Come on, N. Give me a sign you're in there somewhere.

Nate is too disappointing from the first episode onwards. He is friends with Chuck? I think this is a bad decision by the producers not casting at least one of his friends from the books.

The actor Chace Crawford is not very good in my opinion. He reminds me too much of Teddy Dunn from VM. Nice to look at but wishing he wouldn't open his mouth to act. His scenes are not very believable and he has no chemistry with Blake on screen or Leighton for that matter. I'm giving him a chance to improve though.

Did he have his hair cute in one scene and back long in the others??

I noticed that, too, shalia17.

This makes me think. Teddy Dunn wound up being a dud on VM, and I think that's why Logan wound up becoming the second male lead on the show--since Jason Dohring could act and had chemistry with other actors on the set, he was recast as Veronica's love interest halfway through the first season. The show would've gone in such a different direction, I feel, if Teddy Dunn had screen presence.

But what will the Gossip Girl scribes do if their Nate turns out to suck? Since the show is based on a series of books, it's not like Nate can be written out of the show and a secondary male lead can be bumped up, right? I wonder if it could be done.

I am just extremely excited that there is a television character apparently named after Hall of Fame former Boston Celtics point guard (and New York streetball legend) Nate "Tiny" Archibald.

I recognize that the universe of Gossip Girl watchers and the universe of early-'80s Celtics fans might not overlap to any huge degree, but I for one welcome Tiny to TWoP.

EDIT--spacing.

Acting wise, he reminds me of Teddy Dunn, as well - but I still have hope for him. Physically, he kind of looks like a less gorgeous Ian Somerhalder - and I can live with that.

I got the impression that Chace Crawford doesn't seem to react well to other actors. He seems to wait for the other person to stop talking before deciding to go for his line and that just makes listening to his conversations very awkward as a viewer..
I get the Teddy Dunn comparison as well, and I just have my fingers crossed that he warms up to his role soon and gets better. I make it a point to give an actor a shot beyond the pilot before completely judging them- it's a new cast, they don't all know each other.. it takes some people longer than others to mesh.

I've had a little crush on Chace Crawford since the Covenant. It's an awful movie, but the male cast is incredibly hot, and shirtless.
Chace's acting is much improved in this show, however.

Dude is kind of pretty so from a purely shallow viewpoint I'm ok (though I much prefer Dan's dad), but his acting at the moment does seem a little under par. I hope he does step up and improve soon or I can see myself forgetting all about his prettiness.

Also I have to say I cannot see why Blair is so into him (apart from the obvious, but how long is that going to last?), as a person he seems so blank, I'm not sure if this is the character or the actor (since I haven't read the books) but I find myself thinking she (and Serena) can do much better. I would definitely be ok with him getting a little less screentime in favour of the others though.

I can't talk about the actor since I find the character pretty much a blank. His core characteristics seem to be stupidity and spinelessness.

Where's the reaction to his father pimping him to Blair?

The actor is not hot enough to play Nate.
Why all the gel in his hair? Ick.
I love him in the books, actually, but in the show I'm finding Dan much hotter.

That's what I wonder about a lot of guys I see every day. Guys style their hair too much, guys use too much styling products like gel and wax, I find it very much a 21st century guy thing. :) Heck, I probably have too much styling product in my hair right now, and I was being reserved in front of the mirror this morning. ;)

Me, I've been completely taken by the actor's reddish hair and bright blue eyes ever since I learned about him through "Covenant" promotional material, so I'm probably biased. This or this is just over-styled hotness to me, and as long as that's being broughten I'm so down with anything concerning Nate. *shallow*

According to E!'s Ted Casablanca, Chace Crawford has been spotted making out with Carrie Underwood all over NYC.

The Awful Truth link

If you look hard enough, you can find pictures of them walking together. No hand holding or anything though. You can't tell anything from the pictures.

No kidding! Interesting couple...

Well, they'd certainly make very pretty (Chace) and talented (ALL Carrie, no offense haha!) babies!

So I was watching a video of one of the cast's photoshoots.. Chace actually comes forward as a pretty fun guy. Too bad he can't incorporate that into his character..

In an ironic case of real life imitating fiction, Chase Crawford got busted yesterday by gossip blogger Perez Hilton for "cheating" on Carrie Underwood. With Katrina Bowden from 30 Rock! He probably met her on set; Gossip Girl and 30 Rock film at the same NYC studio.

Blair feels your pain, Carrie!

Perez left off the part of the People article where everyone involved denied it.

I just had a quick question, something that occurred to me tonight: If Blair was a virgin up until her indiscretion with Chuck, was Nate a virgin when he had sex with Serena? I missed a couple of earlier episodes, so maybe that was addressed then. If he was, it makes what they did seem worse.

Is it just me or does it seem like Nate is kinda tuning in on Duncan Kane?.. with the brooding, goofiness (at times) and the tuning the world out with music.

I think we can assume that he was a virgin as well, since he and Blair have been a couple since they were practically kids, and with Blair's vision of Nate as perfect, it doesn't seem that he ever did anything wrong until Serena.

Someone must have prodded Chace with a cattle prod, because he seemed to wake up and start [attempting to] act in the last ep. Which was nice: the boy has some charisma when he's not imitating a coma patient.

I noticed that too. He was still somewhat bland, of course. But I saw instances where there seemed to be some more emotion than usual. One scene that comes to mind is when he was 'depositing' Jenny in the cab- after having waved her off, he gave a sort of genuine smile. It didn't seem wooden, which was nice for a change.

I'm very disappointed in Nate after the most recent episode. It seems like he views his relationship with Blair as one-dimensional- either she's his girlfriend, or she's nothing to him. Why else wouldn't he call her on her birthday? He knows that those sorts of traditions are important to her, so would it be too much to ask for that, after being involved in one way or another (friends, more than that, pretending-to-be-more-than-that-for-daddy's-sake) for 10+ years, he carried on the tradition? He could have made it clear that he was only calling as a friend, not as a boyfriend, but it doesn't seem like he even cares about her as a friend. It's as if he figures, "Ok, not her boyfriend anymore, don't owe her anything," completely ignoring the fact that she has been deeply, intimately connected to him for years and he owes it to that connection to continue to do things for her, even if it is just calling or showing up at the party in a platonic way. And I think it's clear that Blair doesn't view Nate in the same way- even after they had broken up, as soon as she saw the newspaper, all she could think about was how Nate was feeling. You don't have to be in love with someone to give a crap about them- except, it seems, if you're Nate.

He could have simply forgotten while he was bonding with Jenny and then if/when he remembered, decided against it since the moment had passed. Of course, that's thoughtless too..
But in his defense, he has always called at midnight as her 'boyfriend'. Also, earlier in the afternoon, during their phone conversation, Nate was giving in to his parent's wishes and going along with it, but he could tell that Blair totally wanted to get back into the relationship and he might have felt that anything on his behalf would make her feel that they were back together..

I think I forgot something. What reason does nate have for hating...Carter? Is that his name? Anyway, I think you know who I'm talking about.

He screwed him over in episode 5 during a game of poker, I believe. I wasn't quite paying attention.

He got Nate into a shady poker game and in way over his head, then expected him to drain his trust fund to pay off the debt. Nate attacked Carter for using their friendship to set him up for the con, but then before the thugs could get him, Chuck arrived and paid everybody off.

I'm still on the fence about the character and Chace. On one hand, I admit that Nate is not a very developed character so far and that his motivations seem shallow, but I don't know if he's not being given more complex dialogue because the actor simply does not have the chops.

We'll see though. Last episode he was a bit more proactive I guess and of course it didn't hurt that Chace and Leighton totally sold that reconciliation scene.

That's problematic too, because I'm not sure Blair would see that as anything other than a "pity call", and I'm not sure how he would endeavor to make sure that she "understood" the terms. Tough to make it natural and not as if he were rubbing salt in the wound. I think it's almost more insulting that he was able to get to the exact location of the party and then moped around on the street with Jenny without ever hauling his lame ass upstairs - and in the entire time they were lounging about, someone who knows both he and Blair could've easily arrived at or left the party and saw them, they certainly made no effort to be subtle. Couldn't they at least have hidden in a coffee shop? She and Chuck could've picked them out by sight from the balcony!

Chace Crawford pre-Nate Archibald. In all his cheesy goodness.

According to the webmistress of chaceonline.com, there's a bit of drama surrounding those pictures:

I still have no idea exactly what went on, but I sense that hilarity was involved.

Well I think the cat is out of the bag. Those pictures have made every gossip blog on the net.

Chace looks like a twinky gay porn star.

Heh, I don't care if Chace can't act, his stunning looks makes up for his average acting. Chace is my favourite TV eye candy. Oh yeah.

I'm dissappointed that real life Chace doesn't have the same sense of style as Nate. He seems to always look quit scruffy, with messy hair and down market stubble.

I'll take that yeah and raise you a Hell Yeah. I don't care if Chace has the acting chops of a stuffed bunny -- he can just stand there and stare blankly into the camera without talking, and that would be enough for me.

That said, I don't think he's all that bad an actor. He tries, at least.

Oh, Nate. Even when you're wearing a pretty blue hoodie that matches your pretty blue eyes or dating below your station or punching the deserving crap out of your father, you really put me to sleep. Yaaaaaaaaawn.

Chace has amazing hair. He has gotten so hot as the season has progressed..

They actually made him somewhat likeable in the finale which is always a plus. Chace Crawford has a lot of charm and is a sweet guy, they should let him imbue his character with his real-life personality more often.

Ah hell, I spent most of the first season hating him and then the second he's all smiley and banter-y with Serena, I'm back to swooning at him again. That's so Nate Archibald so it makes sense: people that good-looking can get away with murder.

Anyone know if Chace has started filming the new season yet? I'll be really interested to see where his character goes. I mean, let's face it, in terms of character development, Nate is way down there in the food chain.

In other news, Chace is on the guest list for every major men's fashion show during fashion week coming up. Looks like Mr Crawford is a rather hot commodity.

Chace and everyone else starts filming tomorrow.

And Nate has gotten LOADS more likable in the latter-half of the season, but I do think he's the character that could use the most work.

I can understand why. He looks damn good in a suit.

Hi there, I lurk here often, and I wanted to show some PDA for the show, so I made these of Chace. He certainly does look damn good in a suit!

http://i33.tinypic.com/29djlaf.gif
http://i37.tinypic.com/2trmr.jpg

Nate's make-up session with Katherine in the car? I think the writers wanted to make us believe in the first few seconds when they didn't show her face that the blond hair was Serena's. While it may just have been to throw us off for little bit, and Nate hasn't shown any signs of still being in love with Serena, maybe they're inadvertently showing us that he kind of is? I know, I know, it doesn't mean that whenever he's into some blond chick, he's pining for Serena, but I just don't understand why they just dropped that storyline altogether without some closure and I want them to delve into it a little bit.
Plus, that kiss in front of Dan was kind of awesome. /tiny voice.

So, basically Nate is prostituting himself to save his family finances. I wouldn't care so much if Catherine was his last and only option but she wasn't, Chuck was perfectly willing to give him the money and he didn't expect anything in return. Catherine's money has strings attached, and accepting it was an incredibly stupid idea.

I thought that Chuck did give his mom the money anyways, though.

It doesn't surprise me in the slightest. Nate never thinks about his consequences. That's why he never makes the right decision and always seems stupid.

In another example of stupidity, Vanessa was possibly the most interesting thing in Nate's life and the two have so much more chemistry than any other Nate combination.

Putting away all the icky whoring and daddy issues aside. Nate as an 18 year old is banging a really hot older woman, who is probably really freaky in bed and get's paid for it. You go Nate Archibald!

I'm really enjoying the character development of Nate at the moment. It's been quite a long time coming.

Also, what was with that press release from Armani about Chace wearing their clothes? Desperate much? I really hope he doesn't become their new face in fw09/10. He's too young. He should be wearing Marc Jacobs and Alexander McQueen.