to say.
I still think you are to harsh with that character considering all the respect rapist Chuck, harrasing Blair and on her high horses cokehead Serena got.People hate teenage girls that is all.
Can you please make a video about Serena her pain is overshadowed people keep coming in and out of her life and people always try to hurt her it’s sad to watch but I love her so can you please video about her please and thank you also I have the same ear buds as you I love you
Jenny definitely had her annoying moments but most of that was her growing up/learning from the older kids surrounding her. They blamed and attacked her for just being a kid. Blair is a favourite character but all of her good gets uglied every time I watch or think about how she treated Jenny. Jenny was barely hated for me.
it honestly baffles me how a depressed teenage girl who was bullied and terrorized by a bunch of rich girls is more hated on than a rapist ...
they tried SO HARD to villainize her. Yes, she did shitty things, like stealing Nate from Serena but if you compare it to a girl sleeping with her best friend's boyfriend who also recorded a sex tape without someone's consent, OR a girl who blackmailed a teacher because she didn't like the grade she was given, who's also a classist, elitist and a misogynist she seems like an angel from heaven. Props to taylor for acting her ass off in that mid show with an annoying ass fandom.
let's not forget nate dating an underage girl. no one ever talks about that.
Which Gossip Girl video from me are you most excited for?
I’m not sure if you’ve finished the show, so spoilers:
I’d love a video about the Dan us Gossip Girl reveal. And who you think would have been better (unless you like him or GG?)
Blair, her relationship with Dorota and her mom.
@@Anna-B Dan seriously needs his own video 🤣
I would like to hear what would you change in the story of the whole series if you could be a screenwriter. I'm also interested in your thoughts about improving the character development of main protagonists but and also some minor roles in the series. I think that the series has so many flaws (althought I enojoyed first 3 seasons) that I'm most interested on your look on possible improvements.
Chuck Bass if you're going to talk about him
This was great and exactly what i think lol. Jenny is also my fave
i love love jenny and i absolutely hate her haters. cuz all of jenny haters are chuck lovers. i'll admit i disliked when she scheme against the other characters but that was because i knew it would blew up in her face and the others would win as usual. chuck tried to SA jenny and serena and possibly others but its all forgiven and forgotten because he said his full name and his toxic love with blair. BUT JENNY HUMPHFREY??? oh nah she gets hated for being a teenager, with mental health issues, that wants to fit and find her place in the upper east side
Aaaaaaaaaa yess
No, I love Jenny. I think that she is so driven and so cool, I think that she also is very mean. She was very NATE centered specifically
Well what do you expect from Chucky's a serial rapist I'm interested to see what video you will have on him! I think her losing her virginity to him was to show how far she'd fallen, (Many also compared Jenny to Hanna Mirin from PLL). But no they were not good to her they should have been better.
I love a good anti-hero
Jenny is not a young woman, she was a girl, a child. Please be so for real.
Don't care for her character after the first two seasons. I am 53, though, so looking at her as a parent. She was an absolute spoiled brat. Her dad had double standards for her versus her brother. So that was unfair.
Of course, I thought the whole show was ridiculous. The drinking all the characters did from age 12? maybe even lower. I Know the "older kids" looked older, because that is because the actors were.