The Long Morrow: How Gilmores Got Their Groove Back.
Okay folks, forgive me for geeking out a little bit on this post. I guess I’ve given up any illusions I may have had about ever writing a short blog entry, so I apologize in advance to those of you who sadly will not be able to relate to today’s topic. To those of you who DO know what I’m talking about, please leave a comment below and back a brotha up. To those of you who know not of what I speak, I hope you’ll read anyway, and know that it’s never too late to get in the game. I mean it. Let me know if you wanna come over and get started catching up. I won’t name any names, but a certain recent convert caught up on all 6 seasons in the past 2-3 months (and yes, he has a life), and another friend of mine who used to claim the show was too "white-girl" for his slightly UPN tendencies has now succumbed too, so believe me when I say there’s hope for the rest of you yet!
Let me begin by saying that I’m an unapologetic sucker for good tv. It’s comforting to know that at some point in the day, I’ll have the opportunity to rewatch an episode of Law & Order: SVU or Golden Girls for the 3rd or 57th time (respectively). Though now that Lifetime has moved Dorothy, Blanche, Rose, and Sophia to some ungodly hour like 1:00am, I am increasingly grateful that I can watch them on DVD whenever I choose, along with the brilliant improv of the inept cops on Reno-911!, or the highbrow-meets-slapstick hijinks of the sadly underappreciated Arrested Development, which was prematurely given the ax last year while in its third season. I’m almost caught up on the second season of Lost, and I’ve basically ditched my Sunday night appointments with Desperate Housewives for their glammier, trashier, British-er Sunday night counterparts on BBC’s Footballers’ Wive$. [If Desperate Housewives really does get good again this season, somebody out there please let me know.] But there are only two "can’t miss" shows currently on my list right now.
Gilmore Girls has been on my must-see list since the beginning of its second season back in 2001. Those of you who know me already understand that this show is my favorite ever - well, let’s call it a tie with Golden Girls. To help put my devotion to Gilmore Girls into perspective, let me point out that even when I was high and homeless in Los Angeles, I would ALWAYS find a tv to watch on Tuesday nights at 8:00pm. And before my eviction, when I actually had an apartment in LA, my Tuesday nights were sacred. My apartment was in one of those Melrose Placeish two-story U-shaped buildings with a courtyard, and from my apartment on the second story I could look down across the courtyard and into the apartment of a cute young gay guy named Tom Lenk. In the fall of 2001, when Buffy the Vampire Slayer moved from WB to UPN and began airing opposite Gilmore Girls, Tom scored himself a recurring role on Buffy. Despite his numerous attempts, I had to repeatedly respectfully decline invitations to Buffy viewing parties at his apartment, because I could not miss an evening with my Girls. If that ain’t devotion, I dunno what is.
For those of you unfortunates who have never seen it, Gilmore Girls is an extremely well-written, impeccably acted dramedy spanning three generations of women - and the men in their lives - which mostly takes place in the fictional small town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut. The story centers around a very cool single mom who had her daughter when she was soooooo young that they’re really more like best friends. But the main element that has always elevated the show out of the typical chick-flicky muck is the quick and expansive wit of the well-educated, over-caffeinated characters, and the fine line between comedy and drama which has been deftly toed since day one. In fact, it’s a widely held belief that the only reason Gilmore Girls has not been showered with awards is because it’s too dramatic to fit neatly into the comedy categories, and too comedic to fit neatly into the drama categories. The show’s trademark rapid-fire dialogue is always peppered with current pop culture items, obscure literary references, clever-to-silly wordplay, and everything in between. I almost always feel smarter and funnier after getting my wit refreshed by spending some time with these Girls. And Lauren Graham is perhaps the finest actress EVER to appear on television. (Yeah, I said it.)
However, after a rocky sixth season plagued by tediously drawn-out conflicts and some rather hackneyed plot contrivances, the majority of the characters we’d grown to love had been backed into rather unlikable (and, more importantly, uncharacteristic) corners, and fans were not quiet about their displeasure with the direction the show had taken. There were a few shining moments interspersed throughout the season, but for the most part, the brilliant mastering of the comedy/drama balance which had always kept us laughing and thinking and caring had become buried by the increasing unpleasantness of nearly every character. Somehow the elder Gilmores and the sorely underutilized Paris managed to escape this dark cloud, but major players like Lorelai, Luke, and Rory became exhaustingly one-note by the end of the season. Lorelai has always been admired - and occasionally admonished - for her cojones, but she was written as such a friggin’ wuss for most of the season that by the time she finally regrew a pair and stood up for herself, it sort of seemed that she didn’t deserve what she was demanding. And Luke - pout, whine, grump, complain, hermit, poopy… and either cruelly insensitive or just plain blind to Lorelai’s obvious discomfort for the majority of last season. Rory simply needed to shut up for most of season six. I could barely understand a word she said 95% of the time, and during her time off from school she turned into a majorly snobby spoiled brat, which made the comprehensible 5% of her dialogue gratingly unbearable. I’m still not entirely sold on her Richie Rich boyfriend Logan, ‘cuz I think he sorta helped her turn into this person I don’t like. But at least he can enunciate and looks good shirtless.
So, this past Tuesday night was the seventh (!) season premiere of Gilmore Girls. By the end of season six, the show’s creators couldn’t reach a satisfactory deal with the network, so they handed the reins over to another of the show’s producers and walked away. This Tuesday night I sat with mom, dad, my sister, and Jackalyst and watched "The Long Morrow", the show’s first episode under the new regime. I have to say, I was THRILLED with the results. The episode felt like old-school Gilmore Girls to me. I laughed out loud several times. I almost cried at least once. I was on the edge of my seat holding my breath multiple times. And of course there was some shouting at the tv. ["Don't tell him! Don't do it!... NOOOOOO!"] Luke was being characteristically awkward but also characteristically sweet when he showed up with his truck packed and ready to go. Lorelai quietly asked him to stop, until eventually her guilt and self-disgust forced her to resort to extreme measures to shut him up. As for Rory, well, her stuff with Logan was really kind of touching and old-school-Roryesque. And hey, I understood nearly every word that came out of her mouth that night. Makes me wonder if the new writers prefaced every line in her script with "RORY: (speaking clearly)…"
But most importantly, the characters felt like the characters I fell in love with years ago and have been rooting for ever since. The unlikability that was written for the actors to grapple with last season was not washed away with one episode, but we did begin to see the show dealing with the ramifications in a way that felt like responsible storytelling, the kind that’s grounded in the hyperreal world of these likable, if flawed, characters. I realize that the reviews of the new season thus far are understandably mixed (due in no small part to some fans’ unflinching loyalty to the show’s creators), but as far as I’m concerned, my Girls are back, and I cannot wait to see where they are headed next.
And also, let me just say this, I should totally get some kind of commission or something for the number of people I’ve gotten hooked on this show. Like I said at the beginning, if you’re reading this and you watch Gilmore Girls (whether or not I was the one who got you addicted), leave a comment below just so that any readers who remain uninitiated don’t think I’m some cracked girlie-man with questionable taste in programming.
Or at least they’ll know I’m not the only one.
[Note: I'd also planned on discussing my new, most recently discovered must-see tv commitment, but I'll save that one for another time. Perhaps next week, after its reunion show airs...]
October 9th, 2006 at 4:48 pm
I miss Buffy. And I did remember to record the Girls this week.