Though it has potential, the new Gossip Girl hasn’t quite clicked yet. Zoya (Whitney Peak) and Julien’s (Jordan Alexander) rivalry often feels forced. The thought process behind reviving this iconic blog lays just outside the realm of believability. And as early reviews noted, including our own, this reboot always feels a bit too much to echo the sardonic wit of the original — too glamorous, too performative while being woke, too nice. But for all its faults, there’s one piece of the 2021 Gossip Girl puzzle that is working perfectly: Thomas Doherty’s Max Wolfe embodies how great this show has the potential to become.
Even when HBO Max first released the character posters for its sequel series, Max gave off serious Chuck Bass vibes. And from Episode 1 he’s lived up to that promise splendidly. Whereas Chuck as a sensually brooding hedonist, Max has become this series’ firecracker of chaos. So far he’s made out with the sweet Aki (Evan Mock) and slept with the Blair-like Audrey (Emily Alyn Lind), a move that has rocked one of this series’ central couples while also delivering on 2021 Gossip Girl‘s promise of more sexual fluidity, and more drama. If you’re keeping track, that’s two birds with one stone. He’s also ruthlessly hit on a certain gorgeous teacher, taken Julien on a partying walkabout, and has launched too many elaborate schemes to count.
None of these actions are too dissimilar from the drama other characters have caused. But its the addictive joy Max takes in his various nefarious plots that screams of traditional Gossip Girl. It’s also the pain hidden behind these antics that has quickly transformed what could have been a forgettable reboot into potential appointment viewing.
This all comes to a head in Episode 3, “Lies Wide Shut.” Doherty makes excellent use of Max’s rascal of an alter ego, effortlessly delivering some of the episodes funniest moments. When Julien vents to her minions about why she can’t find a decent date, Max apathetically slaps her with the truth, saying, “Do you want to know why no one who’s been on a date with you wants to get to know you better? It’s because they can’t. You’re a billboard not a body — curated, untouchable, willingly filtered by you, your publicist your stylist.”
Savage. Later in that same episode Max intentionally positions himself between Obie and Audrey. As his two friends physically freeze up, remembering how they cheated on their significant other with this teenaged sex god, Max smirks. Then he confidently puts his hand on both of their knees. Max’s monologue to Julien and that knee grab are power moves of the finest order. They’re so ballsy and, above all else, honest, that you can’t help but respect them. They would have also been enough — yet the series pushes both Max and Doherty further.
Throughout the first season of the original Gossip Girl, the lightening rod that was Chuck Bass was hardly anything more than a source of drama. If a plot was getting stale, you could count on Chuck and his money swooping in to hit on the wrong girl or assist in a Blair plan that rarely benefited him. It wasn’t until later that Chuck was given his own perverse set of morals and a complicated ball of very human emotions. When it comes to Max, that connection between his love of manipulation and his pain is explored immediately.
It’s no coincidence that “Lies Wide Shut”, an episode that sees Max at his most chaotic, also sees him at his most emotional. While out with Julien, Max discovers that one of his dads, Roy (John Benjamin Hickey), is on the dating app Scruff. In a matter of hours Max takes matters into his own hands, blackmailing Aki into creating a honey pot dating profile using the very attractive teacher Rafa (Jason Gotay) as bait and inviting Rafa to the Jeremey O. Harris play Max will be seeing with his dads. When they all meet up, Max reveals the truth to his dad, Gideon (Todd Almond): his spouse hasn’t been faithful.
At first glance this plot just seems like just another plan in a show full of convoluted plans. But as Roy yells at his son about what he’s done, the truth comes out. Underneath the tears glistening in Max’s eyes he becomes a vulnerable kid who’s terrified that his parents are splitting apart.
Max’s breakdown is the first time these characters have felt real, rather than polished clones of a 2000s CW show. And that’s because, through Max, this show is finally dealing with real emotions. Zoya and Julien don’t know each other enough to know what to make of one another. Audrey and Aki feel like a grimace hiding a failing relationship. Julien’s pining after her ex Obie (Eli Brown) always feels more about her ego than her heart. Then there’s Max, screaming, crying, and drinking over a problem no amount of money can solve.
Thanks to Doherty’s gripping performance, Max Wolfe feels real. And that same reality offers a glimmer of hope. If the new Gossip Girl can turn its Chuck Bass into genuinely moving antihero this early, what else can it do?
New episodes of Gossip Girl premiere on HBO Max Thursdays.
Watch Gossip Girl (2021) on HBO Max
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July 23, 2021 at 11:14PM
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