Gossip Girl
The CW
Wednesday 9 p.m./8 CT

When The O.C. broke through the television clutter in the summer of 2003, it was more than a breath of fresh air. It was a really great breath of fresh air.

The witty first seven episodes are some of the best television of the decade, and the 20 that followed made for something that rarely has been done before or since: a perfect first season. After that, the show faltered somewhat. Burdened both by its overblown storyline and by expectations that it could resuscitate the teen soap, it was cancelled after its fourth season.

This fall, Schwartz has picked up the pieces and returned to the world of teen angst. The result is awesome.

Based on the "popular" series of teen novels by Cecily von Ziegesar (have you heard of them?) Schwartz' Gossip Girl, is the surefire, can't miss, clap-your-hands and smack-your-couch-in-joy, best new show of the Fall season. If you missed the first two episodes, may you be doomed to watch multiple episodes of Back to You. And if you don't start watching Gossip Girl immediately you might as well sell your television set. Seriously.

Gossip Girl centers on the lives of a group of teenagers attending a prep school on New York's Upper East Side as they navigate the perils of young adulthood. The lead is Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively), who has just returned to New York after mysteriously disappearing to "boarding school" in Connecticut for the last year. (Did Serena really go to boarding school? Or did she leave town because of the guilt she felt for sleeping with Nate (Chace Crawford), the boyfriend of her BFF Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester)? Don't you want to know.)

Meanwhile, in the "dangerous" Borough of Brooklyn (Williamsburg plays the part of The O.C.'s Chino), there is the Humphrey family. There's Poppa Rufus (Matthew Settle), divorcee and former rock star. There's little sis Jenny (Taylor Momsen), a high school freshman who wants to work her way up the social ladder without being date raped. And there's older bro Dan (Penn Badgley), who finally got to go out on a date with long-time crush Serena, only to realize that maybe it wasn't what he wanted.

In true O.C. fashion, the first two episodes featured a massive school dance, a fist fight, a Sunday brunch that would make Marie Antoinette proud, multiple backstabbings, bold-faced lying, an implied threesome, and two near date rapes (note to Jenny: you may need to recalibrate her social goals). Oh, and as an added bonus, there was even enough teen drinking and casual drug use to make everything actually feel real.

The entire show is narrated by the faceless and anonymous "gossip girl" of the title (voiced by Kristen Bell), a blogger in the vain of Gawker's Stalker section who relies on what onlookers can send her from their Sidekicks around Manhattan. Example: "Spotted on the steps of the Met, an S and B power struggle."

In simple mathematical terms, Gossip Girl is like The O.C. times Mean Girls divided by Cruel Intentions. It seems Schwartz really learned from the mistakes he made in the latter-day The O.C.

Yes, Gossip Girl owes a large debt to the kids from Orange County—everything from the dialogue, to the 20-something actors playing teenagers, to the music choices (which feature Peter, Bjorn and John, Amy Winehouse, The Bravery and Rihanna). But the difference lies in the details.

The O.C. was four kids and two sets of parents. When the first season ended, their stories had essentially been told. Schwartz kept everything so isolated amongst the Cohen's and the Cooper's that when he needed to expand the storylines and add characters for the second season, the entire show felt false.

But in Gossip Girl, there are at least ten to twelve legitimate characters that Schwartz can cull storylines from. Sure, right now Serena and Dan are the good guys, while Blair and the evil, twice attempted date-rapist Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) are the antagonists. But who's to say that can't change? Who's to say that Jenny won't end up being the hero? Or Nate?

And then, of course, there are the parents. We've gotten enough dollops of information about Dan's dad and Serena's mom (they used to date!) and Chuck's dad and Serena's mom (they currently date!) to populate another entire series with their potential plot arcs. You could call it The U.E.S. and stick on Fox's Thursday night lineup.

There are literally dozens of directions this show could go in—which is one thing the The O.C. did not have in its favor. After two episodes, is Gossip Girl better television than The O.C.? Not quite. Not yet. But the potential is more than there.

— Christopher Rosen (christopher dot rosen at gmail dot com)