Gilmore Girls

Well, I've finally caught up with the rest of the world. I've seen all the episodes (although, i skipped the zombie season, season 7--shhhhh.) and have watched the new final season on Netflix. I gotta say...I loved it. I'll be honest, what made me fall in love with the show was the writing. I love quippy, fast dialog. It's a thing with me and always has been. I blame this upon my early exposure to old movies. It's why I love Nora Ephron when she's at her best in spite of problematic rom-com plots. I love being made to give a shit about people I wouldn't normally give a shit about. (Seriously? A young woman who got everything I wanted at her age handed to her on a silver platter and then quit said Ivy League lit studies school--even for a little while? My normal reaction would be stabby-ness.) So, good on you show. You struck a good balance between relationship drama and over the top Fox Teen Soap Opera Melodrama™. (I can only take so much romantic tension before I want to throw things. Romantic tension isn't forever, y'all. If that's all you've got to bring to the table, you're a one-trick pony. There's more to life than romance. Hell, there's more to relationships than romance--even romantic relationships have layers.) The show, in spite of being so heavily white cast, was pretty damned Feminist.

Side note: it drives me ape-shit when men complain about screwball comedy dialog written by women and/or Joss Whedon.[1] Would you like to know why? Because that shit is not easy to write. It's fucking hard. It requires talent, and you have to have an ear for it. Because not a single one of those same men would have the same complaint of Dashiell Hammett. Guess who was famous for his quippy, fast dialog? Dashiell Fucking Hammett, that's who. (Have you actually read The Thin Man?) Yeah. That guy. Gritty Noir guy. So, fuck off asshole. Check your shit. It's okay to not want everything written in that style. Hell, no one should say that every painting should be created in Expressionist Style either. But quit with the "that's girly and thus bad" bullshit. M-Kay?

I gotta say, I love how the show ended. I love where Emily landed and that she seems to have finally found herself after shedding the 'Mrs. Richard Gilmore' persona. (She'd been restricted to it for so long she had no idea what her real interests and dreams were. She was a walking-talking primary example of what The Feminine Mystique warned us about.) I love that Lorelai finally found the stability she craved without the entrapment she feared. And I love that Rory--in spite of her making a world of stupid mistakes as a young adult--is finding her way in spite of repeating certain patterns.[2] That last line was, in my opinion, the perfect ending, because--like real life--it was the ending of a cylce rather than a happily ever after THE END. I love that. 

I hope to see so much more from writer, Amy Sherman-Palladino. I'm officially a fan.
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[1] I assume he gets dinged because women like him, and he's heavily associated with Feminism.
[2] Spoiler Alert (mouse over to reveal text): context is everything, babies. Pregnant and unmarried at 16 is far different than pregnant and unmarried at 32.