I’m writing this sorta recap, eight episodes in, because it was at last scene of the eighth episode that I found myself fighting through genuine, earnest blubbering. I knew this was bound to happen, given the material, I just didn’t know that it was a tearful best friend reunion that would kick open the dam of tears. (Okay, it’s not a dam, just a few pinpricks of emotions.)
I don’t know why I felt resistant to the lure of Gilmore Girls. I had, after all, only caught 3 or 4 episodes on T.V. (Did it air on Studio 23?) back in the day. I just knew I preferred Jess over Dean (or, more accurately, maybe Milo Ventimiglia over Jared Padalecki—forever haunted by Deans on television) even though Dean was from Chicago, which is a great city, and also that Rory liked to read, and that Chad Michael Murray played a character/bag of dicks named Tristan, and that Luke and Lorelai is a Thing—perhaps long and agonizing, but fated to persist, like Ross and Rachel—and so on and so forth.
Here are my observations, so far:
- “Surprisingly into it. It’s something that’s still annoying to me, but is also heavily tinged with “aww.”
- “Partly still watching for Paris and Rory subtext.”
- “Very weird to see these people as babies. Enjoying performances of Alexis Bledel and Dean [sic] P. (skull drawing)”
- “Lorelai remains (to me) insufferable though her immaturity/petulance feels like The Point of her char.”
- above character assessment may or may not be totally fair to Lorelai, a mom who has raised her (very charming) child pretty much alone, though in many ways she still is kind of more sixteen than Rory, an actual sixteen-year-old
- Can very much relate to her love for coffee
- One of the joys of Gilmore Girls is seeing Lorelai bicker with her mother, Emily
- “I want a Lane Kim spinoff”
- Really enjoyed the scene where Lorelai and Rory got into a fight and they both put on Macy Gray’s “I Try” and sulk
- Part of my “distaste” for the show kind of rests on me not liking how the entirety of Stars Hollow feels a lot like a studio set. Which it is, but you know
- Can’t get invested in Max/Lorelai because of aforementioned, very heavy allusions to Luke/Lorelai
- Rory is very cute, I am dead and also helplessly endeared
- I let out an actual screech at the kiss at aisle three, by the ant-spray
- Another point of “distaste” is them talking the same way—really fast—and I know that’s sort of the show’s signature, because that’s part of what kept me from watching it, but I guess I don’t mind it as much anymore… maybe. I don’t know yet
- Anyway, so, it’s very cute
So, I’m about to start episode 9, and it’s laughable how long the journey that lies ahead for me is. Season 1 has 21 episodes and there are 7 seasons. Rory, help me.