on DVD, after having been watching the complete series since last year sometime (I think).
I got the complete series box set on DVD for a family member whose memory is even worse than mine, and although they’d watched the show back when it originally aired on TV here (but I don’t think they finished it), that was quite a long time ago and they couldn’t remember it, so this was like watching the show for the first time for them. I myself had never watched it (though had walked into the living room and caught a glimpse of it on rare occasions). Since the member of my family was watching it from the beginning, I thought I may as well give it a go. Rather than review each season, since we'd finish a season and move straight onto the next, I decided I'd wait until we finished the complete series to review it as a whole.
My main reason for watching was Lauren Graham. I’d enjoyed her in the TV series
Parenthood, and so I was interested to see her in the role most people seemed to know her for. I already knew from the glimpses I’d caught of the show (and from what my family member had commented on) that the characters of Lorelai (played by Lauren Graham) and her daughter, Rory (played by Alexis Bledel), had this whole way of ‘speed-talking’ where it was a bit hard to follow what they were saying. I was prepared for that – and, to be fair, they kind of explained why it was they had this habit: it was presumably due to all that coffee they drank in those ENORMOUS cups (honestly, I’d never seen coffee cups that size before).
What I
wasn’t prepared for, though, was the obscure references they spouted off nearly as much as they speed-talked. Only every so often was my reaction...
One such example being...
Anyway, Lauren Graham as Lorelai was what got me watching the show...and she was what
kept me watching it too, as I found almost all the other characters to be varying states of annoying (and some I outright loathed/wanted dead). Yes, sometimes Lorelai’s tangents that she could go on got a bit much, but on the whole I mostly liked her character. She provided the majority of laughs I had when watching the show and I felt sorry for her a lot of the time thanks, in large part, to her horrid mother (who I’ll get to later). Her main ‘flaws’, I found, were her self-sabotaging when it came to her relationships (she’d be happy, then do or say something and it’d fall apart) and her neverending belief in Rory being pretty much ‘saintly’. I found it interesting when they had their ‘rift’, but they were definitely better together than apart.
Rory seemed to almost be ‘too much’ with the ‘perfectness’ at times. And she did things in her relationships (both romantic and non-romantic) which annoyed me. However, it was nice to watch a teenage character in a show that wasn’t so moody/aggressive all the time. I’ve gotten enough of that over the years in shows I watch. Her type of character seems rarer these days. That wasn’t to say she didn’t have her ‘bad’ moments. She had quite a few, she frustrated me at times, but on the whole I appreciated her character type. Her friend, Lane, got on my nerves quite a bit (and whenever her and the band she was in got lots of focus, I lost some of my interest. It wasn't that they were outright *bad* (though their music was), I just didn't find them particularly interesting. And some of the stuff Lane would go on about at times was pretty ridiculous. Still, I appreciated hers and Rory's friendship (even if at times it felt like they neglected each other).
The biggest surprise for me with the characters was my reaction to Luke. From what little I’d seen of the show during its original run on TV here, all I’d managed to get from his character was that he seemed like a grumpy guy who wore a baseball hat all the damn time (which I wanted someone to rip off his head, throw on the ground and stomp on). I’m glad Lorelai commented on this fact, in her own sarcastic way, at one point.
The first season didn’t do much to change my initial thoughts on him as a character. I couldn’t help but think him being so grumpy to his customers and telling Lorelai/Rory what they should/shouldn't eat would get most people into trouble. However, over the course of the series he ‘mellowed’ (if that’s the right word) a bit and became more likeable. It eventually got to the stage where I actually thought he was a fairly decent guy and on the occasions he lost his temper, it was (most of the time) pretty understandable (I myself would’ve done more than just yell at the various townspeople that bugged him). He could still be a bit of a jerk at times, but on the whole he went from being a character I didn’t much like to one of the only members of the town I could really stand.
The opposite of that^ was the townspeople I
couldn’t stand...which was most of them. What a bunch of entitled, nosy, bossy, nitpicky, irritating/bothersome, jerks the majority of them were. Probably the worst of them was Taylor. I kept hoping he’d get run over (since most of the people in Stars Hollow seemed to just go milling about in the middle of the road a lot of the time). The crap he’d go on about was pretty rage-inducing and I'd have been surprised no one murdered him if this wasn’t the type of show where very little death ever seemed to happen (clearly, I was influenced by all the other types of shows I watch, as I kept wondering why hardly anyone died or had anything particularly horrible happen to them). Kirk was annoying as hell too, but occasionally he could be somewhat funny (though I had to agree 100% when Luke gave him a stern talking to about the way he treated his girlfriend, Lulu. No way did a guy like him deserve a nice girl like
that, and I felt bad for her being with him).
Other townspeople were varying degrees of annoying (as was the voice of the actress who played Babette. Speaking of, I thought that character’s husband was played by Christopher Heyerdahl who I now watch in the TV series Van Helsing, but prior to that had seen in quite a few things including his guest star stint on Supernatural. Turns out it was a different actor). Sookie was alright some of the time as a friend Lorelai could talk to, but could get grating at times (as could her husband, Jackson). Honestly, I wouldn’t have been able to stand living in a town with such people as these. They were just far too irritating.
Who I hated most of all in the town, however, was that damn 'Town Troubadour'. Every time the camera focused on his 'singing', I just wanted someone to take his guitar and smash it on the ground...or, better yet, on his head. I was so happy when he eventually left...but then, sadly, he returned.
Still, nothing compared to Lorelai’s mother. Emily Gilmore - what a nightmare. Can’t say I blamed Lorelai for her attitude towards her mother. I could probably count on one hand the amount of times Emily ever paid her daughter a genuine compliment or said anything actually
nice to her. The rest of the time it seemed to be constant put-downs/criticisms/passive-aggressiveness. Not to mention the sabotaging of Lorelai’s relationship with Luke. I was so over the moon when Lorelai finally let loose her pent-up rage towards her mother. Others might’ve criticized her for it, but I was cheering her on. It was such a cathartic moment, both for the character of Lorelai and for me as a viewer. Plus, I loved the way Luke speed-dialed Lorelai to come handle her mother.
It’s too bad Lorelai was always so forgiving of her mother’s horrible attitude towards her. I know they attempted to give Emily some moments where she ‘softened’ a little and acted almost ‘human’, but those were few and far between, and they did very little to make me forgive the rest of the time when she was being horrible to her daughter. In comparison, Richard, Lorelai’s father, wasn’t so bad (though he did have his instances where he was a jerk too - especially to Rory’s first boyfriend, Dean). I found both or Lorelai’s parents to be very snooty and petty, and I totally understood whenever Lorelai would get mad at them for some stunt they pulled. Did they ever once have a nice, civil Friday night dinner?
Another character who I couldn’t fathom anyone putting up with was that of Paris Geller. Ye gads, was she nutso a lot of the time. I didn’t know that she was eventually going to become close friends with Rory, and I’m amazed anyone was able to be friends with her given the crap she’d rant about. I think they took the ‘speed-talking’ to a whole new level with her, and it was a bit much. She occasionally had moments where she acted more ‘normal’ (and even had a few amusing lines), but on the whole I wondered how people didn’t have her arrested for her behavior at times. It was weird seeing Danny Strong (who I knew as Jonathan in
Buffy the Vampire Slayer) here playing the role of Doyle (a name I will forever associate with the character from the
Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off,
Angel), when I was so used to him playing the ‘nerd’ type of character. He actually seemed believably confident/bossy here. And he ended up with Paris, so he must’ve had a fairly strong will.
Speaking of romantic entanglements - I was not that fussed of Lorelai’s alternatives to Luke as far as her ‘love interests’ were concerned. They all seemed like they were being written as just a male version of her (the way they’d joke/make sarcastic comments about things). However, Christopher (Rory’s father) was the worst. He was just *too* similar to Lorelai with the way he acted/joked/etc – which I guess some people may have seen as him being ‘perfect’ for her, but I myself just found him petty and manipulative and by the end I wanted him to get his lights punched out by Luke. While they
did eventually come to fisticuffs, it was more amusing than anything.
I was annoyed with how Lorelai ended up married to Christopher instead of Luke and was glad when she finally split from him.
Rory’s love interests weren’t much better. Out of all of them, the only ones I remembered were Dean, Jess and Logan. I remembered these because all three were played by actors I knew from other things (any other potential love interests for Rory were completely forgettable. I barely remembered the character of Marty, and whenever he turned up I wasn’t sure who he was...then I remembered he was the ‘naked guy’ from Season 4. He was pretty dull/boring. At least the other three made an impression...even if those weren’t
great impressions).
Firstly, there was Dean (played by Jared Padalecki, who I’d known all this time as Sam Winchester from
Supernatural, who had a brother named Dean...so that was weird for me, as was seeing him looking so young). He was probably the ‘safest’ of Rory’s boyfriends, but he could be quite clingy/needy/whiny at times and I actually felt bad for his wife (played by Arielle Kebbel, who I like) – even though I’m pretty sure I wasn’t
supposed to/most people probably
didn’t feel sorry for, as she was clearly intended to be the 'enemy’ in regards to the triangle between her, Dean and Rory, even though
they were the ones who cheated.
Still, Dean was a pretty decent guy when compared to Jess (played by Milo Ventimiglia, who I’d known as Peter Petrelli from
Heroes). His character was pretty much your typical ‘bad boy’. He basically walked around like something had crawled up his arse and died most of the time. I didn’t like him at all. Logan (Matt Czuchry, who I knew firstly from
The Good Wife, then more recently
The Resident) seemed like a jerk to start with, but by the end he felt like a good combination of the other two. He could call Rory on her BS (like Jess), but was less moody, and when he was being decent, he was pretty nice (like Dean). Too bad Rory screwed that up by rejecting his marriage proposal. I was surprised, but delighted, to see Krysten Ritter show up as a friend Rory made in the final season. It's pretty wild to see her in this type of role after seeing her as
Jessica Jones.
There is probably more stuff I could talk about regarding the show that I’ve forgotten, but this post is already long enough (plus, I keep making the typo ‘Lorelair’ when typing Lorelai’s name), so best to quit now.
On the whole, the show was a fun watch…which was a surprise, given that it’s not the typical sort of thing I would check out. However, I’m certainly in no rush to rewatch it anytime in the near future. We still have the TV mini-series
Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life to watch on DVD, though, so it’s not quite over yet.