Warning: Spoilers follow for the
third episode of the Gilmore Girls revival.
The image comes from Nerdist’s write-up here.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh boy.
The third episode is, by far, by leaps and bounds, by miles upon miles,
the worst of the Revival series. It’s full of Rory and Lorelai acting awful,
and when they aren’t acting horrible, we instead have outlandish scenes with
the folks of Stars Hollow and the other side characters. “Summer” is basically
a 90-minute fever dream of an episode, and like plenty of other folks on the
Internet, I desperately wanted to fast forward through several parts of it.
Let’s start in reverse order: Lorelai leaving Luke for a few weeks to
go “wild” seemed like the most absurd bullshit ever. I had a similar reaction
to Luke’s – you mean that movie thing? I wasn’t aware it was a thing that
people actually did. If anything, it seems like the show’s creators were
overestimating how popular Wild is or
was, because I’ve pretty much never heard of anyone deciding to “find
themselves” in such a fashion.
And, by the way, if someone were to do that, Lorelai Gilmore would be
really fucking low on the list. To spoil the fourth episode a bit, we find out
that isn’t that sort of person, but I also think she would have come to that
realization way, way, wayyyyy before she bought a shitload of stuff and booked
the flight out to the Pacific Northwest, or wherever they shot that. The whole
exercise felt like the producers learning Lauren Graham had a vacation planned,
and they thought, “Hey, maybe we can use this for the show!”
Lorelai is clearly stagnating with Luke. The best place for her to work
these issues out would probably be therapy, except that the show has already
portrayed her therapist as a doddering idiot now performing in a Stars Hollow
musical. This is also when the show’s lack of access to side characters shines
through. The original run, the only consistent friend of Lorelai is Sookie, who’s
now unavailable because Melissa McCarthy is a big god damn star. Without
Sookie, Lorelai has no friends. (And honestly, being friends with Lorelai seems
like it would be exhausting.)
Meanwhile, Rory continues to flounder and suck. She graduated from Yale
a decade ago, roughly, but seemingly never has any decent ideas of her own,
despite being a writer with a journalism degree. So, she’s now (poorly) running
the Stars Hollow Gazette, and trying to pitch her mother on the idea of a book
about them, except that that’s not really her idea either – it’s Jess’ idea.
Quick aside – Jess! Man, he’s only more of a beautiful bastard as he
ages. And now, with the hindsight of time, I will confess two things: 1) He’s
by far the best of Rory’s boyfriend options and 2) He is way too good for her.
Along with Lane and Zach, and a few other characters, Jess is the only one who grows
and seems to learn from past mistakes. He’s shown longing for Rory a little
bit, but I think his mindset would change pretty quickly if he learned that she
had been cheating for years on her forgettable boyfriend with Logan, who in
turn has been cheating on his heiress.
Anyway, Rory can’t get Lorelai to sign off on the book idea in this
episode. I’m Team Lorelai on this one – It should be her right to protect her
own privacy on this, especially since the first few years of raising Rory
sounded pretty hectic and lean, from past episodes. As an outsider, just
knowing what we know from previous episodes, Lorelai’s decision to raise Rory
completely absent Richard and Emily, and Christopher, seemed unnecessarily harsh
to me at times.
Rory’s going to plow ahead with the book anyway though, because that’s easier
than going back to grad school, or just working at a shitty journalism or normal
job for a while. That’s because whenever presented with a hard choice, Rory’s
default is usually to take the easiest option, whether it’s continuing her
comfortable affair, or half-assing it with her forgettable boyfriend instead of
breaking up, or not preparing for an interview.
If it’s tough, simple work – like delivering the paper – then she’s
fine, but anything with nuance seems beyond her, and she’s usually not willing
to hurt. The counterpoints would be Lane, who willingly moves out of her mom’s
house and slings coffee at Luke’s, or Paris, who tirelessly and exhaustively
ponders alternative options. Paris is obviously too extreme at times, but shit,
at least she has a plan or plans at all times. Instead, Rory is like a shittier
version of Hamlet.
Anyway, I seem to be swearing a lot this entry. Episode three did that
to me. Here’s some other shit that happens:
- THE STARS HOLLOW PLAY! Good god. Karen told me this was her least
favorite part of the entire Revival series. I mostly rolled my eyes through it.
It’s outlandish, stupid and unbelievable, but I didn’t find it to be any more
stupid than the usual Stars Hollow bullshit, like Taylor opening / seizing an
ice cream shop next to Luke’s by eminent domain. The play is also so stupid
that I couldn’t help but laugh at a few portions, which is what they were
probably going for with most of the Stars Hollow BS, but it usually comes off
as annoying to me.
- April makes a two-scene appearance, as a sort-of rebel MIT grad, and
then in the privacy of Rory’s room, more of a Grade-A Nerd you’d expect her to
be. I seem to be one of the few April fans on the Internet, but there really
isn’t much to go on her from her brief appearance in the Revival.
By the way though, if there is one thing the Revival wants to stress to
you, it’s that younger people are the fucking worst. Between the somewhat
flippant portrayal of April, and the “ohmygod what is this a CBS sitcom?”
running gag about the 30-something gang, there are plenty of potshots at young
people. It’s kind of distressing to see Gilmore
Girls turn into a “Not in my yard!” kind of show, since the early seasons
showed young people (Rory, Paris, April, Lane) mostly as intelligent, somewhat
rational people.
- Jess mentions that TJ and Liz have joined a vegetable cult, which
seems like an unnecessarily cruel way to yada yada yada them off the show. I
never really cared for TJ, but Liz the Space Cadet was a nice sort of balancing
act to Luke’s gruffness. In a four-episode series that already has a decent
amount of fluff, one heart-to-heart between Liz and Luke wouldn’t have hurt.
- I’ve never watched
Bunheads,
but apparently, everyone from that show was in this episode. The blonde girl in
the 30-something gang, etc. I totally recognized Sutton Foster though, because she’s
basically Lauren Graham 2.0. Much like the original, but with improved dancing
and singing abilities! Also, both are dynamite late night guests,
especially with Craig
Ferguson.
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