Wallowing in Stars Hollow
Nov. 21st, 2016 06:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessGilmore Girls – the rest of season 4
I meant to be good and write up my thoughts about the episodes on each disc of the box set, but frankly, I preferred watching the episodes than doing so, but having seen them all and with ‘A Year in the Life’ about to drop here they are…
And yes, I was finally poked into finishing this by the realisation that Netflix is dropping 'A Year in the Life' on Friday. I hope that those of you who have Netflix and are all caught up enjoy it. For my part, I'll be pleasantly surprised if I'm not spoiled by the time I get around to watching it on DVD, after the seasons I've yet to watch. Netflix have been making a big push for the show in the media that I read, even if I don't remember the show getting much traction in the UK when it was being made. I knew about it because I was watching shows from the same stable, but I only physically saw it on repeats on Nickelodeon or something like that.
Anyway, one of the things that struck me was the overall quality of the episodes throughout the season. For various reasons, the penultimate episode ‘Last Week Fights, This Week Tights’ was my outstanding favourited and my least favourite episode was ‘The Festival of Living Art’ mainly because of the whole Kirk playing Jesus in the recreation of ‘The Last Supper’ thing, although having said that I was also relatively meh on the episodes around it, ‘An Affair to Remember’ and ‘Die Jerk’, so it might have been that point in the season wasn’t engaging me so much – er, it was the start off Lorelai/Jason and Nicole had convinced Luke to hold off on the divorce.
I thought they handled Rory leaving for university (down the road) and what that meant for mother and daughter pretty well, such as in the phone tag of ‘The Incredible Sinking Lorelais’ and Rory facing her first major problem without her mother. At the same time, Lorelai was under strain, trying to get the Dragonfly Inn open, in terms of the finance and the responsibility, and let’s be honest, I care a whole lot more about what happens to Lorelai than Rory. I always have, partly because by the time I started watching the show, I was closer in age to Lorelai and so had sympathy with her perspective. Also, I saw more of myself in school-age Paris than Rory. Arguably, this season was about Lorelai, Rorya and Emily finding their place in the world (with new mother Sookie, newly independent Lane and even Paris and Mrs Kim offering variations on the theme). It was also true of the male characters.
The way that Richard and Emily blew up at various points was very dramatics, though there were times when we only saw it from Lorelai’s POV and times where we knew more than her – Richard’s cluelessness about Emily’s feelings resurfaced after the reconciliation at the wake, after they both acted out after his mother’s death, and of course his ruthlessness over the partnership with Jason, which I think elicited one of my more extreme reactions. ‘Tick, Tick, Tick, Boom’ indeed. Still, at the end of the season, I didn’t know where they were at, except jointly cross with Lorelai. Emily appeared to have left Richard after a cumulation of events, but there were a few gaps.
I found the Lane-Mrs Kim strand increasingly powerful as Lane cracked over living a lie in a pretty major way. As ever, Lorelai’s maternal sympathy for Mrs Kim was very lovely. I loved what they did with Lane’s wardrobe. Their slow reconciliation was one of the reasons I loved ‘Last Week Fights, This Week Tights’ I also find Lane’s band endearing.
Obviously, the episodes that were more about the town and its close-knit madness were always a delight, but it was that sweet spot of drama about characters we cared about that the show got rights (even if it was usually because of secrets coming out at the worst time). But also, I just appreciated watching women, old, middle-aged, youngish and young being funny and weird and multi-faceted and I will get to my feelings about the ships (well, one in particular) but the setting of everything else – family, friends, work, community - is just as important to the show’s appeal.
To get into the details, and I’ll focus on The Fundamental Things Apply onwards, as I discussed the first four episodes here, Lorelai acknowledged her empty nest more directly than she had previous in this episode. In ‘An Affair to Remember’, Rory found her study tree – never mentioned again! – although I remember university as being about finding several places (indoors) where you were comfortable studying. For what it’s worth, I thought they did a good job on conveying freshman angst and how the room-mate drama panned out.
After the tensions over a shared designer and Lorelai not telling Emily about her short-term catering venture with Sookie, when Emily did show her hurt that Jason made her feel obsolete in her career as corporate wife, I loved that Lorelai went to bat for her. I was still feeling that the actor who played Jason hadn’t eased into the rhythm of the show at that point, but I admit I was also feeling raw that they’d set Jason up as a love interest when Lorelai and Luke had just reached the Casablanca-watching discussing the philosophy of dating stage. I was reassured by the vehemence of Lorelai’s response to the news that Luke and Nicole weren’t divorcing after all, driven by feelings she wouldn’t face.
Anyway, the fact that Jason could keep up with Lorelai was in his favour and that he was willing to learn Lorelai’s idea of fun, which IS fun. But feh, Lorelai’s take on Luke/Nicole ‘moving in together’ was far more interesting.
The show has played the dance of Lorelai and Luke realising how deep their feelings go at different points so well, but so long. I was also soothed by the realisation that Jason didn’t get Stars Hollow, and then the fact that the show failed to give him a reaction shot when Lorelai’s grandmother ferreted out that she was having financial difficulties with the inn and hadn’t told her parents – I mean, a serious proposition for the future would have got more than a reaction shot. But the fact that she opened up to Luke about it was telling (and in that episode, we had the parallels of Lorelai and Rory making confidantes of married men, who you could read as their love interests since season 1, which is just so rich). Jason was a flake when Lorelai’s grandmother died, but I do think that what we learned about his parents explained A Lot. Whereas family loyalty was still a line for Lorelai. On the other hand, Nicole being unfaithful felt like a misjudgement – she and Luke were arguing, they both knew they probably shouldn’t have married by this point, and probably would have got a divorce without necessitating Luke’s arrest. So maybe chasing the drama a bit too much there.
It also feels worth mentioning that Christopher got mentioned, at most, three times throughout the whole season.
Anyway, of course Luke ‘sees Lorelai’s face’. The fact that they’d got him to a point where, after a failed marriage, he was emotionally ready and equipped to do something about it…that is romantic. The moment where he was the most awkward fake boyfriend ever was, thank goodness, a false trail. The dance at the wedding (that Lorelai ‘saved’) was stomach-fluttering stuff as was Lorelai’s slow realisations that Luke was making a move. The accident with the table in the diner because she’s all flustered was Miranda levels of funny.
And then, after I’d given up on it happening, frankly, Jason turned up to Lorelai’s inn try-out, all lovelorn and jerky and we got the Luke-Jason meet. But it all led to Lorelai-Luke kissing!!!
The writing is so good. The zippy dialogue and banter is famous. By watching this on DVD, I got a big laugh after seeing Nag Hammad Is Where They Found The Gnomic Gospels and then seeing the episode list and realising the episode title was a punchline to a joke about a joke none of the characters got.
I found it satisfying that episodes covered a short space of time when really dramatic things were afoot, like Jess’s return. Speaking of, my take on Dean vs. Jess has always been neither (and I do note that this is the season where they gave Rory/Paris shippers a little bait to feast on). Dean getting married at nineteen when he wasn’t over Rory was always a bad idea. Jess was exasperatingly immature on his first visit – running away and then blurting out ‘I love you’ and not ‘I’m sorry’? And the second time, still not saying he was sorry, laying down an ultimatum that didn’t accept that having her education at Yale is a big part of who Rory is. Lane dubbed this romantic. No, Lane, it’s not. I may be biased against him because he put down Stars Hollow (but at least patched things up with his well-cast mother and Luke).
I spent the whole season shaking my head at Dean and at Rory, knowing that their being ‘friends’ did not bode well. And Rory’s appreciation of his dependability? Well, Lorelai spake truth unto her about that whole mess. I’d actually been enjoying Rory striking out romantically at Yale, as part of the realistic depiction of college life, and besides, she had so much that was unresolved with Jess and kept tripping across Dean. But the season ended on Lorelai coming to be there for Rory despite all the separation and divergence of views about sleeping with 'dependable' tall married man-boys.
I meant to be good and write up my thoughts about the episodes on each disc of the box set, but frankly, I preferred watching the episodes than doing so, but having seen them all and with ‘A Year in the Life’ about to drop here they are…
And yes, I was finally poked into finishing this by the realisation that Netflix is dropping 'A Year in the Life' on Friday. I hope that those of you who have Netflix and are all caught up enjoy it. For my part, I'll be pleasantly surprised if I'm not spoiled by the time I get around to watching it on DVD, after the seasons I've yet to watch. Netflix have been making a big push for the show in the media that I read, even if I don't remember the show getting much traction in the UK when it was being made. I knew about it because I was watching shows from the same stable, but I only physically saw it on repeats on Nickelodeon or something like that.
Anyway, one of the things that struck me was the overall quality of the episodes throughout the season. For various reasons, the penultimate episode ‘Last Week Fights, This Week Tights’ was my outstanding favourited and my least favourite episode was ‘The Festival of Living Art’ mainly because of the whole Kirk playing Jesus in the recreation of ‘The Last Supper’ thing, although having said that I was also relatively meh on the episodes around it, ‘An Affair to Remember’ and ‘Die Jerk’, so it might have been that point in the season wasn’t engaging me so much – er, it was the start off Lorelai/Jason and Nicole had convinced Luke to hold off on the divorce.
I thought they handled Rory leaving for university (down the road) and what that meant for mother and daughter pretty well, such as in the phone tag of ‘The Incredible Sinking Lorelais’ and Rory facing her first major problem without her mother. At the same time, Lorelai was under strain, trying to get the Dragonfly Inn open, in terms of the finance and the responsibility, and let’s be honest, I care a whole lot more about what happens to Lorelai than Rory. I always have, partly because by the time I started watching the show, I was closer in age to Lorelai and so had sympathy with her perspective. Also, I saw more of myself in school-age Paris than Rory. Arguably, this season was about Lorelai, Rorya and Emily finding their place in the world (with new mother Sookie, newly independent Lane and even Paris and Mrs Kim offering variations on the theme). It was also true of the male characters.
The way that Richard and Emily blew up at various points was very dramatics, though there were times when we only saw it from Lorelai’s POV and times where we knew more than her – Richard’s cluelessness about Emily’s feelings resurfaced after the reconciliation at the wake, after they both acted out after his mother’s death, and of course his ruthlessness over the partnership with Jason, which I think elicited one of my more extreme reactions. ‘Tick, Tick, Tick, Boom’ indeed. Still, at the end of the season, I didn’t know where they were at, except jointly cross with Lorelai. Emily appeared to have left Richard after a cumulation of events, but there were a few gaps.
I found the Lane-Mrs Kim strand increasingly powerful as Lane cracked over living a lie in a pretty major way. As ever, Lorelai’s maternal sympathy for Mrs Kim was very lovely. I loved what they did with Lane’s wardrobe. Their slow reconciliation was one of the reasons I loved ‘Last Week Fights, This Week Tights’ I also find Lane’s band endearing.
Obviously, the episodes that were more about the town and its close-knit madness were always a delight, but it was that sweet spot of drama about characters we cared about that the show got rights (even if it was usually because of secrets coming out at the worst time). But also, I just appreciated watching women, old, middle-aged, youngish and young being funny and weird and multi-faceted and I will get to my feelings about the ships (well, one in particular) but the setting of everything else – family, friends, work, community - is just as important to the show’s appeal.
To get into the details, and I’ll focus on The Fundamental Things Apply onwards, as I discussed the first four episodes here, Lorelai acknowledged her empty nest more directly than she had previous in this episode. In ‘An Affair to Remember’, Rory found her study tree – never mentioned again! – although I remember university as being about finding several places (indoors) where you were comfortable studying. For what it’s worth, I thought they did a good job on conveying freshman angst and how the room-mate drama panned out.
After the tensions over a shared designer and Lorelai not telling Emily about her short-term catering venture with Sookie, when Emily did show her hurt that Jason made her feel obsolete in her career as corporate wife, I loved that Lorelai went to bat for her. I was still feeling that the actor who played Jason hadn’t eased into the rhythm of the show at that point, but I admit I was also feeling raw that they’d set Jason up as a love interest when Lorelai and Luke had just reached the Casablanca-watching discussing the philosophy of dating stage. I was reassured by the vehemence of Lorelai’s response to the news that Luke and Nicole weren’t divorcing after all, driven by feelings she wouldn’t face.
Anyway, the fact that Jason could keep up with Lorelai was in his favour and that he was willing to learn Lorelai’s idea of fun, which IS fun. But feh, Lorelai’s take on Luke/Nicole ‘moving in together’ was far more interesting.
The show has played the dance of Lorelai and Luke realising how deep their feelings go at different points so well, but so long. I was also soothed by the realisation that Jason didn’t get Stars Hollow, and then the fact that the show failed to give him a reaction shot when Lorelai’s grandmother ferreted out that she was having financial difficulties with the inn and hadn’t told her parents – I mean, a serious proposition for the future would have got more than a reaction shot. But the fact that she opened up to Luke about it was telling (and in that episode, we had the parallels of Lorelai and Rory making confidantes of married men, who you could read as their love interests since season 1, which is just so rich). Jason was a flake when Lorelai’s grandmother died, but I do think that what we learned about his parents explained A Lot. Whereas family loyalty was still a line for Lorelai. On the other hand, Nicole being unfaithful felt like a misjudgement – she and Luke were arguing, they both knew they probably shouldn’t have married by this point, and probably would have got a divorce without necessitating Luke’s arrest. So maybe chasing the drama a bit too much there.
It also feels worth mentioning that Christopher got mentioned, at most, three times throughout the whole season.
Anyway, of course Luke ‘sees Lorelai’s face’. The fact that they’d got him to a point where, after a failed marriage, he was emotionally ready and equipped to do something about it…that is romantic. The moment where he was the most awkward fake boyfriend ever was, thank goodness, a false trail. The dance at the wedding (that Lorelai ‘saved’) was stomach-fluttering stuff as was Lorelai’s slow realisations that Luke was making a move. The accident with the table in the diner because she’s all flustered was Miranda levels of funny.
And then, after I’d given up on it happening, frankly, Jason turned up to Lorelai’s inn try-out, all lovelorn and jerky and we got the Luke-Jason meet. But it all led to Lorelai-Luke kissing!!!
The writing is so good. The zippy dialogue and banter is famous. By watching this on DVD, I got a big laugh after seeing Nag Hammad Is Where They Found The Gnomic Gospels and then seeing the episode list and realising the episode title was a punchline to a joke about a joke none of the characters got.
I found it satisfying that episodes covered a short space of time when really dramatic things were afoot, like Jess’s return. Speaking of, my take on Dean vs. Jess has always been neither (and I do note that this is the season where they gave Rory/Paris shippers a little bait to feast on). Dean getting married at nineteen when he wasn’t over Rory was always a bad idea. Jess was exasperatingly immature on his first visit – running away and then blurting out ‘I love you’ and not ‘I’m sorry’? And the second time, still not saying he was sorry, laying down an ultimatum that didn’t accept that having her education at Yale is a big part of who Rory is. Lane dubbed this romantic. No, Lane, it’s not. I may be biased against him because he put down Stars Hollow (but at least patched things up with his well-cast mother and Luke).
I spent the whole season shaking my head at Dean and at Rory, knowing that their being ‘friends’ did not bode well. And Rory’s appreciation of his dependability? Well, Lorelai spake truth unto her about that whole mess. I’d actually been enjoying Rory striking out romantically at Yale, as part of the realistic depiction of college life, and besides, she had so much that was unresolved with Jess and kept tripping across Dean. But the season ended on Lorelai coming to be there for Rory despite all the separation and divergence of views about sleeping with 'dependable' tall married man-boys.
