The only thing that surprises us about the upcoming debut of NYC Prep, Bravo’s not-so-thinly-veiled reality version of Gossip Girl, is that it took this long for them to roll out the idea. As early disciples of Josh Schwartz (btw, congrats on your wedding!) will recall, it was GG forerunner The O.C. that originally begat The Real Orange County: Laguna Beach, thus kicking off the “quasi-reality based on fiction” craze. Now the network that spawned The Real Housewives of [Insert Location] is poised to bring us a show that promises a peek into the lives of real Upper East Side prepsters and the public school outcasts that circle them. The show won’t premiere until June 23, but Hulu just put up a twenty-minute sneak peek, and we have to say, it’s good.
There are so many things wrong with this preview and the world it represents — the sex, the drugs, the entitlement, the girls’ mistaken delusion that they can rock Blake Lively-style super-long hair — and naturally, we can’t wait for more.
It’s clear to us that PC is channeling Chuck, what with his decadent dastardliness, but Sebastien also seems to fit the Bass mold. Meanwhile, every tiny brunette has Blair’s prim style down, though in terms of social climbing aptitude, we see a little Jenny Humphrey in there too. The lone public school chick? Clearly a female Dan. And then there’s the blonde, Jessie, who is neither a Serena, nor a Blair, nor a Jenny. She’s not even a Vanessa. No, she reminds us of Orange County’s own Lady MacBeth, Julie Cooper. Help us out, which Schwartzian archetypes did we miss?