[5.8/10] I wasn’t a big fan of this one. Franky, it felt a little too Full House for my tastes. What I’m finding out about Gilmore Girls is that I almost always like the characters’ motivations. Rory is excited about her first kiss but nervous about telling her mom after their last boy-related conversation turned into a big issue, and Lorelai is hurt that Rory didn’t talk to her about it and trying to be a “cool mom” as an overreaction to how Emily treated her. Both of those are very understandable and relatable positions for the characters to take.
What I’m less crazy about is the execution. For one thing, I hate hate hate stories where one character knows a secret, or could solve a problem by just being direct with another character, and instead dances around whatever the issue is for comic/dramatic effect. It feels very sitcomm-y to me, and so Lorelai scoping out Dean and hinting around at kissing on soap operas to try to get Rory to “come clean” really annoyed me. By the same token, while I like the Lorelai-Luke dynamic, the scene where Lorelai basically announces her character motivations and emotional state felt like too much of a “write it all on the screen” bit to me.
By the same token, Lorelai’s “half-assed overparenting” (to put it in Simpsons terms) gave me a little too much secondhand embarrassment. Again, I like the idea that she’s trying to be the anti-Emily here, but Lorelai feels savvier than to invite Dean over to their house for movie night without checking with Rory. And by the same token, her “don’t you hurt her” speech to Dean and his “I’m not going anywhere” response reeked of cliché. The nuts and bolts writing of this one was just weaker than the standard Gilmore Girls has set over its prior six episodes.
While Lorelai was written a bit too broadly and, if I’m being frank, out of character here, I actually like Rory a lot in this one. Her giddiness at her first(?) kiss was adorable. The cinematography of the scene really helped, following her as she runs across the park in her excitement capturing the energy in the moment. Her dishing with Lane felt true-to-life and really cute. And her agonizing over what to wear and nervousness with her crush were similarly relatable. Rory and Dean have been a little too romcom-y up to this point for my tastes, but this is a part of the show where their relationship, and Rory’s reaction to it in particular, felt nicely real.
There’s other good and bad stuff on the margins. I enjoyed Luke’s curmudgeonliness about not putting out fall decorations and calling Lorelai out for being crazy about the Dean stuff. The rest of the town folk being nosy about Rory’s dating life didn’t do as much for me, and reached the level of grating rather than charming after a while. And while Lorelai felt a bit off-brand in this one, the tripartite banter with her, Rory, and Dean while watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was amusing.
Overall, I’m down on this one because of the sitcom execution of the central plot, and, if I’m being honest, because I like Lorelai as a character and felt like “Kiss and Tell” gave her believable motivations but also actions that felt out of step with her prior behavior and not necessarily true to who the character’s been. Still, there’s some good Rory stuff, and it’s the best the teen romance side of the show has been thus far. So you win some you lose some.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-07-05T22:09:39Z
[5.8/10] I wasn’t a big fan of this one. Franky, it felt a little too Full House for my tastes. What I’m finding out about Gilmore Girls is that I almost always like the characters’ motivations. Rory is excited about her first kiss but nervous about telling her mom after their last boy-related conversation turned into a big issue, and Lorelai is hurt that Rory didn’t talk to her about it and trying to be a “cool mom” as an overreaction to how Emily treated her. Both of those are very understandable and relatable positions for the characters to take.
What I’m less crazy about is the execution. For one thing, I hate hate hate stories where one character knows a secret, or could solve a problem by just being direct with another character, and instead dances around whatever the issue is for comic/dramatic effect. It feels very sitcomm-y to me, and so Lorelai scoping out Dean and hinting around at kissing on soap operas to try to get Rory to “come clean” really annoyed me. By the same token, while I like the Lorelai-Luke dynamic, the scene where Lorelai basically announces her character motivations and emotional state felt like too much of a “write it all on the screen” bit to me.
By the same token, Lorelai’s “half-assed overparenting” (to put it in Simpsons terms) gave me a little too much secondhand embarrassment. Again, I like the idea that she’s trying to be the anti-Emily here, but Lorelai feels savvier than to invite Dean over to their house for movie night without checking with Rory. And by the same token, her “don’t you hurt her” speech to Dean and his “I’m not going anywhere” response reeked of cliché. The nuts and bolts writing of this one was just weaker than the standard Gilmore Girls has set over its prior six episodes.
While Lorelai was written a bit too broadly and, if I’m being frank, out of character here, I actually like Rory a lot in this one. Her giddiness at her first(?) kiss was adorable. The cinematography of the scene really helped, following her as she runs across the park in her excitement capturing the energy in the moment. Her dishing with Lane felt true-to-life and really cute. And her agonizing over what to wear and nervousness with her crush were similarly relatable. Rory and Dean have been a little too romcom-y up to this point for my tastes, but this is a part of the show where their relationship, and Rory’s reaction to it in particular, felt nicely real.
There’s other good and bad stuff on the margins. I enjoyed Luke’s curmudgeonliness about not putting out fall decorations and calling Lorelai out for being crazy about the Dean stuff. The rest of the town folk being nosy about Rory’s dating life didn’t do as much for me, and reached the level of grating rather than charming after a while. And while Lorelai felt a bit off-brand in this one, the tripartite banter with her, Rory, and Dean while watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was amusing.
Overall, I’m down on this one because of the sitcom execution of the central plot, and, if I’m being honest, because I like Lorelai as a character and felt like “Kiss and Tell” gave her believable motivations but also actions that felt out of step with her prior behavior and not necessarily true to who the character’s been. Still, there’s some good Rory stuff, and it’s the best the teen romance side of the show has been thus far. So you win some you lose some.