Ok, this is not the Pit but I thought this was more appropriate here, since it is an opinion. I hope I am not stepping on anyone’s toes about this beloved TV show, it is on Hulu and I thought I would give it a shot.
What a cliche-ridden piece of drivel. Just because it is about a 16 year old women who got pregnant does not make it a good show. Almost every line from the characters screams “look how clever I am” with my witty dialogue. Lorelai’s parents alone make it unwatchable. The father, stuffily played, with his suit and bowtie. Who the fuck always wears a suit at home for dinner? No one, except rich fathers on TV shows.
Here is some of that clever dialoge, as mother and daugter walk down the street -
Lorelia [handing Rory a slice of pizza] - Pizza for your thoughts…You can’t let those people get you down. Do you want me to talk to anyone? A parent, a teacher, a big guy named Moose?
Dinner conversation, about Rory possibly taking golf lessons. Father says, “Physical fitness is as important as mental fitness. So says Plato, and so say I.” Mother says, to Rory, “You can use your mother’s clubs, they are in the attic collecting dust, like the rest of her potential.”
I had hopes that this was a show I could binge watch as a great show. Now, half way through the 2nd episode, I will binge as if I were on MST3K.
If you don’t like the show then don’t watch it. My wife liked the show, I didn’t, we found this compromise where she watched it and I didn’t. If it’s just you it should be even easier to work something out.
I binged it all some time back. It was a mindless distraction, but really unbelievable… not that I watch TV for reality, but dang, this was way too far out there. And the after-series movie really sucked.
I thought Sally Strother’s character was a hoot, tho.
The OP truly makes me want to know why he’s continuing with it when he doesn’t like it, though. He’s obviously not the target audience in the first place, and he says he really dislikes it, so why not change the channel? @TriPolar simply stated this in more humorous terms.
TV characters are always more quick-witted than us ordinary schmoes. The trick for a writer is to make a line sound as if it’s spontaneous.
In “Gilmore Girls,” it’s always distractingly obvious that the actors are reciting written words that they’ve memorized, not actually having conversations.
I also agree that it’s not that big a deal. It’s just a TV show.
See, now, I think that’s a genuinely clever line. It’s both perfectly waspish and perfectly WASPish.
The show never really interested me, but I get the appeal. The dialogue isn’t supposed to be realistic. It’s supposed to be stylized and arch. I also get that it’s not to everyone’s tastes. But from the bits I’ve seen, and from what I’ve heard from friends who loved it, it does pretty much exactly what it’s trying to do.
The OP is continuing to binge watch in order to riff on it. In posting here, he’s alerting other Mysties to possible prime riff fodder. I appreciate his efforts.
It’s certainly not one of the greatest shows ever, but what is enjoyable about it is exactly the unrealistic, witty dialogue. That’s the whole point of the show. The verbal sparring among the characters is what makes it fun.
The characters are all unrealistic of course, but they have vivid attributes and their quirks are amusing.
Tell you what, when anxiety and depression are eating my head like groceries sometimes Gilmore Girls is the only thing I can stand to watch. The appeal IS that it’s so far from reality, a stylized world with a rich color palette where everyone is kind and quirky and people genuinely love each other in spite of their many faults (stylized though those might be as well.) It’s TV comfort food, all about the characters and nobody gets killed and the problems all get resolved eventually. Even the low grade exasperation of how self sabotaging the titular characters are is a balm to the depressed mind because they always win through in spite of it.
I get it why a lot of people hate it, it’s just a matter of taste. Me, I can’t stand “reality” tv, shows that think they’re “sexy” and shows that are all about the violence and “gritty reality.” This is why there’s vanilla AND chocolate.
I don’t have strong feelings about the show one way or the other but I’ve literally never heard anyone make this claim. As others said, it’s all about the dialogue with a side helping of cheesy TV melodrama. I assume the “teen pregnancy” thing was more a tool to have the characters be close enough in age to explain the sisterly/friend moments as opposed to just mature mother-young daughter stuff.
I don’t know. I find the dialogue in Pulp Fiction amusing but, in no way, does it strike me as how two people have ever spontaneously spoken to one another. I feel like, as long as you’re on board for some snappy conversation, you can just let that go. That said, it’s completely fair to just not like what the Gilmore Girls writers are dishing up.
It seems like an odd show to spite watch or treat like MSTK3 material, it is a quality production and they are doing just what they wanted in the show. It was popular and on for years. I didn’t dislike the show, I was just disinterested. But if the OP gets something out of watching it just to dislike it then I don’t wanna rain on his parade. I can’t say I’m surprised to find my tastes out of sync with others.
didn’t MST3K try that for their movie and all that happened for was the most part was everyone bitched about them ribbing a “sci-fi classic”
But Gilmour girls was a double-sided fantasy for moms and daughters because that type of relationship is how it’s "supposed to be "… without any of the messy real-life drama until the later college and after seasons anyways
I’ve had that idea for a long time. It would be more challenging to come up with good jokes for great dialogue, but it could be done.
I am still watching because I have fallen in love with Lauren Graham. She is the main reason I started watching anyway, I’ve seen her on talk shows from time to time and she’s hot, in a girl next door sort of way. And her character is the kind of woman I like, cynical with a quick wit, with the caveat as mentioned in the OP that some of the dialogue is too clever by half.
