Minority Mindset

The original Gossip Girl series was inspired by the book series of the same name, which included 13 novels. The show centered on the lives of privileged teenagers like Blair Waldorf, Serena Van der Woodsen, Nate Archibald, and Chuck Bass, as well as their friends from Brooklyn, Dan Humphrey and Vanessa Abrams, and their dramatic experiences on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. From school scandals to complicated love lives, Gossip Girl covered it all. Though the 2021 reboot on HBO Max didn’t quite recapture the original’s popularity, fans are hopeful for a new installment in 2026.

Throughout the first season, a second story emerged, revealing the origins of the hidden Monarch organization in the 1950s. These two narratives eventually came together when characters from both eras met in a strange location called the Axis Mundi. This place, existing outside of both the surface world and Hollow Earth, introduced bizarre physics and opened up exciting new directions for the entire Monsterverse.

Marvel Studios is increasingly focused on its animated content, giving these projects the same level of importance as its big live-action movies. Meanwhile, DC is finding success with both shows for younger audiences and darker, alternative stories. With several major animated series and specials planned for this year, fans have a lot to look forward to across the entire comic book universe.

Honestly, this episode was just relentlessly awful to watch. Kyle is completely losing it over Amanda swimming naked, which is so frustrating because they’ve clearly done that before as a couple! And then he starts complaining about her to the guys right in front of her – seriously? Amanda completely shuts him down, ignoring him when he asks where she’s going and refusing to talk about their problems unless he brings them up first. When he does try to talk about it, he does it in front of everyone, and she just glares at him, even after he apologized! It’s just a disaster, and I was cringing the whole time. You know, Bailey actually nailed it. She said they’re at this point where nothing either of them does is right in the other’s eyes, and they’re so mad at each other that anything sets them off. She’s right, someone needs to give in, but they’re both just stubbornly refusing to budge, and it’s painful to watch them both dig their heels in.

I was really gripped by the latest episode, especially seeing Sweetpea and Kwabena in Accra, Ghana. They were digging into whether Tender was still handling dodgy payments, and they actually found proof! It led them to this really suspicious CFO, Tony Day, and they uncovered that the whole acquisition by SwiftGC was a sham – basically just a fake company existing on paper. But then something awful happened. While Sweetpea was at the beach, a local man attacked her, which was incredibly disturbing to watch. Instead of dealing with the trauma, she ended up seeking comfort from Kwabena. The creator explained it wasn’t necessarily about wanting intimacy, but more about Sweetpea trying to feel in control of her own body again and reconnect with it after the attack.

The 1950s brought a fresh perspective to Western films, featuring more complex characters and morally ambiguous heroes. As in previous years, many successful Westerns were based on novels, and these adaptations changed how viewers saw cowboys and frontier life. In 1953, Alan Ladd starred as a particularly influential Western hero, though the author who originally created the character later rejected the portrayal.