*Spoiler alert for those who haven’t finished*

In the summer of 2012, I did what every teenage girl was already doing. I started Gossip Girl on Netflix. A keen decision at the time, but I didn’t realize it would waste 90 hours of precious time I could have spent doing literally anything else.

Don’t get me wrong, the first two seasons were enthralling. I was mesmerized by the characters elite fashion choices, various conflicts between boyfriends and frenemies, and their struggle to rise as a New York socialite while being a high school student and staying out of the wrath of Gossip Girl, the anonymous blogger that published every detail of the lives of  “Manhattan’s elites”.

There were some things that threw me off in the beginning- all the characters were supposed to be sixteen, yet all the characters were able to go out to clubs almost every episode, as if drinking laws were a myth. I soon realized that realism was not on top of the agenda while writing the show.

As the characters graduated from high school, the plot lines became more extravagant and far-fetched- including con artists pretending to be siblings, a faked death for three seasons, and a marriage to a prince. The show was at its peak when the characters were in high school, because it was easier to believe that a trivial gossip app could literally ruin their lives (the same thing happened at Staples, with Yik Yak).

As the characters grew older, you would think that they would want to leave their scandalous high school pasts behind them, which included Gossip Girl. But no, since the characters all went to college in Manhattan or didn’t go at all, (which seemed less like a coincidence and more the writers’ futile attempt to hold on to the show by its strings), the characters’ lives were still intertwined. Even when the storylines got cringe-worthy, I kept watching because I couldn’t give up when I had made it this far.

When I finally reached the credits of the 121st episode, “New York, I Love You XOXO,” a wave of relief and euphoria washed over me. I could finally put Gossip Girl behind me, and binge watch another Netflix show that would equally waste my time.