Warning: Spoilers follow for
episodes 21 and 22 for season five of Gilmore
Girls, and the first four episodes of season six.
In the
last entry I wrote on Gilmore Girls,
I wondered aloud whether Rory might actually be a horrible human being. Well,
since then, she got arrested for stealing a yacht, her loser boyfriend didn’t
suffer many consequences for that action, she dropped out of Yale, and she
fought with Lorelai and moved into her grandparents’ pool house.
Outside of that though, things are fine!
So, yeah. I think the show is attempting to portray Rory as going
through a bit of a quarter-life crisis. I’m not crazy about it though, because
it mostly does this by making her seem meek. The primary influence in Rory’s
life to this point – Lorelai – is many things, but meek is not one of them. It
therefore stretches credibility to me that Rory just kind of gets swept up by
Logan, and then, has a crisis of faith when Logan’s dad tells her she’s not cut
out to be a reporter.
The story arc has culminated with Rory and Lorelai being on the outs
for the first time in a major way in the series’ run. Sure, they sparred over
Rory liking Jess, and staying out overnight with Dean, but there hadn’t been a
major blow-up like this one before.
Lorelai also (rightly, in my mind) bristles at Richard and Emily
basically using Rory as a Lorelai Make-Up. Meaning, Rory is now their project
for social and status gain, whether it’s pairing her up with Logan Huntzberger,
getting her involved in the DAR or having her involved in their social
activities now. One of the best season five scenes to me happened in the first
third of the season, when Lorelai cringes as she watches how easily Rory fits
into the high class life she willingly left behind.
Anyway! Some other odds and ends:
- The journalism depictions in Gilmore
Girls are laughingly bad, but I wasn’t really expecting much from the show
either. Logan’s dad is a newspaper executive in 2004, and he’s incredibly confident,
which just makes him seem like many of the buffoonish executives around at that
time.
I was a college sophomore and junior in 2004, and although the show was
probably filmed in 2003, even then there was a distinctive, “Hey, we might be
in trouble!” feel in the newspaper industry. There was also plenty of
cost-cutting and layoffs going on before, during and after the run of Gilmore Girls, yet the paper Rory
interns at has a comically large newsroom and hustle-and-bustle going on.
By the way, her internship specifically seems horribly miscast.
Hollywood and entertainment industry interns might follow around the boss and
fetch coffee. Journalism interns start in two gigs – Weekend reporter, covering
bake sales and other low stakes shit, or calendar listings and notes sections.
Meaning, compiling the large lists of group meetings and events you see in a
daily newspaper. Even if Rory is just an intern, and Huntzberger Senior doesn’t
think she’s going to be a great reporter, she’s still capable of producing
content and copy-editing some listings.
- Logan’s awfulness has been reduced slightly in season six, as he’s a
tiny bit more supportive of Rory and less Unavailable Douchebag Boyfriend, a la
Jess. However, he’s still “supportive” in an extravagant way, like throwing her
a Felon Party and whisking her away to New York. I suppose that if you have
money, you should use it, but he mostly uses it to escape any sort of
responsibility. Good times!
- Rory and Logan being awful overshadow some of the sweeter plot lines
that start season six, like Luke and Lorelai gradually upgrading their house
and plotting their wedding, Sookie and Jackson having the only stable
relationship on the show, and the road trip with Lane’s band. And hey, Lane’s
boyfriend is Zach! I finally remembered because he seems like a dumb, loveable
oaf, in comparison to all of the horrible boyfriends on the show.
- Finally, Paul fucking Anka! He’s the MAN, even though he’s a dog. He
makes me wish I had a dog. And the real Paul Anka, he has one of the most awesome blow-up
tapes ever. “The guys get shirts! Don’t make a fucking maniac out of me.
The guys get shirts!”
Want to support Steve’s blogging?
Then purchase something via the Amazon clickthru link
for Your Parents Basement, Steve’s other project! To read all of Steve’s past
Inexplicable Movie Reviews, click here! For Inexplicable TV Reviews, click here! For Inexplicable Video Game Reviews, click here! And for Inexplicable Book Reviews, go here!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Try not to be too much of an ass, unless completely necessary. You are subject to tyrannical moderation.