Thursday, April 27, 2006

Surfing Through "Gilmore Girls"

Directorboy officially stopped watching "Gilmore Girls;" the breaking point was Lorelai's drunken pity-fest at Lane's wedding. Frankly, last night's show continued its descent into soap opera with characters who behave foolishly or idiotically. First, we finally got some motivation from Luke as to why he's been keeping Lorelai and his daughter separate -- he's worried the kid will like Lorelai better. This could (I stress COULD) have been presented in a cute, insecure manner. Instead, Luke just said it matter-of-factly and almost rudely. And I know he's socially awkward, but what person thinks a party for 11 little girls involves putting them in a room with absolutely nothing to do? He's not that stupid. But of course Luke has to be FORCED to bring in Lorelai for help, who immediately makes the party a huge success. Then we get the even more bizarre twist that the girl's mom is furious that Lorelai was around her daughter. She's a single mom and has to be protective of her kid? Huh? Did she ever tell Luke, "You can have visitation rights but I insist you hide your girlfriend of two years and fiance from my daughter's sight?" No. How can she expect Luke to hide the most important person in his life from his daughter? They're engaged for God's sake. "Engaged isn't married" says the single mom. Huh? Like married people never get divorced? And how lucky that she had this bizarre notion that Lorelai shouldn't come into contact with her kid and Luke unwittingly fulfilled that unspoken request out of his own stupid fears. Obviously, the only purpose of this is to make Lorelai feel like a loser for not being married. Never mind that the ENTIRE POINT of Lorelai (not to mention the show) is that she is a single mom -- and a great one -- who has raised a terrific daughter and opened her own successful business all on her own. Rory's plot was even stupider. Yes, Logan's friends are twits. But the idea that they would be joking and joshing while their best friend was lying unconscious in a hospital and potentially near death was absurd. Almost as absurd as Logan's parents staying away when their son was critically ill and perhaps dying. The mom got the news and went immediately to a spa? The dad stayed away because he thought the son's vacations were immature? Yeah the dad's a jerk but nothing he did could even remotely compare to coldly staying away when his son has a terrible accident and is in critical condition in the hospital. To cap it off, Rory shames the dad into visiting (with a sheepish look on his face) by barking at him on the phone. The only remotely reasonable plot element was Paris getting the info from the hospital that Rory couldn't. Very weak episode.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Michael: While I'm not as down on this episode as you are, it did feel, at times, that I was watching a high school production of GG. There is just something a bit off about the whole thing. And why Luke is in the dog house for having Lorelei at the birthday party is beyond belief. It's not like they were doing "it" in the kitchen. And how sad that Luke, the voice of reason, is becoming such a clown.

Michael in New York said...

Short-stuff, I too have loved Gilmore Girls. But if you rewatch seasons one through three, it's like a different show entirely and so much better. Good point about Luke, anonymous. I didn't even have space to point out that Luke had very reasonably but persistently made himself a part of Rory's life by telling Lorelai 'Hey, I'm a part of her life now because I'm a part of your life and I do care what happens to her, etc." And then he turns around and keeps Lorelai at arms length for months on end from his daughter?