The Leighton Meester Renaissance Is Underway

We’ve reached the end of another long week. But before we clock out for the weekend, we’re giving props where they’re due. Here’s to our winners of the week.

Everywhere you look, another ’00s teen soap star is back on top. While Blake Lively and Michelles Williams have been A-list more or less since their breakout hits, their costars’ ascents have been slow but steady for the past 20-ish years. But after some almost-hits and good faith missteps, they’re once again atop the TV pyramid. Millennials, we’re winning.

The number one show on Netflix is Nobody Wants This, a breezy but touching interfaith rom-com starring the always charming Adam Brody (forever The O.C.’s Seth Cohen in our hearts) and Veronica Mars herself, Kristen Bell. Bell found plenty of movie success post-Veronica (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Frozen), and her NBC show The Good Place was well-received but quickly disappeared from cultural memory. Nobody Wants This makes the best use of Bell’s talents in years. As Veronica, yes, she solved crimes and took names, but viewers fell in love with her quippy sarcasm. As self-deprecating podcast cohost Joanne on NWT, sassy Bell is back!

Meanwhile Brody’s wife, Leighton Meester of Gossip Girl fame, is joining the cast of The Buccaneers in addition to being attached to Rachel Sennott’s buzzy HBO pilot. She, too, is connected to Bell, who was the voice of Gossip Girl herself, a fact a whole new generation will soon discover when the full series returns to American Netflix on October 29 (here’s every single episode, ranked).

Meester’s previous post-GG foray into television, Single Parents, was underrated and fun, but frankly, her part could have been played by any brunette with an improv background. The Apple TV project, on the other hand, features luxurious period costumes, schemes, and secrets. The skills she honed as Blair Waldorf make Meester the best addition the show could have asked for.