TV Time: Gilmore Girls

Netflix started streaming the iconic girl-bonding show Gilmore Girls about two weeks after I moved to New York. I started watching it out of curiosity, usually when I was having lunch, and was quickly hooked on the adventures of the kooky Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, mother and daughter residents of the fictional town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut. In ten months I followed all seven seasons of  their relationships, antics and fast-talking dialogues.

Well, at least I can check that cultural touchstone off the list.

I enjoyed it enough. I mean, I would not have continued to watch the show if I didn't like it. And I think I would have loved it had I watched it during its original run. There were times when I'd turn an episode off because I couldn't handle the characters' neuroses and anxieties on top of my own, and they were always going into meltdown over something. Especially that Paris. That girl needs a week in Hawaii or something. She needs to chill out.

But mostly it was fun indulging in the fantasy of that idyllic single-mother-only-daughter relationship. As the only daughter of a single mother, I can tell you that life isn't all going to the same diner every day, doing each others' nails and having your parent put your needs first. Like I said, it was a fantasy portrayal, and I guess I can't blame the show because my own childhood didn't measure up to that of loveable, fictional Rory.

As far as Rory, I have to say I found her pretty insufferable most of the time. Perfect, indulged and hardly ever wrong, except when she sleeps with married/worthless Dean, she's basically a paragon. When it came to her boyfriends, I'm firmly Team Jess, but Logan grew on me after a while. He started off pretty shallow but his character matured over time (somewhat) and he certainly loved Rory very much. But I still say Jess was the one for her.

Now, you'll say Jess was a mess, and a screw-up, and he was, but so were a lot of us at that age. And he grew up too, into an accomplished young man on his way to further successes. And it was Jess, not Peter Pan Logan, who convinced Rory to go back to Yale and pursue her dreams.

(In any case the show's perfect couple isn't Rory and anyone, or even Luke and Lorelai- it's Paris and Doyle.)

Speaking of, Lorelai and Luke had one of the most dysfunctional romances I've seen, although I loved that episode when they finally got together, and that the show ended on an optimistic note for them. And Luke was just flat-out adorable when he wasn't being stupid and stubborn about dumb things. Also, I felt a special bond to Luke because I own one of the plaid shirts he often wore.

Emily and Richard just made me want to gouge my eyeballs out.  Even Lorelai at her most narcissistic and self-centered couldn't hold a candle to her shallow, status-obsessed parents. And it would be interesting to see Lorelai or Rory solve a problem without running to their rich relatives for a bailout.

Overall the show was a fun, harmless diversion- just the thing television should be, in my opinion.