Key to My Heart: Gilmore or Less

At least as far as TV is concerned, the key to my heart is clever bantery dialogue, pop culture references and strong women who shirk social convention and do things their own way, occasionally doing more than just yelling or fainting when a monster is coming. Plus, I'm all about the relationships between the characters. Sean and Megan on Felicity. The pain in Willow's eyes when she said goodbye to Oz on Buffy. The short, but pivotal, return of Cordelia to Angel. The silent suffering of River, which gives way to righteous ass-kicking in Firefly and Serenity. This is why I loved Buffy, and Angel, and Firefly.

And, although I never would have imagined it a year ago, I now am in love with The Gilmore Girls, and the impossible time-travel requiring scenario: that I too had a child at 16 (would have gone over like gangbusters in my yeshiva highschool), and now my days and nights are spent hanging out with her as ubercool ubersexy mom, like Lauren Graham, and dating said daughter's hot English teacher or the hot-but-inexplicably-ornery coffee shop owner. In these fantasies, not only am I super-skinny and pretty, but I'm also unapologetically silly, strong-minded and stubborn, and people fall for me anyway at the rate of at least one man per season. I have a daughter who's equally amazing, twice as smart as I am, and who has my piercing blue eyes and lovely hair. And did I mention that they have miraculous metabolisms that enable them to eat like frat boys on a dare?

One of the other things I love about the show is Sookie (Melissa McCarthy, you are a woman to be worshipped), Lor's best friend, hilarious and crazy chef who's more than a little bit disaster-prone. Seriously, that's a role I could have played in my sleep. And in fact, I often do.

But unfortunately, I've joined the party late: everyone else has been watching for years, and the only reason I'm even up to Season 4, is thanks to Netflix. I'm exercising big-time self-control by not watching the new season until I'm totally caught up. Chronological order's not a bad thing, especially when it comes to bantery Gilmore goodness.

I'm not living in a vacuum though. I get out, I go to the gym, where other people watch the new episodes on big televisions in front of my face, so it's not impossible for certain vital facts to seep in. I know that Rory's with some blond rich kid and got in some sort of trouble last season at Yale. I know that Sookie and Jackson have kids. I know that Luke and Lorelai are in a relationship now, which makes the current "do we like each other or not" repartee between them in Seasons 1-3 completely frustrating.

And even though I know that Luke and Lorelei get there, on some level, it's just not possible for me to believe that they do. I guess it frustrates me because I've been in the banter before, in the delicious fun that always ends in the frustration of stalemate: one of us ends up dating someone else and the other one, usually me, ends up jealous and pining, which leads to anger, the Dark Side of the Force, and the taking of many quizzes that declare me Molly Ringwald.

If there's never any progress in real life, I guess I'm just hoping for television to operate on an accelerated level, even if it results in shark-jumping. Unless, of course, keeping Lorelai and Luke apart would ensure that the Gilmore Girls runs through Lorelai becoming a grandmother.

Comments

[Teee]

You so totally know that at some point, Christopher will be back and ruin the whole game? It's a given. Never fear, you will get your wish.

At least as far as TV is concerned, the key to my heart is clever bantery dialogue, pop culture references and strong women who shirk social convention and do things their own way, occasionally doing more than just yelling or fainting when a monster is coming. Plus, I'm all about the relationships between the characters. Sean and Megan on Felicity. The pain in Willow's eyes when she said goodbye to Oz on Buffy..
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As a male of another generation, TV Nirvana is SEEMINGLY idiotic comedy with men insulting each other and acting like jackasses, which in fact carries a deeper message of love, interdependence and the absurdity of the human condition.

The Three Stooges. The Honeymooners. Abbott and Cosello. You know, stuff that was on Channel 11 45 years ago.

[ccs178 (Chris)]

I think if an accurate cross-section of the Gilmore Girls viewership could be done, the demographics would blow peoples' minds. There's a big ol' Gilmore Girls closet out there chock full of everybody you would never even think of as being even remotely interested in this kind of show.

[Denise]

My name is Denise, I'm 38, and I watch Gilmore Girls, too.

[Leah]

I love the Girlmore Girls. If I was to commit to one show, this would be it. It is so good that if I miss an important episode, I have a (straight) guy friend that I can count on to have taped it.

[Barefoot Jewess]

If there's never any progress in real life, I guess I'm just hoping for television to operate on an accelerated level, even if it results in shark-jumping. Unless, of course, keeping Lorelai and Luke apart would ensure that the Gilmore Girls runs through Lorelai becoming a grandmother.

I guess you're saying that you want to see a couple make it and by some miracle that relationship is fodder for great things in tvland?

If so, oh, I can so relate! I stopped watching the X-files cuz the tease was making me nuts (about everything, not just relationships). I love wit and banter, but I invariably look for substance as well. I am a huge fan of GG. The L and L relationship is kinda funny, and quirky, but I feel that there is a whole lot of caring there, even if it is between 2 neurotic people ( aka, people with "baggage"). But I have been Joss Whedoned, freaked out, and am not into that arbitrary, chaos based weltanschauung. Deconstruction is not my bag. If that is what the producers of GG are offering.

I would love to see a relationship that is not exclusively about baggage (or total perverseness, pathology, demonic unconscious). You can only ride the demonic unconscious so long. After that it gets reptitive and boring, it becomes nihilistic. Human beings, aka, 'viewers', deserve better. I want commitment, no matter what. And that, I think, requires a whole lot of imagination and ingenuity. Unlike the Whedon, X-files, universe.