My Favourite Television Characters Of All Time - Part Thirteen

#13 - Vanessa Abrams (Jessica Szohr) - Gossip Girl

Okay, if my love for science fiction television characters made you think less of me, get ready for your expectations to be lowered a whole lot more.

I guess I should explain why I totally dig Gossip Girl. I've kind of always had a thing for dumb shows about teenagers. Josh Schwartz, the man behind The O.C. is responsible for bringing this trashy novel series to the screen. I haven't yet read any of the novels, but I'm hooked on the show. The premise, when it started at least, was that we followed the Humphreys as they moved into the big city where the rich and famous people all hang out or whatever. Dan Humphrey was the normal straight guy who was an aspiring author, clashing with the culture of the rich. The show kind of spiraled from there into something that makes fun of itself a lot, and has this strange self-aware trashiness to it, with stupid plotting always going on, backstabbing, and drugs and sex. Awesome.

Now, to Vanessa Abrams. Vanessa is Dan's long time friend. They watch cult films together, borrow each others cool novels, and always go and see Morrissey together when he is in town. Vanessa is a film maker who clashes with the elite rich culture even more so than Dan. She's been occasionally fooled into thinking that some rich folk have a little more going on (when she almost hooked up with Chuck Bass I was all "noooo" and loving it), but mostly she is a normal(ish) level headed person. She's also kind of up for anything (see Dan, Vanessa, and Hillary Duff having a threesome) but in the context of this stupidly crazy show it's a likable trait (not that it isn't anyway, but amongst this group of people she is the most regular type person).

Vanessa is also totally stylish. Some of the outfits that the cast on Gossip Girl wear make my eyes water. They are either not very flattering or just insanely odd looking, but I totally dig what the wardrobe department does with Vanessa.

This spot was almost taken by Silver from the brand new lows of 90210, but in the latest season she stays friends with people who are the absolute scum of the Earth, and she has the dumbest, ugliest, most boring boyfriend in the universe. Thankfully she hasn't sunk to the lows that the other characters have just yet, but give it time. Watching the new 90210 is like watching some kind of anti-moral show. I LOVE when people cheat on each other and kill people and bla, bla on shows like Melrose Place, because generally I can see why it is happening and the characters actions generally have consequences. In 90210 we have a teenage girl who drunkenly drove into a man and killed him, but drove away (still not yet caught for that one), we have a girl who sent a text photo of her supposed friend having sex to every phone in the school, and that same girl also lied about a teacher sexually harassing her in order to get her friends onside. She FINALLY confessed that it was a lie at the absolute last second, and her punishment was picking up rubbish in an orange vest....... Also, her friends are all "you suck" so she gets up in the cafeteria and says "I perverted justice. I'm the pervert" in front of about 20 people, and she's told how "brave" she is. It's an insanely bad show, and that is why I couldn't bring myself to choose a character from it.

ANYWAY, that's enough of that. 7 more characters to go...