I am a master at procrastination, especially when it comes to cleaning my room. I told myself day after day during my unemployment that today would be the day I would clean my room. Eventually I realized that that method was not working. I was utterly bored and exhausted from sending out resume after resume, and ultimately decided that I'd give Gilmore a go. As I grabbed the DVDs, I stopped short. I told myself I could only watch the show if I finally cleaned my room. A reward system if you will. Little did I know.
I piled all the clothes from my floor, overflowing from my drawers, wedged behind my bed, fallen in my closet, on the bed in a big heaping pile. I stuck the DVD in my computer and started my journey. From the first scene, I was hooked. About halfway through the episode, I had began keeping up the image of cleaning my room, but slowed considerably. By the second episode, my heaping pile of clothes became a pillow in which I rested my head. Before I knew it, I was putting in disc two, and already was hooked.
By the end of the day, I was almost done with the season. When my roommate got home from work, she couldn't believe the progress I had made. Not so much on my room, mind you. Long story short, I started watching on a Tuesday, (I remember because there was a new episode on that very night), and by Friday night, I was making a late night run to a 24-hour DVD shop to buy season FOUR.
I guess this demonstrates my flaw number two: I'm not so good with the savoring thing. And now, I'll recant something that was once quoted by Andy Warhol. (Give me a break, I went to film school! I don't pray to him or anything, I just think he has interesting things to say.)
I couldn't find the exact quote but it's something along the lines of...'When I get a bag a jelly beans, I eat them all immediately so I don't have to think about them any longer.'...
And that's what I did with Gilmore girls. It was exactly a week before I was completely caught up to season six.
To say that I loved the show would be accurate. To say that I was addicted, would be even more accurate. I had found my new "Friends". For those of you who don't know, I was obsessed with "Friends" to an insane level for much of my teen years. (All?) I have every episode on VHS, complete with the early to late ninties commercials that I treasure almost as much as the actual episodes. I also own all of the DVDs.
Long story, (once again), short, I hadn't had a TV show obsession since "Friends" went off the air. And now, GIlmore was filling that void in my life.
The show is about family relationships, or more than that, people in general. The character in which I was mainly invested in, was Lorelai Gilmore. Single mother, estranged from her parents, living in a small, quirky town she calls home. She left her parents high-class world to start a new life for her and her daughter. The show was funny and touching and filled with a fair-share of drama. We followed these characters through everything. Lorelai through finding her independence, opening her own business, trying to reconnect with her parents, finding love. And Rory, through high school and college, her first kiss, first felony, losing her virginity, her first major relationship.
These people became fixtures in my life, be in the town-loon Kirk, or the hunky diner owner Luke. Every character has a place inside my heart.
The one relationship on the show that I treasured the most, (and that initially caught my attention), was that of Luke and Lorelai. They went from friends to lovers during the span of the show. We watched for four seasons, close call after close call, until finally, finally, they kissed. Fans rejoiced around the world as these two finally got it together.
Now those are the facts, now let me tell you my feelings for the show.
I knew from the start that Luke and Lorelai were eventually going to get together. I think that's what made me want to keep going through the DVDs initially. I mean, it was a great show, but the anticipation of them finally figuring out was killing me. I was waiting and waiting for their big moment. And when they finally got together, the wait was totally worth it. They have so much chemistry, their banter and quick wits were a perfect match. I was invested in this couple. They were my new Chandler and Monica.
This show has my heart, and the couple of Luke and Lorelai will forever be held close to my memory. Even if my wait wasn't as long as real-time viewers was, the build-up was great. All the close calls, and then ultimately, them finally finding each other, or finally opening their eyes.
For two years I've watching, and unfortunately, suffered through their most recent break-up. At the end of season six, the show's creator left, with a mess in her wake. This can be argued, but I believe that Amy Sherman-Palladino purposefully threw her show in a tailspin once her contract was not renewed. I think that she created the biggest mess possible, and then left the sinking ship.
Season six ended with Lorelai in Christopher's, (Rory's absentee father's), bed. Disastrous. ASP tossed the grenade on her way out of the door. But I went into the seventh season optimistic. That's the worst it will get right? Right?!?
Wrong. Not that David Rosenthal, the replacement for ASP, did a horrible job, because I do think he did an alright job, it's just he went a little too far in his attempts to releastically solve the problems put in place by Amy. Sure, right off the bat his writing wasn't up to par-but it was a valiant effort. And it was acceptable given the circumstances. Yes, Gilmore wasn't the same, but for the fans who wanted to see these characters carry-on, it was what we had to deal with. I, personally, was okay with that.
I was okay with Lorelai wanting to give it a go with Christopher. I understood that in order to make the bed jumping the slightest bit realistic, we had to see that there was still possibly something there. We had to see that underneath her fascade of happiness, she was lonely and sad and utterly lost. And Lorelai leaned on Christopher.
It was the ill-fated marriage that I completely despised. It was the sugarly-sweet, laid on too thick, "romantic" weekend in Paris that disturbed me to the core. It was the way that Christopher and Lorelai exchanged the "I love you"s like they were tic tacs, and the PDAs, like it was in Lorelai's nature to do so. Although disastrous and disgusting, at the very least I thought we'd finally get a chance for Lorelai, and more importantly Rory, to finally get closure with this man. The Christopher and Rory scenes were sparse and utterly meaningless. Lorelai didn't as much as give Christopher one harsh word in even the most heated of arguements about his unreliability with their daughter. Or her disappointment of the way the past had gone down.
Neither of the two of them questioned their ill-timed romp in the sack after Lorelai abruptly ended her engagement. Surprisingly, it was never mentioned again. Chris didn't as much as question his own actions, that were at-best, ungentlemanly. Lots of these little moments that could have made it all worth it, were tossed to the side. Instead of letting this relationship develop the characters and bring these family relationships to some sort of closure, the audience instead got a meaningless attempt at a relationship that had proven in the past to be futile. There was no substance and all these thought-provoking idiosyncrasies that could have been addressed, were left untouched.
After fourteen exhausting episodes, holding my breath waiting for the reason behind all of the madness to be revealed, the relationship was over. Fourteen episodes out of twenty-two, what we now know as the last twenty-two episodes, were wasted, err, spent on this relationship building up to a mind-bending nowhere, and then, as expected, falling apart.
And where were we then? Back where we began. What a waste of time and energy and if closure is what they were seeking, then they failed immensely. I'm no closer now to feeling like Lorelai is done with him for good, as I was at the end of season six.
For all the horribleness that was that relationship, when it was over, we started getting back to a good place. It took a couple episodes just for the residue alone to wear off and for me actually to remember that I love these characters, but around episode seventeen, I felt like we were back. Gilmore girls was back. The writing had improved by this time, but I had been so busy covering my ears for all the "I love you"s and holding back the wretches at every hint of physical contact between the two of them, which I may add, was far, far too much, (especially considering the amount we got in the two years of Luke and Lorelai's relationship), to even notice.
But finally, it was tolerable again. And that's the worst part unfortunately. Because as fate would have it, it was during this time that we found out that there would be no season eight.
To a friend who shared my sadness upon this development, I compared it with omelets. You're starving. You sit down and get the delicious looking omelet. You take a bite, and it's great. It's then swept away and replaced with a disgusting omelet that smells fishy. You suffer through a few bites and then, your original omelet is replaced. By this time, you're so excited, it just tastes THAT much better. Then, the resturant closes, and after two bites, they sweep your plate away, informing you that you're done. You had just gotten your appetite back!
It's sad folks. Sad indeed. There was a lot of hope going on in my heart until this was announced. I thought that a season eight would be okay. I thought that it would bring Gilmore to the conclusion it deserved. The last few episodes were fantastic and felt like old-Gilmore. The new writers had finally got the hang of it, and Christopher was gone to-boot!
Well, it's been a disappointing journey these last two years. For fans, it's been hit after hit. But overall, we wanted to see these characters continue. They still had a lot of life left in them. The Luke and Lorelai story, that we had been assured would happen from the beginning, was far from over.
The finale was better than expected. I will say that. Most of the stories left me feeling satisfied. The one I had a problem with though, was perhaps the most important to me, and the closest to my heart. Luke and Lorelai kissed in the finale, yes, and maybe the promise of them together forever wasn't possible given the time restrictions, but it left me a little cold. The line, "Take all the time you need" didn't make sense to me, and given the characters histories, I feel like it would have been more poignant coming from Lorelai. Their moment in the diner, fell falt for me and I didn't feel like, "This is it" for them. Although some fans claim they saw it, I didn't even see a meaningful look between them. Not one that would reassure me that they were back. They barely exchanged two words, and given all that they had been through the last year and a half, I felt like it wasn't sufficient. I also felt the Luke and Lorelai fans were cheated on this ending. Mainly for the reasons above, but also for the mere fact that their reunion kiss was cut short with a tilt up over the town square. Just a look between them after the kiss would have been nice.
My disappointment with the Luke and Lorelai conclusion does taint the ending of this show for me, but in my imagination, it will, and has to, live on.
But now, exhausting all my words, I say goodbye to a show that brought me so much. It shaped my life for two years and every Tuesday, placed me in front of my television in hopeful anticipation.
I will forever love the Gilmore girls, but now, it's time to say goodbye. Farewell my friend! I will miss you!
No comments:
Post a Comment