After six seasons, more than 120 episodes and dozens of upscale Manhattan shindigs, we finally said goodbye to Gossip Girl last December with a two-hour finale filled with shocking revelations, life-changing moments and a farewell that might have come a little too late.
经过漫长的六季,120多集以及十多次的曼哈顿上流舞会。终于到了向《绯闻女孩》说再见的时候了。2012年年末,《绯闻女孩》的最终篇用长达两个小时的时间揭示了一些令人震惊的秘密,改变一生的重大时刻,以及那个迟来的再见。
Gossip Girl, a teen soap based on a popular book series for young adults, in some ways was the first television show about the Internet. Or at least it was the first show that used the Internet in a crucial, central way.
从某种程度上来说,改编自同名畅销丛书的偶像剧《绯闻女孩》是讲述网络世界的电视剧开山之作。或者至少,从来没有哪部电视剧可以像《绯闻女孩》这样赋予网络一个如此重要的位置。
Gossip Girl was an anonymous (until the finale) person who devoted her (or at least we thought so) time to chronicling the lives of the wealthy youths of Upper East Side in New York.
绯闻女孩是一位匿名人士,她(至少我们都认为这是位女士)用心记录纽约上东区富家子弟的生活点滴,其身份直到结局才曝光。
While most storylines in the show revolved around other things, there was always the narration to remind us that all this drama was happening within the framework of a little blog. It wasn’t revolutionary, but in a strange way Gossip Girl did leave a little mark on this big, broad culture of ours.
虽然该剧中的故事情节大都围绕一些其他事情展开,但是旁白总是在提醒我们,这一幕幕剧情其实都是构架于微博博文之上的。这并非什么创新之举,但很奇怪的是,《绯闻女孩》的确在我们多元的大文化之中留下了自己的印记。
Gossip Girl unmasked
揭开“绯闻女孩”的面纱
One of the series’ biggest questions–who is the mysterious, omnipresent blogger calling herself (or himself as it turns out) Gossip Girl–was finally answered.
该剧最大的谜题之一便是:谁是那个神秘而又无所不在的博主“绯闻女孩”?答案最终揭晓。
To a degree, Dan Humphrey being unmasked as the blogger makes sense. He explained that he became Gossip Girl in order to shape the Upper East Side world that he wanted to get into. A young man in Brooklyn can only manipulate his way into uptown society, he can’t get there on merit alone.
在某种程度上来说,丹•汉弗瑞是“绯闻女孩”也在情理之中。他解释说,他化身“绯闻女孩”,为的是塑造出那个他一心想融入的上流世界的形象。一位住在布鲁克林的年轻人只有用点特殊手段才能融入上流社会,光靠才德是行不通的。
So, what, if anything, does the end of Gossip Girl mean? Well, it means that teenagers have gotten older, that kids who started watching the show in junior high are now sophomores in college, that kids who started watching it later in high school are now drifting around the professional world somewhere–it means that time has passed.
那么,如果你认为《绯闻女孩》的落幕有种特殊含义,那指的是什么呢?好吧,它代表着那些少男少女已经长大了:那些初中便开始追剧的少年现在已经是大二学生了,而那些高中时便开始追剧的少年现在已经在某个专业领域打拼了。这意味着时光流逝。
“That’s part of what you do when you recap a TV show; you try to crunch it down into context, place it on its appropriate shelf,” Richard Lawson, an editor for The Atlantic Wire, wrote in a recent article. “There’s a reverence for the show but there’s also an antagonism, a sense of wanting to conquer a thing.”
来自《大西洋连线》的编辑理查德•劳森在最新文章中写道:“当你概括一部电视剧时,这是你所做的事情的一部分;你试着用文字概括它,给它妥善归类。对于剧集,你会持有一种尊敬态度,但同时你也有一种对抗情绪,想要征服一件事。”
Sign of something
一种标志
We all had a nice cultural moment with Gossip Girl when it first started. It said something to us about a luxury brand of New York privilege that most of us will never know. It then became a fable, an alternate universe. It lied to us about lots of things–not just economics or New York social behavior, but also about matters of the heart (most television shows do that).
《绯闻女孩》开播时,我们都拥有一段美好的文化时光。它描述了不为大多数人所知的纽约权贵们的奢侈印记,稍后变成了一个虚构的平行世界。很多事情上,该剧可谓是谎话连篇,不仅仅是在经济或是纽约的社交行为方面,内心戏上更是如此(这是电视剧的老把戏了)。
“But because it was about kids, and for kids, Gossip Girl briefly stood out in some people’s eyes as a sign of something,” Jeff Jensen, TV critic for Entertainment Weeky, wrote. “Much like the similarly titled Girls does now.”
《娱乐周刊》的电视评论员杰夫•詹森写道:“但因为它讲述的是年轻人的故事,对于一些年轻人来说,《绯闻女孩》成为一部分眼中的某种标志,这点同时下热播的《都市女孩》如出一辙。”
A sign or not, Gossip Girl must have gotten something right. Although Dan declares in the final episode that Gossip Girl is dead, it’s clear that the entity will never die: “You may be rid of Dan Humphrey, but you’ll never be rid of me. There’s always someone on the outside… Who am I now? That’s one secret I’ll never tell.”
不管是否成为一种标志,《绯闻女孩》的确给出了一份漂亮的答卷。尽管在最后一集中,丹宣称“绯闻女孩”已死,但很明显这样的个体永远存在。“你可以摆脱丹•汉弗瑞,但你永远也摆脱不了我。总会有局外人……我现在是谁?这个秘密我永远不会说出口。”
There’s a part of us that wishes Gossip Girl would live on in an alternate universe, just to see it all play out.
我们中也有一部分人希望“绯闻女孩”能在另一个平行世界中继续生活,让所有剧情演绎到极致。
It’s been a rocky six seasons, but the series finale reminded viewers of what Gossip Girl ultimately is and should be remembered as: a soapy, cheeky, guilty pleasure.
尽管六季的故事十分曲折,但是最后一集告诉了观众们“绯闻女孩”到底是谁,所以这样一部无下限,令人充满罪恶快感的肥皂剧,理应被人们铭记。