[5.7/10] This was the roughest outing the show has had in a while, so let’s try to start with what’s good about it before we start going through the dregs.
Sookie gets the most amount of focus she’s had in a while, and it’s a nice outing for her. The “running your own inn” seminar is a pretty weak comic set piece, but it allows Sookie to run into an old friend which jumpstarts the best plot in the episode. After a bout of reminiscing, she invites the old friend to stop by the inn to catch up, which he mistakes for a date. That gives Sookie the opportunity to do something that’s all too rare on television -- be a mature adult about things.
While she freaks out a bit and starts coming up with sitcom-esque schemes to let him down, in the end, Sookie is just straight with her former buddy, explaining that there was a misunderstanding and that she’s married. The friend is also gracious and mature about the situation, offering his tempered regrets but taking the news in good spirit. Sookie’s “I’m a whore!” declaration is a nice bit of comic hyperbole and reaction, and Jackson’s CCR-related freakout in the end is an amusing tag in the same vein, but frankly it’s just refreshing to see characters on television be upfront and honest with one another and handle a situation like grown-ups.
Were that the same could be said for Rory, Paris, and Francie, who at least have the excuse that they are not, in fact, grown-ups. There’s tons of problems with this particular storyline, but the biggest ones are two-fold. First, the show isn’t nearly as cute as it thinks it is when it tries to get mobster-y, or even Woodward & Bernstein-esque about the power struggle at Chilton. Meeting in darkened parking lots or getting into ridiculous sword fights is just too broad for a show that can be silly but is rarely this cheesy.
But more importantly, it’s a disappointing turn for Paris as a character. If the show wanted to drive a wedge between Paris and Rory, there’s plenty of convincing ways to do it, particularly with the stress and competitiveness of the college admissions process in the offing. Instead, we get the Tristan situation redux, with Francie offering a spool of lies, and Paris not having the sense, after all the pair has been through, to trust that Rory would not betray her and had her best interests at heart.
It was weak at the end of Season 1, and it’s weak again now, particularly after Rory and Paris had seemed to finally put the ugliness behind them and become good friends. The show wants us to feel sorry for Paris, to feel the sense that she’s been betrayed, but given how unreasonable she is about the whole thing, it comes off like a contrived reason to have her and Rory on the outs without enough genuine emotion to bolster it.
Last but not least, there’s Lorelai having to do a deposition in a case where a former maid is suing Emily for wrongful termination. This storyline had lots of potential to explore one of the ever-present fault lines between mother and daughter. The cold open in particular, where Emily explains that she knows she can be demanding, but that she compensates people better than most for that reason and that she feels that gives her a reasonable expectation to get what she’s paying for. It’s an interesting explication of Emily’s perspective and there’s plenty of room to have it meaningfully clash with Lorelai’s.
Instead, it’s some tossed off comic relief, and while that’s fine, it feels like a missed opportunity, particularly when the other big thing Lorelai gets to do in the episode is have a meetcute with some milquetoast seeming guy who’s partners with Sookie’s old friend. Goodie.
Overall, this is the most feeble installment Gilmore Girls has put out in a while, with really only the Sookie material in its favor.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-10-10T04:23:03Z
[5.7/10] This was the roughest outing the show has had in a while, so let’s try to start with what’s good about it before we start going through the dregs.
Sookie gets the most amount of focus she’s had in a while, and it’s a nice outing for her. The “running your own inn” seminar is a pretty weak comic set piece, but it allows Sookie to run into an old friend which jumpstarts the best plot in the episode. After a bout of reminiscing, she invites the old friend to stop by the inn to catch up, which he mistakes for a date. That gives Sookie the opportunity to do something that’s all too rare on television -- be a mature adult about things.
While she freaks out a bit and starts coming up with sitcom-esque schemes to let him down, in the end, Sookie is just straight with her former buddy, explaining that there was a misunderstanding and that she’s married. The friend is also gracious and mature about the situation, offering his tempered regrets but taking the news in good spirit. Sookie’s “I’m a whore!” declaration is a nice bit of comic hyperbole and reaction, and Jackson’s CCR-related freakout in the end is an amusing tag in the same vein, but frankly it’s just refreshing to see characters on television be upfront and honest with one another and handle a situation like grown-ups.
Were that the same could be said for Rory, Paris, and Francie, who at least have the excuse that they are not, in fact, grown-ups. There’s tons of problems with this particular storyline, but the biggest ones are two-fold. First, the show isn’t nearly as cute as it thinks it is when it tries to get mobster-y, or even Woodward & Bernstein-esque about the power struggle at Chilton. Meeting in darkened parking lots or getting into ridiculous sword fights is just too broad for a show that can be silly but is rarely this cheesy.
But more importantly, it’s a disappointing turn for Paris as a character. If the show wanted to drive a wedge between Paris and Rory, there’s plenty of convincing ways to do it, particularly with the stress and competitiveness of the college admissions process in the offing. Instead, we get the Tristan situation redux, with Francie offering a spool of lies, and Paris not having the sense, after all the pair has been through, to trust that Rory would not betray her and had her best interests at heart.
It was weak at the end of Season 1, and it’s weak again now, particularly after Rory and Paris had seemed to finally put the ugliness behind them and become good friends. The show wants us to feel sorry for Paris, to feel the sense that she’s been betrayed, but given how unreasonable she is about the whole thing, it comes off like a contrived reason to have her and Rory on the outs without enough genuine emotion to bolster it.
Last but not least, there’s Lorelai having to do a deposition in a case where a former maid is suing Emily for wrongful termination. This storyline had lots of potential to explore one of the ever-present fault lines between mother and daughter. The cold open in particular, where Emily explains that she knows she can be demanding, but that she compensates people better than most for that reason and that she feels that gives her a reasonable expectation to get what she’s paying for. It’s an interesting explication of Emily’s perspective and there’s plenty of room to have it meaningfully clash with Lorelai’s.
Instead, it’s some tossed off comic relief, and while that’s fine, it feels like a missed opportunity, particularly when the other big thing Lorelai gets to do in the episode is have a meetcute with some milquetoast seeming guy who’s partners with Sookie’s old friend. Goodie.
Overall, this is the most feeble installment Gilmore Girls has put out in a while, with really only the Sookie material in its favor.