Gilmore Girls, minus 1
Too much football on the blog lately? Hankering for some girlier stuff? Well, then, today is your day. It's Tuesday, which means it's time for Gilmore Girls!
Sigh. I loved Gilmore Girls. I thought what we had was real. I loved the zippy banter. I loved the quirky but loving relationship between Lorelei and Rory. I loved that Rory was unapologetically smart and shy. I loved the loopy Stars Hallow denizens. I loved to hate Emily and Richard (forget an Emmy for Lauren Graham, where is Kelly Bishop's statuette?). I loved Tuesday nights. It was all one delightful, super-caffeinated, pop-culture-fueled hour of girlie joy.
Until last season. I didn't mind the Rory-Lorelei rift (it was time). I didn't mind Rory uncharacteristically dropping out of Yale to become a mini-Emily (well, why not go there?). I didn't even really mind Rory's inexplicable attraction to Logan - or as I call him, Tristan 2.0 (for those not quite as obsessed with past seasons as I am, Tristan was a ne'er-do-well rich kid who pined for Rory at Chilton and tried to steal her from Dean. Played by Chad Michael Murray, he could be Logan's slightly more surly doppleganger). No, the reason I found last season insufferable was the utter lobotomization of Lorelei and Luke. He is too freaked out to tell his fiancee he has a long-lost daughter? It didn't come up over breakfast? Like, he wouldn't mention a weird little girl showing up at the diner to perform a DNA test? For months and months? Who would do that? And more importantly, who would put up with that kind of shizz? Not our Lorelei. Oh, but wait, she totally did put up with it. And then, having waited and waited and waited, finally begged Luke to marry her so she could finally wear the fugliest dress in the history of weddings.
ARGGG!
So, I was more than a little annoyed at creator Amy Sherman-Palladino for messing with my beloved Lorelei, making her weak and pathetic and mockable - and for making Luke such a dunce that I started to believe Lorelei really should wind up with Christopher. I started to wonder if the appearance of April meant they'd finally jumped the shark.
Even so, I didn't want things to end like this. Palladino and her husband Dan, who together have written and directed some of Gilmore's best episodes, left the series when the WB wouldn't meet her contract demands. Now that is a problem. Palladino was the heart of the show; if you've seen her interviewed, you'll know that, in many ways, she was Lorelei. She was the source of the zip, the patter, the oddball sensibility. And now she's gone. We're down one Gilmore Girl.
So, it was with serious trepidation that I watched last week's season premiere. Sookie and Michel arm wrestling? Weirdly out of character, and not in a good way. Banter? Snappy but not smart. Lorelei and Rory playing racquetball? Never, ever, ever! Why oh why? Emily and Richard? MIA. The episode felt a little slow and stilted - and even missed on the emotional highlight. Despite Scott Peterson's best efforts, the denouement between Luke and Lorelei - the one we waited a whole summer, and then a whole hour, for fell kind of flat.
Maybe I'm reading too much into it. Maybe Palladino wasn't as central as I think. But last week's episode missed the emotional mark with me, by playing too cutesy with some characters and not respecting others. Will it get better? I hope so. For the last season, I'd hate the Girls to go limping out. C'mon CW, bring back Amy Sherman-Palladino for the finale and all is forgiven.
Sigh. I loved Gilmore Girls. I thought what we had was real. I loved the zippy banter. I loved the quirky but loving relationship between Lorelei and Rory. I loved that Rory was unapologetically smart and shy. I loved the loopy Stars Hallow denizens. I loved to hate Emily and Richard (forget an Emmy for Lauren Graham, where is Kelly Bishop's statuette?). I loved Tuesday nights. It was all one delightful, super-caffeinated, pop-culture-fueled hour of girlie joy.
Until last season. I didn't mind the Rory-Lorelei rift (it was time). I didn't mind Rory uncharacteristically dropping out of Yale to become a mini-Emily (well, why not go there?). I didn't even really mind Rory's inexplicable attraction to Logan - or as I call him, Tristan 2.0 (for those not quite as obsessed with past seasons as I am, Tristan was a ne'er-do-well rich kid who pined for Rory at Chilton and tried to steal her from Dean. Played by Chad Michael Murray, he could be Logan's slightly more surly doppleganger). No, the reason I found last season insufferable was the utter lobotomization of Lorelei and Luke. He is too freaked out to tell his fiancee he has a long-lost daughter? It didn't come up over breakfast? Like, he wouldn't mention a weird little girl showing up at the diner to perform a DNA test? For months and months? Who would do that? And more importantly, who would put up with that kind of shizz? Not our Lorelei. Oh, but wait, she totally did put up with it. And then, having waited and waited and waited, finally begged Luke to marry her so she could finally wear the fugliest dress in the history of weddings.
ARGGG!
So, I was more than a little annoyed at creator Amy Sherman-Palladino for messing with my beloved Lorelei, making her weak and pathetic and mockable - and for making Luke such a dunce that I started to believe Lorelei really should wind up with Christopher. I started to wonder if the appearance of April meant they'd finally jumped the shark.
Even so, I didn't want things to end like this. Palladino and her husband Dan, who together have written and directed some of Gilmore's best episodes, left the series when the WB wouldn't meet her contract demands. Now that is a problem. Palladino was the heart of the show; if you've seen her interviewed, you'll know that, in many ways, she was Lorelei. She was the source of the zip, the patter, the oddball sensibility. And now she's gone. We're down one Gilmore Girl.
So, it was with serious trepidation that I watched last week's season premiere. Sookie and Michel arm wrestling? Weirdly out of character, and not in a good way. Banter? Snappy but not smart. Lorelei and Rory playing racquetball? Never, ever, ever! Why oh why? Emily and Richard? MIA. The episode felt a little slow and stilted - and even missed on the emotional highlight. Despite Scott Peterson's best efforts, the denouement between Luke and Lorelei - the one we waited a whole summer, and then a whole hour, for fell kind of flat.
Maybe I'm reading too much into it. Maybe Palladino wasn't as central as I think. But last week's episode missed the emotional mark with me, by playing too cutesy with some characters and not respecting others. Will it get better? I hope so. For the last season, I'd hate the Girls to go limping out. C'mon CW, bring back Amy Sherman-Palladino for the finale and all is forgiven.
posted by Jen @ 10:00 a.m.
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