Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Surfing Through "Gilmore Girls"

Written and directed by creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, at least this episode felt like "Gilmore Girls." (The last original episode felt like a remake of the show, if that makes any sense -- the same characters, but everything was...wrong.) But how far have they drifted away from the core of these characters?

Michel -- yes, he's "rude," but Michel has never ever been indifferent to Lorelai. Are we really supposed to believe he would back out of a wedding a few minutes before it began to go to a Celine Dion concert? This makes him really hateful, not drolly amusing. And I've mentioned before how this show has a weird thing about gay characters. Michel makes a Judy Garland reference, says he's a great dancer and dumps Lorelai for Celine? Let him come out already. It's just sad and creepy they keep "hinting" that Michel is gay but refuse to let him acknowledge it. And surely Rory and Lorelai are savvy enough to have clued in by now. But mostly it was annoying have him actually behave like a jerk instead of pretending to be a jerk but actually caring, which is the heart of Michel.

Rory -- Wasn't she a sweet, caring kid who yearned for a real relationship with her biological dad? So why is Rory behaving like a spoiled brat who is annoyed by his constantly texting her the first few days after they both got a new phone toy? Last year, Rory was a pill. This year, she's just annoying -- hating the idea of her grandparents paying a visit (right, when Rory has always had a good relationship with them -- that was supposed to be the difference between her and Lorelai) and now not even wanting to hear from her dad? Ridiculous.

Lorelai -- Getting drunk and feeling self-pity because everyone is getting married but her? Wrong. When Rory's dad mentioned Rory might get married next, her reaction would not have been to feel like a loser. It would have been to react with alarm and concern -- she wouldn't be jealous of Rory; she would be worried for Rory since she doesn't think Logan is right for her daughter. Enough with the pouting.

4 comments:

Daryl Chin said...

Not being a regular viewer of "The Gilmore Girls", i turned in this season and was shocked at the sudden turn of events, which rendered almost all the characters as unrecognizable. It's one thing to provide the characters with "additional" quirks, it's another thing to make them unintelligible. This is happening too often in TV: the characters lack the internal consistency which was always part of dramatic construction.

Anonymous said...

Michael: You have to love a show that has its hardcore followers disecting every word, motivation and character nuance. You are right about Michel -- let the closet doors fly open -- and who wouldn't want Lorelei and Rory as your "hags." Thought the show dropped the ball with the squirmy (by design) drunk speech at the end. Not in her personality. And the show is getting a tad soapy for my taste. But if Logan has to be killed off next week, just to get rid of him, I'll compromise. Of course, I'm still holding out hope that Dean will come back in the picture -- hey he can chase ghosts in Star Hollows for a "very special" GG.

Michael in New York said...

Daryl, I agree. Anonymous, my posting was runing too long to include my thought about the scenes from next week eg Logan's tragic accident. I ahd the same comment: Is this GG or is this a soap? When the show was good, Dean was a really interesting character. Very likable but as soon as Jess appeared on the scene, whatever you thought of him it was painfully clear that Dean was not the one for Rory -- simply not smart enough. Frankly, Jess still seems the right one for Rory, if only he didn't keep getting parts on other bad shows. And Adam Brody was the best guy for Lane. But maybe that's just my personal taste interfering.

Reel Fanatic said...

I agree that this season's story line has been uneven at best, but writing has remained solid .. the season finale in two weeks should be a blast, but sad news about the Palladinos leaving