(S07E03) Have you noticed that the way Gilmore Girls is being shot this season seems somewhat... different? The film is less grainy... the sets are lit differently... there are more close-ups... something is odd. Yes, I'm nitpicking, but GG under the Rosenthal regime just has this feeling around it that's different from the Palladino era.You could see it with the first appearance of Richard and Emily this season, right in the cold open. Rory and Lorelai are back doing the Friday night dinners, and the dining room of the Gilmore estate seemed brighter, not as big as before. And Richard's toupee was different. If it weren't for Emily yelling at a 10-year-old finishing school protégé, the whole thing was making me think that we landed in some sort of parallel GG universe.
Don't get me wrong, the dialogue is starting to take shape in this episode. The rhythm here was a lot better than last week; there were even some very funny lines, like Rory and Lorelai discussing a deflection system if the talk at dinner about Lor and Luke breaking up gets too rough ("Bangalore!" Rory will say). "Tell them you're converting to Judaism," Lor tells her daughter. "That will throw the whole Friday night dinner thing into jeopardy." Despite that, Lorelai's negative reaction to he parents' non-reaction to the breakup is unexpected; Ma and Pa Gilmore never thought that Lor and Luke should be together in the first place, so to be surprised that they're not surprised just seems to be a little bit of a surprise, know what I mean?
Anyway, we see a lot of Michel this week. As Lorelai questions whether everything she's ever done in her life was done to piss off her mother, Michel helps set up a tea for Emily's students at the inn. Since he never got to do this sort of thing himself, he decides to go to the girls' cotillion... and forces Lorelai to go with him, as payback for when he had to take care of Paul Anka (which I could barely discern from his monologue about it... is it me, or is Yanic Truesdale using a thicker accent for Michel every year?).
For the most part, the cotillion is a distraction from this whole Luke/Lorelai mess, though we see a little of Luke after he reopens his diner. For some reason, he's decided to get a new cap (fitted, no less... I freeze-framed it and was able to figure out that he was wearing the cap of the Connecticut Defenders, a minor-league team in Norwich, CT. Paul Lukas would be proud), but that's all we know. Rory comes in, but the scene is more for her to talk to Lane about her pregnancy than any Rory-Luke stuff. It's too bad; we know that Luke's been a big influence on her life, and it's sad to see that relationship suffer because of the Lor-Luke stupidity.
Lane's more like Lane this week; scared about her pregnancy but in a positive way. She finally tells Zack, but he doesn't quite let it sink in; it was funny how he tried to not even acknowledge Lane was with child at some point, saying she was "going a little straight-edge" when she said she wasn't going to have a beer. But when it did sink in, Zack and Lane can share their fright together. "Do you know what afterbirth is?" she tells him as she shows him a book on the miracle of childbirth. "Dude, so you know how the baby's connected to you by that hose? And I'm supposed to cut that hose? No way I'm cutting that hose," says Zack in response. He calls the umbilical cord a hose... classy. At least it's not the tired old joke about the dad mistaking the tube for another protuberance in the same general area.
Meanwhile, Rory's missing Logan... a lot. She's just not connecting to him over the phone like she did back at Yale. Leave it to Paris to give her the most practical, most bluntly-put solution: IM sex. She was even BlackBerrying some naughtiness to Doyle while she was talking to Rory... classy. Of course, Rory being Rory, she tries to find the right phrases to use by reading Henry Miller books while Lane freaks out looking at childbirth books. But when she whips out her Sidekick and finally sends something, Logan doesn't write back... at least that's what Rory thought. It was kinda cute that once she found out he got her IM and responded, she was too shy to a) say anything dirty to him on the phone or b) text him anything dirty while they were on the phone... classy (I mean that this time).
The only thing I wonder is why, when Rory went to dinner with Christopher, we didn't see a scene of her berating him for taking advantage of Lorelai yet again, or Rory warning him not to hurt her mother for the umpteenth time. Maybe that was in the original draft but got cut for more cotillion scenes. At least they had Paris yell at her SAT prep employees, including Rory, whose smitten student is making doe eyes at her.
So now we come back to Lorelai... and here's where we dip back into the parallel universe. Like I mentioned before, she wonders if she just did everything in life for the sole purpose of pissing off Emily. When she notices a girl at the cotillion, one who's been defying Emily all week, sporting a pair of pink-and-black zebra-striped Chucks, that notion hits her square in the face. So when she encounters Chris when she gets home (trying to feed Paul Anka some key lime pie... classy), she tries to make like nothing happened -- "I'm not not talking to him," she told Rory earlier in the evening -- but Chris will have none of it. He tells her that she's it for him, whether it's now or when he's eighty. He loves her and wants to be with her.
Two seasons ago, that speech, pre-Luke, would have been heart-warming: "The love of Lorelai's life wants to be serious this time!" But post-Luke, it seems opportunistic and slimy. For some reason, the pairing of Lor and Chris just doesn't feel right, like it's the wrong time for it to happen, or it's too late for it to happen, now that we know what it's like to see Lor and Luke together.
So, it makes a viewer feel even worse when the episode ends with Lorelai, remembering her revelation, calls up Chris, ready to give him another shot (remember that Richard and Emily actually like Chris). What is this, like a week since the Luke thing blew up in her face? Doesn't she take any time to let the breakup breathe? Does she realize that this is a guy that took advantage at her weakest moment? Jeez alou, even George Steinbrenner acts less impulsively than this woman.
Anyway, next week we see that the Lor-Chris romance begins anew. But, because we're now in the parallel universe, I just wish it wouldn't happen at all.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
10-10-2006 @ 10:30PM
a jug of Clorox said...
Luke changed his cap b/c that blue one was a Xmas gift from Lorelai back in Season 1.
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10-10-2006 @ 11:09PM
David said...
Am I the only one that has always really hated Logan? I always thought he would only be around a season or a little more and then she would realize he's an ass and go to Naked Guy.
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10-10-2006 @ 11:17PM
MrsEldubya said...
I laughed at your review because I commented that the show was being filmed differently to my husband either last week or the week before. I'm so glad someone else noticed it too. I also noticed Luke's hat immediately but forgot about Lor giving the old hat to him in the first season.
The show isn't the same. I still love some of the secondary characters but I'm not so sure about the main ones.
So seeing that girl proved to Lorelai that she didn't just do all those things to spite her mother? Was that the whole point of the thing?
Anyway, if she ends up with Chris I will be so pissed. Even my husband said he doesn't want to see next weeks episode because of that. He said Chris is just boring.
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10-10-2006 @ 11:18PM
luke's hat said...
Lorelai moved on so fast from Luke to Christopher we should call her Flo Lo.
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10-10-2006 @ 11:24PM
Addie said...
All in all, I enjoyed this episode. The rhythm is getting better and also the dialog. However, the Chris thing is really bumming me out. Loralai does not seem to be suffering the way a woman would suffer after a serious breakup.
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10-10-2006 @ 11:25PM
courtney said...
Boy, this is really insulting to me - I couldn't pick this Lorelai out of a line up. She's already moving onto Chris - after what, one week or so, after her "heartbreak" - gad, this is sad storytelling from a show that I never used to feel was manipulating me.
Oh, well. I completely agree that the Chris and Lorelai thing seems false - it is all happening at warp speed and for a show that took things deliciously show for years, this just feels like a totally different show and not one that holds my interest any longer.
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10-10-2006 @ 11:25PM
Claire said...
You hit it right on. We watched Luke and Lorelai together for TWO years and they were close friends for years before that. Now, Lorelai is moving at warp speed into Christopher's bed and it is just wrong, wrong, wrong.
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10-10-2006 @ 11:35PM
Lily Gilkerson said...
You called it right, TV Squad. This Lorelai....I don't know her. I don't care to know her if she's back with that sleazy milquetoast Christopher. I have a date with my husband next Tuesday. I won't be programming the DVR. I just don't care about this show anymore. When Lorelai slept with Christopher, it was over.
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10-10-2006 @ 11:43PM
Kathy said...
Add me to the list of Gilmore viewers that feel insulted by the current Lorelai storyline. Her rebound to Christopher mere weeks after losing the love of her life is disgusting. When is someone going to call Christopher out on his crap? He is suddenly welcomed back by Rory despite 21 years of neglect-please. The story may have worked in Season 2-3, but now it's just wrong.
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10-11-2006 @ 12:54AM
Allison said...
Thank you for expressing every single thing I have been feeling about Gilmore Girls. I can't get behind a Chris/Lorelai redux because he had his chance and he blew it on several occasions. I fear how this season will go. I fear it's headed someplace I don't want it to, ie a Chris/Lorelai marriage or ending because frankly it negates the whole point of the show. If she does exactly what her mother wanted her to, shouldn't she have just done it the first time around?
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10-11-2006 @ 12:59AM
Aaren said...
I agree that the Christopher thing feels forced and strange right now, but at the same time I feel like there is no where else for the Lorelai character to go. The Palladino's made sure that the Luke / Lorelai romance was destroyed seemingly beyond repair at the end of last season. I really don't think that it would be believable at this point for Luke and Lorelai to get back together, as much as I want it to happen. They tried it several times and it just went horribly wrong...it's so frustrating to watch.
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10-11-2006 @ 1:18AM
J. Free said...
You guys forget that the strange parallel-universe Lorelai started last season under ASP's regime. She was all mopey and passive-agressive and just off. I actually see some logic now; she is starting to mature. She ditched Chris after her parents approved of him, but now that she isn't just acting opposite their feelings, she sees a chance in him.
ASP always had an end-goal in sight, and there is just no way she wouldn't share that with David Rosenthal. Even if she did have to leave the show, it doesn't mean she wouldn't want it to end the way she always planned. It is hard for them to write when they don't know if they should be laying out a 1, 2, or 3-season plan. I have faith that things will end the right way. Remember, we are just at the beginning of the season. For a Luke-Lorelai reunion to really happen, it would have to be toward the end of the season, when they both realize that they were meant for each other. Give it time, people. Give it time.
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10-11-2006 @ 8:40AM
Angela said...
I'm a viewer who actually greatly enjoyed this episode and was pleased to see the beginnings of a Christopher/Lorelai relationship. I enjoyed Luke and Lorelai as friends, but hated them together as a romantic couple. They've always looked awkward to me in intimate scenes so I was pleased to see the disintegration of their romantic relationship. Whereas LG always looks so much happier in scenes with DS that it's a pleasure to see them together. So, count me as a viewer who's very happy with the direction of the show thus far this year.
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10-11-2006 @ 9:30AM
SamMalone said...
Maybe it's my new larger TV, but have we seen that much of the diner floor before? The whole scene just seemed to be shot from a weird angle.
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10-11-2006 @ 9:50AM
Laurie said...
This episode was so much better than the first two. There was a little more banter and quick talking by the characters. Michel was so fun to watch. He's always funny and his one-liners are so good. I agree with the person who wrote that Luke and Lorelai did not have chemistry as an actual couple. It was palpable when they weren't actually dating - there was always that look in their eyes...but as a couple, they couldn't even kiss each other with feeling. It looked like you were kissing a friend or acquaintance. No real passion involved in the whole thing. I was very disappointed in their relationship. The thought of what "could be" was actually way more exciting.
Chris and Lorelai at least have some chemistry together - even though we've been waiting for Luke and Lorelai to get together for six years now.
In order to make the relationship with Luke seem real and exciting and like they were actually in love, it would take some major changes in the personalities of both of them. They don't seem to gel as a real couple.
Anyway, we can all complain about this all we want to. The Palladino's aren't coming back and Rosenthal has a lot of work to do to bring the show back around before he can move forward with it. I, for one, will keep watching.
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10-11-2006 @ 10:08AM
KateG said...
David - I completely agree with you regarding Logan. I've never liked him and was always hoping that Rory and Marty (Naked Guy) would get together.
But I've always been on Team Christopher as well. So. Christopher has always been there. And as for the speed with which Lorelei is getting over Luke - they'd been having problems for months. He'd been pushing her away.
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10-11-2006 @ 10:29AM
mamaloo said...
The way it looks to me is that Lor and Chris have been in a relationship for the alst 20 years. She ran away from it, with good reason, in the beginning, but she's been moving back toward it, slowly but surely, ever since. And Chris has straitened himself out and meaning of responsibility (as much as it means in TV land).
Luke and the rest have really been rebounds from Chris, particularly after Chris came back and re-established his bonds to his daughter and the love of his life.
And, as a woman, Chris didn't take advantage of Lor: she ran to Chris seeking comfort and not the tea and a cry type of comfort. He's not slimy. If anyone is slimy it's Lor. But, again, as a woman who didn't settle down right away, I understand her motivation to want someone to want her in a primal way after having the whole thing with Luke die off.
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10-11-2006 @ 12:12PM
E.T. said...
I HATE that I don't enjoy this show anymore.
It used to be my favorite. Now it makes me cringe. I can't stand Christopher and I can barely stand Lorelai anymore. She seems fake to me now. I can't put my finger on it but her dialogue seems forced.
So Rory says:
Bangalore? I will bring up Bangalore?
Did anyone notice the pun here?BANG - A - LORE(lai)?!
Yes, Rory bring up the infamous "bang of Lor" and let's see what your grandparents reaction to that would be!! LOL.
Makes you wonder if that was there on purpose.
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10-11-2006 @ 12:32PM
nancyofthepants said...
i agree with Angela and some other people on the comments list -- who knows of ASP were planning to have luke and lorelai together from the start, but i've watched since the first episode and am a big fan of the lorelai-chris relationship, even if it is doomed (and it is). i'm a fan of luke also but i'd give chris a chance since he has so much history with lorelai, and it seems more practical/realistic that they might end up together.
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10-11-2006 @ 12:33PM
nancyofthepants said...
also, was it just me that was annoyed that rory didn't know how to see if there were any new text messages on her cell? she's had that thing since early last season.
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