Growing Up Gilmore
There aren’t too many shows that I’ve re-watched. You have to really love a show to be able to sit through the bad, cringe-worthy, and rage-inducing stuff more than once. Every show has these moments. But, if the good outweighs the bad, you find yourself watching the show at least more than once.
The first time around, I watched Gilmore Girls while I was in college. But sometimes I missed it because of my work schedule, so I’d read recaps on a site called “Television Without Pity” (I miss this site, the writers were fantastic).
For those who aren’t familiar with the premise of “Gilmore Girls,” it’s pretty simple–The show is about a mother and daughter who are best friends. In fact, I’m pretty sure this was creator Amy Sherman-Palladino’s exact pitch. I wasn’t too much older than Rory was on the show when it premiered. She was a bookworm who loved to drink coffee. She was not anti-social, but shy and not at all popular. She had ONE friend–Lane, who had the best taste in music that she unfortunately had to hide because her mother was so stern. Rory wanted to go to Harvard and become the next Christiane Amanpour. I didn’t want to be a journalist, but I had my own writing aspirations.
Naturally, I had to buy the DVDs when the sets came out. So I watched “Gilmore Girls” the second time while living alone, without cable. The show’s charm is rooted in the fast-talking chemistry between Alexis Bledel (Rory) and Lauren Graham (Lorelai) set in a quirky small Conneticut town. The rest of the cast is great too, including the great Melissa McCarthy.
A few years later, I gave birth to my daughter. Hello no sleep. I was up every couple of hours breastfeeding. What better way to spend the time than to watch the ultimate mother-daughter television show? When she was almost two, she would recognize the theme song and immediately start dancing.
Three times re-watching the entire first run and two times watching the additional “year in the life” on Netflix, and Rory Gilmore and I are a bit more removed from each other now. The shy booknerd kind of morphed into a rich girl who travels around a lot. She graduated from Yale, worked on the Obama campaign, and had to “suffer” three hot guys being in love with her. Age changes your perception of all things, including your favorite television shows. “Gilmore Girls” is far from perfect and perhaps some bits that were funny years ago are quite annoying now. Also, I have so many questions:
Why is Rory’s bedroom the one next to the kitchen and not upstairs with her mom?
How far away from Luke’s do Rory and Lorelai live? Sometimes they walk, sometimes they drive.
How big is this small town? It seems like everyone KNOWS Rory and Lorelai, and then there are times when there seem to be so many other people who have no idea who they are.
How rich are these rich people?
Despite my questions, my frustrations (Dean AND Logan), and the realization that Lorelai is a selfish person, I still have a spot in my heart for the Gilmores.
