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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Gilmore Girls

  
 
gridley
20:21 / 18.10.02
Inspired by Flux’s lament on undiscussed topics, I think we should talk about Gilmore Girls. I think a lot of people steer clear of this show because they’re afraid it’s going to be too precious or too Dawson’s Creek. Those people are cooling themselves out of a really high quality show, that is every bit as smart as it is sentimental.

The music and musical references are brilliant (from Claudine Longet to XTC). I love how Grant Lee Phillips (from Grant Lee Buffalo) is the town troubadour. I wonder if we’ll see more of Carole King’s music shop now that Lane is starting her band?

The writing is often superior to most one-hour dramas. the extremely snappy and witty dialogue can elevate even the most cliché sit-com moments into pomo gems. And though the one-liners are plentiful, they blend in a bit more seamlessly than in, say, Joss Whedon’s shows. The scripts suffered a bit in the second season. For some reason, male writers sometimes portay Lorelei as annoying and pointlessly irrational (a mistake since Lorelei should really be pointedly irrational). The show definitely works best when the women are pulling the strings.

Paris kicks ass. I don’t know who this actress is, but she kick so much ass.

I live for any episode Kirk or Madeline is in. Rory is great of course. Lane is much fun.

I can’t stand Suki, but my girlfriend loves her.

What do you all think?
 
 
Saint Keggers
02:21 / 19.10.02
Well I catch it when I can... (I should actually bother to learn the characters names though) I got bored real fast with the chinese mother.
I dont know why I like this show..but I really do.
 
 
lolita nation
19:55 / 20.10.02
it's good to flip to when buffy sucks. which is... kind of often.
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
15:19 / 21.10.02
Lane's mother is Korean. Not Chinese. There's not many Christian Chinese people.

I think that part of Lorelai's character, part of what makes her real, is that she is a person that most people would find annoying if they met her in passing - she talks way too much, she's flighty, she makes inappropriate comments frequently, she can be very irrational. It's part of her charm, and if the writers lacked the selfawareness to realize that most people would be aggravated by her, and didn't have the majority of characters react to her in the way that they do, it just wouldn't make much sense.

I think Gilmore Girls is a polarizing kind of show - you're either going to like it or hate it, I don't think there's much middle ground to cover. There's a lot of things about the show that are offputting, and I don't think Gridley's on the right track - it's more that a lot of people get annoyed by how talky the show is, how rapid-fire the dialogue is. The show is becoming increasingly insular - watching the most recent episodes, I realize that unless you've been watching the show since the beginning, there's some characters that just will seem ridiculous and silly without knowing any backstory. Paris is a great example - the way she's been written in this season, I really can't expect people to get the joke, especially if they don't know anyone like her in their life.

The first two episodes this season were just sort of so-so, I wasn't very satisfied with how the soap opera plots were being worked out, and I think that to focus on those romantic entanglements just makes the show more ordinary. The last two episodes are more what I really love about the series - more mundane things like Rory's college applications and Lane's stifled desires to rebel against her mother.

I'm going to have to go against Gridley's feeling that the second season was lacking - I think those were the best episodes, and the pacing was better than in the first or current season. The characters were still developing over the course of the first season, and right now, the show seems somewhat aimless. It's still very early in the season - there's about 20 more episodes to go, so I'm not sure where we'll be by the end of season 3.

I'm looking foward to the episode in which Rory is inevitably rejected by Harvard, and I'd like to see some kind of resolution with Jess/Rory and Lane and her mother. I'm feeling a bit of withdrawl from Lorelai's parents, who are two of the best-written characters in the series - I've missed Emily and Richard a lot. I don't want the writers to cop out with Christopher and his unfortunate situation, and I don't want to see anything really positive to happen to Luke, because he's more interesting as a lonely sad sack grump.

By the way, the actress who plays Paris is named Liza Weil, and she's very talented. She's had a lot of minor roles on very good shows - ER, Pete & Pete, Law and Order, and was the star of a nice little indie movie called Whatever, in which she plays a character who is more or less the polar opposite of Paris.
 
 
gridley
21:15 / 22.10.02
I've got to disagree with you somewhat, Flux. Now, if this show was unpopular and unloved by the masses, I would buy the argument that people are turned off by the fast-talking. But frankly, the masses dig this show. It's one of the most popular shows the WB has ever had. I find (in my admittedly non-scientific polling) that it's only people who think of themselves as "too smart" for this kind of show who don't like it. That just says to me, it's not the talkiness.

As far as too insular, there's some truth there, but I think the "Previously on..." bits help a lot, especially since they do them halfway through the show as well. And I guess people who prefer things rapped up quickly aren't going to watchy these soapy-type shows (like this and Dawson's Creek) anyway, no matter how good the writing and acting is.

I agree about Luke. If he and Lorelai ever get together, then they're both done as characters. Though, frankly, I'd love it if the show just followed the kids after they all go off to Harvard (somehow Kirk would have to go to Harvard, as well, I'm still working that out).
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
22:24 / 22.10.02
SPOILER:

If it wasn't already abundantly obvious, Rory is not going to Harvard.
 
 
gridley
12:36 / 23.10.02
where did you hear that?
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
13:17 / 23.10.02
The Palladinos have mentioned in it several interviews, one of which is in the spoilers secion at Gilmore Girls.net Even still, it's pretty obvious that Rory was never going there from the get-go. It's a DRAMA series. They're setting her up for a fall. Also, Harvard won't let people shoot on their campus. Richard's alma matter will, though. And it makes the show work a little more logically, considering that Lorelai and Rory should be in close promiximity to each other for it all to make sense.
 
 
pointless and uncalled for
14:11 / 23.10.02
I was conned into watching a couple of episodes of this so called entertainment. I found the direction a bit too lacking (esp in continuity) and the flavour both sickly sweet and insipid. All of this surrounding a script that seems dedicated to ensuring that everyone, and I do mean every single character in the show, is constantly engaged in high-paced, high-pitched, manic and somewhat insidious arguments and discussions that come across as poor copies of Seinfeld speeded up to aggravation levels.

OK I admit it, this is not my kind of entertainment but seriously, is everyone in the show suffering from chronic hyperthyroidism.

Before taking me to heavily to heart, I also can't stand Buffy and apparently i'm wrong about that as well.
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
14:26 / 23.10.02
It's okay, Potus. Stick to Battlebots, and you'll be alright.
 
 
pointless and uncalled for
14:36 / 23.10.02
Look son, I can understand that you don't like me but please do me the decency of being accurate. It's Robot Wars, yes that's right, I'm English and live in England, we don't have battlebots over here we have Robot Wars and we're proud of it.
 
  
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