Inexplicable Gilmore Girls Review: The Break-Ups! LATER DEAN! Maybe Chris too!

Warning: Spoilers follow for the first eight episodes of season three of Gilmore Girls.

Some housekeeping! In the last episode, I forgot to comment on the dissolution of one relationship, that of Christopher and Lorelai. One issue of binging episodes on Netflix is that I lose track of where seasons end and begin at times, and likewise, when certain continuing story arcs start and conclude.

So! Beyond Rory kissing Jess, the wedding episode also has the reveal that Christopher-Lorelai will be hitting yet another rough spot, because his girlfriend that he was on the outs with is pregnant. This upsets Lorelai, because she thought Christopher finally had his shit together, and it’s really clear that he does not.

First off, it’s bizarre that Chris wasn’t using proper protection with his girlfriend. After all, he already has one daughter – You’d think this would pretty much always be at the forefront of his thoughts. Then again, maybe something else being at the forefront of his thoughts is why he now has two children out of wedlock.

And second, Lorelai just fell too hard, too fast for Chris again for me to believe that they were actually going to get back together. Yes, my reaction to this show is tainted by the fact that I know Lorelai ends up with Luke at some point, although I’m unsure if they stay together. And since I know that hasn’t happened yet, well, I know that Lorelai-Chris isn’t bound to last that long.

Beyond my limited knowledge of the future though, Lorelai-Chris is such a fantasy pipe dream that it can’t possibly happen long-term. It’s just too neat and too tidy, and Gilmore Girls tends to take the most difficult path whenever it can. The chemistry between Lauren Graham and David Sutcliffe is good, but I’m convinced that Graham would have great chemistry with the chair I’m sitting in, because she’s a tremendous actress.

Still, Chris will be in future episodes, because he’s Rory’s dad, and it feels like there will be at least one more “will they won’t they?” plot dragged out of his relationship with Lorelai. Thanks to the god damn first line of Sherry’s Gilmore Girls Wiki entry, I know that’s a strong possibility. (Why was I looking at it? Well, I wanted to know where I knew the actress from, and it was the first Google result. Ugh. And the answer, by the way, is Law and Order and Psych, of course.)

The other break-up in the first eight episodes of season three is Dean dumping Rory. This actually surprised me, since it came toward the end of an otherwise light-and-cheery episode, the danceathon one. It was well done though, and the first “glory” moment Dean actually gets in the show. It portrayed him as having a spine and free will, and he got off the nutty Gilmore train before Rory chose to roll over him at some point.

Now, that being said, we still got Oddly Aggressive Dean at the end of the episode eight. He wasn’t incorrect, in that Rory was acting pretty horribly to him, and she can’t really insist on them being friends. However, the tone was once again uncomfortable.

Rory pulls away from Jess at the end of episode eight to have the ole talk with Dean, but it does seems like we’re headed for Jess-Rory good girl-bad boy pairing that I suspected. I have no clue how long it’ll last, since I don’t really remember much about Rory’s relationships from my prior viewings.

Beyond relationship drama, other thoughts on the first third of season three…

- Jesus effing Christ, the Stars Hollow scenes with Taylor seizing Luke’s property by eminent domain are by far the worst part of the show I’ve seen so far. They aren’t realistic, and they don’t make sense from an entertainment perspective, since it was excruciating for me to watch. The town hall scene was the absolute pits, since Taylor acts like a dictator, and everyone else just loses their collective minds to allow it to happen.

- Runner-up “worst Stars Hollow scenes” goes to Lane dyeing her hair, and the tyrannical behavior of her mother. As I said in my previous entry, it’s just all too unbelievable.

- Hey, Jon Hamm is in an episode of Gilmore Girls! Wow. And, he’s so unremarkable that he gets two short scenes, and that’s it. I mean, that’s kind of his character for the episode, so… Good job, I suppose! He’s part of a gallery of “before they were famous” stars from Gilmore Girls published on Entertainment Weekly here. All of “Peyton Sanders” is contained in this 1:22 clip from YouTube.

- Chris is played by David Sutcliffe, who looks like a bunch of other actors. Namely, Matthew “Mr. Schue” Morrison from Glee and Dawson from that creek show. However, his hair is sometimes worse than those two. I say sometimes, because I think he’s wearing a rug, or, he simply had some bad haircuts, or the Rogaine wasn’t working yet.

- Rory gets tricked and manipulated into a Yale visit by Richard. It wasn’t great for him to do that, but it helps to broaden out his character, since before that moment, he was mostly portrayed in an entirely positive light. The episode helped me understand that Lorelai’s resistance to her parents wasn’t completely unjustified. There still needs to be more done in this regard, since right now I’m way more sympathetic to them than Lorelai, but I imagine it’ll continue to be fleshed out as we go along.

- It’s interesting to look at the season episode guides on Wikipedia, which lists the number of viewers. Gilmore Girls got around five million to six million viewers an episode on first-run, for the WB, which was the fifth / sixth major broadcast network. Nowadays, that would make them one of the most popular shows on television. TV has changed so much in 14 years, says Old Man Steve!

- Kirk has made it into the opening credits for the show, which is kind of odd, because none of the other Stars Hollow regulars are in there, besides Luke. He’s one of the more prominent members, but not any more than Taylor and Miss Patty, who are in most episodes. I find him more enjoyable than others, so hopefully it means he has a bit more screen time.

- I was applying to colleges at the same time Rory was! Awww. And god, I’m old.

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