It’s amazing – seven seasons plus the recent bonus season and nothing really happens. How is that possible? Well, yes, there are engagements and marriages and divorces and babies and yet, it felt like nothing much was ever really at stake.
So, what is it? The Gilmore Girls are Lorelai (Lauren Graham) a thirty-something who had her daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel) at sixteen, choosing to strike out on her own rather than relying on the father of her baby or her mega-rich family. The premise that is set in the first episode is that they have had very little contact with Lorelai’s parents, but now she has the chance to go to a very prestigious private school and so she needs money, and so in come the parents, Emily (Kelly Bishop) and Richard (Edward Herrmann), and everyone argues and stops talking to each other and then make up and then fight again. And yet… why does it feel like nothing has happened? Perhaps because the stakes are not that high. There is never any sense that anyone’s life will end, or that they will end up on the streets. I think this is because there is just so much money in this world, even randomly Rory’s father suddenly ends up mega rich. On top of this, the writers seem to really dislike women, because the set them up as allegedly strong, independent women who will not compromise their personal beliefs for anything, and yet they are constantly compromising those beliefs. And the way they treat the romantic interests – and the way the romantic interests treat them! I take it back, the writers don’t just hate women – they hate people. It’s set in almost the whitest town in America (apart from a black Frenchman and a Korean family who are intensely stereotypical) with a whole cast of quirky locals.
So if I disliked it that much, why did I watch it? A couple of reasons: I actually quite liked the characters, so while the plot may have been tedious, I quite liked the interactions. Second: Melissa McCarthy and Yanic Truesdale (the Frenchman – actually Canadian). I really liked their ridiculousness. Third: I was painting my house and wanted something on that I didn’t need to watch closely. A friend from school’s mother used to call this type of entertainment chewing gum. As chewing gum stimulates your digestive system into thinking that food is coming and leaves it disappointed, this type of entertainment stimulates the brain into thinking it will be needed and leaves it disappointed. Oh and the music? I was ready to throw my television out the window!
ireckonthat 