Andrew Garfield was 28 when he starred as a pubescent Peter Parker. The miles-long record in this department stretches back decades: Stockard Channing was 33 in 1978, when she played high school student Rizzo in Grease. Poking holes in the fabric of TV believability is a culture vulture's favorite pastime, and frequent jabs surround the derided Hollywood habit of casting 20- and 30-somethings as teenagers. But nowhere is the realism less apparent than in the age of the cast itself. The show has yet to cement itself as a defining chronicle of the Gen Z experience, even for New York City's storied elite. The new Gossip Girl reboot on HBO Max takes an admittedly wobbly approach to realism, given that the series documents the interpersonal drama between millionaire (and billionaire) teenagers.
