NYC Prep Continues to Make Us Hope for a Better Tomorrow
It just keeps getting better/worse. On the heels of our introduction to the kids of NYC Prep, Bravo's new real-life Gossip Girl series, an in-person preview was held at the Paley Center. Erstwhile Gawker editor Joshua David Stein was there.
He was filing for the New York Times blog The Moment, and his findings were both grim and delightful. Two anecdotes in particular sent shivers up and down our spine.
The first is of young Sebastian, the rumply teddy-bear playa who likes to crush a lot:
"My hobby," says Sebastian, a doe-eyed 16-year-old ladies' man, "is hooking up with the hottest girls I can." Like any budding player, Sebastian goes on a date to Kurve, a futuristic Thai place in the East Village, with a wingman and two hapless 16-year-old girls. This isn't so much what adults do as what a teenager might think adults do.
Ha. Which basically makes them the only customers that space station debacle of a restaurant has ever had. (Srsly, it is always sad and empty.)
The next is of poor Taylor who is, well, poor. See, she goes to public school, rather than one of the tony private academies that mold the young, molting minds of the other cast members. This often causes her dismay and anxiety. Mostly caused by the bitchy Kelli, who lives sans parents on the Upper East:
Kelli, a 16-year-old aspiring singer, lives with her slightly older brother without parent supervision - Mom and Dad come in once a week from their house in the Hamptons - on the Upper East Side. As you might expect for an unsupervised minor, she has nothing but bottled water in the fridge and eats out every night. (This is perhaps the most realistic detail.) Taylor, the "poor" publicly schooled one, aches to fit in with the cushy crowd and throws a party at Japonais because, "it's good to be perceived as having money." Sadly, the mix of public and private school sensibilities is not a harmonious one and her private school friends - Kelli, the singer, and Camille, the uptight overachiever - leave in a huff. (It doesn't help that Sebastian, who went on a date with Kelli to the Moschino store, spends the night flirting with Taylor.)
Oh how awful high school is! Throw money and terrifying plays for society status into the mix, and you basically get a cocktail as sour (and wonderful) as a gimlet and as potent (in a good way?) as a dry martini.
We sorta can't wait.
Oh, and here's the full preview special. It's brilliant.