3x01 Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days

[7.6/10] I’m admit -- I was hesitant to start the third season of Gilmore GIrls given how Season 2 ended. The drama with Christopher and the drama with Jess was almost too much to bear, and it didn’t exactly prime me to want to dive back into more of that. And the opening of this episode didn’t do much to change my mind. Giving such an exciting tease of a Luke/Lorelai pairing and then pulling the rug out from under the audience (however predictably) borders on cruel.

And in some ways, much of the first half of the episode almost seems like Gilmore Girls parodying itself. That’s probably too much and too far, but it has the show leaning into its cartooniest qualities, however amusing or endearing, without really bringing them back down to earth.

Don’t get me wrong, I got a big kick out of seeing Paris haranguing Barbara Boxer (lending further credence to the Leslie Knope comparisons) or freaking about her date, but it’s an outsized version of an outsized character. The same goes for Kirk’s hay-based skin treatment, or Sookie trying to redo her house to make it more masculine for Jackson, or Lane’s mom going nuts over General Sherman’s shaving table, or Taylor chastising people from his motorized wheelchair. It feels like the show hitting its usual beats in an almost perfunctory, cartoony fashion to reintroduce the world of the show for Season 3.

It even feels like the Gilmore speak is more self-conscious and over the top. Maybe I’m just projecting, but it felt like the show was bending over backwards to deliver as much Lorelai and Rory gab as possible, to where however fun the patter may have been, it started to feel labored.

The same goes for the interminable Rory-Dean-Jess love triangle. I appreciated Lorelai’s speech to Rory, saying that as much as Lorelai has no love lost for Jess, if that’s what Rory wants she should go for it and cut Dean loose rather than stringing him along. But beyond just dragging this whole mess out, the show continues to be really heavy-handed about it. The letter from Dean but to Jess, the kiss with Dean while looking at Jess over his shoulder are all just Dawson’s Creek-level teen drama that a smartly-written show like Gilmore Girls should be above.

But then the episode pivots to Lorelai and makes a real step in. As always, the scene between Lorelai and her parents is great. For one thing, the subtle jabs from the elder Gilmores about their daughter being late are the right kind of funny passive-aggression. And then when the truth about Christopher comes out, there’s a really interesting parallel from how Richard and Emily respond to Lorelai with how Lorelai responded to Rory.

What I love about all three parents in the episode is that each of them means well even if they’re frustrated our disappointed with their kid. For Emily, that means feeling like Lorelai flits between multiple guys or relationships the same way that Lorelai fears Rory is doing, with the added weight of it dashing the perfect family Emily’s pictured in her mind. For Richard, it opens old wounds about what happened with Lorelai when she was sixteen, and how Christopher’s offer of marriage could have at least saved the family some of the embarrassment and done things “the proper way.” It feels real, with moments and motivations that feel true to the characters and their history and relationships.

The same is true for the superlative scene where Luke and Lorelai make up. I’ll admit, I thought the usually unflappable Lauren Graham was a little shaky in her performance here, but it’s still a moment with such vulnerability, such openness and woundedness from the character, that it carries the day. It’s a great way to reunite the two figures and payoff that frustrating beginning. It’s not showy or overdone, just Luke playing along with Lorelai’s “Mimi” conceit, offering the symbolic donut of peace, and giving her the sort of comfort he always does. It’s a sweet, touching reunion between the two that sends the episode out on the right note.

Well, almost. The episode ends with a lovely scene of Lorelai and Rory still feeling a bit battered by life, but resolved to see things through and smiling and laughing with one another in the process. While their connection too can be overdone, it’s the center of the show, and the final, sweet image of them affirms that. Likewise, there’s problems to be concerned about as Gilmore Girls kicks of Season 3, but also plenty of signs that the show can still knock it out of the park when it wants to, that makes it worth sticking around.