Introduction to The Re-Watcher: First Up, Gilmore Girls

Recently, I’ve accepted something about myself. I love re-watching television. I don’t think this is unique. In fact a good chunk of the streaming business model is predicated on the fact that most of us like what we already know. I started my third? fourth? rewatch of Gilmore Girls at the beginning of the month, and decided that rather than just mindlessly blazing through these rewatches of shows with the random tweet reinforcing the viewpoints I’ve always had, I thought I’d try to be a more active viewer. It will never be the first time again. I will always know what is going to happen to the characters in my beloved shows that merit this amount of hours devoted. So instead, I decided that each time I rewatch a show, I will choose a topic and focus on it in a mini-write up for each episode. Not only will this stop me from watching too quickly, I hope it will help me in forming skills writing about TV and maybe I’ll learn something new about the shows I love as I watch with a specific goal in mind.

 We’ll start with Gilmore Girls. The topic I’ve chosen is, The Best Underrated Scene. I want to focus on the scenes that don’t get necessarily quoted as much or that catch me off guard in my rewatch with their depth, brilliance, and significance. Amy Sherman-Palladino has finally gotten some awards and recognition with her newest show, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, but her talent was evident from the beginning and her cast in Gilmore Girls certainly did everything they could to take it to the next level. I want to look beyond the big fights and big cries and find those nuggets that offer depth to even the more cartoonish of Stars Hollow characters or reveal an important character trait and dynamic in a subtle way. Let’s see how this goes!

 1x01 – Pilot

 Pilots are difficult. I know this from watching many and from hearing screenwriters talk about it. Comedy is particularly difficult, it seems. With the exception of Veep, Cheers, and maybe Arrested Development, I have a hard time thinking of comedy pilots that operate at the same level of the show in its prime. Gilmore Girls was marketed as a typical WB teen drama, but also, it’s really a smart show about family and class. It’s a comedy, a family drama, a small town fantasy. It’s so many things and the pilot has a LOT of exposition to get through in as smooth a way as possible for a show whose premise is deceptively simple. As such, finding a truly great and understated scene that isn’t bogged down by introducing our big dynamics and long arcs for the season and series (Lorelai and Rory, Lorelai and her parents, Lorelai and Luke, Rory and Dean, the Inn, Stars Hollow, etc, etc, etc.) is difficult.

 With all of this in mind, my first pick for Best Underrated Scene is maybe a bit of cheat since all the scenes in this that are really worth talking about are all a bit iconic.

Lorelai Asks Her Parents for Money

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njZo0lvgCsY

This is almost halfway through the episode. It’s the turning point and the whole premise for the show. While Lorelai and Rory are interesting and fun and I enjoy their dynamic, Lorelai and her parents (Emily and Richard) will always steal the episode away with their interplay. The strain between these two generations is painted so beautifully and delicately from the beginning. The transition to this sequence comes from a picture that Lorelai keeps on her mantelpiece of herself as a young child in front of her parent’s mansion that seems dark and cold compared to the warm, tchotchke–riddled home that Lorelai has built for herself. Lorelai is looking at this picture as she realizes her only option to pay for Rory’s new fancy school is to borrow money from her parents. We cross-fade from this small token of Lorelai’s childhood to the present-day real deal. But even the fact that Lorelai has this picture is telling. For every bad thing she has to say about her upbringing and her parents, a part of her still holds ties. As the series continues we will see in which ways Lorelai is really a lot like her parents, but for now this maybe is just a slight hint that nothing has ever been as black and white as Lorelai likes to act like it was.

Lorelai waits with her coffee, next to her Jeep (which obviously stands out against the backdrop of her parents house…”HELLO! I’m different from you!” Lorelai loves to scream with all of her purchases). She is gulping down her pride, finding the courage to go in and do what she never in her lifetime wanted to do. Cut to Emily opening the door, clearly surprised to see her daughter who only lives forty minutes away. “Is it Easter already?” she jokes. While we constantly have instances throughout the show of Emily and Richard not understanding Lorelai’s jokes, we can see from this first interaction that she probably got much of her wit from them. Emily is hilarious. She is maybe a bit harsher in her sarcasm, a bit drier than Lorelai’s hyper-joking mannerisms, but it is there and we see it right away. I love even more so that Richard makes the same joke when he first discovers Lorelai there unexpectedly (“What is it, Christmas already?”). Emily and Richard’s marriage has it’s ups and downs in the show, but they are solidly made for each other in many ways. They have a partnership that has lasted for decades and it shows in the way they at times seem to have one mind.

 As Lorelai and Emily make their way to the living room, making awkward chitchat we are greeted with maybe the longest pause in the episode yet. Pauses are a big deal in the famously wordy Palladino scripts.  It speaks volumes how little these women seem to be able to say to each other. “I’m sure I told you,” Lorelai tells her mother answering in a bit more detail about her business class. “Well if you’re sure, than you must have,” Emily bites back sarcastically. We get no answer to whether Lorelai did or not (my guess is that she didn’t), but either way we see so clearly the miscommunications that bubble up between these two who have so little faith in the other’s ability to understand the other. They don’t make this one a big fight, but it is part of the fight we will see later in the episode. Emily resents that Lorelai shuts her out of her life. Lorelai resents her mother’s controlling nature which causes her to avoid telling Emily anything rather than risk criticism or involvement in her choices. It’s a vicious cycle. Every bit of Emily’s dialogue is dripping with sardonic disbelief as she explains to Richard that Lorelai decided to just “drop in to see us” after her “business class” that “she told us about it, dear, remember?” “No.” Richard demures. He doesn’t play the same games that Emily and Lorelai do with each other. No, he doesn’t remember. This could be because he doesn’t listen, but it could also be a point in the column for the theory that Lorelai never told them.

 Just this small part is enough to make this scene practically perfect. We got the back story before this for the most part in a scene between Lorelai and Sookie, but so far this has given us so much of the relationship between Lorelai and her parents (and a bit into the relationship between Richard and Emily). It soars in it’s ability to shed exposition and get to the root of what this dynamic has been for the last 16 years. It’s even better than the first Friday Night Dinner that happens towards the end of this episode, in my opinion. But now we have the discussion of money and the loan. Gilmore Girls at times handles the class dynamics between Lorelai and her parents so well it approaches Mad Men in what it is saying about whiteness and power and inherited wealth and those that reject it. Other times it is a magical place where money and finances make no sense. But that’s down the line. Here we have the simple act of a child asking their parents for money. Something many people have done with various degrees of injured pride. For some it’s easy, for Lorelai it is immensely difficult. Her saving grace is that it is for Rory, not for her, that she asks. It is interesting to note, that while Lorelai is adverse to the moneyed class her parents are in and the trappings of the white, wealthy elite she still wants her kid to have those advantages that she turned down by having Rory and leaving her parents. She still wants Harvard. She still wants Chilton. She is asking her parents for the money to buy her and Rory’s way back into the world she left behind. Of course she believes that it won’t have to affect their quaint little life in Stars Hollow, but it is interesting nonetheless that this is what she wants for her child and what she believes Rory deserves and needs in order to be what Rory wants to be.

 Before Lorelai can even ask, Richard repeats two times “You need money.” Again, Richard doesn’t mess around and he doesn’t play games (at least not when it comes to calling his daughter out). He doesn’t need to hear her explanation, but Lorelai won’t leave until she gives it and says what she came to say in the way she wants to say it. It’s for Rory, for Chilton, she explains. Emily’s eyes brighten and she notes how close the school is to her house. “So…you need money,” Richard again chimes in, cutting through the bullshit. “Yes,” Lorelai has to admit. But it’s Rory, she repeats, and she will pay them back. “I don’t ask for favors, you know that.” (Lorelai’s anthem) “Oh yes, we know,” Emily admits.  Emily’s voice is rife with bitterness and sadness. She wants to help her daughter, but she’s not allowed to. “I’ll get the check book,” Richard says. It is a sweet moment that is cut short by Emily’s proposal, but sweet regardless. Despite their past and hurt feelings, there is love between these people. Richard does not hesitate and he knows that Emily agrees. Rory binds them all together and certainly they are willing to do this for her, but they are obviously just as willing to do this for Lorelai. 

 And here we have Emily’s proposal that sets up the backbone for this generational family drama. Emily wants to be actively involved in Lorelai and Rory’s lives. She wants dinner once a week and a weekly phone call in exchange for the loan. Kelly Bishop is honestly so pitch perfect in everything in this show. She has that pose and demeanor here that seems almost villainous. It’s why on first watch you might want to always side with Lorelai. Emily is controlling and privileged and she has many faults, but honestly she just loves her daughter and granddaughter and sees an opportunity to force a connection that Lorelai would have denied her for eternity if she had not jumped on it. There is a softness in this. She doesn’t comment on Lorelai’s inability to provide this schooling for Rory herself, or honestly do anything to make her feel bad (in this moment) about her life’s choices. She just wants to be a part of that life now.  Of course it gets messier the more we go into this episode and the series, but for now that’s all there is. We see again Lorelai’s pride, “I don’t want her [Rory] to know that I borrowed money from you.” But that’s not the only fault of Lorelai’s we see in this scene. We see also her stubbornness when it comes to her parents and her oftentimes inability and unwillingness to see the ways they demonstrate their love and their longing for her. She brushes past her mom’s request and agrees to the weekly dinners, but she is annoyed by it. She seems to see it only as her mother controlling her (of course it is this too, but as is often the case with the best scenes in this show people’s motives are both-and. Emily is controlling and vulnerable in this one). She doesn’t see that longing to connect as the simple love of a mother for her daughter that it is.

 And that’s that. So much is revealed besides the plot in this elegantly written and brilliantly acted scene. It is simple and yet I could probably go on about how much this one scene says about this show as a whole. So much is revealed and set up for the series. Of all the iconic scenes in this episode, this one stands above the others and for that reason I think it is underrated.

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Best Underrated Scene: Gilmore Girls - 1x02 The Lorelais’ First Day at Chilton

This is a bit of an underwhelming episode. It’s almost a second pilot for the world of Chilton. We are introduced to several new characters and set up some more story arcs for Rory in her new school. There’s some Lorelai vs. Emily stuff, but I really had a hard time picking out a scene that stood out as particularly good, let alone underrated. I considered Headmaster Charleston’s talk with Rory since I rather enjoy him and think it’s a good character introduction as well as an intro to the uphill battle Rory will face academically despite her and her mother’s belief that she is the most brilliant mind to ever grace the planet. But it just didn’t have enough to merit that. Rory doesn’t do much to give us insight into her character that we don’t already know (she’s a bit shy and awkward, but witty like her mom, and she’s more intimidated than she expected by private school, etc). Most of the decent scenes are fairly iconic/appreciated the right amount, i.e. Lorelai showing up to Chilton dressed in tie-dye and short shorts and the interaction with HM Charleston and her mother. So, scraping the bottom of the barrel I decided on the last scene.

Rory, Lorelai, and Lane walk and talk

This is one of those scenes that has nothing really big happen, but is probably one of the reasons I always want to rewatch this show when it starts to get a little chilly out. It’s what makes this show feel like a cup of hot cocoa or a pair of warm slippers. Just three gals, walking down a quiet twilight-lit street, eating and chatting about their days. The dialogue remains snappy, but you almost don’t feel it because they walk slow and the camera follows them smoothly down the sidewalk of Stars Hollow. It’s just damn cuddly.

Besides just the feel of it, there are a few nice things about this scene and a couple moments that stood out in terms of building Rory’s character. Firstly, I am a big fan of Lane so I am always on board when she’s around. It takes the writers a while to really figure out what she is and what she does, but for now she is Rory’s friend with a mom who is more like Emily than Lorelai and that’s all we need to know. The girls make plans to have Lane come to Hartford on Tuesdays and Thursdays to meet up with Rory after school, which will probably never happen. Not only would Mrs. Kim never allow it, but these are the types of plan we make with friends who we move away from and honestly, how often do people keep these plans? Maybe it ends up happening occasionally, maybe it doesn’t, but the sentiment is still nice. (On a complete sidenote, I love that Lane’s borrowed Foxy sweatshirt and scrunchie are somewhat hideous/innocuous, but her clothes that she reveals underneath that are acceptable to her mom would be super trendy now, imo)

Now here’s one moment that caught my ears. Lane talks about missing Rory and how pathetic her fellow schoolmates are and Rory says, “Well add a couple of plaid skirts and you got the Chilton freaks.” Not particularly anything except Lorelai uses the exact same framing to her line to Rory in the scene previous when she picks up Rory at Chilton (”Add some hairspray and you’ve got my day.”). It could very well be lazy writing, but I think even lazy writing at times can prove indicative of something (and in this case I don’t think it’s on purpose). Here we are seeing that mirroring of Lorelai in Rory. We already know that she looks up to her mom and that she shares many similarities, but in this it feels like she’s almost forcing it. She wants to be as witty and easygoing as her mom. We see Lorelai resolve issues at the inn in this episode with a wink and a smile, we see her turn down a date with grace, and despite her utter embarrassment at Chilton, still manage to walk away with her head held high. Rory, meanwhile, is awkward at school and can’t find a way to smooth talk her way out of Paris’ wrath or shut down Tristan with a biting comeback. She is young and less brazen than her mother, but maybe part of her feels if she copies enough witticisms and mannerisms she can magically gain that knack Lorelai has for putting people at ease and talking her way out of anything.

Lane heads out to her house full of tofu and Lorelai and Rory continue their walk talking about Paris. Lorelai doesn’t have too much advice to give. She had a Paris in school, she says, but she dealt with the problem by getting pregnant and getting out. Besides the obvious hint that Lorelai won’t always fit in to Rory’s life at Chilton (and eventually Yale) set up with her embarrassing first encounter with HM Charleston at the beginning of the episode, this may be another subtle hint at the same. Or at least we can read it that way. A lot of the troubles that Rory will face now Lorelai never had, due to her pregnancy. Of course she faced a whole lot of other problems, but sometimes advice isn’t transferable. Of course this isn’t a huge deal yet, “I’ll just figure it out for myself,” Rory says and then chuckles to herself. And here’s the other hint to Rory’s character that I found noteworthy. “I was just thinking about the way Paris’ face looked when I beat her to that Martin Luther question...Fourteen shades of purple...Tomorrow I’m shooting for fifteen.” Maybe Rory isn’t so soft and innocent as she would have people believe. She’s a bit vindictive and definitely competitive. Not to say Paris doesn’t deserve this at this point, but up until now we haven’t seen Rory show much of her less-than-perfect qualities (except her stupidity when it comes to boys). It’s something that will keep Paris in her life and makes her character at least a little less boring for now.

This nice scene ends with the girls glancing in on Luke in the diner. “What do you think of Luke?” Lorelai asks, “I mean, do you think he’s cute?” It’s probably a little inappropriate for Lorelai to ask this of her daughter given how close they are with Luke, but these gals will cross those boundaries a lot over the course of the series. We get a couple scenes in the pilot that hint at the Luke/Lorelai connection, but there’s even more in this episode - especially the scene in which they stare forever at each other while Lorelai explains that she won’t be going on a date with Chilton Dad and Luke says, “Good.” Their build up is one of the longest that I’ve ever seen in TV. Most will-they-won’t-they couples take one or two seasons before at least their first kiss, but the writers keep these two apart for a long time. Some of the reasons for it are more believable than others. I believe Lorelai denying her feelings up to a certain point, and I believe Luke’s hesitancy - not only because he is standing in front of a goddess, but also because he knows Lorelai and Rory so well and he wouldn’t want to hurt either of them. But at points their back and forth is ridiculous, even if it is fun. Here though, we see Lorelai first flirt with the idea of Luke and we clearly understand that Luke has a crush on her as he follows the girls out onto the street and watches them walk away for bit at the end. But Rory tells her mom quite frankly, “No way, you cannot date Luke...If you date him you’ll break up and we’ll never be able to eat there again.” It may be something of a joke, but it is also serious in how Luke and Lorelai’s lives are intertwined and their dating comes with certain ramifications should they break up. It may be a small part of what plays in the back of Lorelai’s mind whenever she entertains the idea of dating Luke and why she is so resistant to accepting her feelings for so long.

These are small moments and don’t necessarily mean everything I write out here, but it’s how I read them and I think it elevates this pleasant ending to the episode to something with a bit more eumph and significance and makes it a bit underrated.