What a dorkus
Jul. 2nd, 2003 12:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynSo, this is how dorky I am: In all my misery over not having anything good to watch and Buffy being gone, etc. etc., I forgot that I had the finale of Gilmore Girls sitting in my second vcr for over a month. My, like, favorite show outside the Joss-verse and related stuff.
So I watched it the other night, and wasn't sure what to make of it based on the news that Lorelai will probably have yet another new relationship with a guy other than Luke next season. Because I'm just not getting why Amy Sherman-Palladino doesn't understand that viewers clearly want Lorelai and Luke to get together; they've teased us enough with hints of it that surely they get there's chemistry in the actors and interest in the fans. And why she doesn't see how dangerous it is to keep feinting at it, and then pulling back. Didn't she ever watch Cheers? Moonlighting? Soaps, for god's sake? There's a fine line between teasing the audience and building them up, and just annoying them, and I'd think a good showrunner, as she's seemed to be, would tread that line carefully. I was totally suckered in by Luke's dream of Lorelai telling him not to get engaged; then there was the parallel to Lorelai's dream in the first ep this season where she dreams she and Luke are married. Four years is a long time to yank people's chains.
Especially because it seems ripe with possibilities, and Lorelai deserves it. Emily clearly likes Luke but would be appalled if her daughter took up with him; Rory would have major cognitive dissonance having to accept him as part of her family rather than just Luke. Much fun and sturm und drang could be had by all, and frankly the idea of grouchy Luke trying to integrate himself into the lives of the Gilmore girls would be entertainingly snarky. Luke is, after all, at his best when he's snarky.
I know a lot of people liked Jess, but even though he looks like baby Vaughn from Alias, I loathed him, so I'm glad he's gone. I never want him to come back -- he treated my Rory horribly, and I especially despised the way he used and manipulated that poor girl to make Rory jealous (and his self-righteousness about his mistreatment of her). I never thought Dean was up to Gilmore standards, but I much preferred him to someone who lies, steals, and abuses women and doesn't even have the excuse of... oh, say, not having a soul.
There wasn't a lot of tension in the story of the inn and whether they'd get it or not; it was kind of a no-brainer that Rory would find a way at the end. I loved her scenes with Paris, especially the "I mostly kind of hated you." "I hated you, too" dialog. Paris should go to Yale and dog Rory forever because she's such a fabulous character.
What I did like most about the finale was the sense of quiet acceptance that life changes, no matter how sad those changes are. The way Lorelai handled the loss of the inn, and then the bid on the new one; how they've both dealt with Rory's change of plans to Yale instead of Harvard; how she's seeming to support Luke in his choices with Nicole; how Lane is handling her future. That's always been the show's strength, I think -- that even though it's every bit as fantastical a universe as Buffy or Angel, it's grounded in this kind of "life goes on all around us" mindset so that the heartbreak is mixed in with the simple joys. The show never seems to lose sight of the fact that there are simple joys, and that feeling love and forgiveness and openness have a lot to do with that.
The fact that Emily, for instance, is so closed off and narrow in her worldview causes her more emotional pain than is necessary; and that ends up causing the rifts with Lorelai, and the scars. Lorelai is more open to both the good and the bad, she tries to push forward and change things when she can, so in some ways she gets more love and loyalty than Emily could ever hope to have. It will be interesting to see what she does next year with a new life and a Rory-less house, and whether maybe she might be able to show Emily a different way of being (I think that would really move the show forward in an area it's stagnating with). Lorelai makes mistakes a lot, but she learns from them, and that's what keeps us watching. And I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that Rory gets a guy she deserves and keeps up her friendship with Lane, whom I adore.
After all the angst and emotions of the Buffy finale and the Angel season finale, it was so nice to have something that had an ending and a new beginning and a sense of hope and joy. I really do love this show, even when they taunt me with the Luke and Lorelai thing. Here's to a change of heart for AS-P, and little bit of the right romance next year.
So I watched it the other night, and wasn't sure what to make of it based on the news that Lorelai will probably have yet another new relationship with a guy other than Luke next season. Because I'm just not getting why Amy Sherman-Palladino doesn't understand that viewers clearly want Lorelai and Luke to get together; they've teased us enough with hints of it that surely they get there's chemistry in the actors and interest in the fans. And why she doesn't see how dangerous it is to keep feinting at it, and then pulling back. Didn't she ever watch Cheers? Moonlighting? Soaps, for god's sake? There's a fine line between teasing the audience and building them up, and just annoying them, and I'd think a good showrunner, as she's seemed to be, would tread that line carefully. I was totally suckered in by Luke's dream of Lorelai telling him not to get engaged; then there was the parallel to Lorelai's dream in the first ep this season where she dreams she and Luke are married. Four years is a long time to yank people's chains.
Especially because it seems ripe with possibilities, and Lorelai deserves it. Emily clearly likes Luke but would be appalled if her daughter took up with him; Rory would have major cognitive dissonance having to accept him as part of her family rather than just Luke. Much fun and sturm und drang could be had by all, and frankly the idea of grouchy Luke trying to integrate himself into the lives of the Gilmore girls would be entertainingly snarky. Luke is, after all, at his best when he's snarky.
I know a lot of people liked Jess, but even though he looks like baby Vaughn from Alias, I loathed him, so I'm glad he's gone. I never want him to come back -- he treated my Rory horribly, and I especially despised the way he used and manipulated that poor girl to make Rory jealous (and his self-righteousness about his mistreatment of her). I never thought Dean was up to Gilmore standards, but I much preferred him to someone who lies, steals, and abuses women and doesn't even have the excuse of... oh, say, not having a soul.
There wasn't a lot of tension in the story of the inn and whether they'd get it or not; it was kind of a no-brainer that Rory would find a way at the end. I loved her scenes with Paris, especially the "I mostly kind of hated you." "I hated you, too" dialog. Paris should go to Yale and dog Rory forever because she's such a fabulous character.
What I did like most about the finale was the sense of quiet acceptance that life changes, no matter how sad those changes are. The way Lorelai handled the loss of the inn, and then the bid on the new one; how they've both dealt with Rory's change of plans to Yale instead of Harvard; how she's seeming to support Luke in his choices with Nicole; how Lane is handling her future. That's always been the show's strength, I think -- that even though it's every bit as fantastical a universe as Buffy or Angel, it's grounded in this kind of "life goes on all around us" mindset so that the heartbreak is mixed in with the simple joys. The show never seems to lose sight of the fact that there are simple joys, and that feeling love and forgiveness and openness have a lot to do with that.
The fact that Emily, for instance, is so closed off and narrow in her worldview causes her more emotional pain than is necessary; and that ends up causing the rifts with Lorelai, and the scars. Lorelai is more open to both the good and the bad, she tries to push forward and change things when she can, so in some ways she gets more love and loyalty than Emily could ever hope to have. It will be interesting to see what she does next year with a new life and a Rory-less house, and whether maybe she might be able to show Emily a different way of being (I think that would really move the show forward in an area it's stagnating with). Lorelai makes mistakes a lot, but she learns from them, and that's what keeps us watching. And I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that Rory gets a guy she deserves and keeps up her friendship with Lane, whom I adore.
After all the angst and emotions of the Buffy finale and the Angel season finale, it was so nice to have something that had an ending and a new beginning and a sense of hope and joy. I really do love this show, even when they taunt me with the Luke and Lorelai thing. Here's to a change of heart for AS-P, and little bit of the right romance next year.
